ND Spring PowerSchool User Group Meeting

Using Excel in Your PowerSchool

David Sherwin Bismarck School District Some information taken from the PowerSchool Import and Export User Guide

PowerSchool Data Mining PowerSchool can be used to export large amounts of data from various tables in DDE. With relational codes, data can be exported from various tables such as the Students, Attendance, Current Course and others and be opened with Excel to be analyzed using PivotTables and other functions of Excel.

A PivotTable report is an interactive table that can be used to quickly summarize large amounts of data. You can rotate its rows and columns to see different summaries of the source data, filter the data by displaying different pages, or display the details for areas of interest. What is (DDE) - Direct Export PowerSchool data is stored as records in various tables of a relational database. Each table contains an unlimited number of records with specific fields for each table. When you use (DDE), you directly access records from one of the many tables in the relational database. On the Direct Database Export (DDE) page you can search and match data in all of the internal tables on your PowerSchool server. Then create an export file or report that contains records from the tables and relational records. When you export data from (DDE), the system creates an independent export file that you can open or update using any application you want. The most common application used is a , to view or organize the records. Note: Depending on your security settings, you may not be able to perform all functions.

PowerSchool Tables PowerSchool relational Attendance---[157] Period---[138] Sections---[003] Attendance_Code---[156] PGAssignments---[092] SpEnrollments---[041] Attendance_Conversion---[131] PGCategories---[094] Standards---[053] Attendance_Conversion_Items---[132] PGCommentBank---[097] StandardsGrades---[099] Attendance_Taken---[172] PGFinalGrades---[095] StoredGrades---[031] Audit_Log---[170] PhoneLog---[027] Students---[001] BulletinItems---[026] ReEnrollments---[018] StudentTest---[087] CC---[004] RegistReq---[056] StudentTestScore---[089] ClassRank---[015] Room---[139] Teachers---[005] Courses---[002] ScheduleCC---[111] Terms---[013] DBLog---[020] ScheduleCourseCatalogs---[107] Test---[086] Gen---[006] ScheduleRequests---[082] TestScore---[088] Log---[008] ScheduleSections---[112] Truancies---[042] Logins---[016] School_Course---[153] WebAsmt---[124] Schools---[039]

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What are PivotTables PivotTables basically allow you to pivot your data via drag-and-drop to produce meaningful information. This makes Pivot Tables interactive in that once the table is complete you can very easily see what effect moving (or pivoting) your data has on your information. This will become clear once you give Pivot Tables a go. No matter how experienced you get at Pivot Tables there will always be an element of trial-and- error involved in producing the desired results! What this means is you will find yourself pivoting your table a lot!

Why use PivotTables You would use a Pivot Table to produce meaningful information from a table of information. Imagine you have a table of data that contains student names, grade levels, courses, grades, GPA, teachers, period and attendance etc… With a Pivot Table you could very easily and quickly find out: • How many students are enrolled in various courses • The letter grade distribution by grade level • A count of students absences by category • See the students’ performance by course of a particular ethnicity • Locate errors in current data In fact the list can go on and on!

What is the Advantage Perhaps the biggest advantage to using Pivot Tables is the fact that you can generate and extract meaningful information from a large table of information within a matter of minutes. In a lot of cases you could get the same results from a table of data by using Excels built in functions, but this would take more time. On top of this, if you wanted some new information you can simply drag-and-drop (pivot). You can also opt to have your information update each time you open the Workbook and/or by clicking refresh.

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How to Select Records for Exporting Select all records in a selected table, or search for specific records in a table.

The following table explains the data to enter search information in the fields: Field Description Current Table Choose the table from which you want to export records from the pop-up menu. Current Records in Selection: To indicate the records to use in the export, do one of the all [x] records in this table following: • Click "Select all [number of] records in this table" to use all records. or limit the export by searching • Or limit the export by identifying search criteria in the Search Students fields on the DDE export page by continuing to the next step. Note: Use the second search field on the Direct Database Export page to narrow the search results even further. Select all Selects all the records in this table Search Students 1) Choose a field from the first pop-up menu. 2) Choose an operator from the second pop-up menu: * Equals (=) * Less than (<) * Greater than (>) * Less than or equal to (<=) * Greater than or equal to (>=) * Does not equal (#) * Contains (contains) * Does not contain (!Contain) 3) Enter the value for the field in the last field. Search only in records Select this checkbox to filter your school's records in the belonging to [school name] search. Search all Searches all the records in this table Search within Searches only the current records in selection

Search Tips Know your data!!!! TERM CODE YEAR CODE ENR OLL FY 1600 02-03 12 -2 Inactive StudentID is found on Teacher S1 1601 03-04 13 -1 Pre-Reg Comment Page S2 1602 04-05 14 0 Active Q1 1603 05-06 15 1 Inactive SectionID is found Edit Sections Q2 1604 06-07 16 2 Trans Out Q3 1605 07-08 17 3 Grad Q4 1606

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The table on the previous page explains the different fields used to select records.

