Sections

On this page:

A section is an occurrence of a course. Each course can have several sections that meet in different rooms at different times and are taught by different teachers. You can review and manage course sections from the School Setup page.

For example, a school has a chemistry course; however, because there are too many students for one class, there are several sections of chemistry. Two different teachers instruct it for four different periods each. Thus, the school has eight sections of chemistry. Each section has a different number, usually preceded by the same course number to indicate that it is part of the same chemistry course.

Each section has an associated schedule expression, which is the combination of periods and days in which this section is taught. For example, a section of Biology meets during fifth and sixth period on A and B days. The schedule expression 5-6(A-B) displays on the Edit Section page.

Access the Edit Section Page from School Setup

1. On the start page, choose School under Setup in the main menu.
2. Under Scheduling, click Sections.
3. Choose the course name from the courses menu. Only courses that are available for the selected school and year are available.
4. Complete one of the following:

• Click New to create a new section.
• Click the expression or section number in the Sec# columns to edit an existing section.

Access the Edit Section Page from Teacher Schedules

1. On the start page, choose Teacher Schedules under Functions in the main menu.
2. Choose a teacher.
3. Complete one of the following:

• Click New to create a new section.
• Click the expression or section number in the Sec# columns to edit an existing section.

View Course Sections

1. Navigate to the course page or the Teacher Schedule page. For more information, refer to Navigate to and Work with Sections.
2. Complete the following as needed:

• • Click New to create a new section.
  • Click the expression or section number in the Sec# columns to edit an existing section.
  • Click the term code to display the term details.
  • Click a teacher's name to display their course information.
  • Review the classroom in which this section meets.
  • Click the enrollment number to display the class roster. Refer to View the Class Roster for more information.
  • Click the chair icon to record meeting attendance for a specific date. This icon is only available if attendance can be entered for the date or term. Refer to Record Meeting Attendance by Section for a Specific Date for more information. Alternatively, click the grid icon to record meeting attendance for a specific date range. Refer to Record Meeting Attendance by Section for a Date Range for more information.
  • Click Seating Chart to access a read-only version of the teacher's seating chart or charts for that section. On the seating chart page, use the calendar to switch between different dates. Select the seating chart you want to display.
  • A lock icon indicates the reporting term lock status for this section. If some of the reporting terms for the section are locked, you can click the information icon to review the status of the different reporting terms associated with the section. If the section is manually locked or unlocked, you can hover over the lock icon to display the expiration date for the setting.
  • Click Make all students listed above the current selection to work with the group of students in all of the sections of the selected course. Refer to Work with Groups for more information.

Add a Section

1. Navigate to the course page or the Teacher Schedule page. Refer to Navigate to and Work with Sections for more information.
2. Click New.

