Gradebook Passback is available for districts who utilize PowerSchool as their Student Information System to transfer points-based assessments and scores nightly from Otus to PowerSchool. The following sections outline the steps necessary to successfully use Gradebook Passback:
❓ Are you an administrator interested in setting up this feature for your team? Click the button below for more information.
Ensure Membership in PowerSchool Gradebook Passback Group
Ensure that you are a member of the PowerSchool Gradebook Passback teacher group in Otus. If you are not already a member of that group, please contact your district's Otus Admin or Main Admin to request to be added to the group:
💡 Tip from the Otus Team: In order for grades to pass back to your SIS, the user who has assigned the assessment must be included in the PowerSchool Gradebook Passback teacher group. We recommend that any teacher, co-teacher, or administrator who may be assigning assessments are added to the PowerSchool Gradebook Passback teacher group in Otus.
Assessments assigned directly to a class from an Otus Administrator (who is not in your SIS) will not passback to the gradebook. This assessment should be assigned to the class by the teacher or co-teacher who are a member of the PowerSchool Gradebook Passback teacher group.
Create a Points-Based Assessment
Create an Otus assessment using a Points Grading Scale. Only assessments created using a Points Grading Scale will passback. If you select a Standards Based Grading Scale for your assessment, the data will not passback to PowerSchool. The image below illustrates how to select the correct Grading Scale when creating your assessment.
💡 Tip from the Otus Team: the selected Assessment Type in Otus will be sent to a specific category in PowerSchool that has been defined by your administrators. Teachers can change the category in PowerSchool once the grade has been sent.
Assign the Assessment
Specify a Due Date when assigning the assessment, as PowerSchool requires a Due Date for the scores to transfer. If you do not specify a Due Date, the Due Date sent to PowerSchool will be calculated during the sync process by adding 7 days to the assessment creation or assigning date.
❗️ IMPORTANT NOTE: Assignments with Due Dates outside of the current grading period will not passback. Please keep this in mind when approaching the end of a grading period.
Select “Include Score in Final Grade” for the scores to passback to PowerSchool. If the box below is not checked, the score will not passback to PowerSchool.
➡️ Plus (+) Assessments: When adding Plus (+) Assessments to the Otus gradebook please note these slight differences from other types of assessments:
The "Include Score in Final Grade" is a toggle which must be toggled ON for the scores to passback.
The Submission Date is used to calculate a Due Date to send to PowerSchool. The Due Date will be calculated by adding 7 days to the Submission Date. As you approach the end of a grading period, be sure to set a Submission Date at least 7 days prior to the end of the grading period (it is permissible to have a submission date in the past) if you would like the scores to passback within the current grading period.
For more information about assigning Assessments, click the button below.
Grade the Assessment
After the assessment is submitted by a student, questions that were set to auto-score will already have grades but be sure to grade any ungraded items so that the assessment has a status of “Graded” in Otus. If you see a status of “Turned In,” that assessment score will not passback until all ungraded items are graded.
After all items in your assessment are graded, you can expect scores to passback with the nightly sync which means the scores will be visible in PowerSchool the following day.
💡 Tip from the Otus Team: the status of the assignment (e.g., Excluded, Excused, Missing, etc.) will not passback to PowerSchool. The assignment status will have to be manually adjusted in PowerSchool.
Additional Considerations
At this time, PowerSchool only supports the passback of points-based assessment scores and does not support the passback of standard scores.
To avoid potential naming conflicts if two assessments with the same name are assigned to the same group of students, Otus appends a unique assessment identifier to the assessment title during the passback process. For example, an assessment titled "Mid Term Exam" in Otus will appear in PowerSchool with an identifier such as "Mid Term Exam (S130545)".
Any weighting of scores needs to be done in PowerSchool; weighting in Otus does not passback.
Assessments with decimal total score (e.g., 27.5 points) will not passback.
Certain adjustments to your assessment in Otus will cause the assessment score to resend to PowerSchool. Examples include:
➡️ If you edit the Assessment Title, Otus re-sends the score to PowerSchool.
➡️ If you edit the Assessment Type, Otus re-sends the score to PowerSchool.
➡️ If you edit a score in Otus, Otus re-sends the new score to PowerSchool.
➡️ If you adjust assessment settings to "Include Score in Final Grade" after it has been assigned, scores will be sent to PowerSchool after the sync.
If you edit a score in PowerSchool but not in Otus, Otus will not overwrite the score in PowerSchool.