Creating Class Rank Methods for ODS

Introduction

This guide aims to assist school administrators and staff in setting up class rank methods in PowerSchool SIS to enable Oregon Data Suite (ODS) to pull in GPA information. This is necessary because PowerSchool SIS no longer stores GPA information directly in the students table and instead calculates values on the fly.

Prerequisites

• Access to PowerSchool SIS with administrative privileges.

• Understanding of your school's class ranking policy.

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Accessing the Setup Page

1. Log in to your PowerSchool SIS account with administrative credentials.

2. Navigate to the 'School' menu on the left side of the start page.

3. Select 'Class Rank' and then 'Class Rank Methods' to access the class rank settings.

Step 2: Configuring Class Rank Options

1. Enter a description: This should correspond to the GPA calculation method and have the “ODS” prefix (see the table below).

2. Choose GPA Calculation Method: This will determine what data is queried and how grades are calculated.

3. Assessment: Select how you want to assess the class rank.

4. Only include grades: Choose to include only grades for courses or sections that count in class rank. When selected, the class rank grade results may differ from GPA calculation results. This is the only class rank method setting that returns a result that may differ from the GPA.

5. Exclude students: Choose to exclude students that are set as excluded from class rank on the students' Other Information page. Some students may be excluded from class rank because they are enrolled for a short amount of time and should not be ranked amongst longer-term students.

6. Include early graduates?: Choose to include students who graduate early.

7. Early graduation exit code: Enter an exit code that specifies early graduation if Include early graduates? is selected.

8. Click Submit.

Step 3: Repeat for All Schools and Class Rank Methods

1. Repeat: Set up the four Class Rank Methods for all schools that should have GPA information pulled into PowerSchool.

2. Review: When finished there should be an “ODS Weighted Cumulative”, “ODS Unweighted Cumulative”, “ODS Weighted Current”, and “ODS Unweighted Current” class rank method set up at each school.

Tips and Best Practices

• Once a Class Rank Method is created, you can edit a method by clicking the name of the method you want to update and then edit the information.

• The calculation frequency for Class Rank will determine how often GPA values are updated in ODS. For example, if the calculations are only run at the end of each semester after grades have been stored, these grades and their effects on GPA will not be made apparent in ODS until after both of these processes have been completed in PowerSchool SIS.

• Class Rank Descriptions must match the names in the table below to accurately extract data.

• If there are multiple GPA calculations set up for a given type (e.g., Cumulative Weighted GPA) only use the one that should be pulled into ODS.