1. On the start page, choose System from the main menu. 2. Click Direct Database Export. The Direct Database Export (DDE) page appears.

3. Select the table to search

4. Select all records OR narrow the selection with search criteria: • Choose a field to search • Choose an operation • Enter a field value

5. Click • Search all [all # records in this table] OR - if refining a second search • Search within the current [# of selected] records only Note: You can also limit the export to records for all schools on your system or just one school.

The Direct Database Export (DDE) page displays the new number of current records in selection.

6. Click Table View to make sure you selected the records are the ones you want to export.

The List Records: [Table name] page appears with the records in a table format.

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How to View Selected Records from DDE Table View The List Records: [Table name] page appears with the records in a table format.

Check the Table View to see if it is the list you want to export. The three examples on the right display the different sort options that can be use to examine a student list.

The first list is sorted alphabetically by students’ lastfirst.

The second list example shows how the records are sorted when you click on Enroll Status. The records are sorted numerically from lowest to highest. Notice that there are Sorted by Enroll Status a couple of records with negative

The last example shows how the records are sorted when you click on Grade Level.

If the records are not the ones you want to export, go back to Direct Database Export (DDE) page, by clicking on (Direct Database Export (DDE)) link from the breadcrumbs link Start Page > System Administrator > Direct Database Export (DDE) > List Records: Students Sorted by Grade Level As in the middle example, if you did not want the students who have transferred out of school you would go back to step 3 and do another search to limit the records you want. This time you would add the search criteria for enroll status greater or equal (>=) to zero and find all the records of students currently enrolled to export and then start with step 6 to export. If the records are the ones you want to export continue on with step 6.

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How to Format the DDE Table View 1. On the start page, choose System from the main menu. 2. Click Direct Database Export. The Direct Database Export (DDE) page appears.

3. Click Table View Setup.

The DDA/DDE Table View Setup page appears.

4. Use the table below to enter information in the fields:

5. Click Submit.

The Direct Database Export (DDE) page appears.

Field Description Maximum number of Enter the maximum number of records you want to appear on each page records per page of the table. Maximum number of Enter the maximum number of fields you want the table to display. fields per table Maximum number of Enter the maximum number of characters each field in the table can character per field display. Use font tag Select this checkbox to apply font formats. Otherwise, deselect this checkbox. Format data Select this checkbox if you want the system to format the data within the table. Otherwise, deselect this checkbox. Use Gridlines Select this checkbox if you want the table to separate each field of data with gridlines. Otherwise, deselect this checkbox. Alternate colors Select this checkbox if you want the table to display each row of data in a different color. Otherwise, deselect this checkbox. Use Cell padding Enter a number to indicate how much padding you want each cell of the table to contain around the text. Most users enter a number between 1 – 3

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How to Export Selected Records from DDE The following table explains the data to enter search information in the fields: Field Description Fields Use the pop-up menu to choose the fields from which you want to export a copy of the data. After you choose each field, the system inserts the field name in the text box. Enter as many fields as needed. Only one field per line. Separate multiple fields with a hard return. To include fields from another table, manually enter the name of the table in brackets, then the field name in the field box. For example, to export fields from the Sections table and include teachers' names, enter [teachers]lastfirst. Field Delimiter Use the pop-up menu to choose how you want the system to separate each field in the export file: • Tab • Comma • None • Other: Enter the delimiter in the blank field. Record Delimiter Use the pop-up menu to choose how you want the system to separate each record in the export file: • CR: Carriage return • CRLF: Carriage return and line feed • LF: Line feed • Other: Enter the delimiter in the blank field. Surround Fields Select this checkbox if you want the system to surround each field with quotation marks in the export file. Otherwise, deselect this checkbox. Column titles on Select this checkbox if you want the first row of the export 1st row file to have column titles indicating the fields included in each column. Otherwise, deselect this checkbox. Sorting Records Determine the order of the records in the export file. Define a primary, secondary, and tertiary sort. In the first field in the Sort Field Name column, enter the field name by which you want to primarily sort the records in the file. Then, select one of the following to determine if you want to sort records by this field in ascending or descending order: * < (descending) * > (ascending)

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Get back to Direct Database Export (DDE) page, click on (Direct Database Export (DDE)) link from the breadcrumbs link Start Page > System Administrator > Direct Database Export (DDE) > List Records: Students

1. Verify the “Current Records in Selection: [# of selected] is the group you want to export.

2. Click Export Records. The Export Record page appears.

3. Select records to export • Use the pop-up menu to choose the The Export Record page appears. fields from which you want to export a copy of the data • To include fields from another table, manually enter the name of the table in brackets, then the field name in the field box 4. Then select Delimiters • Separate each field with Tab • Separate each record with CR

