Muskegon Area ISD

Home → Admin Portal → Printer Friendly Version

Admin Portal

1. Student Records

1.1. Mass Print a Student Screen

Click Here to view these steps as a movie

  1. On the PowerSchool Home Page, filter your student selection
  2. Click the Group Actions down arrow in the lower-right corner of the Student List
  3. Locate the option "Mass Print a Student Screen" and click on it
  4. Choose the page you want to print from the dropdown menu.
  5. Click Submit
  6. The page will load with each student's version of the page
  7. A print dialog should automatically appear, but you can also click the "Print" button at the top of the screen. Then, use your normal print dialog to print or print to a PDF.

     

1.2. Student Enrollment Statuses

  • -2 = Inactive
  • -1 = Pre-Registered
  • 0 = Active
  • 1 = Inactive
  • 2 = Transferred Out
  • 3 = Graduated
  • 4 = Imported as Historical

1.3. Tools for Searching Student Records

PowerSchool provides powerful tools to search the database of students at your school.

On the PowerSchool start page, use the box between the dropdown "Students" and the magnifying glass icon to find students by last name. For example, enter MA to find all students whose last names begin with MA.

Field / Value Searching

PowerSchool stores student information in fields. For example, the "first_name" field stores the students' first names. The "DOB" filed stores the students' date-of-birth. Search the various student fields based on the information you are looking for.

The following is an example of how to search student records.

Suppose you would like to find all of the students in your school whose first name is Jenny. Type the following into the search box:

first_name=jenny

PowerSchool displays the search results for all students named Jenny. This is a search command line; a line of text that is commanding PowerSchool to perform a search.

Every search command line is broken into three parts: a field name (such as first_name or grade_level or DOB); a comparator (such as =); and the search argument itself (in the example, jenny is the search argument).

The general format is:
[field name] [comparator] [search argument]

On the PowerSchool start page, select the View Field List link below the Search Students box to view a list of available field names.

The following table lists the comparators you can use:.

Comparator Meaning
= equals
< is less than
> is greater than
<= is less than or equal to
>= is greater than or equal to
# does not equal
in is [field] present in the search argument?
contains is the search argument contained in [field]?
!contain is the search argument not contained in [field]?
@ wildcard

 

Comparator: IN

The comparator "in" is a powerful tool that allows you to verify if the value of the field matches any search argument in a list you provide. For example, to obtain a single list of all 9th, 10th, and 11th graders in your school, enter the following search command line:

grade_level in 9,10,11

PowerSchool displays all students whose grade level is contained in the list 9, 10, and 11. In this example, the field is "grade_level", the comparator is "in", and the search argument is "9,10,11". The search function looks at the specified field for every student and checks to see if that field matches anything in the search argument specified. When entering a search command line, separate a list of items in a search argument with commas.

Comparator: Contains

The comparator "contains" is another powerful search tool. For example, you want to find all of the students in your school who live on Cherry Lane. Enter the following search command line:

mailing_street contains Cherry Lane

PowerSchool displays all students with Cherry Lane appearing in the mailing_street field. It does not matter if the mailing_street field is 194 Cherry Lane, or 24230 Cherry Lane Parkway; anything that contains Cherry Lane is considered a match.

Comparator: !Contain (Not Contain)

The comparator "!contain" provides another search function. For example, you wanted to find all of the students in your school who do not live on Cherry Lane. Enter the following search command line:

mailing_street !contain Cherry Lane

PowerSchool displays all students with Cherry Lane not appearing anywhere in the mailing_street field. It does not matter if the mailing_street field is 194 Cherry Lane, or 24230 Cherry Lane Parkway; anything that contains Cherry Lane is not considered a match.

Comparator: @ (Wildcard)

The wildcard "@" provides additional search flexibility. For example, you want to find all of the students whose first names started with jen. Enter the following search command line:

first_name = jen@

PowerSchool displays all students with the first name that begins with jen.

Combining Multiple Searches

To search for multiple comparators at once (considered an "AND" search), use a semi-colon.

first_name = jen@ ; last_name = sm@

PowerSchool displays all students with the first name that begins with jen AND last name that begins with sm.

Alternatively, you can perform a search and then another search to "stack" searches.

Special Groups

In addition to simple field/value searching, you may search for special groups, such as "transferred-in". With a single command in the search field, you can select a set of students using criteria which would be impossible to reproduce using simple field/value searching, and which would take a significant amount of effort to produce using the "search in results" functionality.

