PowerSchool SIS provisioning guide

PowerSchool SIS integration overview

Schoology integrates with PowerSchool SIS to keep your schools, users, courses, and enrollments up to date. It also sends grades and assignments from Schoology back to PowerSchool SIS.

This guide covers:

• What data moves between PowerSchool SIS and Schoology

• How often data syncs

• Requirements and limitations

• How to install and configure the PowerSchool SIS app

Data sent from PowerSchool SIS to Schoology

Schoology pulls the following from PowerSchool SIS:

• School building information

• Users, both staff and students

• Grading periods and terms

• Courses, sections, and enrollments

All updates must be made in PowerSchool SIS. Changes made in Schoology do not sync back.

You may add extra users or courses directly in Schoology without affecting PowerSchool SIS. This option is helpful if you want to do cross-school enrollments, or have guest instructors, or advisors who are not in PowerSchool.

Data sent from Schoology to PowerSchool SIS

Schoology pushes the following information back to PowerSchool SIS:

• Assignments and assessments

• Grade updates

PowerSchool SIS does not send gradebook items back to Schoology. Schoology should be the system of record for grades, while PowerSchool SIS remains the master for school, user, course, and enrollment data. To provide a consistent data model for your school, all grade changes should be managed from Schoology.

Sync frequency

As a district, you may determine the frequency of updates between the two systems.

The following options are available:

• Manual - The system admin must manually sync the PowerSchool SIS app in Schoology.

• Scheduled - You can set the frequency of the automated sync of information from PowerSchool SIS to Schoology. Select Daily, unless otherwise instructed by your Schoology representative. The scheduled time determines when the sync enters the queue, not when it finishes.

Changing the sync time or running a manual sync resets the countdown to the next scheduled sync.

Requirements to implement the PowerSchool SIS app in Schoology

Your district must:

• Operate version 8.1 or higher of PowerSchool SIS (required).

• Have a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Certificate with PowerSchool SIS (required).

• Have Active Directory synced with PowerSchool SIS (highly recommended).

Limitations to the PowerSchool SIS integration

• Attendance requires a separate PowerSchool Attendance App.

• Schoology grading scales and custom categories do not sync to PowerSchool SIS.

• PowerSchool courses with multiple gradebooks cannot be updated by Schoology.

• Users assigned to multiple buildings in PowerSchool SIS create duplicate accounts in Schoology; link them manually.

Prepare for the PowerSchool SIS integration

Before you install the PowerSchool SIS app into your school or organization, complete the following items:

1. Upgrade PowerSchool SIS to version 8.1 or higher.

2. Contact PowerSchool Support to enable or implement your SSL certificate in PowerSchool SIS.

3. Consolidate accounts in PowerSchool SIS for teachers who teach in multiple buildings.

4. Ensure student emails are imported via the Data Import Manager in PowerSchool SIS if you plan to bring student emails into Schoology.

5. Ensure your directory or database is synced with PowerSchool SIS if you plan to use LDAP, Remote Authentication, or Google SSO.

6. Roll over PowerSchool SIS to the upcoming school year.

Install the Schoology plugin in PowerSchool SIS

After completing the integration preparation steps, you are ready to begin using the Schoology PowerSchool app.

If your organization is running an older version of PowerSchool (before 21.4), follow these instructions to install the PowerSchool plugin.

Steps to take in Schoology

1. Log in to your Schoology system admin account.

2. Click the app grid in the header and click App Center.

3. Find the PowerSchool SIS App and install it in your school.

Steps to take in PowerSchool SIS

1. Log in to PowerSchool SIS as an admin.

2. From Setup, click System.

3. Click System Settings.

4. Click Plugin Management Configuration.

5. Find the pre-installed Schoology SIS Adapter V2 plugin from the list and select Enable/Disable.

6. Click Enable to proceed with the installation.

7. Click the newly enabled Schoology SIS Adapter V2 plugin.

8. Click Data Provider Configuration.

9. Temporarily copy the Client ID and Client Secret.

Steps to take in Schoology

1. Navigate to the PowerSchool SIS Admin app in Schoology.

2. Paste the ID from PowerSchool SIS into the Consumer Key field.

3. Paste the Secret from PowerSchool SIS into the Consumer Secret field.

4. Copy and paste the PowerSchool SIS URL into the PowerSchool Domain field in Schoology.

5. Click Save API Credentials to verify the connection to the new plugin.

After installing the plugin for version 21.4, you will no longer need to update the plugin for future versions. The latest plugin version will automatically be installed on your PowerSchool SIS server.

