Graduation Plan District Setup

You can create two types of graduation plans: graduation plans and post-secondary preparation plans. Graduation plans define the requirements a student must fulfill to graduate high school. Post-secondary preparation plans define the requirements a student must fulfill to attend a post-secondary institution, such as a state college or university.

If your district has a certain group of students in a graduating class that has different requirements, you can create multiple graduation plans. For example, High School Graduation, PE Waiver/No PE Requirement Plan, or Special Education Plan. Set up plans at the district level so different schools can share graduation plans for students.

If your school currently uses graduation sets, you can convert the set to a plan to use the more robust Graduation Plan features.

Graduation plans created using the previous version of Graduation Planner can continue to be managed using Historic Graduation Plans. New graduation plans that have an end date later than 2026 should be created using the advanced Graduation Plan feature.

You can promote previously created plans (Historic Graduation Plans) to use the advanced Graduation Plan. Each historic plan must be migrated individually.

Promote Historic Graduation Plans

1. Navigate to the Historic Graduation Plans page.

2. Select a plan version.

3. Click Promote.

4. The start year and end year default to the information used on the historic plan. Update the year if needed.

5. Select if you want to copy the students previously selected on this graduation plan to the new plan, or if you want to remove the students from the existing plan. If you have elected to remove the students from the existing plan, you will need to select the students for the new graduation plan.

6. Select if you want to run the data capture function to store graduation plan progress data for future reporting.

7. Click Submit.

Create a Graduation Plan

1. Navigate to the Graduation Plans for Schools page.

2. Click Add Plan.

3. Enter the name of the graduation plan. Select Is Post-Secondary if needed.

4. Click Save.

Add a Version

Each graduation plan can be composed of multiple versions that do not have overlapping start and end years. The first version you create has all years (0000-9999) prepopulated as the date range. If graduation requirements change, you can modify the existing plan's end date so that it ends the previous year and create a new plan version that starts the year of the change.

1. Navigate to the Graduation Plans for Schools page.

2. Click Add New Version next to the graduation plan.

3. Enter the Starting Year and Ending Year for the version. If the end date is unknown, leave it as 9999.

4. Click Save .

Additionally, you can split versions for a year of entry using Copy Version to create a new copy of a version, starting in a specified year. The system automatically adjusts other versions so that the years will not overlap.

Configure Basic Details

Configure basic details for the graduation plan version, such as a GPA requirement and a minimum grade requirement.

1. Navigate to the Graduation Plans for Schools page.

2. Click All Years under the version name.

3. On the plan page, click the top-level version Requirements.

4. Select the Requirement Logic for the plan:

   • All - All requirements must be met in this plan.

   • Any - At least one of the requirements must be met to achieve this plan.

5. Select the GPA Requirement and enter the Minimum GPA. The minimum GPA is calculated using the chosen GPA Method.

6. Choose whether to Calculate GPA using only courses applied to graduation plan or Calculate GPA using all completed courses. Only courses used for that GPA Method will be used to calculate the student's GPA requirement. Even when selecting the option to Calculate GPA using all completed courses, it is possible that some courses are excluded.

7. Select the Minimum Grade Requirements. Choose whether the grade or the percent will first be evaluated as the priority. The minimum grade options are A-F, and are not specific to custom grade scales. If you are using a scale that contains percentages, make percent the priority.

8. Click OK.

Add Requirement Groups

You can add groups to a graduation plan to track credit hours for specific subject areas, required courses, or specific tests. You can create as many groups as needed for a graduation plan. In addition, you can create child groups within a group. For example, Foreign Language could be created as a group with French, German, Japanese, and Spanish as the child subject groups.

Once created, groups appear on students' Graduation Plan Progress pages, the Graduation Progress Report, the Graduation Plan Progress page in PowerScheduler, on the Graduation Progress page in PowerTeacher, and on the Graduation Progress page in the PowerSchool SIS Student and Parent Portals.

To add requirement groups, on the Graduation Plan Setup page, choose the graduation plan version.

Add a Requirement Group

1. Click Add next to the parent or primary requirement, then select Add Requirement Group.

2. Enter the Group Name, then choose the Requirement Logic for the group:

   • All - All requirements must be met to achieve this parent requirement.

   • Any - At least one of the requirements must be met to achieve this parent requirement.

3. Choose the Test Score Logic. This setting only affects test requirements associated with this requirement group and will not affect other requirement types.

   • Best combined scores for all sittings - The system will look at all possible combinations of scores across all tests taken and use the highest combination.

   • Best score from a single sitting - The system will look at all tests taken on a single date and use the best overall score from a single date.

4. Click Save.

Add a Course Requirement Group

1. Click Add next to the parent or primary requirement, then select Add Course Requirement .

2. Enter the Group Name, then choose the Requirement Logic for the group:

   • All - All courses must be completed to achieve this parent requirement.

   • Any - At least one of the courses must be completed to achieve this parent requirement.

3. Enter the minimum credits required.

4. Select Allow Waiver to enable the ability to waive graduation requirements for students within this group. The waiver does not remove the credit hour requirements, so the student must complete the number of credits defined.

5. Click Save.

Now you can associate specific courses and/ or credit types with the Course Requirement Group.

