PowerSchool SIS provisioning guide
This article is for existing Schoology users who also use PowerSchool SIS to provision users, courses, and sections into Schoology. You can read this page in its entirety, or use the links outlined below to jump to specific steps in the process.
PowerSchool SIS integration overview
Schoology can integrate with PowerSchool SIS to seamlessly keep Schoology populated with users, courses, school, and enrollment data. It also allows Schoology to transfer grade and assignment data back to PowerSchool SIS.
This section addresses the following questions:
What information is transferred from PowerSchool SIS to Schoology?
What information is transferred from Schoology to PowerSchool SIS?
How often is information updated between the systems?
What is required to implement the PowerSchool SIS App in Schoology?
What are the limitations to the PowerSchool SIS integration?
Information transferred from PowerSchool SIS to Schoology
Schoology pulls the following information from PowerSchool SIS:
School building information
Users, both staff and student accounts
Grading periods and terms
Courses, sections, and enrollments
This information is managed in PowerSchool SIS, and changes and updates transfer seamlessly to Schoology. However, changes or updates made to this information in Schoology do not pass back to PowerSchool SIS.
You can add additional courses and users in Schoology, not in PowerSchool SIS, without affecting your PowerSchool SIS instance. This option is helpful if you want to do cross-school enrollments, if you have guest instructors, or advisors who are not in PowerSchool.
Information transferred from Schoology to PowerSchool SIS
Schoology pushes the following information back to PowerSchool SIS:
Grade items (assignments and assessments)
Grade updates (changes to grades)
Graded items created or updated in PowerSchool SIS do not transfer to Schoology to establish a master data source for all information. Schoology is the master for changes to grade data, 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.
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.
Required to implement the PowerSchool SIS app in Schoology
The district needs to be operating version 8.1 or higher of PowerSchool SIS (required).
The district needs to have a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Certificate with PowerSchool SIS (required).
The district should have Active Directory synced with PowerSchool SIS (optional, but highly encouraged).
Limitations to the PowerSchool SIs integration
The PowerSchool Attendance App has to be installed to transfer attendance from Schoology. Schoology works closely with the district to explain the best approaches for handling this issue.
Grades pushed to PowerSchool SIS from Schoology do not include Schoology grading scales or custom categories because PowerSchool SIS does not yet provide APIs that support this workflow.
When there are multiple gradebooks in a single PowerSchool course, Schoology does not update a particular gradebook within a course.
When a user account in PowerSchool is associated with multiple buildings at your organization, PowerSchool SIS will create two separate user accounts in Schoology. We recommend linking the two accounts in Schoology.
PowerSchool SIS integration instructions
Before you install the PowerSchool SIS app into your school or organization, complete the following items:
Upgrade your PowerSchool SIS instance to version 8.1 or higher.
Enable or implement your SSL certificate with PowerSchool SIS by contacting your PowerSchool representative.
If you have teachers who teach in multiple buildings in PowerSchool SIS, consolidate those accounts in PowerSchool SIS.
If you are planning to bring student emails into Schoology, ensure you import student emails via the Data Import Manager in PowerSchool SIS before running a sync to Schoology.
If you're planning to use LDAP, Remote Authentication, or Google SSO, make sure your directory or database is synced with PowerSchool SIS. This is optional, but highly recommended.
Before installing the PowerSchool SIS app in Schoology, make sure that you've rolled over PowerSchool SIS to the upcoming school year.
Install the Schoology plugin in PowerSchool SIS
After completing the integration instructions, you're ready to begin using the Schoology PowerSchool app.
If your organization is running an older version of PowerSchool (before 21.4), /wiki/spaces/SGYHELP/pages/38014180.
Steps to take in Schoology
Log in to your Schoology system admin account.
Click the tile icon in the Schoology header and click App Center.
Find the PowerSchool SIS App and install it in your school.
Steps to take in PowerSchool SIS
Log in to PowerSchool SIS as an admin.
From Setup, click System.
Click System Settings.
Click Plugin Management Configuration.
Find the pre-installed Schoology SIS Adapter V2 plugin from the list and select Enable/Disable.
Click Enable to proceed with the installation.
Click the newly enabled Schoology SIS Adapter V2 plugin.
Click Data Provider Configuration.
Temporarily copy the Client ID and Client Secret.
Steps to take in Schoology
Navigate to the PowerSchool SIS Admin app in Schoology.
Paste the ID from PowerSchool SIS into the Consumer Key field.
Paste the Secret from PowerSchool SIS into the Consumer Secret field.
Copy and paste the PowerSchool SIS URL into the PowerSchool Domain field in Schoology.
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, try these troubleshooting tips:
Make sure there are no spaces before or after the Domain, Key, and Secret entries.
Double-check that you've entered the PowerSchool SIS domain URL accurately. If needed, include the appropriate https:// or http:// before the domain.
Check that you have enabled SSL in the Global Server Settings of your PowerSchool SIS instance:
In PowerSchool, go to System, select System Settings, and then select Global Server Settings.