5. Click Submit. . For FireFox browser users, the results of the export appear in Excel if the setup is complete.

. For Safari browsers users, the results of the export appear in the browser window. You will have to copy and paste into Excel

. For Windows users with Internet Explorer browser, continue to the next step. • Choose File > Save As.... • In the Save dialog, specify a name, location, and file type • Click Save. Open the file using a spreadsheet or other application • NOTE: there are instructions to automate this process

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Export Code Shortcuts The problem with exporting from PowerSchool is typing out all the export codes in the export window. If you type a code incorrectly, the export retrieves blank data or you may even get an error. To make this process easier use the Excel Workbook (ND06_PSUG_ExportCodes.xls) with all the export codes organized by tables. Included are the relational codes so you can copy and paste the codes into PowerSchool and get the data you need. You will need to switch between two applications to do this process.

In the ND06 PSUG ExportCodes Excel workbook there are tabs on the bottom that relate to the Tables in PowerSchool. In this example you can see we have selected the CC worksheet.

You can organize the export codes that you want to export from PowerSchool CC table in the space available. Once the export codes are organized, you copy the codes from the Excel Worksheet and paste them in the PowerSchool Export Records. Click - submit to run the export. The export opens as a (student.export-##.text) which is text tab Excel worksheet. The header column is listed as the same as the export codes so it is recommended that you change the header column to title that relate to the data. In the example each column header has the export code [Table]Field_Name which you would change to Student.

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Elements of PivotTable Reports The top example shows actual source data exported from PowerSchool. This data is valuable but difficult to Example of a PivotTable in an Excel Worksheet analyze in the list layout. The (Page Field) (Row Fields) (Column Field) (Data Field) PivotTable in an Excel Worksheet in the middle example shows how the data can be organized in friendly format. While the bottom example shows how the PivotTable Wizard for the layout was set to get the results.

Page fields: A field that can be used as a filter. In the example, Term is a page field that you can use to filter the report by S1 or S2. With the Term field, you can summarize data for only Semester 1, for only Semester 2, or for both (show all) Terms. When you click a different item in a page field, the entire PivotTable report changes to display only the summarized data associated with that item.

Row fields: Fields from the data that are assigned a row orientation in a PivotTable report. In the example, Teacher, Period, Course and Gender are row fields. A PivotTable report that has more than one row field has one inner row field (Gender, in the Example of PivotTable Wizard - Layout example), the one closest to the data area. Any other (Page Field) (Row Fields) (Column Field) (Data Field) row fields are known as outer row fields. Items in the outermost field are displayed only once, but items in the rest of the fields are repeated as needed.

Column field: A field that's assigned a column orientation in a PivotTable report. In the example, Grade is a column field with three items, 10, 11, and 12. A PivotTable report can have multiple column fields just as it can have multiple row fields.

Data area The part of a PivotTable report that contains summary data. The cells of the data area show summarized data for the items in the row and column fields. Each value in the data area represents a summary of data from the source records, or rows. In the example, Count is the data field student that summarizes the counts of students if you look at the value in cell E12 is a count of female students in Andy Worhoff 3rd period Art I class. PivotTable are usually in an indented-format report, which shows the totals for each item.

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Create a PivotTables in Excel PivotTables are an analytical tool that summarizes information from particular fields of an Excel list. When you create a PivotTable, you specify which fields you’re interested in, how you want the table organized, and what kinds of calculations you want the table to perform. After you have built the table, you can rearrange it to view your data from alternative perspectives.

To create a PivotTable, begin by selecting any cell within the list from which you want to create your table. Then choose the PivotTable command from the Excel Data menu. This action summons the PivotTable Wizard. NOTE: The PivotTable palette is found under the menu Views -> Toolbars..

Step 1 of 3: Specify the Type of Data Source The wizard’s initial dialog box appears

Make sure for “Where is the data that you want to analyze?” that you have selected list or database.

Click once on Next

Step 2 of 3: Indicate the Location of Your Source Data The wizard’s second dialog box appears

The Wizard already knows the location of your data and merely asks you to confirm it.

Click once on Next

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Step 3 of 3: Telling the Wizard Where to Put Your PivotTable The wizard’s last dialog box appears

To put the table on a new worksheet (always a safe choice), select the New Worksheet option.

Before clicking Finish, Click on Layout and construct your PivotTable

Laying Out the PivotTable The PivotTable Wizard – Layout window opens for you to organize the data you want to display 1. Click and drag the field button you want calculated from the Wizard to DATA area. This example shows the field button Student that is text data so we are just going to count the number. 2. Double click the field button to access the PivotTable Field window to change the calculation and formatting. This example shows that we changed the name to Count. 3. Drag the field buttons that you want to display across columns to the columns area on top. This example shows the field button Grade. 4. Drag the field buttons that you want to organize and display across row to the row area to the left of DATA. This example shows the field buttons Teacher – Period – Course - Gender. 5. Drag the field button that you want to use as page fields drag to the page area to filter the summarized in the data area. 6. When completed with the layout organization click OK.