If you encounter an error when saving the API credentials:

• Remove spaces before or after the Domain, Key, and Secret entries.

• Confirm you've entered the PowerSchool SIS domain URL accurately. If needed, add https:// or http:// before the domain.

• Ensure SSL is enabled in the Global Server Settings of your PowerSchool SIS instance by going to System, selecting System Settings, and then selecting Global Server Settings.

If an error persists after taking these steps, contact PowerSchool Support with your Domain, Consumer Key, and Consumer Secret.

Configure the PowerSchool SIS app in Schoology

After completing the preparation steps and the plug-in installation instructions, you can start setting up the PowerSchool SIS app in your Schoology system admin account.

Set up the following tabs in order in the PowerSchool SIS App in Schoology:

• Configuration

• Schools

• Terms

You must set up the Configuration, Schools, and Terms tabs before you can start syncing users, courses, and sections from PowerSchool to Schoology.

PowerSchool SIS Sync Timing options

Choose whether the sync between PowerSchool SIS and Schoology is manual or scheduled.

• Manual - The acting user must manually sync the PowerSchool SIS app in Schoology.

• Scheduled - This setting provisions users, courses, sections, and enrollments from PowerSchool SIS into Schoology. You may also navigate to the respective tabs in the app and manually sync users, courses, or sections and enrollments at any time. Select Scheduled (Daily) unless otherwise instructed by your Schoology representative.

The scheduled time determines when the sync enters the queue, not when it finishes. For example, if you select 12 AM - 3 AM, that job gets queued at 12 AM and executes when the jobs get to the beginning of the queue.

Click Save Sync Options to save your settings. You can also change the settings at any time by re-saving the sync options.

Changing the sync time or running a manual sync resets the countdown to the next scheduled sync. For example, pushing a manual sync of users at 2 PM on Monday causes the scheduled sync to wait 24 hours after the manual sync, plus the time to the configured scheduled sync. Therefore, the next scheduled sync of all data would occur on Wednesday after 12 AM. This one-day grace period prevents issues with overlapping syncs of the same provisioning data.

PowerSchool SIS assignment options

Use the Assignment Options to select a default grading category to map graded items from Schoology to the PowerSchool SIS gradebook. If no category is selected, assignments default to the Test category in PowerSchool SIS.

PowerSchool SIS allows the selection of one of the following grading categories:

• Homework

• Quiz

• Test

• Project

Teachers can map to the remaining default categories from the PowerSchool SIS Teacher app.

Click Save Assignment Options to move to the next area of the app.

Schoology acting user

You must be the acting user and a system admin in the main building to make changes. A message is displayed in the Schoology Acting User area. If the message is not displayed, make yourself the acting user for your account.

Map schools

From the Schools tab, map your schools in PowerSchool SIS to your schools in Schoology. You may also automatically create new Schoology schools based on your PowerSchool SIS schools.

In the Map Schools area, PowerSchool SIS schools and Schoology schools are each listed in their own columns.

You can:

• Create a one-to-one mapping between the PowerSchool SIS building and the Schoology building.

• Map your PowerSchool SIS buildings to a single Schoology building.

• Automatically create school buildings from the PowerSchool SIS buildings by selecting Create New Building from the list in the Schoology column.

You do not have to map all PowerSchool SIS buildings to Schoology. Unmapped buildings and their users, courses, and enrollments are not provisioned in Schoology.

Click Save Changes to create or update the school mappings.

Map terms

After setting up the Configuration and Schools tabs, you are ready to map your PowerSchool SIS Terms to your Schoology Grading Periods.

After you create your schools, they are listed in the Terms tab of the PowerSchool SIS app.

You can:

• Create a one-to-one mapping between the PowerSchool SIS terms to the Schoology grading periods. Make sure you are mapping to the correct school year.

• Map a single PowerSchool SIS term to multiple Schoology grading periods. Click Add for the Schoology term and select the same term in both drop-down lists.

  • For example, if you have a course that runs an entire semester, you may want the instructor's gradebook in Schoology to be divided into two quarters rather than one full semester.

• Automatically create grading periods from your PowerSchool SIS terms, by selecting Create new grading period from the list in the Schoology column. This creates grading periods with the term name, start date, and end date in PowerSchool SIS.

  • After selecting Create new grading period, click Save Changes, then Refresh Data. The newly created grading periods will auto-populate in the list, and you can proceed with mapping the terms.

If a term is not mapped to Schoology, course sections associated with the term in PowerSchool SIS are not provisioned in Schoology.