Make sure that Secure Server SSL is enabled and saved.
If an error persists after taking these steps, contact Schoology Support with your Domain, Consumer Key, and Consumer Secret.
PowerSchool SIS app configuration
After completing the integration and plug-in installation instructions, you can start setting up the PowerSchool SIS app in your Schoology system admin account. Start with the Configuration tab and go in order.
You must set up the Configuration, Schools, and Terms tabs before you can start syncing users, courses, and sections from PowerSchool to Schoology.
Use this guide to set up the following tabs in the PowerSchool SIS App in Schoology:
Configuration
Schools
Terms
PowerSchool sync timing options
Use PowerSchool Sync Timing Options to:
Choose whether the sync between PowerSchool SIS and Schoology is manual or scheduled.
Manual - The acting user must manually sync the PowerSchool 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 date and time scheduled for the sync is the time your data will be added to the queue, not the time the sync will be completed. 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 time of your scheduled sync or initiating a manual sync resets the window of time until the next 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 assignment options
Use the Assignment Options to select a default grading category to map graded items from Schoology to the PowerSchool SIS gradebook. If nothing is selected, all assignments will go into PowerSchool SIS in the Test category.
Currently, PowerSchool SIS only allows the selection of a single grading category:
Homework
Quiz
Test
Project
However, 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
To make changes to the PowerSchool SIS app, you must be the acting user for the app and a Schoology system administrator associated with the organization's main building. A message is displayed in the Schoology Acting User area.
If the message is not displayed, make yourself the acting user for your account.
Schools
Map your schools in PowerSchool to your schools in Schoology on the Schools tab. You may also automatically create new Schoology schools based on your PowerSchool schools.
In the Map Schools area, PowerSchool schools are in the left column and Schoology schools are in the right.
If you already have buildings in Schoology, you can create a one-to-one mapping between the PowerSchool building and the Schoology building.
If you do not want additional buildings in Schoology, you can map your PowerSchool buildings into a single Schoology building.
If you don't have any school buildings in Schoology and want to automatically create them from your PowerSchool buildings, select Create New Building in the drop-down list in the Schoology column.
You do not have to map all PowerSchool 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.
Terms
After you've completed setting up the Configuration and Schools tabs, you're ready to map your PowerSchool Terms to your Schoology Grading Periods.
After you create your schools, they are listed in the Terms tab of the PowerSchool app.
If you already have grading periods in Schoology, you can create a one-to-one mapping between the PowerSchool terms to the Schoology grading periods. Make sure you're mapping to the correct school year.
After you create grading periods in Schoology, if you would like to map a single PowerSchool term to multiple Schoology grading periods, click Add to the right of the Schoology term and select the same term in both drop-down menus.
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.
If you don't have any grading periods in Schoology and want to automatically create them from your PowerSchool terms, select Create new grading period in the drop-down menu in the Schoology column. This creates grading periods with the name of the term in PowerSchool, as well as with the start date and end date of the term.
After selecting Create new grading period click Save Changes, then Refresh Data. The newly created grading periods will auto-populate in the drop-down menu, and you can proceed in mapping the terms.
If a term is not mapped to Schoology, course sections associated with the term in PowerSchool are not provisioned in Schoology.
Once you've mapped the terms for each of the school buildings, click Save Changes.
If you ever need to adjust your grading period dates, do this on both the Schoology and PowerSchool applications. In Schoology, you can do this from School Management: Grade Settings. Once you've adjusted your grading period's dates, click Refresh Data near the upper-right corner of the Terms tab in PowerSchool and make sure that you've mapped your terms to the correct grading period, which also displays the correct date. Make sure to save your changes after updating. Adjusting grading period dates does not affect assignments.
After setting up your Configuration, Schools, and Terms tabs, contact your Schoology representative before proceeding with the rest of the PowerSchool 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 app sync
After you have completed the Configuration steps above, and after you have worked with your Schoology representative to review the SIS data you have prepared, you can start the sync process using the steps below. This begins the process of provisioning your Schoology account with Users, Courses, and Enrollments from PowerSchool.
Users
Administrators can provision users into Schoology based on their User Access Role for PowerSchool customers on v.23.5 and above. This will also allow users to provision Parent accounts.
Set up parent roles
Parent role sync will sync parent roles in PowerSchool SIS to parent roles in Schoology and create the child associations automatically. To successfully sync parents to Schoology, parent accounts must have guardian status, web access enabled, and a username or email address.
Open PowerSchool SIS to add custom roles to be synced to Schoology.
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 your Schoology representative if you need assistance with this process.
Map PowerSchool SIS roles to Schoology Roles.
Mapping user access roles
Each user can have only one user access role marked as Schoology Primary Role. If a user is assigned multiple user access roles that are marked as primary, only the most recently provisioned role will be applied.
After the initial provisioning, if a user is assigned an additional user access role marked as Schoology Primary Role, only the first assigned role will be reflected in Schoology. Remove the previously assigned role, and then assign the new role.
