PowerSchool Info for Parents

Did you sign up for e-mail notifications using an AOL account?

2009-06-04T11:13:00.002-04:00

Parents,

We seem to be narrowing down the "lost" e-mail notifications to mainly AOL users. At present, AOL seems to see the notifications as SPAM. You might want to go into your filter or call AOL to let them know you need to allow mail from the address powerschool.diometuchen.org or even diometuchen.org.

This should help with e-mail notifications.

As the end of this school year nears...

2009-06-02T09:59:00.003-04:00

Parents,

During the third week of June all e-mail notifications and access to PowerSchool will be turned off for the summer. Access for parents will resume starting the first few days of school in September. The system is turned off for a good part of July to make adjustments and promote the students. Once those items are completed then the process of adding the students to the correct teachers and classes begins in August.

Have a wonderful summer with your family,
Sincerely,
Dr. Adele Ellis
Assistant Superintendent of Technology
Diocese of Metuchen

Would you like to have your child's assignments added to your Google calendar?

2009-05-21T09:32:00.003-04:00

Parents,

Some of you want to use the iCal feature in PowerSchool to add assignments to a calendar. This system at present is not working effectively with Outlook calendar, however, there is a way to have it work with Google Calendar.

I've attached a link to a You Tube video that is a little more than 2 minutes long that shows and explains the process.

Watch the video from this web address:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyUPP5raFnQ or click here

Are you having a problem receiving your e-mail notifications?

2009-05-19T16:13:00.001-04:00

Some parents have reported not receiving e-mail notifications recently. We are trying to find the problem. If you have received e-mail notices in the past and are not receiving them now, please e-mail me at aellis@diometuchen.org and let me know your child's name, school, and how frequently you were receiving the e-mails in the past.

Thank you as we try to work through this issue.

Adele Ellis

Did you know you can e-mail the teacher through PowerSchool?

2009-04-15T14:14:00.003-04:00

Parents,

If you have a question or concern regarding your child's grades you can send an e-mail to the teacher through the PowerSchool program. Once you log onto your child's account, click on the blue name link under the course name. This will open Microsoft Outlook Word Editor to allow you to type an e-mail. Once you are done click send and the teacher will be able to respond to your e-mail.

If you do not see the teacher's name in a blue link under the course name, please contact the school.

Upgrade scheduled for March 31st

2009-03-09T19:20:00.002-04:00

An important upgrade is set for Tuesday, March 31st at 3 pm. This upgrade will fix a few issues that are important in all areas of PowerSchool. For parents, this upgrade will allow you to see collected or checkmarks in your child's account as well as a late or missing icon if the teacher has assigned these symbols.

PowerSchool should be down no more than a few hours. If you try to sign on the program at any time after 3 pm and can not get on, please try again in an hour.

Coming Soon - Seeing checkmarks, late notices and missing on the parent side

2009-02-27T11:50:00.003-05:00

Parents,

Teachers have had the ability all year to make little marks in the gradebook that they can see - a checkmark to let them know a student handed in an assignment (usually those not graded within a week), a small "L" icon that represents the assignment is late, and a small "M" icon that represents the assignment is "missing." Most of the time the teacher will contact you in another form since you are not able to see these items from the parent side, something that Pearson did not consider at the time they provided these tools. However, since many school districts requested this ability, Pearson will make an upgrade available within the next month to make these items visible to you.

I will post more information when I have a definite date. We are working to make this program work even better to keep you informed of your child's progress.

Have you seen what's available on the Diocesan Website?

2009-02-26T13:57:00.003-05:00

Parents,

PowerSchool gives you information regarding your children's academic progress and attendance. Have you also had a chance to visit the diocesan website? On the schools section we have up-to-date information on What's new in our schools, school events, updated curriculum information, just as a start. Visit it often and bookmark the page - in the next several weeks there will be forms that you can download.

http://www.diometuchen.org/schools

What would you like to see there? Send me an email or comment on this post and let me know.

Dr. Adele Ellis
aellis@diometuchen.org

Access to Parent Portal may be suspended for some schools temporarily

2009-01-22T19:37:00.003-05:00

Parents,

Some schools may suspend your access to PowerSchool for no more than one week while final grades and comments for the second quarter are calculated. If your school is one of them the school will let you know. Please rely on your child during this time period to bring home homework assignments and graded papers.

