It is important to know when students can be identified as at risk of failing BEFORE it is too late to make changes. But how can we utilize PowerSchool SIS to check on the current grades in a way that is easy to run and monitor? The “At risk” report built into PowerSchool can do exactly that!
Part A: Running the Report
You can find the At risk report in PowerSchool by navigating to: Home Page > System Reports (Reports) > At Risk (Student Listings)
The At Risk report is capable of reporting on risks based on grades as well as attendance and discipline. Because of this, all of the attendance parameters and dates at the top of the page are not relevant.
Since we are focused on only grades, we must DESELECT the checkboxes for “Use Attendance Report Query” and “Use Discipline Query.” Of course that means that we need to SELECT “Use Grades Query.”
Additional parameters include:
- Select the final grade type
- We use current if we want to see what the grades are as of today.
- Enter the minimum number of classes with failing grades
- If you want a report of any classes that a student is failing, use 1. If you are interested only in those failing 2 or more classes, use 2.
- Enter a comma-delimited list of Letter Grade values.
- Are you just looking for F? If not, enter the other grades you are looking for. Ex: D,F
After your parameters are set, click “Submit”
Part B: The At Risk Report
The output should look similar to the one above, with a listing of the student Name and Address, the term for the grades that are being shown, and a listing of every currently enrolled class that met the criteria submitted for the report. This is a vital report for giving administrators and other pupil services staff a view into what is happening in the classroom early on in the term so it is recommended that this report is used EARLY AND OFTEN!
If you have questions on the procedure outlined above, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Thanks for this. I am having a problem though… we do not use letter grades, only percents. How can I run a report based on percents for At-Risk students?
You could setup a grade scale that has letter grades that correspond to percent ranges even if you do not use the letter grades. That way, you can still use the At-Risk report. Otherwise, you may want to look at Enterprise Reporting to see if you can pull the percentage grade out via that method.
Would love to know how to do that, lol! I think it is imperative that we are able to do this in all schools not just the ones with letter grades ? Can you direct me to a resource that would allow me to set that up?
If you check PowerSource you should find all kinds of documentation on Enterprise Reporting. As there is a pretty active community out there, I bet someone has posted sample reports or are discussing how to achieve what you are looking for. If not, we are actively building reports for the schools that we work with and might have one sometime in 17-18 if you want to circle back to us in a little while!
Can you have the system just check for certain students
You sure can! You just need to make sure that you make the selection of students first on the home screen. Then, when you go to run the At Risk report you will see a radio button under “Students to Include” that will allow you to run the report for the students your previously selected only.