PowerSchool

Parents of students in grades 6-12 can get their logins and passwords starting December 17th, 2007 from the office where their student is enrolled.

PowerSchool is a typical student information system in that it allows us to manage a wide range of information, including the following: grades, attendance, tests, demographics, activities, courses, and photos. Because the program has been designed using Internet-based software tools, it also allows us to connect parents and students to information. We hope the powerful communications features of the program are helpful to parents and to students who are striving to learn and exceed their dreams.

Attendance is posted by teachers and by the office. All teachers assign and post grades to PowerSchool at different times. Some may give grades to their students’ everyday and some may give far fewer grades during the trimester. This is up to each teacher and depends upon their grading system. If you do not see grades in PowerSchool for some teachers but not others, this is a normal function of the way teachers assign and post grades. As always you may contact teachers by e-mail or request a phone call or meeting at any time.

Many teachers use categories such as tests, quizzes, daily work to organize and give different weights to grades; how they weight them is an individual decision. Teachers share with students how they grade at the beginning of each course. As always you may contact teachers by e-mail or request a phone call or meeting at any time.

There are many factors that determine how soon a teacher can assess and return assignments. Essays and research papers take longer to grade than a quiz. Coaching, club sponsorships, and family commitments can also affect turnaround time, as well as a teacher's student load. All teachers do their best to grade their students and communicate their progress in a timely manner. In most instances, grades will be updated at least once per week.

At the High School and Middle School levels, except for teachers who instruct in multiple classrooms, in gyms, or outdoors, faculty do their best to record attendance by the end of every period. At the elementary schools, attendance is done first thing in the morning and once in the afternoon.

The attendance office also enters a wide range of attendance codes, as they receive information from parents.

Yes. Grading scales are common among teachers and among classes in the same building. At the high school for college level classes, the IWCC grading scale is used. All teachers share their grading scales as well as other class policy information with their students at the beginning of each course.

Parents and students can access the following information on the PowerSchool public site: http://powerschool.lewiscentral.k12.ia.us

• Grades for current classes, as well as the assignments that make up those grades
• Attendance for the past two weeks or for the whole trimester, including a legend of attendance codes used by the school
• Teacher comments
• Reports via Email, which allow parents to request daily, weekly, or monthly reports to be sent via email
• Other features - Online Course Registration

As long as you protect your password, others will not be able to see your information.

When students and parents access the PowerSchool server, they see the same information with one exception; parents have the ability to request automatic progress reports via email.

The school will provide this during enrollment or you can contact the buildings to get on.

You will have to come to the office to reapply for your password. Remember as in the initial sign up you will need to bring photo ID.

It depends on the browser you are using and the platform and operating system of the computer you are using to access the site. If all lower case does not work, we recommend that you try the login and password with the case as shown in your letter. For some logins and passwords, it is hard to know whether to use 0 (zero) or O (capital o, the letter). We recommend that you try both. If you still can't log in, please call your child’s building.

Users need the following to connect:

• A computer with a connection to the Internet
• The latest two versions for Firefox, Chrome, or Safari, Microsoft Edge, or Internet Explorer 11.0
• A login and password, to be supplied by the school

It is not possible for you to change your password. Keep it confidential. You should treat it as you would an ATM card or credit card.

They are labels for different types of grades and terms and are sometimes specific to schools. Generally T1, T2 and T3 represent final grades for Trimesters 1, 2 and 3. E1 represents Final Exam for Trimester 1 and C1 represents the classwork grade for Trimester 1. You will find that the codes are very intuitive and easy to understand.

This section will explain how you access current grades, attendance, and class information from PowerSchool.

Once you've logged into PowerSchool, you will see a menu bar at the top of the page. On this screen, you also will find a complete listing of all your student's courses, teachers, grades and attendance information.

By clicking on the teacher's name, you can send an email to your child's teacher. Remember your computer must be set up to send e-mails from your browser. Contact your own Internet service provider for help with this feature.

The blue links give you more information about your student. If you click on any of these links, it will take you to another screen that displays a list of individual assignments, projects, or class information. Click on those underlined items to find out the details for the assignment.

The date at the bottom of the screen shows you the last time the information was updated.

To return to the first screen, simply click on the Grades and Attendance button at the top of the page.

The Grades and Attendance screen also shows when your student was tardy or absent. Click on the numbers in blue to find out the days and classes in which your son or daughter was late or absent.

You can also look at the grades your student earned earlier this school year. Simply click on the icon marked Grades History for a complete listing of student grades from the current school year.

Click the Attendance History button to see your child’s attendance record. On days when school isn't in session, a dash will appear. For a complete listing of all attendance codes, scroll to the bottom of the screen (for detailed attendance information).

You can receive automatic email updates and send emails to your child's teacher(s). After you've logged into PowerSchool, click on the Email Notification button.

To receive automatic email updates from the school, check off the information that you'd like to receive about your son or daughter, how often you'd like to receive it, and whether you want that information sent to you immediately (please note that we do not use PowerSchool to track lunch or fee balances of any type, so do not check Balance Alert). Be sure to include the email address where you'd like the information sent and press the blue Submit button.

To stop receiving these automatic updates, simply unclick the boxes and press Submit.

You can email teachers from the Grades and Attendance screen or from the Teachers Comments screen (click the Teacher Comments button). From time to time, teachers may include remarks about your child. To respond to any teacher, simply click on his or her name.

Remember your computer must be set up to send emails from your browser. Contact your own Internet service provider for help with this feature. Since teachers work with a large number of students, they may not respond right away, so please be patient. They'll get in touch with you as soon as they can.

The Lewis Central Schools uses online Class Registration during the Spring trimester. You can view your current course requests and even submit course requests for the following year when the window for registration is officially opened by administration.