At a secondary school, the School Administrator can assign each student to a homeroom. That student, however, would spend only a short period in her homeroom each day. For each class, a student goes to a different room with a different group of students for each course in her personal schedule.
For a student to have a personal schedule, the student requests courses from a list published by the school [>>] of required and elective course offerings (at a middle school, the school defines team loading rules for classes and teachers that keeps groups of students together for some or all courses). Based on student course requests, staffing, and facilities, the School Administrator creates a number of classes or sections for each course. This enables the administrator to build a master schedule to schedule classes into terms, meeting patterns, rooms, and teachers [>>]. Finally, based on student course requests and teacher preferences, the administrator has PowerSchool SMS generate teacher and student schedules, which can be printed and distributed to students and teachers.
Typically, a School Administrator creates a secondary school's initial schedule in the Planning Calendar [>>]. At year end [>>], the Planning Calendar becomes the Active Calendar [>>] and the administrator continues to make adjustments to the school schedule throughout the school year [>>]. Once a school year is under way, it is possible for the School Administrator to engage in some of these scheduling tasks in the Active Calendar. In the Active Calendar, the administrator can perform the tasks as necessary — no particular order is required. In the Active Calendar, the administrator can also define resource services [>>] and assign resource assignments [>>].
Based on student course requests, a school determines how many classes of each course need to be offered in a given school year. The School Administrator schedules these classes into terms with meeting patterns, teachers, and rooms. These elements constitute the school's master schedule.
The general scheduling procedure for a secondary school is as follows (in the Planning Calendar):
| 1 | Ensure that rooms are ready [>>] |
| 2 | Ensure that the school course catalog is ready [>>] |
| 3 | Set up a planning schedule [>>] |
| 4 | Set up a schedule structure [>>] |
| 5 | Set up multiple tracks [>>] |
| 6 | Configure student loading rules [>>] |
| 7 | Assign default terms and meeting patterns to classes [>>] |
| 8 | Build the school's master schedule [>>] |
| 9 | Recording student course requests [>>] |
| 10 | Load student schedules [>>] |
| 11 | Select the planning schedule that will become active when YEP is run [>>] |
For the purposes of secondary scheduling, the following terms are useful:
| = | Homeroom: At a secondary school, the School Administrator can assign each student to a homeroom. The student, however, may spend only a short period in her homeroom each day. For each class, a student goes to a different room with a different group of students for each course in her personal schedule. A homeroom is a type of scheduling group. |
| = | Class: A group of students who meet regularly to receive instruction from a specific teacher. For example, Band 10 meets Tuesdays and Thursdays at 2 pm with Mr. Bell providing instruction for thirty Grade 10 students. A class is a type of scheduling group. |
| = | Course: A set of classes devoted to a particular area of study. |
| = | Period: A time slot on a particular day in which a class may be held. |
| = | Room: Specifies the location of classes not taught in the homeroom. Typically, in a secondary school, classes are taught in a room other than the homeroom. |
| = | Class schedule: The set of one or more terms, meeting patterns, teachers, and rooms in which a class is scheduled to meet. |
| = | Term set: One or more terms. A school year can consist of one or more terms. The administrator can define any number of term sets and name them as he sees fit. |
Table 58: Permissions pertaining to secondary scheduling
|
To |
You need this permission |
Set to |
Detail |
|
Assign classes to students, teachers and rooms |
School Setup > Assign Classes |
Yes |
|
|
Assign courses to students |
School Setup > Assign Course Requests |
Yes |
|
|
Create resource services |
School Setup > Resource Services |
Delete |
|
|
Assign resource services to students. |
Students > Resource Assignments |
Delete |
|
|
Set up or change the school schedule |
School Setup > Secondary Scheduling Setup |
Yes |
|
|
View your school schedule |
School Setup > Subject Framework / Course Catalog |
View or Edit |
|
|
School Setup > Subject Scheduling |
View or Edit |
||
|
Add, edit, and delete buildings |
Facilities Management > Buildings |
Delete |
|
|
School Setup > Secondary Scheduling Setup |
Yes |
||
|
Add, edit, and delete rooms |
Facilities Management> Rooms |
Delete |
|
|
School Setup > Secondary Scheduling Setup |
Yes |
||
|
Create and schedule reservation labels |
School Setup > Secondary Scheduling Setup |
Yes |
|
|
Create and edit meeting patterns |
School Setup > Secondary Scheduling Structure Setup |
Yes |
|
|
Define class constraints |
School Setup > Define Constraints - School |
Delete |
|
|
Add, delete, or switch planning schedules |
School Setup > Change Planning Schedule |
Yes |
|
|
Update scheduling statistics |
School Setup > Change Planning Schedule |
Yes |
|
|
Create student schedules, including adding and removing course requests |
Students > Edit Student Schedules |
Yes |
|
|
Schedule walk-in students |
Students > Edit Student Schedules |
Yes |
|
|
Assign default classes based on student homerooms |
School Setup > Subject Scheduling |
Edit, Delete, or None |
|
|
Students > Edit Student Schedules |
Yes |
||
|
Reassign default classes based on student homeroom |
School Setup > Subject Scheduling |
Edit, Delete, or None |
|
|
Students > Edit Student Schedules |
Yes |
||
|
Assign students to classes when doing so results in the class size exceeding the specified capacity |
School Setup > Classes |
Yes |
|
|
Transfer grades from a dropped class to an added class |
Grading > Transfer Grades and Attendance |
Yes |
|
|
Students > Edit Student Schedules |
Yes |
||
|
Delete grades entered for a dropped class |
Grading > Transfer Grades and Attendance |
Yes |
|
|
Grading > Enter Grades for All Classes |
Yes |
||
|
Grading > Edit Grades from Other Teachers |
Yes |
||
|
Grading > Modify Grades for Completed Periods |
Yes |
||
|
Students > Edit Student Schedules |
Yes |
||
|
Reassign attendance for transferred classes |
Grading > Transfer Grades and Attendance |
Yes |
|
|
Students > Edit Student Schedules |
Yes |
||
|
Delete attendance for dropped classes |
Grading > Transfer Grades and Attendance |
Yes |
|
|
School Setup > Clear Attendance |
Yes |
||
|
Students > Edit Student Schedules |
Yes |
||
|
View grade transfers and attendance reassignments in the Audit Log |
School Setup > View Audit Log |
Yes |
When scheduling a school year, we recommend that the administrator plan to complete the necessary tasks in the appropriate order and at the necessary times of the school year. Table 59 [>>] provides an example of a typical timetable for scheduling at a school where the school year runs from September to June.
Table 59: Scheduling timetable example
|
Time Period |
District activity |
School activity |
|
January |
Ensure that the district's course catalog is up to date and available to school [>>]. |
Publish the school course catalog [>>]. |
|
February to March |
|
Enter student course requests [>>]. Distribute course request confirmations to students. |
|
April |
|
Build the master schedule [>>]. Load student schedules [>>]. |
|
May to June |
|
Distribute student schedules to students |
|
May to August |
Set the coming school year's start and end dates [>>]. Ensure that school boundaries [>>] and the Projected Schools Map is up to date [>>]. |
Manually adjust the master schedule in the Planning Calendar [>>]. Manually adjust student schedules in the Planning Calendar [>>]. |
|
July to August |
Perform year-end tasks [>>]. |
Perform year-end tasks [>>]. |
|
August to the following June |
|
Manually adjust student schedules in the Active Calendar [>>]. Manually adjust the master schedule in the Active Calendar [>>]. |
Pearson
Always Learning
www.pearsonschoolsystems.com
Tel: 866-434-6276
Email: psstechsupp@pearson.com