Power School FAQs

PowerSchool provides a wonderful resource for students and parents, as it allows easy access to clear and timely grading information. Teachers will be updating grade information on a regular basis (on average at least every two weeks). It is essential that individual scores not become the focus of daily discussion or a conduit for micromanagement of the learning process. Instead, individual scores are but a piece of the more important big picture, in which a student's degree of consistency, level of effort, and overall pattern of performance are the focus. This will ensure a healthy perspective to the process of academic monitoring.

Use PowerSchool to monitor your child's progress in a way to look for unusual patterns/changes in grades and performance. It is important to realize that the final grade for a course is based on a number of factors, often including class participation, homework completion, assessment information, projects and performance-based activities (i.e. playing an instrument, group work, etc.) and labs.
 

Yes! You are able to view your child's assignments as soon as the teacher enters the data into his/her electronic grade book.

An assignment is anything that is recorded in the grade book for the student (homework, quiz, test, project, paper, etc.).

The way in which teachers enter scores and due dates of an assignment varies and is somewhat based on individual preference. As shown in PowerSchool, due dates could mean the following:

• A future date when the assignment will be due and/or recorded.
• The date the assignment was given.

A typical due date for a homework assignment will be posted the day before the homework assignment is due. Test assignment due dates will be multiple days before the test assignment is given.

The main purpose of the due date feature is to give you prior notice of when the assignment will be due or a test given to your child. Assignments that do not require prior notice (i.e. lab, pop quiz, etc.) will not appear until it is actually recorded in the grade book.

Please keep in mind that teachers have various methods of grading and the number of assignments given varies based on the course content an individual teaching style. For example, a math teacher may assign regular homework assignments and give a test or quiz once a week. An art teacher might base the final grade on several large projects an give little written homework. The science teacher incorporates lab work, homework, and assessment data in order to calculate a final grade. As a result, there may be a large amount of data available in PowerSchool for one of your child's classes but not for another.

This difference is probably related to the weighting applied according to the teacher's weighted grading scale in place. Tests and quizzes may be weighted differently than homework and projects. This is the teacher's preference in determining the student's level of performance in the class.

It is best that you contact your child's teacher directly, either by email or voicemail. This will result in the quickest resolution to your questions. However, it is recommended that you check your child's overall grade no less than a two week basis.
 

The following reports may be requested and automatically emailed to parents:

• Summary of current grades
• Detailed reports showing all assignment scores for each class

To set up the request for electronic reports, please see the Email Notification section button within PowerSchool.

As long as you protect your password, others will not be able to see your child's information. Each child/parent is issued a unique identification long in and password. As with any personal information (i.e. social security number), it should not be shared with other people.

The PowerSchool log on assigned to you takes you directly to one child's information. Unfortunately, we do not have a way to allow one log on to be entered, then provide you a choice for which of your children's information to display.

Please email pssupport@cathedral-irish.org or call 968-7399 for any account or password issues.