1. PowerSchool for Parents
Accessing and Interpreting
Your Student’s online report
Greetings!, and welcome to this updated version of how to access and interpret your student’s online report. This video is intended to add supplemental information to our first video which covered some basic functions of updates that were made to the PowerSchool Parent Portal.

2. PowerSchool for Parents
4. Explore ways to effectively communicate with teachers regarding your student’s progress
3. Find out how to access information on your student’s overall and daily progress
2. Learn how “Standard Final Scores” are calculated.
1. Learn about standards hierarchy and how to recognize it in your student’s report
In this video you will
Learn about the standards hierarchy, and how to recognize it in your student’s report
Learn how “Standard Final Scores” are calculated
Find out how to access information on your student’s overall and daily progress
Explore ways to effectively communication with teachers regarding your student’s progress

3. How do I log-in to my Powerschool account? Simple as 1-2-3
First, let’s take a moment to review How to access your student’s online report.

4. navigate to www.bismarckschools.org1 2 3
2. Select the blue button for Parent/Student PowerSchool
3. Use your log-in information to sign in
You can access your student’s online report from any browser by:
Navigating to
Selecting the blue “Parent/Student” PowerSchool Icon
Using your login information to sign in

5. What are Standards (and how do they work?)
Before we look closely at a student report, let’s learn a little about how standards help us to organize all of the learning that is necessary in order help our students be choice ready for a career, college and community involvement at graduation.

6. The Standards “Hierarchy”
[Domain]
(Standards)
Educational standards are the learning goals for what students should know and be able to do at each grade level.
They are organized from big ideas (sometimes called “Domains” or “Strands”) to smaller ideas (called “sub- standards” or “benchmarks”)
Some Standards have “sub-standards” and others don’t.
sub-standards
Put Simply, standards are a list of all the skills, abilities, and understandings that our students need in order to be career, college, and community ready at graduation, however, not all “standards” on your student’s report are the same.
In a standards-based system all the learning in a particular subject is organized into groups of big ideas – sometimes called Domains, Strands, or Clusters
Each of these Domains contain understandings, skills and abilities relative to that topic – these are commonly referred to as “Standards”
When a particular standard encompasses multiple skills and abilities, it might be further broken down into “sub-standards” or “benchmarks” in order to help us better organize learning and track growth towards proficiency – Some standards have sub-standards and other standards don’t’.

7. The Standards “Hierarchy”
[Domain]
The Standards
“Hierarchy”
(Standard)
(Standard)
Take a look at your Standards Grades in Powerschool...
Domains are in [brackets]
Standards are in (parenthesis)
Sub-Standards have no brackets or parenthesis
(Standard)
Sub-Standard
[Domain]
(Standard)
Sub-Standard
Can you “see” the hierarchy?
(Standard)
Lets apply our understanding of the standards hierarchy to a list of standards on the student report.
When you view your student’s online report, you might see a List of standards that looks similar to this. You can use the standard identifier at the beginning of each row to help you discern the standards hierarchy.
The Big ideas, or Domains have brackets around the identifiers
The standards, or the specific understandings within that domain have parenthesis around the identifiers
When standards have sub-standards, these are listed below the standard with no identifiers
Take a look at the second domain listed here – how many standards and sub-standards do you see?
Sub-Standard

8. How do Standard scores calculate?
Now, let’s look at how the standards hierarchy forms a calculation chain that helps us to get a clearer picture of what our students skills, abilities and understandings are at each level of the standards hierarchy.

9. “Calculation Parents”
[Domain]
“Calculation
Parents”
(Standard)
(Standard)
Standards calculate up to create Domain scores
(Standard)
Sub-Standard
Sub-Standards calculate up to create Standard scores (where appropriate)
Teachers work with your students on specific skills and understandings, and enter scores in the gradebook that report their current ability level in relation to each standard or sub-standard.
Where appropriate, scores on sub-standards calculate up into standard scores, and standard scores calculate into domain scores. This hierarchy of scores helps teachers and students to more accurately determine where our students are proficient, and where more attention is required to help our students reach proficiency.

10. Grades and Attendance vs. Standards grades (What’s the difference?)
Now that we understand the Standards hierarchy, let’s take a closer look at a student report. In this section we’ll explore the connection between the “grades and attendance” and “standards” grades tabs

11. Use the “Standards Grades” Tab to track overall progress.
Use the “Grades and Attendance” Tab to track Day-to-Day progress.
What you will see:
Assignment Due Date
Assignment Category
Assignment Name
Standards that are linked to each assignment
What you might see:
Indicator Symbols for:
Standard Score
What you will see:
List of All standards that you’ve been scored on
Your overall standard score for each term
Q1, Q2, S1, Q3, Q4, S2, Y1
What you can see if you click:
If you click on a standard you can see
“I can” statements
Proficiency Scale
Resources for more practice/information
If you click on a score you can see
All assignment scores for that standard
Calculation method being used
Your student’s online report is broken up into two different tabs. Each one gives information that is useful in discerning our student’s progress towards proficiency.
Use the “Grades and Attendance” tab to track day-to-day progress
On this tab you will see basic information about your student’s daily work including Assignments, their due-dates, and the standards that they address.
This page will also contain indicators or flags that your teacher may have added to give you more information on the current status of a particular piece of student work. Wherever you see the blue comment dot, be sure to click on it to see information that the teacher has added that is specific to your student.
Use the “Standards Grades” tab to track overall progress
On this tab you’ll see a hierarchical list of all the standards that your student has received scores for, and his/her overall score for those standards broken down by term.
In addition, you can click on standards and scores to get more information regarding student proficiency for the standard, and how the score for that standard is calculated.