Changing Calculations Microsoft Excel summarizes text data in PivotTable reports by using the Count summary function and summarizes numeric data by using Sum. So if you would use numeric data you can then use the other calculations options listed with the PivotTable Field popup menu. These features are used more for test scores, enrollment numbers and attendance data to summarize the data that fits your need.

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Change PivotTable layout by dragging a field First make a copy of the PivotTable that you want to modify. That way when you do not have to recreate the original PivotTable. There are two ways one is just to copy and paste while the other is to control click on the tab on the bottom and create a copy of the PivotTable. 1. To move an item so that the items in a field appear in a different order, • Click the item label (example Course) • When the pointer becomes a hand drag the cell to a new position.(example in front of Teacher) • The new position is indicated by a shaded I bar • Release click and the PivotTable adjusts to a new summary

2. To create a page field, • drag the field to the page field area, above the upper- left cell of the PivotTable report. (Example shows the fields Gender and Period were both dragged to the page area) • if you like you could remove a page, row, or column field, drag the field button out of the PivotTable report.

3. To calculate or hide a summarized total for an item • Control click on the field (Example Course) • Select “Field Settings” from the popup menu • From the Subtotals select the option you want • Click OK and the totals will be calculated or hide

4. Display the top items for a PivotTable Field • Double-click the field you want to show (Example show top 10 Courses) • In the PivotTable Field dialogue box, click advanced • Under AutoShow options click Automatic • On the show popup menu click Top or Bottom and number you want to display click OK

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Screen Shots examples of organizing PSsis Data with Excel Pivot Tables. This example shows the MIS 03 – Licensed Personnel Record for ND ORS reporting

The Export Codes for the PowerSchool [CC] table:

The PivotTable Layout: Page Fields: • Term

Row Fields: • Teacher • Period • Course • Gender Note: SubTotals=None

Column Fields: • Grade

Data Field: Used Student Field Summarized by Count

The Results in a Pivot Table: Color formatted for easier reading

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Screen Shots examples of organizing PSsis Data with Excel Pivot Tables. This example shows the Proficiency Categories for NDSA Math Standards with page views by Ethnicity, SES and Gender –

The Export Codes for the PowerSchool [Students TestScores] table:

The PivotTable Layout: Page Fields: • Ethnicity • Gender • Lunch Status

Row Fields: • Test Score Description

Column Fields: • Alpha Score

Data Field: Used Gender - Summarized by Count with the Option of show data as: % of row

The Results in a Pivot Table: Example shows an interactive Chart created from a Pivot Table

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Screen Shots examples of organizing PSsis Data with Excel Pivot Tables. This example shows the letter grade distribution for different schools with page views by Ethnicity, SES and Absences –

The Export Codes for the PowerSchool [StoredGrades] table:

The PivotTable Layout: Page Fields: • Lunch Status • Grade Level • Absence Group (created separately) • Store Code • Ethnicity

Row Fields: • SchoolName

Column Fields: • Grades

Data Field: Used Grade Field Summarized by Count with the option to show data as: % of row

The Results in a Pivot Table: The Results in a Pivot Table:

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Screen Shots examples of organizing PSsis Data with Excel Pivot Tables. This example shows teacher work loads for different school terms

The Export Codes for the PowerSchool [Sections] table:

The PivotTable Layout: Page Fields: • TermID

Row Fields: • Teacher • Course Name

Column Fields: • Grades

Data Field: Used No Of Students Summarized by Sum

The Results in a Pivot Table:

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Screen Shots examples of organizing PSsis Data with Excel Pivot Tables. This example shows the Tardy by Period for with page views by Year –

The Export Codes for the PowerSchool [Students TestScores] table:

The PivotTable Layout: Page Fields: • School • YearID • Presence Status CD

Row Fields: • Period Abbreviation

Column Fields: • Att Code • Gender

Data Field: Used Gender - Summarized by Count with the Option of show data as: % of column

The Results in a Pivot Table: Example shows an interactive Chart created from a Pivot Table

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Screen Shots examples of organizing PSsis Data with Excel Pivot Tables. This example shows the Compares 3 Years of English GPA to Overall GPA by school, or by other attributes (ex SES, Ethnicity, or Gender)

The Export Codes for the PowerSchool Quick Export:

The PivotTable Layout: Page Fields: • LunchStatus (SES) • Ethnicity • Gender

Row Fields: • Blank

Column Fields: • School • to be interchanged with other page fields

Data Field: Used GPAs and did the average calculation for each field

The Results in a Pivot Table: Example shows an interactive Chart created from a Pivot Table

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