Brightspace integrates with PowerSchool SIS through our partner, GG4L, using OneRoster 1.1 REST APIs.
The integration allows clients to sync roster data (courses, sections, users, etc.) from PowerSchool via GG4L School Passport into Brightspace nightly or on-demand. The integration also sends changes to course grade items and student scores nightly to the PowerTeacher gradebook.
Learn more about OneRoster integrations:
Supported PowerSchool data
Rostering data pulled from PowerSchool includes the following:
- Schools
- Terms
- Courses
- Sections
- Staff, students, and contacts (parents/guardians)
- Enrollments
Grade data passed to PowerSchool consists of:
- Grade categories
- Grade items (which become PowerSchool Assignments)
- Student scores
Which PowerSchool terms become terms in Brightspace and how are they named?
PowerSchool terms that have the same name and same dates across schools are merged to avoid duplicates in Brightspace to simplify searches, simplifying the release/update of courses with the Course Updater tool, and to keep the org hierarchy organized.
The names of the terms created in Brightspace have the following format: {name of term in PowerSchool} ({term start date} - {term end date}).
For example: Trimester 2 (2023-11-29 2024-03-05)
The only type of academic session sent from GG4L for PowerSchool data is Term. Consequently, when configuring a Brightspace integration with PowerSchool, create a single Academic Session Type mapping of type Term. Refer to the Courses and Section heading of Configure a OneRoster Integration for more information.
Does the integration create schools, departments, or other upper org units in Brightspace?
The term upper org unit refers to any org unit in the Brightspace org hierarchy above the course template. Typically, users are enrolled into course offerings AND a school org unit at which the course is offered. A school in this case is considered an upper org unit.
The PowerSchool integration establishes the following org hierarchy types in Brightspace:
- Organization > District > School > Course Template > Course Offering (+ section)
- Course offerings also have term(s) and a school as parents in the hierarchy.
The district registered with GG4L becomes a single district org unit in Brightspace. The name of the district org unit in Brightspace will match the name provided to GG4L during onboarding. The district org unit code will match its name.
Each school synced with Brightspace from GG4L School Passport becomes an org unit in Brightspace. The name of each school matches the name as defined in PowerSchool. The org unit code of the school will match its name. Each school org unit will be a direct child of the district org unit.
Which courses are included in the sync and how do they appear in Brightspace?
Courses with active sections in the current school year come from PowerSchool and become course templates in Brightspace.
The name of the course template in Brightspace will match the name in PowerSchool. The org unit code of the template is set to {school number}_{course number}.
- Courses in PowerSchool can be associated with multiple schools. Because the course templates and their child course offerings need to be unique to each school, a course template will be created in Brightspace for each school that has active sections for the course.
- {school number} will be the numeric identifier of the school from PowerSchool.
- {course number} matches the number given to the course in PowerSchool.
- For example: 90_HSMU1417
Each course template has a school org unit as a parent in the Brightspace org hierarchy.
Which PowerSchool sections are part of the rostering sync and how will they be named in Brightspace?
Sections in PowerSchool that are active for the current school year become sections and course offerings in Brightspace.
The name of the course offering and section in Brightspace will have the following format: {name of parent course} - {teacher's last name} - {period}
- {name of parent course} is the name of the course associated with the section in PowerSchool.
- {teacher’s last name} is the last name of the lead teacher associated with the section in PowerSchool.
- {period} is the section schedule expression; for example, “5 (A)” meaning period 5 of cycle day A, if a schedule is defined; otherwise, it is blank.
- For example: Computer Literacy Grade 1 - Smith - 5(A)
The org unit code of the course offering is set to the internal identifier of the section in PowerSchool.
Each PowerSchool section results in a course offering with a child section in Brightspace.
In addition to having a course template as a parent, each course offering is associated with a term and is given a parent school in the org hierarchy.
What information about teachers and students is transferred to Brightspace?
For students in PowerSchool, the following data elements are supported: first name, last name, email, username (set to one of: email, student web ID, or student number from PowerSchool), org defined ID (set to one of: email, student number, internal identifier), and role (always student).
For teachers, the following data elements are supported: first name, last name, email, username (set to one of: email or teacher login ID), org defined ID (set to one of: email, staff/teacher number, internal identifier), and role (always teacher).
Any student or teacher that is missing any of the following data elements are not sent to Brightspace: first name, last name, or username (when username is populated with email, then email effectively becomes required).
Do parent and guardians contacts sync with Brightspace?
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Note: Customers must be using PowerSchool’s Contact Management module. |
Contacts in PowerSchool are sync’d with Brightspace to support clients wanting to utilize Brightspace for Parents & Guardians.