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' User Access Roles to create a custom Schoology role.
Open PowerSchool SIS to add custom roles to be synced to Schoology.
In Schoology, navigate to the PowerSchool SIS Configuration app and click Refresh Data in the Users tab to display the new roles.
Map PowerSchool SIS roles to Schoology Roles and continue to Sync Users.
Sync users
To sync users from PowerSchool to Schoology, select the role to which the account will be mapped.
From the school name, select the checkbox.
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.
After you've mapped the roles for each of the school buildings, click Sync Users to begin your first User sync with PowerSchool. This button also enables you to manually sync users at any time.
User roles sourced from PowerSchool SIS will display the label User Access Role or Security Group based on its origin.
After users are created in Schoology by the sync, any updates to their account information must be made in PowerSchool. However, user accounts cannot be deleted in Schoology by deleting the account in PowerSchool. 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, you can select Do Not Sync.
Passwords are not included in the sync. Schoology auto-generates passwords for all users created from the sync. You can view and export passwords in Manage Users. These passwords can be used for login for any organization not using Single Sign-On. If required, school-issued passwords can be imported via a manual User Import.
By default, Student usernames in Schoology are provisioned with their PowerSchool Students.Student_WebID, and Teacher usernames are provisioned with their Teachers.TeacherLoginID in PowerSchool. However, you can use the Customize mapping preferences option under Custom Settings to customize the field brought into Schoology from PowerSchool.
Passwords are not included in the 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 not 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 PS SIS to Schoology. Currently, this ID sync is only available for Student roles.
Courses
To provision Schoology with the courses in your PowerSchool instance, select the school(s) for which you'd like courses provisioned. Then click Sync Courses to bring PowerSchool courses into Schoology.
Once courses are created in Schoology by the sync, any updates to course information must be made in PowerSchool. However, courses cannot be deleted in Schoology by deleting the course in PowerSchool; you will need to delete the course in both systems.
Sections
To provision Schoology with the sections and enrollments in your PowerSchool instance, select the school(s) for which you'd like sections provisioned. Then click Sync Sections/Enrollments to bring in PowerSchool sections and enrollments into Schoology.
By default, section names in Schoology are provisioned with the Sections.Section_Number in PowerSchool. However, you can use the Custom Mapping option to provide the section name with the PowerSchool 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 view the progress of your latest sync with PowerSchool. Logs also enable you to detect any errors occurring during the sync.
Additional information
Custom Field Mapping for PowerSchool Integration
When Schoology synchronizes data from PowerSchool, Schoology automatically pulls information from certain fields in PowerSchool to populate fields in Schoology. For instance, when provisioning user accounts, Schoology's Username field uses information from the PowerSchool 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 Section Number.
To provide more flexibility in provisioning user and course information, we also provide the ability to customize which fields populate the Username and Section Name within Schoology. The table below describes the customization options for mapping for each of these fields.
Custom field mapping for users
Schoology provides the ability to choose from a list of PowerSchool fields for Students and Staff that are imported from PowerSchool. The options for each field are described in the Custom Field Mapping Definitions below. To create a custom mapping for your school's integration:
Click Users from the top menu of the PowerSchool app, and click Custom Settings to the right.
Select the checkbox for Customize mapping preferences to enable custom mapping.
Per the field listings below, choose the desired 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.
When you are finished, 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 PS SIS 24.12 version 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 ability to choose from a list of PowerSchool fields for Sections that are imported from PowerSchool. The options for each field are described in the Custom Field Mapping Definitions below. To create a custom mapping for your school's integration:
Click Section in the PowerSchool app,
Click Custom Mapping
Check the box labeled Customize mapping preferences to enable the custom mapping.
Choose your desired mapping fields.
When you are finished, click Save Field Mapping. On the next Section synchronization, your Section Name fields will be updated.
Custom field mapping definitions
Users and students
Choosing the field denoted with "--" means that Schoology will not import a username for this user. Note that unless email addresses are populated, user creation will fail.
Students.DCID: The Student DCID field is the same number that appears 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 for the given Student Record.
Students.Student_Web_ID: This field refers to the student Web ID (For example, their PowerSchool login username) for the given Student Record.
Staff
Choosing the field denoted with "--" means that Schoology will not import a username for this user. Note that unless email addresses are populated, user creation will fail.
Teachers.DCID: The Teacher DCID field is the same number that appears in the Unique ID column in Schoology. For teachers, this number has a "2_" prepended.
Teachers.TeacherNumber: This field refers to the teacher number inside PowerSchool for the given Teacher Record.
Teachers.TeacherLoginId: This field refers to the Teacher Login ID (For example, their PowerSchool 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 Section Number. For readability, Schoology will prepend the word "Section" before this number. For instance, if PowerSchool has a section with several 14, Schoology will create it as "Section 14."
Sections.Expression: This field refers to the PowerSchool 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).