Parents - Please take our survey regarding the Diocesan website

2009-01-17T11:48:00.004-05:00

Parents,

We have been updating the Diocesan Website to add content to bring up-to-date information to you and your families. Please visit the website and take the survey either on the PowerSchool School Bulletin or on the Parent Page of the Schools webpage.

Thank you for your feedback as we work to provide as much information as possible to affirm your choice to send your child to Catholic Schools.

Click on the title of this post to go to the diocesan website. Click here for the survey address: http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e2fxdhvgfq2hn4rw/start.

Thank you for your help - Happy Catholic Schools Week!

URGENT - A Necessary Upgrade for January 15-16, 2009

2009-01-15T07:07:00.005-05:00

Parents,

I apologize for the short notice, however, we need to add an upgrade for the new teacher gradebook. The system will be done from just after midnight, today, January 15th to midday Friday, January 16th.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Upgrade scheduled for PowerSchool

2008-12-23T10:37:00.003-05:00

Dear Parents,

May you have a blessed Christmas and a wonderful and safe New Year holiday! This is to let you know that we have scheduled a maintenance upgrade for December 26th through December 29th. You may experience intermittent times when the system will be down. If this is the case, please try back later.

Thank you and God Bless,
Dr. Adele Ellis
Assistant Superintendent
Diocese of Metuchen

A New Year - time to evaluate your child's mid-year progress

2008-12-10T11:11:00.005-05:00

Parents,

After the Christmas and New Year holiday we will be coming to the end of two marking periods, half way through the school year. Progress Reports for some schools will be posted or delivered prior to the Christmas break. It is beneficial to your child if you take the time to evaluate progress in all subject areas.

Click on the title of this blog entry and you will be taken to an Internet site, "Internet4classrooms" that has a number of websites in all different disciplines which can be used anytime during the school year. This is an additional tool to help you as parents become more involved in your child's learning process.

More suggestions and ideas will be posted in the next several weeks.

New Passwords will be issued shortly for some schools

2008-10-28T19:51:00.003-04:00

Parents,

It is a good practice to change passwords on occasion to increase the possibility no one can hack into your account. During this fall season some of our schools will change your user names and passwords. The day the change is made the school will send home to you the new password and user name.

Please know we will continue to do what is necessary to protect your child's information.

PowerSchool was down today-October 24th- for the morning hours

2008-10-24T14:30:00.003-04:00

Parents,

As I state in my sessions, sometimes we are down due to unforeseen circumstances and today was one of those days. There was a major electricial outage in the area of Piscataway where our offices and servers reside. The system was available again prior to 11:30 a.m. I apologize for any inconvenience that was caused by this outage even though it was not within our control.

Thank you for your patience.

Dr. Adele Ellis

Info regarding the iCal functions

2008-09-28T15:05:00.003-04:00

Parents,

Some parents have contacted me regarding the use of the iCal feature. It is the icon (picture) on the parent page on the far right. The iCal was created for MAC users since this was an Apple product for many years. It will not work with PCs and many MAC users have a problem based on which operating system is used. Our teachers do not focus on this piece which is why I do not discuss it during the orientations.

So how do you know when the teacher has posted homework? Teachers will either created a paragraph with daily homework information or list the assignment with the due date in the assignments section of each subject. In order to reach either of the above you just click on the number grade for the subject area you are interested in viewing. I know you will have to click on several classes. Hopefully Pearson will make changes in the future to expedite your viewing homework.

A reminder about logging into the system

2008-09-05T05:42:00.003-04:00

Parents,

As we open the parent portal back to you to view your children's grades, please understand that we have very tight security on this system. If you have not successfully logged into the system within 3 tries, do not continue to try, contact your school. If you continue to try the system will shut down and lock out all users all over the diocese.

Because of this very important change, it is strongly recommended that you do not share your password and ID with anyone, including the children. If they want to see their grades and assignments, the children should be with you as you log on to the system.

Please e-mail me if you have any concerns.
Adele K. Ellis
aellis@diometuchen.org

Welcome Back Parents and Students!

