This month, we’re thrilled to host yet another Detroit PowerSchool Summit! Over the last few years, this event has not only grown in popularity, but has been a tremendous asset to the local education community. As a Certified PowerSchool Partner, our team of expert PowerSchool trainers can make sure new staff get up to speed quickly or help experienced team members become advanced skill-level users. Now in its third year, the Detroit PowerSchool Summit has helped almost a hundred teachers and administrators across the state learn how to add more value to their school through PowerSchool experience and expertise. And at just $600, this event brings tremendous value to your organization.

Not sure if you want to attend this year? We created this blog post to give you a detailed look at this year’s summit schedule and curriculum so that you can decide if the 2021 Detroit PowerSchool Summit is right for you. We’ll start by breaking down the format and schedule of the event.

The Format & Schedule

As it has been in past years, this year’s Summit is a two-day event, taking place on Wednesday October 13th and Thursday October 14th. With the rise of the Delta variant, we’re also once again hosting it 100% virtually. We hope that this helps more people feel safe about attending. We can’t let a pandemic get in the way of education. During the sessions, our highly skilled and experienced PowerSchool trainers will make it feel as interactive and intimate as an in-person small group training course.

Each day will be divided into a morning and afternoon session for a total of four training sessions. The morning begins at 8:30am and ends at 11:30am. After a break to eat lunch and catch up on emails, the afternoon session will start at 1:00pm and end at 4:30pm. That’s 6 full hours of training each day!

Attendees will have three different “tracks” to choose from. Each track contains 4 training modules so each person will only choose one of the three tracks. These tracks are:

• PowerTeacher Pro: Includes a deep review of PowerTeacher Pro Features and functions with hands-on lab activities and exploration of supportive resources.
• PowerSchool SIS Admin, Beyond the Basics: For those who already have experience and want to become expert in more advanced functions within PowerSchool Admin.
• Clean Data, State Reporting Prep: Learn how to optimize your data collection, management, and retrieval with this module so that you have everything you need to report accurate numbers to the state.

Next, we’ll break down the content for each of these tracks. Take a few minutes to review the curriculum so that you can choose the best track for you.

Track 1: PowerTeacher Pro

Our first track is a deep review of PowerTeacher Pro. In this series of training sessions, we’ll conduct a deep review of its functions with hands-on lab activities so that you can actually practice using it. We’ll also explore the available supportive resources.

Day 1 AM/PM

• Using PowerSchool SIS Teacher Portal Functions:
• Getting Started in PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook
• Setting Up PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook
• Working with Assignments
• Working with Grades
• Time to Review

Day 2 AM/PM

• Working with Final Grades
• Analyzing Performance
• Viewing Individual Student Performance
• Analyzing Class Progress
• Emailing and Asset Tracking
• Running PowerTeacher Pro Reports

Track 2: PowerSchool SIS Admin, Beyond The Basics

The second track is for teachers and administrators who are already familiar with the basics of PowerSchool Admin but want to take their skills to the next level. The topics we’ll cover are best for schools that make frequent use of the customization and reporting features within PowerSchool.

Day 1 AM: Focuses on PowerSchool Reports

• Introducing System Reports
• The Purpose and Usefulness of Running Common Attendance Reports
• Running the Average Daily Attendance Report
• Running the Average Daily Membership Report
• Running the Absentee Report
• Running the Consecutive Absences Report
• Creating a Form Letter
• Creating a Class Roster

Day 1 PM: Customization Options

• Custom Page and Management (Creating a Custom Page, Utilizing Custom Pages to Store and Locate Data specific to your School)
• Custom Fields (Creating Custom Fields for your School’s specific Data Storing Needs)
• Helpful Plugins (How to search for them and install them in your PS Instance)

Day 2 AM: Object Reports

• Introducing Object Reports
• Explore the Purpose and Usefulness of Creating Object Reports
• Data that can be Pulled into Object Reports.
• Adding Lines, Boxes, Text, Logos and more to Object Reports.
• Commonly Created Object Reports (etc. Custom Report Cards, Transcripts, Class Lists).
• Receive Beginners’ Tips and Tricks for Object Report Creation
• Practice Creating Object Report(s) yourself
• Exporting and Importing Object Reports
• Opportunity to Import the Object Report(s) you have created during the Session into Your Own PowerSchool SIS

Day 2 PM: Exporting and Importing Data

• Export Templates
• Using the Data Export Manager and Data Import Manager
• Creating Import and Export Templates
• Using imports and exports to update your data
• Explore some helpful data templates

Track 3: Clean Data & State Reporting Prep

The third track is all about data. We know that data has become an essential part of monitoring and optimizing educational performance. But managing data can be a challenge, especially in the chaos of school operations. This track will give you the tools you need to keep your data clean and organized so that you can make the most of it for your own initiatives as well as state reporting requirements.

Day 1 AM: Managing Data Efficiently

• Verifying Student Data (exploring where the data lives in the State/Province tabs)
• Exploring helpful field names for searching, updating, and exporting key data (Using the View Field List feature for State Reporting and other student fields)
• How to put together a specific search string using PowerSchool field names
• Using Student Field Value
• Quick Exports (What they are, how to run them, and why they are valuable)
• Hands-on Practice using search fields in PowerSchool

Day 1 PM: Exporting Your Data

• Using Stored Searches, Stored Selections and Export Templates to use again and again!
• Hands on activities using these PowerSchool functions (including creating an export template to download and use in your own SIS after the event)

Day 2 AM: Creating Reports

• Requesting UIC Numbers
• Pulling XML Reports from PowerSchool (General Collections, SRM)
• Using System Reports to help review student attendance, enrollment and schedules, etc.

Day 2 PM: Working with the CRDC

• CRDC (What is it? What’s the point? What do I have to do?)
• Preview a sample CRDC Report from PowerSchool
• Prepping PowerSchool at the School and District levels to run the CRDC Report successfully
• Running Validation Reports

Book Your Seat Now

Detroit’s PowerSchool Summit starts next week and there are only a few seats left. We encourage every school or district using PowerSchool to send at least one teacher or administrator to take advantage of this unique, local opportunity. Hands-on training is the essential ingredient in mastering any new skill, so we created the Detroit PowerSchool Summit to help your staff work smarter, not harder. Are you ready to take your PowerSchool skills to the next level? Register to save your seat today!