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Historical Course Grades

Student grade records in PowerSchool includes two types of grades: current and historical.

Current grades are students' grades entered by each of their teachers through PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook. Current grades change with each new assignment that teachers enter into the gradebook. Teachers, administrators, and parents use current grades to track student progress throughout a grading term and are most easily accessed on the Quick Lookup student page.

Historical grades are final grades or grades that are permanently stored in the student's record. At the end of each grading term, your PowerSchool administrator copies and stores the students' current grades from teachers' gradebooks to historical grades. Historical grades appear on report cards and transcripts.

The Historical Course Grades student page displays your selected student's grades from previous terms. You have the choice of using a normal view or a detail view.

The Historical Course Grades student page view is view-only for most users. Only those with access, such as a school counselor, can edit historical grades. Teachers who assign grades and need to change them later must contact a user with editing access.

View Historical Course Grades

  1. Navigate to the Historical Course Grades page. For each course in which the student earned a grade, the page displays the following:
      • Year/Term - Year and store code of the term in which the student enrolled in the course.
      • Grd Lvl - Student's grade level at the time he or she enrolled in the course.
      • Course number - The number of the course.
      • Course - The name of the course.
      • Earned credit - Number of possible credit hours the student can earn in the course.
      • [Terms] - Historical grade the student earned in each grading term. Click a grade to access the Edit Stored Grade page. 

        The Normal View page displays only the grades the student received during the grade levels of the current school.

  2. Click Detail View to view expanded information and the grades the student received at other grade levels.
    The Complete Academic Record Detail View page displays all of the student's historical grades in PowerSchool. The Detail View page is not specific to the grade levels at this school.
  3. In addition to the information on the Historical Course Grades page, this page displays the following detailed credit information:
    • Year/Term - Year and store code of the term in which the student enrolled in the course.
    • Grd Lvl - Student's grade level at the time he or she enrolled in the course.
    • Course # - The number of the course.
    • Course Name - The name of the course.
    • Stored Code - Each grading term the student earned a historical grade.
    • Grade - Historical grade the student earned in each grading term. Click a grade to access the Edit Stored Grade page.
    • Earned Credit - Number of credit hours the student earned in each course.
    • Pot. Credit - Potential credit hours the student could earn in each course.
    • Earns Grad Credit - Indicates if the course is included in a graduation requirement and the credits the student earned count towards the requirement.
    • GPA - Indicates if the grade in the course is included in the student's GPA calculation.
    • Class Rank - Indicates if the grade in the course is included in the class rank calculation.
    • Excluded from Honor Roll - Indicates if the grade in the course is included in the honor roll calculation.
    • Transcripts - Indicates if the grade in the course is included in transcripts.
    • Credit Type - Indicates if the credits in the course count towards a graduation requirement based on credit type.
    • Grade Suppression Code - Indicates if the grade in the course is for a replaced course grade.
      Grade Suppression Code only appears if Repeated Course Grade Suppression is enabled for the selected school. For more information, refer to Repeated Course Grade Suppression.
      Your school can create credit types to group courses together to fill a graduation requirement. Assign credit types to courses or final grades and then specify that a requirement be filled by any courses or grades of that credit type. For example, you specify that any two courses with the ALGEBRA credit type fulfill a math requirement.
  4. Click Normal View to return to the Historical Grade page. 

Create a Single Historical Course Grades Entry

Enter a student's grades one at a time for incoming students. Alternatively, use the Multiple New Entries function on the Academic Record Entry page to enter a single grade. Most schools use the Academic Record Entry page to enter all grades.

  1. Navigate to the Historical Course Grades page.
  2. Click Single New Entry
  3. Use the following table to enter information in the fields:

    Field

    Description

    School Name

    Enter the name of the school where the student received the grade.

    School Year

    Enter the year for which you want to enter a grade.

    Store Code

    Enter the store code that your school uses for the term in which the student earned the grade. Store codes are determined in the final grade setup area on the School Setup page.

    Hist. Grade Level

    Enter the grade level of the student when he or she received the grade.

    Course Number - Section Number

    [or]

    Course Name

    You must provide one of the following:

    • The course and section number of an existing section at the currently selected school.
    • The course name if this is historical data for which no section record exists.