2008-09-02T06:03:00.002-04:00

Happy September!

We hope you all had a wonderful summer with your families. For those of you who already have access to parent views of your childrens' grades, please know that the system will not be available for parent view until September 8th. We are completing adding children to the correct teachers and want to be sure the teacher lists are correct.

Passwords will be changed this year in the beginning of October. You will be given notice prior to the change.

New Schools being added to the Parent Portal this month include:

Holy Family
Our Lady of Lourdes
Our Lady of Mount Virgin
Our Lady of Victories
St. Thomas the Apostle
St. Ambrose
Immaculate Conception, Spotswood

Many blessings for the new school year!

St. Mary Assumption

Grade Scale Information

2008-06-06T13:22:00.003-04:00

Some parents requested a place to visualize the letter-number ratio for the diocesan grade scale. Although the specialized classes and lower grades use different letter values, here are the values for the standardized scale:

A+ = 97-100
A = 93-96
B+ = 89-92
B = 85-88
C+ = 80-84
C = 75-79
D =70-74
F = 0-69

Plus signs used on the report card indicate the student excels above average standards in that task. A checkmark or "X" is a sign that the student should concentrate on that area of study.

End of year information for parents

2008-06-04T15:51:00.002-04:00

Parents,

The PowerSchool system will be closed to all users on June 23rd. Thank you for taking advantage of this additional tool to help you work with your child for his/her academic success. Although the system will be open later in the summer for the schools to process enrollments and assign classes, the parent portion will not be available until the first several days of school in September. There will be nothing for you to view once we close the system down for this school year. Unless you receive a notice home, your user name and password will not change at the beginning of the school year.

Have a wonderful summer and feel free to contact me if you have any concerns,
Sincerely,
Adele Ellis
Assistant Superintendent of Technology
aellis@diometuchen.org

Reminder for when you receive the email notifications

2008-04-22T06:12:00.003-04:00

Parents,

When you receive your email notifications, the emails are being generated by the PowerSchool server, not the teacher. If you wish to discuss any information regarding grades or attendance issues, you will need to open your email function and write an email to the teacher. The teacher's email addresses are not included in the email notification. The best way to have the teacher's email address from PowerSchool is to go into your child's PowerSchool account and click on the teacher's name in blue under the class name. For best results, have your email program open for the email to be generated directly from your email system.

PowerSchool is now available again on Monday, March 31st

2008-03-31T09:36:00.001-04:00

Parents,

We have completed the changes required for the upgrade of the system and have been available to the community since 10:20 am today.

Again, I apologize for the inconvenience.

End of Marking Period 3

2008-03-25T16:13:00.003-04:00

Parents,

The end of the marking period for most of the schools is Friday, April 4th. It will be several days before you receive the report card and teachers will need to make any necessary adjustments to the quarter grade. Please remember that the grade averages you have been viewing all marking period only address graded papers. There are other factors, as explained to you by the individual teachers, that may affect the final marking period average. If you have any questions regarding the final grade, please contact the teacher.

Upgrade Planned during the Easter Break

2008-03-05T06:15:00.004-05:00

We will be working on upgrading the servers during Easter Break, from Thursday, March 20th to Friday, March 28th. Any interruptions in service will be minimal. If the system is not functioning at the time you log on, try again in an hour or two.

We continue to upgrade to provide the best service to our families. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Having Logon trouble? Could it be saved passwords?

2008-02-27T14:03:00.003-05:00

Parents,

One of the things that you shouldn't do is say "yes" to the "Remember this password" screen that pops up. Since our passwords become encrypted as they are saved, the password many times is not remembered correctly and you will have logon problems. Here's some solutions you can use if this is already an issue for you. If it isn't - make sure you don't save the password at any time.