12. Click the “Standards Grades” tab to see your current
“Final Standard Scores”
For each term
Final Standard Score = your student’s current level of proficiency in each standard (within a given term)
“- - “ = the student wasn’t assessed on this standard during this term.
Let’s start by taking a look at the big picture: Click on the Standards Grades tab to access the listing of standards your student has received scores for in each class.
The scores on this page represent your student’s current level of proficiency on each standard in any given term.
Dashes are used to indicate that a particular standard wasn’t assessed during the reporting term.

13. Standards calculate up to create Domain scores
Sub-Standards calculate up to create Standard scores (where appropriate)
*REMEMBER* understanding the standards hierarchy can help us to understand how each score represents student proficiency at each “level” of the standards
In this example, the two sub-standards indicated in green calculate up to the standard above them (EE.07); That standard, in turn is combined with (EE.06) to yield the domain score for Expressions and Equations in Semester 1

14. [Domain] [Domain] How do Terms work?
The term columns on the standards report help us to understand when the learning happened?
By finding the Domains, I can get an idea of what big ideas have been covered so far this year – Looks like students in 8th grade math are learning about Expressions and Equations, and Geometry
If I look at the Expressions and Equations domain for Q1, I can see that the work was focused on Solving linear equations in one variable, and that there are two sub-standards that the students were directly assessed on.
In Q2, I see that the focus shifted to the concept of Slope
It then follows that the S1 score encompasses all of the learning from Q1 and Q2
So even though the student had a “2” for the Expressions and Equations domain for Q1 and Q2, the learning that was represented was different. These levels of information are helpful in determining where students need extra support and practice.

15. Clicking on a score will give you more information.
Clicking on a calculated score reminds you that it is derived from standards and sub-standards beneath it.
Clicking on a standard or sub-standard score will give more detailed information on how that score was derived from daily work and assessments.
By clicking on a score, you can tell whether the score was calculated from standards beneath it, or whether that score is the result of direct assessments by a teacher.
Clicking on a calculated score (like this domain score) will remind me that it is derived from the standards and sub-standards beneath it.
Clicking on a standard or sub-standard score will yield more detailed information on how that score was derived from daily work and assessments.

16. Can you figure out how this score was calculated?
What you can see if you click on a score:
All assignment scores for that standard
Calculation method being used
Chronological trend of student scores
Can you figure out how this score was calculated?
Clicking on a standard or sub-standard score will show you how many times your student has received a score for that standard, the assignment names and due dates, and the calculation method being used to generate the final standard score.
In this case, I can see that the current score on this standard is being generated by equally weighting the 3 most recent scores on this standard.
Whenever you see assignments with no standard score, the teacher is communicating that students did work in relation to that standard and received formative feedback.
Take a look at this report: How was this standard score calculated?

17. Standards that are linked to each assignment
What you will see:
Assignment Due Date
Assignment Category
Assignment Name
Standards that are linked to each assignment
What you might see:
Indicator Symbols for:
Standard Score
Now, Let’s take a look at the Grades and Attendance tab. The information on this tab is intended to help you track your students day-to-day progress.
Remember that teachers in our schools are collecting and reporting on student progress relating to specific standards. As such, there is no overall report.  Please click on the blue dashes in the appropriate term to see more detailed information regarding your student’s progress.
The resulting view will be a chronological list of Assignments, Assessments, or checkpoints that your student’s teacher is using to track progress.
From this screen you’ll be able to see the current state of your students work as well as any standard scores that were generated as a result of that work.
Whenever available, be sure to click on Assignment names and the blue comment button to get extra information regarding student expectations and progress.

18. Click on Standards to see learning targets, proficiency scales and resources
Remember, whether you are on the “Standards Grades” tab, or the “Grades and Attendance” tab, you can click on standards and sub-standards to get more information.

19. Standard Information If you click on a standard you can see:
“I can” statements
Proficiency Scale
Resources for more practice/information
Clicking on Standards and substandards will give you access to Student Learning Targets, Proficiency Scales, and additional Resources. This information is one of the ways that teachers communicate student expectations, and can be useful for students and parents in identifying ways to improve scores.

20. Communicating with your student’s teachers
Helping your student reach proficiency
Once you’ve familiarized yourself with your teacher’s expectations for proficiency, asking meaningful questions can help you to identify clear steps to help your student to proficiency.

21. Questions to Ask your Student:
Which standards do you need to practice more?
When is your next assessment opportunity?
What will you do to practice before the next assessment?
Questions to Ask your Teacher:
When will my student be assessed next?
What is your re-assessment policy?
You can use the questions on this page to start useful conversations with your student and teachers.

22. PowerSchool for Parents
Accessing and Interpreting
Your Student’s online report
We hope that this presentation will be helpful as you track and encourage your student’s progress towards proficiency. Remember, whenever you have questions about your student’s progress report, you can always contact your teachers for more information.