The following data elements are supported when retrieving student contacts: first name, last name, email, username (set to email), org defined ID (set to one of: email, internal identifier), and role (always guardian).
Any contact that is missing first name, last name, and/or username will not be sent to Brightspace and corresponding relationship to students will be missing.
What types of PowerSchool users sync with Brightspace?
Currently, only students, teachers (staff), and guardians (contacts) sync with Brightspace.
What happens to data in Brightspace after a term ends or after the end-of-year rollover in PowerSchool?
At the conclusion of a term, related sections and enrollments are sent through the integration as deletes to Brightspace. Administrators who wish to ensure that teacher and students are not unenrolled from previous term courses should enable the appropriate option within their integration configuration.
To prevent deletion of semesters and associated courses, sections, and enrollments
- Navigate to Admin Tools > IPSIS Administration, click the source system for the PowerSchool integration.
- Click the Configuration tab.
- Enable Prevent deletion of semesters and associated courses, sections, and enrollments after the semester's end date.
- Click Save Configuration to save your changes.
This setting will ensure that after a term ends, including after the end-of-year process, unenrollments and deletions of course offerings are ignored.
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Note: Under the integration configuration, an SIS Group mapping specifically of type Term must been set up. |
Does my institution require a special licensing agreement with PowerSchool or GG4L to have an integration with Brightspace?
Customers do not require a specific license with either PowerSchool or GG4L to have an integration for rostering or grades passback with PowerSchool.
New customers should consult with their implementation project manager on steps for configuring the PowerSchool integration. Existing customers should consult with their Customer Success Manager, Technical Account Manager, or Support if they are looking to switch their SIS integration type.
How do I sync recent changes in PowerSchool to Brightspace?
By default, Brightspace syncs with GG4L School Passport once per day, and GG4L School Passport syncs with PowerSchool once per day. Both syncs occur at a predetermined time of day as setup in the integration.
If you need to sync changes to rostering data due to recent changes in your SIS, manually initiate a sync from within School Passport, and then manually initiate a sync in Brightspace from the Dashboard in IPSIS Administration.
To initiate a sync in GG4L School Passport
- Log into your account in GG4L School Passport.
- From the Home tab, select the tile for your SIS.
- Click Run Sync and select Incremental Sync to pull recent changes from your SIS.
Once the sync between your SIS and GG4L School Passport completes, initiate a sync in Brightspace.
To initiate a sync in Brightspace
- Navigate to Admin Tools > IPSIS Administration.
- Click the source system for the GG4L/PowerSchool integration.
- From the Dashboard tab, click Run Update Now.
IPSIS will sync changes from GG4L School Passport.
How do I allow teachers to export grades to PowerSchool/GG4L?
District or LMS administrators can choose to allow teachers to export grades to GG4L from within their courses.
To allow teachers to export grades
- Navigate to Admin Tools > IPSIS Administration.
- Click the source system for the GG4L/PowerSchool integration.
- Click the Configuration tab.
- Under the Grades Export section, enable Users with the “Export Grades” permission can export grades to the SIS.
- Click Save Configuration to save your changes.
Once the configuration option is enabled, and teachers have the Export Grades permission enabled, teachers can initiate a grades export to GG4L from within the Grades tool in their courses.
Once grades are finalized in PowerSchool at the end of a school year, how do I stop changes from teachers coming from Brightspace?
Schools typically grant teachers several days to finalize the grades in Brightspace and SIS after the conclusion of a school year. From there, districts expect no further changes, generate reports, and pull data into other systems for further processing. Changes to student grades after this point are not desirable due to inconsistencies.
Districts can prevent changes to grades made in Brightspace from being pushed to PowerSchool by configuring grade export options for the SIS configuration.
To stop grade changes from teachers
- Navigate to Admin Tools > IPSIS Administration.
- Click the source system for the GG4L/PowerSchool integration.
- Click the Configuration tab.
- Under the Grades Export section do the following:
- If Users with the “Export Grades” permission can export grades to the SIS is enabled, keep in mind that teachers can continue to export grades from their course regardless of the next settings. Consider disabling this option once you no longer want changes pushed to the SIS at the end of a school year, and re-able it some time at the beginning of the next school year once teachers would have no need to access past courses and export grades.
- Enable the Export all grades to the SIS at scheduled daily update to control grade exports at the end of the school year by enabling either or both sub-options:
- Only export grades from active courses: Enabling this option will ensure grades in previous courses are excluded. After the year ends, if courses are not made inactive through the specific settings in the integration configuration, it’s recommended that you inactivate courses using the Course Updated tool once no more grade changes should export to PowerSchool.