1) IE 6 remembers passwords until you go in to delete them.
In case anyone needs a way to stop it, this is how:
Tools-then,
Internet Options-then,
Content tab-then,
Auto Complete button.
Then you can uncheck the 'Usernames and Passwords on
forms'
and the button that says 'Clear Passwords'
To get rid of all the old passwords.
Or
2) For those of you that originally said "yes" to remember this password and are frustrated by how you now have to try at least twice to enter PowerTeacher, here is a way to fix that issue if you have Internet Explorer 6, possibly 7. Go to Tools at the top of your page, click on Internet Options. It should be open to have a General Tab as the first tab. On that page click on Passwords to delete saved passwords. Then click OK at the bottom. This should take the passwords out. When you type in your password again and the dialog box comes up, Do you want to remember this password, before you say NO, click in the box that says do not ask this question again, then say NO. This will stop that problem of having the encrypted password saved incorrectly.

ID and Password problems?

2008-02-19T06:15:00.003-05:00

Sometimes it is difficult to determine if a certain character is the letter "O" or the number zero. If passwords contain a capital "I", it could look like a lowercase "L" or the number one. If you know of someone who is having difficulty with their username or password, please have them contact the school or Dr. Ellis. If the ID is too difficult it can be changed by Dr. Ellis.

PowerSchool Maintenance Scheduled for February 15-19

2008-02-05T14:37:00.001-05:00

There will be a scheduled PowerSchool Maintenance from noon on February 15, 2008 to 8 a.m. on February 19, 2008. The program should be available for parent users for most of the time during the maintenance. If you find that you can not access the program, try again in a few hours during this time period. Thank you for your patience.

Information regarding the email notifications

2008-02-05T13:38:00.001-05:00

When you sign onto your child's account, one of the icons at the top of the page is for "E-mail notifications." Once you click on that icon you will be given the opportunity to choose if you wish to have grades and assignments, attendance, teacher comments, school bulletins, or balance alerts sent to one or more email addresses. Please note that we do not use the balance alert function at this time.

You can choose to have the e-mails sent to you daily, once a week, once every two weeks, monthly or never. Whichever time frame you select, you will receive individual e-mails per subject. One of the most common misperceptions is that the e-mails are coming directly from the teachers. This is not so, the e-mails are being sent from the server based on your input. If the information provided needs a discussion or clarification from the teacher, using the reply feature in your e-mail client will not send the e-mail to the teacher. The e-mail will be replied back to the PowerSchool server.

If you need to correspond with the teacher regarding any information provided by the notifications, please either sign onto your child's PowerSchool account and click on the blue name link for the teacher or call the school for an appointment. It might be best to include the teachers' e-mail addresses in your e-mail address book for a quick and easy way to contact the teacher.

A question regarding early dismissals counted as an absence

2008-01-29T11:04:00.001-05:00

A parent sent in the following question:

Why do early dismissals show as absences on PowerSchool?

A: For those of you who have children who leave school earlier than dismissal time, for example, leaving at lunch time, the child has not completed a full school day. Attendance records are important documents and must reflect the child's absence for part of that day. Our system is set at this time to show attendance on reports as either present or absent. With this in mind, since the absences must be recorded per state regulations, the half absence is reported as an absence. For those parents who can view their child's absent and tardy records on the system you will see the code either ED, or E, or LE to show your child did not complete the entire 6 hour day. It is considered a half day absent. We are looking into future revisions on printed reports to show the distinction between a full day absence and a half day absence.

Helpful Instructions

2008-01-28T09:21:00.002-05:00

PowerSchool Website Overview

Each of these pictures located at the top of the website will bring you to a different page with your student’s information. Anything blue on each screen can be clicked on and will link you to further information. You can return to the first screen at any time by clicking on the green PowerSchool logo. Following is a brief description of each:

· Grades and Attendance: Grades and attendance for the year and by quarter. Detailed attendance for the last week and current week are shown – by clicking on the total number of absences it will give you a detailed description of each absence (excused, unexcused, late or early dismissed.) By clicking on a current grade you will be connected to any assignments, tests etc. that are included in that grade.

· Grade History: Final grades for previous marking periods. By clicking on the final grade you will see any assignments, tests etc. that made up that grade.

· Attendance History: The attendance codes marked for the current marking period.

· Email Notifications: To sign up for automatic email reports. Select what information you would like to receive, when you want it sent and what email addresses you would like the reports to be sent to. To email your student’s teacher, simply click on their name (in blue) on any of the screens.

· Teacher Comments: Comments that have been given by your student’s teacher. Comments are separated by each subject that your student has.