Search Who is Selected
transferred‑in All students who have been transferred into this school, but not yet re-enrolled. In database terms, this means that the "SchoolID" is for the current school, but the "Enrollment_SchoolID" is for some other school, AND that the "Enroll_Status" field is "2" ("Transferred Out"). The "/" prefix is implied on this search. This is the equivalent of searching "/Enroll_Status=2", "&/Enrollment_SchoolID#[my school number]".

Search Prefixes

There are three search prefixes you may wish to use. A search prefix adjusts how the search is carried out. Note that you will always follow the prefix by a search term; a prefix is never valid all by itself on the search line.

Prefix Effect on Search Line
/ Include non-active students. Normal searches are restricted to the actively enrolled student body of the school. However, especially when transferring students in from another school, you may sometimes wish to locate students who are no longer or not yet active. Use this prefix to search across ALL students (ie, active and inactive). Note that this may be placed AFTER (not before) a "+" or "&" prefix.
& Search within results. For example, to find all students transferred in after 4/10/2006, search first for "transferred-in", then search for "&/ExitDate>4/10/2006". Note that the "&" must come BEFORE any "/" prefix.
+ Add results of new search. For example, to find all tenth graders and all ninth graders with the field "InstrLevel" set to "Advanced" you might search for "Grade_Level=9" and then "&InstrLevel=Advanced", and finally for "+Grade_Level=10". Note that the "+" must come BEFORE any "/" prefix.

 

2. Contacts/Parents/Guardians

2.1. Reset a Parent/Guardian Account Password

Click Here to view these steps as a movie

  1. From the PS Admin Portal Homepage, change your search to Contacts


  2. Enter your search criteria to find the correct parent/guardian account


  3. Click on the parent/guardian's name


  4. Click on Edit Account


  5. In the sidebar, enter a new temporary password in both the New Password and Confirm Password fields


  6. Click Submit

3. Academics

3.1. Honor Roll

PowerSchool can automatically calculate an Honor Roll list based on calculations that are set at the building level. Each Honor Roll Method can have multiple Levels with different requirements for each. Each student would be evaluated for each level in descending order.

Example: HS Honor Roll has three levels. The first Level is Above a 4-point GPA, second level is 3.9-4.0 GPA, third level is 3.7-3.9 GPA and allows no grade to be below a B-.

Honor Roll Calculation Methods

Calculations can take the following into account:

  • GPA (Choose a specific GPA Calculation Method)
  • Total number of Credits - Potential and Earned
  • Letter Grades

    • Only Certain Letter Grades
      • Example: Student can only have A & A-
    • None of a Certain Letter Grade
      • Example: Student can have no F, D-, D, D+, C-, C, C+
    • At least/No More Than/Exactly
      • Usually used in combination with the None option above 
      • Example: Student is allowed No More than one B+ or B
    • NOTE: These settings are based on STORED GRADES. Your grades must be stored BEFORE calculating the Honor Roll.

Honor Roll Methods can be found in the PowerSchool Admin portal inside of a school (not District Office) under School Management > Academics > Honor Roll > Honor Roll Methods.

Calculating Honor Roll

Honor Roll is calculated manually and stored in a separate table tied to each Store Code.

When Honor Roll is calculated, PowerSchool evaluates every student in the building against the chosen Honor Roll Method Levels. Based on its calculation, it adds a record for each student who meets any of the criteria and notes with "level" of the Honor Roll Method they met.

Please note that re-calculating Honor Roll will only update students who still meet any of the criteria. If a student was initially added to an Honor Roll for S1 of the current year, and you modify the criteria or grades are re-stored, and the student should no longer qualify, the student WILL NOT be removed from the Honor Roll list. In this instance, we recommend contacting MAISD PS Help Desk Support to have Honor Roll records deleted and then re-calculated.

Calculating Honor Roll can be found in the PowerSchool Admin portal inside of a school (not District Office) under School Management > Academics > Honor Roll > Calculate Honor Roll.

Alternative Methods

Some districts have instead opted to utilize a sqlReport that allows them to set certain Honor Roll criteria and simply run the report when they need an updated list. This is generally a much easier method, but has the downside of not saving those records in PowerSchool for retrieval later without re-running the report.