Click Save Changes to create or update the term mapping.

If you need to adjust your grading period dates, do this in both the Schoology and PowerSchool SIS applications. In Schoology, you can do this from School Management: Grade Settings. After you have adjusted your grading period's dates, click Refresh Data on the Terms tab in PowerSchool SIS and make sure that you have mapped your terms to the correct grading period, which also displays the correct date. Be sure to save your changes after updating. Adjusting grading period dates does not affect assignments.

After setting up the Configuration, Schools, and Terms tabs, contact your Schoology representative before proceeding with the rest of the PowerSchool SIS integration. Your Schoology representative can provide additional guidance and instructions to ensure seamless integration. You can work with your Schoology representative to use the Data Prep tool to ensure a successful integration.

PowerSchool SIS app sync

After you have completed the Configuration steps and worked with your Schoology representative to review the SIS data you have prepared, you can start the sync process using the following steps. This starts the process of provisioning your Schoology account with Users, Courses, and Enrollments from PowerSchool SIS.

Users

Administrators can provision users into Schoology based on their User Access Role for PowerSchool SIS customers on version 23.5 and above. This will also allow users to provision parent accounts. 

Set up parent roles 

A parent role sync will sync parent roles in PowerSchool SIS to parent roles in Schoology and automatically create the child associations. To successfully sync parents to Schoology, parent accounts must have guardian status, web access enabled, and a username or email address. 

1. Open PowerSchool SIS to add custom roles to be synced to Schoology.

2. In Schoology, navigate to the PowerSchool SIS Configuration app and click the Users tab to review the list of roles to be mapped.

   • If parents do not exist in Schoology or parents have already been synced to Schoology through the PowerSchool SIS App, map the Parent PowerSchool SIS role to the Parent Schoology role and continue to Sync Users.

   • If you have already created parent accounts in your Schoology instance, enabling the sync for parent roles will require data prep to avoid duplicate accounts. Contact PowerSchool support if you need help with this process. 

3. Map PowerSchool SIS roles to Schoology roles.

Map user access roles

• Each user can have only one user access role marked as Schoology Primary Role.

• If a user has multiple primary roles, the most recently provisioned one applies.

• To change a user’s primary role after provisioning, remove the old one first and then assign the new user access role.

1. From the PowerSchool SIS app within Schoology, click Save Credentials on the Configuration screen. This will trigger the Schoology Primary Role checkbox to display in PowerSchool SIS’s User Access Roles to create a custom Schoology role.

2. Open PowerSchool SIS to add custom roles to be synced to Schoology. 

3. In Schoology, navigate to the PowerSchool SIS Configuration app and click Refresh Data in the Users tab to display the new roles.

4. Map PowerSchool SIS roles to Schoology roles and continue to Sync Users.

Sync users

To sync users from PowerSchool SIS to Schoology, select the role to which the account will be mapped.

1. Select the school.

2. Map the Student, Staff, and other needed roles to their respective roles in Schoology. Use Custom Settings to ensure teacher emails are included in the sync.

3. Click Sync Users to begin your first User sync with PowerSchool SIS. This button also lets you manually sync users at any time.

• User roles sourced from PowerSchool SIS will display the label User Access Role or Security Group based on their origin.

• After users are created in Schoology by the sync, updates to their account information must be made in PowerSchool SIS.

• User accounts cannot be deleted in Schoology by deleting the account in PowerSchool SIS. If a user leaves your organization, you will need to remove their account in both systems.

• If you do not want to provision certain roles into Schoology, select Do Not Sync.

By default, Student usernames in Schoology are provisioned with their PowerSchool SIS Students.Student_WebID, and Teacher usernames are provisioned with their Teachers.TeacherLoginID in PowerSchool SIS. However, you can use the Customize mapping preferences option under Custom Settings to customize the field brought into Schoology from PowerSchool SIS.

• Passwords do not sync; Schoology auto-generates passwords for all users created from the sync.

  • You can review and export passwords in Manage Users. These passwords can be used for login for any organization using single sign-on.

  • If required, school-issued passwords can be imported via a manual User Import.

Sync personal ID

Set up the Student Number or National ID to be synced from PowerSchool SIS to Schoology. Currently, this ID sync is only available for Student roles.

Courses

To provision Schoology with the courses in your PowerSchool SIS instance, select the schools for which you would like courses provisioned. Then, click Sync Courses to import PowerSchool SIS courses into Schoology.

• After courses are created in Schoology by the sync, updates to course information must be made in PowerSchool SIS.