- Only export grades from courses that have started and not ended: If courses are given start and end dates (setup in the integration configuration), then enabling this option means grade changes are not exported to PowerSchool once the course ends.
- Click Save Configuration to save your changes.
How do I set up Brightspace grade categories for PowerSchool grades passback?
If you want a category and its grade items sent to PowerSchool, enable the Export to SIS option within a category.
To enable Export to SIS
- In the Grades tool, click the Manage Grades tab.
- Click the drop-down menu beside the name of a category and select Edit.
- Enable the Export to SIS.
- Click Save and Close to save your changes.
Brightspace can create categories in your PowerSchool section or connect to them if they already exist. If your category in Brightspace has the same name as the category in PowerSchool, the integration “links” to it and Assignments are then created under this category in PowerSchool. This way you won’t have duplicate or empty categories in PowerSchool.
To verify which categories you’ve enabled for export to PowerSchool
- In the Grades tool, click the Manage Grades tab.
- Under the SIS Exports column, each category that will be exported to PowerSchool will have an SIS tag.
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Note: - PowerSchool does not support category names longer than 30 characters. Categories in Brightspace that exceed 30 characters fail to be created in PowerSchool and associated grade items and grades fail to transfer.
- PowerSchool does not support duplicate category names. Any duplicate in Brightspace fails to be created in PowerSchool and associated grade items and grades will fail to transfer. For example, if you have two categories called “Quizzes”, one will fail to export to PowerSchool.
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Important: The Export to SIS option on a grade category does not appear if the course was not created in Brightspace through the integration with PowerSchool. Contact your Brightspace system administrator for assistance.
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Can district grade categories or my existing Assignments from PowerSchool automatically populate the gradebook in my Brightspace course?
Brightspace does not pull categories from your section in PowerSchool. You must create them in Brightspace even if they are already set up in PowerSchool.
Brightspace does not pull in grade items (Assignments) from PowerSchool to populate the grade book.
How do I setup a Brightspace grade item so that grades are sent to PowerSchool?
Enable a grade item (and student grades) to sync with PowerSchool by assigning it an academic session and a category.
To enable grade items to sync with PowerSchool
- In the Grades tool, click the Manage Grades tab.
- Click the drop-down menu beside the name of a grade item and select Edit.
- Choose a Category. A grade item must belong to a category that has been enabled for export to the SIS.
- Select an item from the Academic Session list.
- Click Save and Close to save your changes.
The grade item and student grades will be included in an export of grades to PowerSchool.
To stop syncing the grade item along with grades, clear the Academic Session field.
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Note: PowerSchool does not support assignment names longer than 50 characters. Grade items in Brightspace with names that exceed 50 characters are not created in PowerSchool and associated student grades fail to transfer. |
What information about Brightspace grade items are sent to PowerSchool?
The following table shows how grade item properties in Brightspace are related to the settings of PowerSchool Assignments.
| Brightspace Grade Item |
PowerSchool Assignment |
| Name |
Assignment Name |
| Category |
Category |
| Maximum Points |
Score Entry Points |
| Grade item type |
Score Type — Points only |
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Due Date (see below) |
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Count in Traditional Final Grade — Always set to Yes |
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Publish Assignment — Immediately (a date for publishing is not sent from Brightspace) |
Properties of a PowerSchool Assignment not listed above are not supported. For example, extra points and weights are not sent to PowerSchool.
The Due Date for a PowerSchool Assignment is determined as follows:
- If the Brightspace grade item is associated with an activity (for example, with a quiz or assignment), one of the following options is possible:
- Use the activity’s Due Date if set; if not then
- Use the activity’s End Date if set; if not then
- Use the Academic Session (semester) End Date
- If the Brightspace grade item is not associated with an activity, then:
- Use the Academic Session (semester) End Date
Which types of Brightspace grade items work with the PowerSchool grade passback?
The following Brightspace grade item types can sync with PowerSchool:
- Numeric
- Selectbox
- Formula
- Pass/Fail
The following Brightspace grade items will not sync with PowerSchool:
What information about student grades is exported to PowerSchool?
When exporting grades to PowerSchool, Brightspace sends the following information with each student grade:
- Numeric score
- Comments
- Date of the last update to the score
- Whether the student is exempt
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Note: - Grade schemes in Brightspace do not impact the transfer of grades. Grade schemes may be used to show grades in different ways such as letter grades or percentages. It’s the underlying numeric scores that are sent to PowerSchool regardless of how students and teachers see grades in Brightspace.
- Other than exemptions, student score statuses of PowerSchool Assignments are not supported. These include Late, Collected, Absent, Incomplete, and Missing.