    If you provide a course and section, this grade will be associated with the student's enrollment in that section and will print on report cards.

    If you supply only the course name, the grade will print on transcripts but not on report cards since it is not associated with an actual section enrollment.

    In either case, the grade will be included in transcripts, the Previous Grades screen, and GPA calculations.

    Teacher Name

    Enter the name of the teacher that taught the class.

    Grade

    Enter the letter grade the student earned.

    GPA Points

    Enter the number of grade points the student received for this grade.

    Added Value

    Enter any added value for the grade points, such as 1 for one additional grade point. You can also use fractions of a point. Most schools do not enter added values.

    Percent

    Enter the percent grade the student earned.

    Citizenship

    Enter the citizenship grade for the term.

    Earned Credit Hours

    Enter the number of credit hours the student earned in the course.

    The number of earned credit hours and potential credit hours must be the same.

    Potential Credit Hours

    Enter the total number of credit hours the student could have earned in the course.

    The number of earned credit hours and potential credit hours must be the same.

    Credit Type

    If you could not match the course in which the student received this grade to a course at your school and you entered a course name, enter the credit type that counts towards the requirement if this grade fulfills a specific graduation requirement at your school.

    For example, if a student earned the grade in Russian, and your school does not offer Russian, enter Russian in the Course Name field. Then, to have the grade the student earned count towards the foreign language graduation requirement, enter Foreign Language or a similar credit type name in this field.

    Otherwise, deselect the checkbox.

    GPA Calculation

    Do one of the following:

    • Select Include to include the grade in the GPA calculation.
    • Select Exclude to exclude the grade from the GPA calculation.

    Class Rank Calculation

    Do one of the following:

    • Select Include to include the grade in the class rank calculation.
    • Select Exclude to exclude the grade from the class rank calculation.

    Honor Roll Calculation

    Do one of the following:

    • Select Include to include the grade in the honor roll calculation.
    • Select Exclude to exclude the grade from the honor roll calculation.

    Graduation Calculation

    Do one of the following:

    • Select Include to include the grade in the graduation calculation during the permanently store grades process.
    • Select Exclude to exclude the grade from the graduation calculation during the permanently store grades process.

    For more information, refer to Repeated Course Grade Suppression.

    Display on Transcript

    Do one of the following:

    • Select Yes to include stored grade in transcripts.
    • Select No to exclude stored grade from transcripts.

    For more information, refer to the Transcript Objects section of the Objects on an Object Report page.

    Teacher Comment

    Enter any comments from the teacher.

    Grade Suppression Policy Override

    To override the section or course's grade scale grade suppression policy, choose the grade suppression policy you want to apply. Once a selection is made, stored grades associated to this grade scale will be evaluated based on the selected grade suppression policy during the permanently store grades process.

    This field only appears if Repeated Course Grade Suppression is enabled for the selected school. For more information, refer to Repeated Course Grade Suppression.

    Grade Suppression Calculation

    Do one of the following:

    • Select Include to include the grade in the Grade Suppression calculation.
    • Select Exclude to exclude the grade from the Grade Suppression calculation.

    The repeated course suppression process automatically runs after clicking Submit.

    This field only appears if Repeated Course Grade Suppression is enabled for the selected school. For more information, refer to Repeated Course Grade Suppression.

  4. Click Submit

Enter Historical Course Grades from a Transcript

This option for entering historical grades is helpful when a student transfers from another school and all previous grades must be entered in PowerSchool.

  1. Navigate to the Historical Course Grades page.
  2. Click Multiple New Entries
  3. Use the following table to enter information in the fields:

    Field

    Description

    School Name

    Enter the name of the school where the student received the grade.

    School Year

    Enter the year for which you want to enter a grade.

    Hist. Grade Level

    Enter the grade level of the student when he or she received the grade.

    Grade Suppression Policy Override

    To override the section or course's grade scale grade suppression policy, choose the grade suppression policy you want to apply. Once a selection is made, stored grades associated to this grade scale will be evaluated based on the selected grade suppression policy during the permanently store grades process.

    This field only appears if Repeated Course Grade Suppression. is enabled for the selected school.

