Adding Out of District Courses & Historical Grades in PowerSchool

Overview

This article covers the steps associated with adding out of district courses and course grades to a student’s record in PowerSchool. Courses taken outside of SPS may not count towards a student's GPA or honor roll calculation. 

The following pieces of information about the out of district course are necessary for the completion of steps detailed in the document, and should be on hand throughout the process: 

• School Name 
• School Year 
• Store Code 
• Historical Grade Level 
• Course Number 
• Grade 
• Earned Credit Hours 

Though it will be re-iterated later, please note the very important detail that transferred grades DO NOT count towards: 

• GPA 
• Class Rank 
• Honor Roll 

Transferred grade/credits count exclusively towards graduation and credit requirements. 

 

Navigation

Student Selection 

Using the top search bar or Start Page search bar, find the student whose record you’ll be adding transfer grades to. 

Once the student is selected, proceed to the Historical Course Grades Page. 

 

Historical Course Grades – Sidebar Navigation 

Using the student selection sidebar, you can find the page under Academic Records 

 

Historical Course Grades – Search Navigation 

Using the top search bar in PowerSchool, search for “Historical Course Grades”. 

 

System Functions

Once you are on the “Historical Course Grades” page for the respective student, click on the “Detail View” button on the right-hand side of the page. This will open the options for Single and Multiple course grade entries, as well as the “Previous School Names” view which will break down all historical grades by institution. We are only concerned here with the Single and Multiple New Entry buttons.  

 

Adding a Single New OOD Course Entry 

If you’re adding only one Out of District Course grade, click “Single New Entry” and the following page will appear. 

On this page, enter the OOD School Name, year, course number, grade, and earned credit hours. Use store code F1 and refer to Appendix A for valid course numbers to use. Do not enter a section number. Teacher names are an optional field. 

ALSO: Ensure that Grade Suppression, GPA, Class Rank, and Honor Roll Calculation are all set to EXCLUDE. Out of District transfer classes do not count towards these rankings/metrics.  

Once these steps are completed, click submit and verify the OOD Course appears on the Historical Course Grades page. (See View / Edit / Delete Existing Entries for help) 

 

Adding Multiple New OOD Course Entries 

If you’re adding multiple Out of District Course grades all from the same institution, click “Multiple New Entries” and the following page will appear: 

On this page, fill out the school name, year, and grade level at the top. Ensure that all grades entered below fall under these entered criteria. For any that do now, a single, or other multiple entries need to be used. 

For each course grade, fill in the course number, grade, and earned credit hours. Use store code F1 and refer to Appendix A for valid course numbers to use. Do not enter a section number. Teacher names are an optional field. 

ALSO: Ensure that Grade Suppression, GPA, Class Rank, and Honor Roll Calculation are all set to EXCLUDE. Out of District transfer classes do not count towards these rankings/metrics.  

Once these steps are completed, click submit and verify the OOD Course appears on the Historical Course Grades page. (See View / Edit / Delete Existing Entries for help) 

 

View / Edit / Delete Existing Entries 

Navigate to the Historical Course Grades page for the student you need to View Edit or Delete entries for.  

Here you can note the at-a-glance information for the listed courses. If you wish to view finer details, you can click the “Detail View” button above to get a table view or click on the individual grade (on either view) to bring up the editor view. 

If you're making edits to the grade, scroll down on the page and find the “Pending Changes” pane. Here you will get a view of your changes, and what they might affect before authorizing them. For example, the following screenshot shows a grade change from an A to B. After clicking Authorize a submit button will appear, click it to finalize the changes. 

If you wish to delete an entry entirely, click on “Delete” in the final pane, and click on “Authorize Delete” in that pane. After clicking this authorize link, a “Delete” button will appear at the bottom. Click this button to finalize the deletion of the entry. 

 

Frequently Asked Questions 

1. I do not have access to PowerSchool. How can I get access? 
   • Put in a support ticket with OITA: 
     • From springfieldpublicschools.com, click on “Staff” then “Service Desk” on the drop-down.  
     • From MySPS, click on “Service Desk” on the side bar. 
     • On the Service Desk page, click on “Services & Support”, then “Software / Applications” then “PowerSchool & Schoology” from those options, select “PowerSchool SAS Support”.   
       You can also search that ticket title in the search bar, or click this link.
     • Open a new ticket and fill out as much information as possible.  
     • An email will be sent with confirmation of your ticket submission, and someone will get in touch with you shortly.  
2. Why am I seeing the message “Not Authorized” when I click on “Historical Grades” 
   • Currently only certain roles have been authorized to have Edit or View access for historical grades. Please see Appendix B for a list of which roles have these respective permissions. If you believe you should have access, please submit a support ticket on the Service Desk. 
3. I cannot find the student I am searching for. What should I do? 
   • It is recommended to search by student ID number. Use a / in the main search bar to search for inactive students, as well. 
   • If the number is not known, please verify that the spelling of the student’s name is correct 
   • Verify that you are logged into the correct school at the top of the Power School screen 
4. I was already signed into Power School but when I clicked ‘Historical Grades’, I was brought to the Power School login page. Why did this happen? 
   • As a security measure, you will automatically be logged out of Power School after 30 minutes. You must sign in again if you wish to continue working. 
5. I was trying to submit a new grade entry and was logged out. Will my work be saved? 
   • No, it will not. You have a 30-minute window to submit your new entry  (See answer to question 4) 

 

Appendices

Appendix A – Course Number Catalog

Please see the PDF attached to this article (OOD_CourseNum_Catalog.pdf) for the full catalog of course numbers to use in this process for out of District Courses.

 

Appendix B – Role Permissions 

Below are the tables corresponding to roles which have View and Edit as well as View Only access to the Historical Grades page in PowerSchool. If you believe there is an error, either in your role’s access, or these table’s accuracy, please follow the steps in the FAQ for submitting a Service Request. 

School Roles with View and Edit Permission