The grade level a student is scheduled to enter in the next academic year needs to be programmed in PowerSchool prior to the server roll over. This process tells PowerSchool whether a student will be moving on to the next grade or, if they will be retained in their current grade level. The following article explains how to update students’ next year grade level as well as ensure that FTE (Full-time equivalency) is set for each student. This process can be completed at any time during the current school year or after the last day of school.

Part 1: Promotion of Students to Next Grade

Since students are more likely to be promoted than not, we start by promoting ALL students to the next grade level by using the Student Field Value Group Function.  The retained students will be handled individually after this step.

• Step 1) From the Start Page, select the grade level you wish to promote

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• Step 2) Use the dropdown menu to select Student Field Value (under the Functions submenu)

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• Step 3) On the Student Field Value page, set Field to Change to Sched_NextYearGrade and set New Field Value equal to the grade level the students will be entering come the fall (please see below for a template)
  • Grade_Level =  X should have a Sched_NextYearGrade = X + 1
    • Where X is a current year’s numeric grade level
  • Grade_Level = Y should have a Sched_NextYearGrade = 99
    • Where Y is the highest grade level in your current year
    • When a student completes the highest grade of the school, the student’s next grade will be 99 if they are promoted into the “Graduated Students” school.
  • You can search different student fields by clicking on the (Fields) hyperlink next to Fields to Change
• Step 4) Press Submit
• Step 5) A new page will appear displaying the data you are changing, confirm the change is accurate and hit submit again
• Step 6) Repeat the process for the remaining grade levels

Part 2) Updating the students that will be retained for the year

We recommend handling the upcoming year’s Grade Level for retained students manually one at a time.

• Step 1) Manually select one of the students that will be retained in their grade level by using the Select by Hand option
  • You can select individual students by clicking on Select By Hand

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• Step 2) Use the dropdown menu to select the Student Field Value Group Function
• Step 3) For retained students their Sched_NextYearGrade should be the same as their current grade level
• Step 4) Repeat for each student repeating a grade level
  • • Note: Alternatively, you can retain a student by selecting student from the home screen, selecting Scheduling Setup from the Scheduling submenu on the left side of the screen

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Part 3) Promotion of students to Next School

For the majority of schools, a student’s Next_School will remain the same as their current school. If you are unsure of your current School ID you can find that information by maneuvering to the District Office > District (Setup) > Schools/School Info page. Once you have your School ID you are ready to proceed.

• Step 1) Select the grade level you with to update
• Step 2) Use the dropdown menu to select Student Field Value
• Step 3) Use the field Next_School (even if a grade is remaining in the same school it is important to run the process to ensure all students’ Next_School is set)
  • Note: For graduating students, completing the highest grade offered at your school their Next_School field should be set to “999999” which is commonly used as the Graduated School within PowerSchool.
• Step 4) Press Submit
• Step 5) A new page will appear displaying the data you are changing. Confirm the changes are accurate and hit submit again.
• Step 6) Repeat the process for the remaining grade levels

Part 4) Confirm the FTE settings are setup for your school

Attendance will not count for a student unless their FTE is setup correctly. It Is important to confirm FTE is programmed within PowerSchool.

• Step 1) Navigate to the Start Page
• Step 2) Go to the School (Setup)

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• Step 3) Select Full Time Equivalencies from the Attendance Menu
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• Step 4) Select the FTE calculation method that you want to verify

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• Step 5) Verify that all necessary settings are updated for the next year

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Part 5) Last Step! Confirm your updates have been made successfully

The final step includes completing a quick export to ensure all of your changes in PowerSchool have been saved correctly.

• Step 1) From the home screen select ALL students
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• Step 2) Use the dropdown menu to select Quick Export
• Step 3) Export the following fields:

LastFirst
Student_Number
Grade_Level
Sched_NextYearGrade
Next_School
ExitDate
ExitCode

• Step 4) Review the text file in a text editor or spreadsheet program to verify updates have been made successfully

If you have any questions on the procedure outlined above, please don’t hesitate to contact us.