    Grade Suppression Calculation

    Do one of the following:

    • Select Include to include the grade in the Grade Suppression calculation.
    • Select Exclude to exclude the grade from the Grade Suppression calculation.

    The repeated course suppression process automatically runs after clicking Submit.

    This field only appears if Repeated Course Grade Suppression. is enabled for the selected school.

  4. Use the following table to enter information for each course per term in the indicated school year:

    Field

    Description

    Course Number - Section Number

    [or]

    Course Name

    You must provide one of the following:

    • The course and section number of an existing section at the currently selected school.
    • The course name if this is historical data for which no section record exists.

    If you provide a course and section, this grade will be associated with the student's enrollment in that section and will print on report cards.

    If you supply only the course name, the grade will print on transcripts but not on report cards since it is not associated with an actual section enrollment.

    In either case, the grade will be included in transcripts, the Previous Grades screen, and GPA calculations.

    Teacher Name

    Enter the name of the teacher that taught the class.

    Credit Type

    If you could not match the course in which the student received this grade to a course at your school and you entered a course name, enter the credit type that counts towards the requirement if this grade fulfills a specific graduation requirement at your school.

    For example, if a student earned the grade in Russian, and your school does not offer Russian, enter Russian in the Course Name field. Then, to have the grade the student earned count towards the foreign language graduation requirement, enter Foreign Language or a similar credit type name in this field.

    Otherwise, deselect the checkbox.

    GPA Calculation

    Do one of the following:

    • Select Include to include the grade in the GPA calculation.
    • Select Exclude to exclude the grade from the GPA calculation.

    Class Rank Calculation

    Do one of the following:

    • Select Include to include the grade in the class rank calculation.
    • Select Exclude to exclude the grade from the class rank calculation.

    Honor Roll Calculation

    Do one of the following:

    • Select Include to include the grade in the honor roll calculation.
    • Select Exclude to exclude the grade from the honor roll calculation.

    Display on Transcript

    Do one of the following:

    • Select Yes to include stored grade in transcripts.
    • Select No to exclude stored grade from transcripts.

    For more information, refer to the Transcript Objects section of the Objects on an Object Report page.

    Grade

    Enter the letter grade the student earned.

    GPA Points

    Enter the number of grade points the student received for this grade.

    Added Value

    Enter any added value for the grade points, such as 1 for one additional grade point. You can also use fractions of a point. Most schools do not enter added values.

    Percent

    Enter the percent grade the student earned.

    Citizenship

    Enter the citizenship grade for the term.

    Earned Credit

    Enter the number of credit hours the student earned in the course.

    The number of earned credit hours and potential credit hours must be the same.

    Potential Credit

    Enter the total number of credit hours the student could have earned in the course.

    The number of earned credit hours and potential credit hours must be the same.

  5. Click Submit

Edit a Stored Grade

There are times when it is necessary to change a historical (stored) grade. Because such a change can have a serious impact on a student's permanent record, stored grades must be changed one by one.

You can create a log entry to track each time you change a grade for a student. 

  1. Navigate to the Historical Course Grades page.
  2. Click the grade to be changed. 
  3. Use the following table to change a student's historical grade information on the Edit Stored Grades page:

    Field

    Description

    School

    The school name appears.

    Term ID

    Enter the 4-character value of the term associated to the grade.

    If this grade is already associated to a Course Number - Section Number, then this field is not editable.

    The grade does not automatically change with the percentage and vice versa. If you change one, you must manually change the other.

    If this field is modified, the Repeated Course Grade Suppression checkbox is automatically selected.

    School Year (Term)

    The school year and term appear.

    Store Code

    The store code appears.

    If this field is modified, the Repeated Course Grade Suppression checkbox is automatically selected.

    Hist. Grade Level

    The grade level in which the student enrolled in the course appears. You can edit the grade level.

    If this field is modified, the Repeated Course Grade Suppression checkbox is automatically selected.

    Associated Section

    The section of the course in which the student was enrolled appears.

    Course Number

    The number of the course in which the student earned the grade appears.

    Course Name

    The name of the course in which the student earned the grade appears.

    Teacher Name

    Enter the name of the teacher of the course section.

    Associated Grade Scale

    The name of the associated grade scale appears.

