Accessing Historical GPA Data on PowerSchool: A Comprehensive Guide

Reviewing stored grades for students is essential, especially for principals and counselors. While retrieving data for individual students is relatively straightforward, accessing data for larger groups or obtaining a more easily readable and filterable view can be more complex. This article provides a comprehensive guide on how to access and utilize historical GPA data within PowerSchool, making the process more efficient and beneficial.

Utilizing the Stored Grade Analysis Report

The Stored Grade Analysis Report simplifies accessing historical GPA data.

How to Run the Report

Select Student Group: Begin by selecting the group of students for whom you want to run the report from the start page. This can range from a single student to the entire school.
Navigate to RealTime Reports: Once selected, click on "RealTime Reports" from the Level Data app section on the start page.
Select the Stored Grades Analysis Report From the dashboard, choose the "Stored Grades Analysis Report."

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Pre-Filter Selection: In the pre-filter, select at least one grade level for which you wish to retrieve records. The grade level(s) you select will depend on the records you need to work with.
- Example 1: If working with seniors and needing to review cumulative records, select grades 9, 10, 11, and 12.
- Example 2: If you want to review stored grades for the current year, select only the current grade level (e.g., grade 12).
The student selection will reflect the students you previously selected.
Run the Report: After making all selections, click "Run."

Report Overview

Once the report loads, you'll see a graphical breakdown of data by grade and percentage scores, gender, grade level, and scheduling ethnicity.

Individual Student Records

To view individual student records, scroll down the page. The table displays a list that includes a record for each student for each course and term. This record includes basic demographic data and information specific to each grade record, including:

Store code
Class term
Enrollment status
Course and teacher name
Period
Classmates
Grade and percent scores
GPA points earned
Potential credit type
Checkboxes for "exclude from GPA," "honor roll," and "class rank."

Applications of the Report

The data from this report can be valuable in several ways:

Troubleshooting a transcript or GPA for a single student
Reviewing grades to ensure credit types, GPA points, and earning potential credits are correctly assigned.

Counselor Benefits

This report is particularly useful for counselors when reviewing grades to ensure students have met the criteria for promotion or graduation.

Verifying Credit Types: If you want to verify that all credit types have been entered correctly, review the filter to quickly scan the credit types included in the report. If any errors are found, you can filter to that credit type and then click the three dots to the left of the student's name to access the historical grade screen. From there, credit types can be updated.

Sorting and Filtering: You can sort by any column, such as grade or percentage, and then review fields like earned or potential credit or GPA points to ensure all grades have the correct values assigned. Additionally, you can filter to a specific term or store code and then filter to a specific grade to find all students with that particular score.

The ability to access data without going through the stored grades table or individual students' historical grade screens makes this report highly beneficial.

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Historical Transcript Data

Historical transcript data for secondary students is used by PowerSchool SMS when calculating cumulative GPAs or, if your district calculates GPAs by term, when calculating cumulative-to-end-of-term-GPAs.

Data Included

Historical transcript data includes:

Summary information about all past school years, such as the student's cumulative GPA, weighted and unweighted GPAs by term, total absences, total points, and total credits.
Information about a specific year, such as the student's school, credits and GPA that year, and class rank. You enter information about a specific year on the Add/Edit Historical Year page.
Information about the courses a student took in a specific year, such as the course name and number and the grade that the student received. You enter course information on the Add/Edit Historical Course page. You can see a list of all the courses for a specific year on the Historical Courses page.

Methods of Entering Historical Data

Historical data can be entered in the following ways:

Imported as historical data: This method is typically used when many students require historical data entry.
Populated during Year End Processing: After a school has used PowerSchool SMS for the first school year, current year information becomes historical information through an automated process during Year End Processing.
Manually entered on the student's Historical pages: This method is typically used when only one or two students require historical data entry.

When entering data manually, at a minimum, you must identify the year, the school name and number, and the student's grade level in order to save the record.

Note: If historical transcript summary information is not entered, cumulative GPAs are calculated using yearly historical transcript data.

GPA Calculations

PowerSchool SMS provides two types of GPA calculations:

End-of-term GPA: This calculation includes only grade items for the report card grading periods associated with the GPA reporting term defined on the Grading Periods page. Historical grades are not used, and future grades are not counted.
Cumulative-to-end-of-term GPA: A cumulative-to-end-of-term GPA provides a snapshot of a student's GPA at the end of a GPA reporting term.

If you delete a GPA/class rank reporting term list item, all GPAs and class ranks calculated for that reporting term are also deleted, and the reporting term for the associated report card grading periods is set to N/A. Editing an existing GPA/class rank reporting term list item may change information on the Grading Period and Grading Period Set pages. After making any changes to GPA/Class Rank Reporting Term setup list items, ensure the data in the associated report card grading periods is still valid. Schools use this field to apply a GPA/class rank reporting term to report card grading periods, depending on district policy. When the school runs GPA calculations, GPAs and class ranks are calculated to the end of the selected term only for the grade items in the associated grading period. A Term GPA panel appears on the Historical page.

Unweighted GPA

Unweighted GPA: The student's unweighted GPA for that year.
Unweighted Points: The student's unweighted points for that year.
Unweighted Grades: Enter the student's unweighted grades for that year.

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