PowerScheduler- Trying to understand Load Priorities as related to courses, students and requests

[LynneM2]

Courses have a "Load Priority" setting under preferences. It's my understanding that the lower numbers are loaded first - does this mean, students with that course as a request will be scheduled into the section first?

Students also have a "priority" setting on the preference screen, and the higher number is scheduled first.

Student Request also have a priority setting, each request can have a different priority - the higher the number the more likely that request will be scheduled.

What is the the process for reviewing and implementing these priorities? 

Also, what if the priority setting is set to 0? What if some courses have a 0 and others have numbers?

[JeffG9]

@LynneM2 The Student Priority determines which students will be Loaded into the schedule first. For example:

Next Year Grade 12, Priority 10

Next Year Grade 11, Priority 20

Next Year Grade 10, Priority 30

Next Year Grade 9, Priority 40

This means next year's Seniors will be scheduled first, Juniors next, etc.

The Load Priority on a Course determines which class students will be Loaded into first. For example, a course like BOCES Auto Tech that usually spans an entire morning could have a Load Priority of 1 because the student must get into that course first as it shapes their entire schedule. AP or Honors courses usually also have high priority (a Low Load Priority number) because it is more important that the student gets into AP courses than, say, an elective.

[DanM3]

I think the load process is first for grade level and then within grade level it looks for what courses to load first. I would never list 0 for anything, but similar to what Jeff has listed above, I would recommend 10 for those courses we want loaded first (e.g. Honors and AP) and we generally give electives the lowest load number.

[LynneM2]

Thank you for your responses. Now i wonder if you have any experience working with Visual Scheduler inside of PowerScheduler. 

I am trying to understand some of the error messages on sections. Such as a red triangle (says serious to me) and message is :"Must match null total periods in a week" ???

[JeffG9]

My team works with over 70 districts and absolutely none of them use Visual Scheduler. 🙂 Sorry!

[DanM3]

Same as Jeff, I tried using Visual Scheduler 8-9 years ago and found it cumbersome on a laptop and not as intuitive as I hoped.   In general, PowerScheduler has not received the attention or updates like other parts of PowerSchool SIS. But it's not as outdated as PowerLunch :). Maybe if you have it set up with a large screen TV it might be helpful.