    Grade

    The letter grade originally entered for the student appears. You can edit the grade.

    GPA Points

    Enter the point value that corresponds to the grade. For example, enter 4.0 for an A.

    If this field is modified, the Repeated Course Grade Suppression checkbox appears selected.

    Added Value

    Enter any added value for the grade points, such as 1 for one additional grade point. You can also use fractions of a point. Most schools do not enter added values.

     If this field is modified, the Repeated Course Grade Suppression checkbox appears selected.

    Percent

    Enter the percent grade the student earned.

    Citizenship

    Enter the citizenship grade for the term.

    Absences

    Enter the number of absences for the course in the term.

    Tardies

    Enter the number of tardies for the course in the term.

    Earned Credit Hours

    Enter the number of credit hours the student earned in the course.

    The number of earned credit hours and potential credit hours must be the same.

    If this field is modified, the Repeated Course Grade Suppression checkbox is automatically selected.

    Potential Credit Hours

    Enter the total number of credit hours the student could have earned in the course.

    The number of earned credit hours and potential credit hours must be the same.

    If this field is modified, the Repeated Course Grade Suppression checkbox is automatically selected.

    Credit type

    If you could not match the course in which the student received this grade to a course at your school and you entered a course name, enter the credit type that counts towards the requirement if this grade fulfills a specific graduation requirement at your school.

    For example, if a student earned the grade in Russian, and your school does not offer Russian, enter Russian in the Course Name field. Then, to have the grade the student earned count towards the foreign language graduation requirement, enter Foreign Language or a similar credit type name in this field.

    Otherwise, deselect the checkbox.

    GPA Calculation

    Do one of the following:

    • Select Include to include the grade in the GPA calculation during the permanently store grades process.
    • Select Exclude to exclude the grade from the GPA calculation during the permanently store grades process.

    Class Rank Calculation

    Do one of the following:

    • Select Include to include the grade in the class rank calculation during the permanently store grades process.
    • Select Exclude to exclude the grade from the class rank calculation during the permanently store grades process.

    Honor Roll Calculation

    Do one of the following:

    • Select Include to include the grade in the honor roll calculation during the permanently store grades process.
    • Select Exclude to exclude the grade from the honor roll calculation during the permanently store grades process.

    Graduation Calculation

    Do one of the following:

    • Select Include to include the grade in the graduation calculation during the permanently store grades process.
    • Select Exclude to exclude the grade from the graduation calculation during the permanently store grades process.

    For more information, refer to Repeated Course Grade Suppression.

    Display on Transcript

    Do one of the following:

    • Select Yes to include stored grade in transcripts.
    • Select No to exclude stored grade from transcripts.

    For more information, refer to the Transcript Objects section of the Objects on an Object Report page.

    Teacher Comment

    Enter any comments from the teacher.

    Change History

    A list of any changes to this grade appears.

    Grade Suppression Policy Override

    To override the section or course's grade scale grade suppression policy, choose the grade suppression policy you want to apply. Once a selection is made, stored grades associated to this grade scale will be evaluated based on the selected grade suppression policy during the permanently store grades process.

    This field only appears if Repeated Course Grade Suppression is enabled for the selected school. For more information, refer to Repeated Course Grade Suppression.

    Grade Suppression Code

    Indicate the repeated course grade suppression value of the stored grade by choosing one of the following:

    • Blank - Stored grade is not for a replaced course grade.
    • Replaced Grade (R) - Stored grade is for a replaced course grade.
    • Over Maximum Credit (M) - Maximum credit hours.
      The repeated course grade suppression value is blank by default unless it has been calculated by the permanently store grades process. However, it can be entered manually or adjusted after it has been calculated. If you want to prevent any future grade calculations from changing this value, choose to exclude from grade suppression calculation. When excluded, this value will be ignored during the repeated course grade suppression processing.

    Selecting Replaced Grade (R) does not automatically adjust whether the grade is excluded from transcripts or GPA, honor roll, class rank, or graduation calculations. However, these settings can be adjusted manually.

    Selecting Over Maximum Credit (M) does not automatically adjust whether the grade is excluded from graduation calculation. However, these settings can be adjusted manually.