3. Use the following table to enter information in the fields:

   Field	Description
   Course Name	The name of the course you selected is displayed.
   Course Number	To define a section for a different course number than the one you selected, enter that course number.
   Schedule	Select the combination of days and periods in which this section meets. For example, select the checkbox for Period 1 and Day A if a section of Chemistry meets during first period on A days.
   Term	The term selection defaults to the active term displayed in the PowerSchool header. Change the term if needed. The Start Date and End Date displays for the selected term.
   Teacher Section Lead	Click Add to assign a Section Lead teacher. For more information, refer to Assign a Section Lead.
   Teachers/Staff Additional	Click Add to assign additional teachers or staff to this section. For more information, refer to Assign Additional Teachers or Staff to a Section.
   Gradebook Type	Select the gradebook type for this section: Select PowerTeacher Pro to use PowerTeacher Pro. Select None if this section will not be graded. Switching from PTG to PowerTeacher Pro Selecting PowerTeacher Pro will prompt teachers to migrate any existing PTG assignments for this section when they first launch PowerTeacher Pro. The following items will not migrate from PTG: Custom teacher-created versions of the grade scale. Custom teacher-created score codes (if there is no corresponding grade scale item or special code item in the grade scale). For example, a teacher enters in score code of "x" = 80%. If there is no "x" in a grade scale or special code, then "x" cannot migrate to PowerTeacher Pro, but the value of 80% is migrated correctly. Calculation settings. Since calculation settings do not migrate, be sure that you have created any new grade calculation formulas in PowerSchool, or instruct teacher to create grade calculation formulas in PowerTeacher Pro. For more information, refer to PowerTeacher Pro Settings. Content links Teacher-defined custom student fields Classes that are designated as read-only. For standards, PowerTeacher Pro uses grade scales instead of conversion scales. As part of the PowerSchool 10 upgrade, copies of conversion scales have been created as grade scales and attached to the appropriate standards. If the conversion scale is setup incorrectly, it will not create a grade scale, but will use what the district has set as the default grade scale. Be sure to review existing standards in PowerSchool and verify that the correct grade scales are associated to standards.
   Room	Enter the room in which this course section meets. When this value is left blank the current Lead Teacher's Homeroom (Users.Homeroom) value is used.
   Section Number	Enter the section number in this field. Do not enter special characters. Section numbers must be unique among sections of the same course for a given school year.
   Grade Level	If this course is available only for a certain grade level, enter the grade level. Otherwise, leave this field blank. The grade level entered here is used to filter courses using the Grade pop-up menu on the Mass Enroll and Available Courses pages.
   Current Enrollment	The number of students currently enrolled in this course section is displayed.
   Maximum Enrollment	Enter the maximum number of students who can enroll in this course section.
   District Where Taught	If this course section is taught outside your district, enter the other district's ID in this field.
   School Where Taught	If this course section is taught outside your school, enter the school's ID in this field.
   Dependent Sections	If this course section has dependent sections, enter them in this field using the course.section, course.section format. If a student is enrolled in a class, it is not teacher-specific, but rather section-specific. Often used by elementary schools where students take a set of classes, dependent sections indicate that if a student is registered in one class, he or she must also register for the dependent class. If the dependent section conflicts with another class, you can manually drop the student from the class and add him or her to another section. This function has no implications with prerequisites or graduation requirements.
   Program	Intended primarily for California Continuation Education alternative education program, the program you specify here identifies whether backfill should be applied when attendance is taken for the section. For more information, refer to Backfill Management.
   Automated Walk-In Scheduling Program Restrictions	Choose one of the following options: Include to only include students of specified special programs in being scheduled into specified sections. Exclude to exclude students of specified special programs from being scheduled into specified sections. If the Include option was selected, specify which special programs to include by doing one of the following: Select the Select All Programs checkbox to select all programs. Select the individual checkbox of each program.
   Record Attendance Using Attendance Mode	Use the pop-up menu to indicate the method by which you want attendance recorded. At this time, Meeting attendance is your only option.
   Record Attendance	If the section meets more than one period in a day, you can choose to take attendance once or for every period by selecting the Once for All Meetings option or the Each Meeting Separately option.
   Exclude From Attendance	Select the checkbox if you do not want attendance and enrollment in this section to be counted towards any ADA/ADM calculations.
   Exclude From Storing Final Grades	Use for sections that are not graded so blank records are not stored with final grades. Complete one of the following: Select the Same as course option to use same value as the value selected for the course. Select the Include option to store grades for this section. Select the Exclude option to skip this section when storing grades. This setting is useful in cases where storing grades may not be appropriate, such as study hall or lunch. The Exclude From Storing Final Grades course value is noted in parenthesis.
   Grade Scale	Choose the grade scale from the pop-up menu. For more information, refer to Grade Scales. The grade scale assigned to the course is displayed in parenthesis.
   Exclude from GPA?	If different from the course settings, select the option to either include or exclude the grade from the GPA calculation. The Exclude from GPA course value is noted in parenthesis.
   Exclude from Class Rank?	If different from the course settings, select the option to either include or exclude the grade from the class rank calculation. The Exclude from Class Rank course value is noted in parenthesis.
   Exclude from Honor Roll?	If different from the course settings, select the option to either include or exclude the grade from the honor roll calculation. The Exclude from Honor Roll course value is noted in parenthesis.
   Section Type	Identifies the section as open only to be filled by students whose course requests are designated as the same section type. Choose the type of section, such as Bilingual, from the pop-up menu (optional). For more information, refer to Define Section Types.
   House	Identifies the section as open only to be filled by students who are designated as belonging to the same house. Whether this is enforced depends on the state of the scheduling preference Use Houses. Click Associate to select a house to which this section belongs. For more information, refer to Define Houses.
   Team	Identifies the section as open only to be filled by students who are designated as belonging to the same team. Choose the team associated with this section from the pop-up menu. For more information, refer to Define Teams.
   Close section at max	Identifies whether to enroll students into the section even if the maximum enrollment has been reached. If this is selected, no students will be enrolled if the current enrollment is equal to or greater than the maximum enrollment. Select the checkbox to not accept more enrollments than the maximum number of enrolled students.
   Maximum Load Status	Use the pop-up menu to indicate whether the section should be exempt from counting towards a teacher's maximum student load: Exempt: Students enrolled in this section do not count towards a teacher's maximum student load. Lab: Same as non-exempt. Non-Exempt: Students enrolled in this section count towards a teacher's maximum student load. At this time, the Non-Exempt selection is not saved on this page. Use USM to set sections as non-exempt. In the Sections table, set the Max_Load_Status field to Non-Exempt. For more information, refer to Teacher Maximum Load. For existing non-exempt sections and for all new sections, no values are stored for this field unless they are set to Lab or Exempt on this page, or they set to any of the three status types using USM. Sections with no values are ignored when calculating the teacher maximum load.
   Allow PowerTeacher entry of Variable Awarded Credit	Indicate whether or not to permit teachers to enter variable awarded credit, and earned credit. If you choose Yes, the Variable Awarded Credit column displays in PowerTeacher Gradebook on the Scoresheet in Final Grade mode. Teachers may enter any desired numerical value. The dialog box is only available when editing a section. To set variable awarded credit for multiple sections, refer to Variable Credit Setup.
   Allow PowerTeacher entry of Variable Attempted Credit	Indicate whether or not to allow teachers to enter variable attempted credit, or potential credit. If you choose Yes, the Variable Attempted Credit column displays in PowerTeacher Gradebook on the Scoresheet in Final Grade mode. Teachers may enter any desired numerical value. The dialog box is only available when editing a section. To set variable attempted credit for multiple sections, refer to Variable Credit Setup.