· School Bulletin: School announcements will be posted here such as upcoming events. The Diocese will use this feature to also make you aware of any time the system will be down for up grades and other useful information. (Notices from schools will also still be sent home at school discretion.)

· Class registration: Not in use at this time for our high schools. Not used for elementary schools.

· Balance: Not used at any of our schools at this time.

My Calendars: This tab is not in use at our schools, PowerSchool is working on correcting its functionality.

Each page that you visit can be printed by clicking on the Print Page icon in the lower right-hand corner of each screen. This will bring you to a printer-friendly page with a little description of the information on that page.

If you have any further questions about PowerSchool please feel free to email Ms. Ellis at aellis@diometuchen.org.

Welcome to PowerSchool. The website to access PowerSchool is:
https://powerschool.diometuchen.org/public

When you visit the website you will be asked for your username and password. Keep your username and password secure. You will have a separate username for each child.

Username

Password

Questions and Answers from the January Parent Survey

2008-01-27T19:33:00.001-05:00

Parents,

Here are the questions and answers from the first survey:

1) Is there a problem with the i-cal function? I can't get it to synch with my calendar?

A: Yes, since the last upgrade from PowerSchool, the i-cal function is not working properly. The company will let us know when the function is working again.

2) Can you have the grading system available? What number grades correspond with the letters?

A: If the student is in grades 3-8, the default grade scale is as follows:
97-100=A+, 93-96=A, 89-92=B+, 85-88=B, 80-84=C+, 75-79=C, 70-74=D, 69 and below=F.

3) Where do I go if I have problems logging on to the system to see my child's grades?

A: If it is a password or ID problem, contact your school. If you are having trouble getting onto the website, try the link on this page or email aellis@diometuchen.org.

4) When will our school move the homework assignments to PowerSchool? It's too time consuming to look in two places.

A: The intent is for you to find homework on the PowerSchool site as well. The schools should move to homework and grades for the September 2008 school opening.

5) Why can't we change the ID and password to one we can remember easily?

A: ID's and passwords are set by the system. Unfortunately, if we set the system to make the ID's and passwords easier, others can figure out your passwords and enter your child's account. It is for security purposes that we allow the system to choose the passwords and IDs.

6) Why then can't we have one password and ID to see all of our children instead of having a separate ID for each child?

A: Again, because of security purposes, each file has its own password and ID. However, this is an issue that was sent to PowerSchool and hopefully it will be offered in a future upgrade.

7) How can I contact the teacher through PowerSchool?

A: If the school has email addresses for each of the teachers, you can contact the teacher by clicking on their name if it is listed in blue text. Please do not respond to the email notifications if you signed up for them. It does not get sent to the teacher, it goes back to the PowerSchool server.

8) How often are grades and assignments updated?

A: Diocesan policy is that teachers have a week to post grades. If the project is graded across the curriculum, teachers have 2 weeks to post assignments. This does not pertain to special subjects in elementary schools. Teachers of special subjects see the students at a maximum of 1 day per week and may post only twice a quarter.

9) Can the teacher actually post the date of the assignment instead of the date the assignment was graded?

A: Yes, teachers have the ability to set the date in the system. Contact the teacher if you have a question about the date of an assignment.

10) Can the system send one email instead of 10 when I sign up for notifications regarding grades and assignments?

A: Unfortunately, the system is set to provide individual class information. This is another request sent to PowerSchool to consider for a future upgrade.

More Questions? Send them to Adele K. Ellis at aellis@diometuchen.org

Happy Catholic Schools Week!

Welcome to our Parent Blog!

2008-01-27T19:11:00.000-05:00

Welcome Parents, Teachers, and Administrators!

In January, I posted a survey for the parents of the schools who had grades available on line for parent view. There were a number of questions that parents asked on the survey. Since the survey was anonymous, I decided we needed a way for parents to ask and get answers to their questions, hence, the birth of this blog. The next entry will be some of the questions already asked and their answers. If you have other questions, please email me and I will post the question with the answer.

I look forward to enhancing your experience with the PowerSchool system.

Sincerely,
Adele K. Ellis
Assistant Superintendent of Technology
Diocese of Metuchen
aellis@diometuchen.org