    If the grade was previously replaced or was replacing another grade, adjusting the repeated course grade suppression value will remove this association.

    This field is only available when editing a stored grade.

    This field only appears if Repeated Course Grade Suppression is enabled for the selected school. For more information, refer to Repeated Course Grade Suppression.

    Repeated Course Grade Details

    Click to view the Repeated Course Grade Details pop-up, which displays the following grade replacement succession:

    • Grade Order
    • Grade - Click to access the Edit Stored Grade page for the repeated course grade.
    • Course Number
    • Course Name
    • Store Code
    • Term
    • Grade Suppression

    The current repeated course grade appears highlighted.

    This link only appears if there are other grades related based on the repeated course grade suppression calculation.

    This field only appears if Repeated Course Grade Suppression is enabled for the selected school. For more information, refer to Repeated Course Grade Suppression.

    Grade Suppression Calculation

    Do one of the following:

    • Select Include to include stored grades in grade suppression calculation during the permanently store grades process.
    • Select Exclude to exclude stored grades from grade suppression calculation during the permanently store grades process.

    If this field is modified, the Repeated Course Grade Suppression checkbox is automatically selected.

    This field only appears if Repeated Course Grade Suppression is enabled for the selected school.

    If a grade has already been replaced by the Repeated Course Grade Suppression process and then is set to be excluded from the calculation, the Grade Suppression Code and the relationship to the replacing grade will persist and never be considered by subsequent grade suppression calculations. This could cause a grade to replace more than one other grade. To prevent this, clear the Grade Suppression Code prior to setting Grade Suppression Calculation to Exclude.

    Repeated Course Grade Suppression

    Indicate whether or not to run the repeated course grade suppression process by doing one of the following:

    • Select the Run checkbox to run the repeated course grade suppression process.
    • Deselect the Run checkbox if you do not want to run the repeated course grade suppression process.

    If the Grade Suppression Code is modified, the checkbox no longer appears.

    By default, the checkbox is not selected. However, if Term ID, Store Code, Hist. Grade Level, GPA Points, Added Value, Earned Credit Hours, Potential Credit Hours or Grade Suppression Calculation are modified, the checkbox appears selected.

    Warning: Running the Repeated Course Grade Suppression process may affect other stored grades.

    This field only appears if Repeated Course Grade Suppression is enabled for the selected school.

  4. Click Submit

Delete a Stored Grade

Before deleting a class from a student's historical grades, be certain this is what you want to do. You are not only deleting the grade from the historical record, you are also deleting the class from the student's permanent record. Though this function does not delete the class from the master schedule, the student's historical grades for this class cannot be retrieved once deleted.

  1. Navigate to the Historical Course Grades page.
  2. Click the grade you want to delete.
  3. Click Delete.
  4. Click Confirm Delete. If you delete the last grade for a class, the class no longer appears on the Historical Course Grades page.

Override Course Names

You can override a district-assigned course name if you enter a course name along with a valid course number on the Historical Grade screen. The following rules apply when overriding the course name:

  • Course Number is optional. If it is not included, the Course Name is used.
  • If a Section Number is entered, it must exist in the system.
  • If no Course Name is entered and a valid Course Number is entered, it will default to the name in the Courses table.
  • If no Course Name is entered or found, an error dialog appears and the changes are not saved.
  1. Navigate to the Historical Course Grades page.
  2. Click Single New Entry
    To change several course names, click Multiple New Entries. 
  3. Enter the course name in the Course name field.
  4. Click Submit.

Edit Previous School Names

Use this function to change or enter the name of the school where a class was taken. If you entered a school name when entering the historical grades, it appears on this page. If you did not enter a school name, do so from this page.

The school names you enter appear on the student's transcript next to the school year during which he or she attended the school. If a student attended more than one school during a school year, each school and the grades the student received at that school appear in separate lists.

  1. Navigate to the Historical Course Grades page.
  2. Click Previous School Names
  3. Enter or change the name of the schools where the courses were taken.
  4. Click Submit.
  5. Once you have submitted, you can:
    • Click the grade to display the school name on the Edit Stored Grade page.
    • Repeat this procedure by leaving the School Name field blank to reset a changed previous school name. The Edit Stored Grade page displays the current school.
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