• Courses cannot be deleted in Schoology by deleting the course in PowerSchool SIS. You must delete the course in both systems.

Sections

To provision Schoology with the sections and enrollments in your PowerSchool SIS instance, select the schools for which you' would like sections provisioned. Then click Sync Sections/Enrollments to bring in PowerSchool SIS sections and enrollments into Schoology.

• By default, section names in Schoology are provisioned with the Sections.Section_Number in PowerSchool SIS.

• Use the Custom Mapping option to provide the section name with the PowerSchool SIS expression instead.

• Only lead teachers will sync to a section from the API/SIS integration. Co-teachers must be manually added to a section and promoted to a section admin in Schoology. 

Logs

Use the Logs tab to review the progress of your latest sync with PowerSchool SIS and detect any errors occurring during the sync.

Additional information

Custom field mapping for PowerSchool SIS integration

When Schoology synchronizes data from PowerSchool SIS, Schoology automatically pulls information from certain fields in PowerSchool SIS to populate fields in Schoology. For instance, when provisioning user accounts, Schoology's Username field uses information from the PowerSchool SIS Student Web ID or Teacher Username field by default.

Similarly, when provisioning courses, Schoology's Section Name field uses the word Section and the PowerSchool SIS Section Number.

To provide more flexibility in provisioning user and course information, we also provide the ability to customize which fields populate the Schoology Username and Section Name. The table below describes the customization options for mapping for each of these fields.

Custom field mapping for users

Schoology lets you choose from a list of PowerSchool SIS fields for students and staff that are imported from PowerSchool SIS. The options for each field are described in the Custom field mapping definitions.

1. Click Users from the menu of the PowerSchool SIS app, and then click Custom Settings.

2. Select Customize mapping preferences to activate custom mapping.

3. Per the field listings, choose the mapping fields. It is highly recommended to select Sync teacher emails from PowerSchool into Schoology to ensure teacher emails are included in the User sync. This will overwrite any existing teacher emails in Schoology.

4. Click Save Custom Settings.

Map PowerSchool SIS additional name fields

Additional name fields can be enabled for users in Thai or Arabic regions with the Schoology V2 plugin enabled and on PowerSchool SIS version 24.12 or later. Contact your support point of contact for assistance.

Prefix and Nickname fields are suggested for use in Thai regions. The Third Name field is recommended for Arabic areas.

• Prefix will be mapped to the Title field in Schoology.

• Nickname will be mapped to the Preferred first name in Schoology. If you chose the option to Display both First Name and Preferred Name in Schoology, then the nickname captured in the Preferred first name field will be displayed in brackets at the end.

• Third Name will be mapped to the Middle Name in Schoology. The middle name in Schoology will capture both the middle name and the third name, separated by a space.

Custom field mapping for course sections

Schoology provides the option to choose from a list of PowerSchool SIS fields for sections imported from PowerSchool SIS. The options for each field are described in the Custom Field Mapping Definitions.

1. Click Section in the PowerSchool SIS app.

2. Click Custom Mapping.

3. Select Customize mapping preferences to activate custom mapping.

4. Choose your mapping fields.

5. Click Save Field Mapping. Your Section Name fields will be updated in the next section sync.

Custom field mapping definitions

Choosing the field denoted with -- means that Schoology will not import a username for the user. Unless email addresses are populated, user creation will fail.

Users and students

• Students.DCID: The Student DCID field is the same number displayed in the Unique ID column in Schoology. For students, this number has a 1_ prepended.

• Students.Student_Number: This field refers to the student number in PowerSchool SIS for the given student record.

• Students.Student_Web_ID: This field refers to the student Web ID, for example, their PowerSchool SIS login username, for the given student record.

Staff

• Teachers.DCID: The Teacher DCID field is the same number displayed in the Unique ID column in Schoology. For teachers, this number has a 2_ prepended.

• Teachers.TeacherNumber: This field refers to the teacher number in PowerSchool SIS for the given teacher record.

• Teachers.TeacherLoginId: This field refers to the teacher login ID, for example, their PowerSchool SIS login username, for the given teacher record. If a teacher record has both a teacher username and an admin username, the teacher username will be used.

Sections

Section title

• Sections.SectionNumber: This field refers to the PowerSchool SIS Section Number. For readability, Schoology prepends the word Section before this number. For instance, if PowerSchool SIS has a section called 14, Schoology will create it as Section 14.

• Sections.Expression: This field refers to the PowerSchool SIS Section Expression Field. For instance, if you have a section in the course English 101 with the Section Expression of 3(A), Schoology will display English 101: 3(A).