Changing Reporting Term to Full Year Instead of Semesters

[lbuehrig]

Hello! I am hoping that some experienced PowerSchool SIS users can help me. I will give context and then provide the issue. 

We have several courses that are full year courses where the students continuously attend through both semesters without schedule changes. Then we have some courses in which one cohort of students will essentially "swap" courses with the other so that all of the students attend the prescribed courses for the year.

I am focused on ensuring that the Semester and full year scheduling and course enrollment process is a simple one. Originally, I started the year out with ALL courses set up in the Semester 1 term. I was then asked to change them to full year, before the end of the first semester. This was done in an effort to smoothly make that Semester 1 to Semester 2 transition for those student who do not switch courses. We still report semester grades and will report a year long final grade at the end of the year. 

Here is the issue: an unintended consequence of making this Semester 1 to full year change at the course level was that the teacher grade books are now calculating incorrectly. They are telling me that they set up their grade books as Semesters, which they are supposed to do, regardless of this course level term change. What I need to understand is how to satisfy them and the students (and parents) that the student's grades are accurate and represent the categories calculations originally set up by the teachers. 

I have the reporting terms set up correctly (see image). I have the teacher grade book settings set up so that they can choose their categories (see image). What am I missing?

I did not anticipate that this change would cause an issue on their end and now with the end of the semester quickly approaching, this has become a major issue. 

@JeffG9, I have really enjoyed your help on other posts, so I'd love your feedback here!

[JeffG9]

What is the issue with PT Pro? What is calculating incorrectly?

[lbuehrig]

Excellent (and important) question! All of the categories were switched from what was previously input.

Now, all of the categories are forced into Classwork, Project, Test, and Quiz.  So, if a teacher set up their grades using different categories, then those categories are not showing.

For example, a teacher's syllabus has the following categories:  Homework, Quiz, Test, and Final.  So, her student's grades are only showing those grades that are in the Test and Quiz category.

Additionally, some classes aren't showing grades at all. I didn't change any settings in PowerSchool that touched the way PowerTeacher should function. 

Do the teachers just need to recalculate their grades? Last year, the courses were all full year and I had the teachers enter their assignments and grades into the Semester reporting "bins" and used the settings as they are in the images I included in my initial post. 

[JeffG9]

This is difficult without access to your PowerSchool (especially teacher gradebooks), but when you switched from Semester 1 term-length to full-year term length the Admin-side calc pushed out may have overrode what the teachers had setup themselves. The first step is always to have teachers recalculate.  I usually recommend only pushing out the final term grade (such as Y1).

[lbuehrig]

I did not see the teachers' settings prior to this inadvertent change so I am a bit in the dark as to how to compare them. The information I have is directly from the teacher representing the larger group of teachers.

[lbuehrig]

I will attempt to have them recalculate their grades. Can they do this before adding back in any manually set up categories?

[JeffG9]

They can run the Recalc feature any time they'd like.