Course Groups and Credit Types

Once you have created a Course Requirement group, associate it with courses and/or credit types to determine how credit is tracked. Additionally, you may set the assignment strategy for a subject group, which allows overflow credit (any credit that is above and beyond the subject group's credit hour requirements) to be assigned to another subject group.

1. Click Add in the Course Groups and Credit Types section.

2. Enter a description.

3. Select the grade levels eligible for satisfying the requirements.

4. To add specific courses, click Add next to Courses.

5. Search for a course name, course number, or click the + (plus) sign to add more query fields. Click Apply to generate the search.

6. Click a course name to select, then click OK.

7. To add credit types, click Add next to Credit Types.

8. Enter the credit type and click OK.

9. To assign the courses or credit types to specific target requirements, click Add next to Targets.

10. Select the groups the courses or credit types apply to, then click OK.

11. Click Save.

Order Selectors

Once you finish setting up courses or credit types, indicate the order in which courses or credits used for multiple subject groups are applied. This is important when a single course appears in multiple groups, or when groups include credit types. Any credits a student earns will be applied to groups in the order you select.

1. Navigate to the Graduation Plans for Schools page.

2. Click Reorder in the Course Groups and Credit Types section.

3. Use the up and down arrows to set the order.

4. Click Save.

Add a Test Group Requirement

You can add test groups to a graduation plan to track and evaluate student progress towards graduation requirements based on more complex logical requirements. For example, a student will qualify for a High School Diploma with Academic Achievement if the student completes either the ACT (with a score of 21, no section below a 30) or the SAT (with a score of 1200, neither section below 500).

Test groups can be layered into hierarchies to compare several conditions using multiple group types. This is achieved in several ways. One way is by creating parent test groups and then adding child test groups to the parents.

Another method is to create additional test groups, but instead of adding tests to the test group, add a child test only. This allows for situations when two conditions must be met to meet the test group requirement, such as a minimum on a test type score (a test group with an And group type) and an overall exam score (a test group with a Sum group type).

1. Click Add next to the parent or primary requirement, then select Add Test Group Requirement.

2. Enter the Test Group Name, then choose the Requirement Logic for the group:

   • All - All credit minimums must be met to achieve the requirement.

   • Any - At least one of the credit minimums must be met to achieve the requirement.

   • Sum - A combination of scores must meet a summation total.

3. Choose the Test Score Logic.

   • Best combined scores for all sittings - The system will look at all possible combinations of scores across all tests taken and use the highest combination.

   • Best score from a single sitting - The system will look at all tests taken on a single date and use the best overall score from a single date.

4. Select Allow Waiver to enable the ability to waive graduation requirements for students within this group.

5. Click Save.

Add ACP (Academic and Career Plan) Program Requirement

You can add program requirements to a graduation plan to track and evaluate student progress towards graduation requirements based on Academic and Career Plan courses.

1. Click Add next to the parent or primary requirement, then select Add ACP Program Requirement.

2. Enter the name of the Program Requirement.

3. Select the Total Programs Required.

4. Enter the number of Credentials Required Per Program in Lieu of Credits. If you enter 0, students cannot satisfy this program requirement using credentials and will need to fulfill the specified course requirements.

5. Click Add within the Program section to select a program or programs.

6. Click Add within the Credentials section to specify the credentials.

7. Select the GPA Method and enter the Minimum GPA.

8. Select the Minimum Grade and enter the Minimum Grade Cutoff Percentage.

9. Click Save.

Move Child Group to Different Parent Test Group

As you add requirements, the information is formatted as a tree structure. You can move the placement of requirement groups to create different rule sets.

1. When working with a graduation plan version, choose the requirement to move.

2. Click on the breadcrumb link to view the requirements in a tree structure.

3. Select where you want to move the test group in the tree structure, then choose As First Child Of or After Sibling.

4. Click Save.

Manage Required Tests

You can add required tests to a graduation plan to track test scores, such as the ACT, AP (Advanced Placement), PFT (Physical Fitness Testing), PSAT (Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test), SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test), or STAR (Standardized Test for the Assessment of Reading). Once created, required tests appear as part of the Graduation Plan progress view in PowerSchool SIS.

Add a Required Test

Before adding a required test, the test must first be created, and then test scores must be associated with the test. You can add test requirements to a Requirement Group or a Test Group Requirement.

1. Click Add next to the applicable group, then select Add Test Requirement.

2. Choose the name of the test, test score, and score type. If you are adding a required test to a Test Group Requirement with the requirement logic set to Sum, the score type is shared across the requirement group.

3. For Percentage or Number Score, choose the score operator.

4. Enter a score value.

5. Click Save.

Select Students

Click Select Students next to a plan version to open the Student Selection page that displays all students associated with this version. Choose Graduation Plan Selection, Graduation Plan Progress Report, or Graduation Plan Progress Summary for the group of students selected.

Setup Graduation Plan Waivers

In certain situations, a student may be eligible to receive a waiver that modifies their graduation requirements. Waivers are set up at the district level; waivers are not enabled by default.

Use the Graduation Plan Waiver Setup page to define waiver types, sources, and reasons which will appear in the respective drop-down lists when adding a waiver to a required test or subject group.

1. Navigate to the Graduation Plan Waivers page.

2. Click Add for Waiver Types, Waiver Sources, or Waiver Reasons. Enter the name, code, description, and other options.

3. Click Submit.