ND Spring PowerSchool User Group Meeting Using Excel in Data Mining 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 Database 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 spreadsheet, 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 databases 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] 2 ND Spring PowerSchool Users Group Meeting Mining Your Data from PowerSchool 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. 3 ND Spring PowerSchool Users Group Meeting Mining Your Data from PowerSchool 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 4 ND Spring PowerSchool Users Group Meeting Mining Your Data from PowerSchool 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. 5 ND Spring PowerSchool Users Group Meeting Mining Your Data from PowerSchool 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 numbers 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. 6 ND Spring PowerSchool Users Group Meeting Mining Your Data from PowerSchool 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.