4. Click Submit.

Edit a Section

1. Navigate to the [course name] page or the Teacher Schedule [Teacher] page. For more information, refer to Navigate to and Work with Sections.
2. Click the section number in the Sec# columns.
3. Edit the information as needed. For field descriptions, refer to Add a Section.
4. Click Submit.

Delete a Course Section

When you delete a course section, all enrollment records associated with that section also are deleted. Therefore, you need to know the password to delete a course section.

Sections cannot be deleted if the current year contains one or more student sections (enrollments) with attendance records. If one or more students with attendance records are enrolled in a section being deleted, an error message displays and you must reset the attendance for each student enrolled in the section. If a section is successfully deleted (no orphan attendance is found), PowerSchool generates a query to find any attendance associated with the section. If attendance records are found, they are deleted. To modify attendance, refer to Meeting/Interval Attendance.

1. Navigate to the [course name] page or the Teacher Schedule [Teacher] page. For more information, refer to Navigate to and Work with Sections.
2. Click the section number in the Sec# columns.
3. Click Delete Section.
4. Enter the required password in the Password field.
   Note: Your school's PowerSchool administrator can set this password.
5. Click Confirm Delete.

Assign Teachers to a Section

Teachers are assigned to a section on the Edit Section page. The PowerSchool administrator can add multiple section lead and additional staff/teachers to a section. The teacher-of-record is the section lead teacher, and other staff/teachers are the additional teachers.

A lead teacher must be designated for every day the section's term. Multiple lead teachers can be added for different days of the term, but no more than one teacher can be the lead teacher on any given day. This is done to keep a single teacher-of-record for every day the section meets, in order to remain compatible with systems that only allow for one teacher per section.

Note that "% Allocation" is only used for reporting purposes. It is not necessary to have allocation totals reach 100 percent, nor is it necessary to keep them below 100 percent.
For example:

Teacher start and end dates can never be set before or after the dates of a sections term. If the term changes to one that causes the dates to be out of range, (i.e. From Q1 to Q2), a notice will display stating that the dates had to be adjusted.

When changing a term, both the section lead and additional teacher association dates are mapped to the new term dates. Additionally, any gaps or overlaps are adjusted for Lead Teachers.

Assign a Section Lead Teacher

Assign a section lead Teacher on the Edit Section page. This procedure outlines how to access the Edit Section page from the Sections page. To access the Edit Sections page via the teacher's schedule, refer to View Teacher Schedules from the Staff Page.

1. On the start page, choose School under Setup in the main menu.
2. Under Scheduling, click Sections.
3. Choose the course name from the courses menu.
4. Click the section number in the Sec# columns.
5. Click Add next to Teacher – Section Lead.

6. Use the following table to enter information in the fields:

   Field	Description
   Staff	Select the teacher from the pop-up menu.
   Role	Displays Lead Teacher as the default, pre-defined role.
   % Allocation	Displays the default percent allocation entered for this role. Enter a new value, if applicable.
   Start Date	By default, displays the start date for the section. Enter a value, or click the Calendar icon to select a date. Start date cannot be set before or after the dates of a section term.
   End Date	By default, displays the end date for the section. Enter a value, or click the Calendar icon to select a date. End date cannot be set before or after the dates of a section term.
   Actions	Click Note to add a note. Click OK to close the dialog. Click Delete to mark the row for deletion when you click Submit.

7. Click Submit.

Assign Additional Teachers or Staff to a Section

Add teachers and/or staff to a section.

1. On the start page, choose School under Setup in the main menu.
2. Under Scheduling, click Sections.
3. Choose the course name from the courses menu.
4. Click the section number in the Sec# columns.
5. Click Add next to Teacher/Staff – Additional.

6. Use the following table to enter information in the fields:

   Field	Description
   Staff	Select the teacher from the pop-up menu.
   Role	Select the role from the pop-up menu.
   % Allocation	Displays the default percent allocation entered for this role. Enter a new value, if applicable.
   Start Date	By default, displays the start date for the section. Enter a value, or click the Calendar icon to select a date.
   End Date	By default, displays the end date for the section. Enter a value, or click the Calendar icon to select a date.
   Actions	Click Note to add a note. Click OK to close the dialog. Click Delete to mark the row for deletion when you click Submit.

7. Click Submit.