- The Extra Points feature of PowerSchool Assignments is not supported. If the score you give a student exceeds the maximum score sent to PowerSchool (Score Entry Points), an error will occur.
- Final grades from Brightspace are not sent to PowerSchool.
- Late indicators on activities associated with grade items is not included in the grade passback.
- Student outcomes (standards, mastery results) data is not included in the PowerSchool sync.
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What best practices are recommended for a student to see the same grades in both Brightspace and PowerSchool?
If students or parents are viewing grades in Brightspace and PowerSchool, align the categories, grade items contributing to the final grade, and the grade display options between the systems.
Use the same display settings such as letters, points, or percentages using grade schemes in both Brightspace and PowerSchool.
Since all grade items sent to PowerSchool are automatically flagged (in PowerSchool) to be included in the final grade, be sure to adjust this setting in both Brightspace and PowerSchool. That is, if a grade item is not sent to PowerSchool the settings between the systems is different, the student may see different final grades between Brightspace and PowerSchool.
If you are capturing additional grades in Brightspace to provide formative feedback to students, consider excluding the grade item from the final grade in Brightspace, and exclude it from being transferred to PowerSchool by removing the Academic Session from the grade item.
If you have a weighted gradebook in your course, set the weights of your categories and items to be the same between systems so that students see the same category scores and calculation of final grade.
Where do I make changes to student categories, items, and grades?
Once you start exporting grades to PowerSchool, if you want to make changes, particularly to student score, update Brightspace. If you make changes in PowerSchool to any grade item or score that originally came from Brightspace, the integration will overwrite those changes.
More specifically, Brightspace and GG4L School Passport simplifies the transfer of grade items and scores for you through automated nightly syncs while maintaining data integrity through proper ownership. Importantly, the integration ensures student scores are not inadvertently overwritten and grade items and categories can be maintained in their originating system while not adversely impacting the other system.
Grade categories
- Regardless of whether the category is created in Brightspace or in PowerSchool, to avoid impacting weighting or exclusions for student final grades, the integration won’t alter any category properties in PowerSchool. That is, a grade category in PowerSchool cannot be overwritten by changes to the associated category in Brightspace.
- You can create a category in Brightspace and correspondingly it will be created in PowerSchool, or it will be linked to an existing category in PowerSchool if it already exists with the same name.
Grade items in Brightspace / Assignments in PowerSchool
- If you create a grade item in Brightspace and the integration creates a corresponding assignment in PowerSchool, changes that you make to the Assignment name, description, max points, and due date settings in PowerSchool will be overwritten by the integration based on the equivalent properties in Brightspace. If changes to these properties are needed, make the changes in Brightspace.
- Since the integration does not connect Brightspace grade items to existing PowerSchool Assignments, you can modify PowerSchool Assignments (and student scores) that didn’t originate from Brightspace, and the integration won’t alter them.
Student scores
- The system to first give a student a score on a grade item/Assignment is the system in which you will use if updates are needed. In practice, however, this means that once you begin exporting grade items and student scores to PowerSchool, any changes needed to the student scores must be made in Brightspace.
- For example, let’s say you create a quiz “Math Week 10 Quiz” in Brightspace, and it’s exported to PowerSchool. If you change a student’s score in PowerSchool, the integration will overwrite that change to the score currently in Brightspace. You need to make the change in Brightspace.
Customers typically transition slowly from teachers entering all grades into PowerSchool, to a subset of teachers and courses exporting grades from Brightspace, and then to all teachers using Brightspace to record and export to PowerSchool. The integration ensures that:
- Teachers can continue to record grades in PowerSchool for a subset of sections.
- Teachers can use Brightspace as the source of truth for grades in their courses and export them PowerSchool in other sections / course offerings.
How do I sync grades from my course to PowerSchool?
Grades will export to PowerSchool with the GG4L School Passport sync nightly, on demand, or both. Your Brightspace administrator will inform you of your options. If you have permission, you can export grades on-demand.
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Note: Grade updates will not appear immediately in PowerSchool. Refer to How long does it take for synchronized grades to appear in PowerSchool? for more information. |
To export grades on-demand
- In the Grades tool, click the Enter Grades tab.
- Click Export to SIS.
- On the Export Grades page, you are presented with a summary page that includes:
- Section: a dropdown menu that allows you to choose between different sections in the course (if multiple sections are present).
- Academic Session: a dropdown menu that allows you to choose between different School Years associated with the course (if multiple academic sessions are used).
- Overview: Lists the number of Categories and the number of grades within the categories that meet the criteria selected in Section and Academic Session above and can be exported.
- Scheduled Export: only visible if grades are configured to export with nightly syncs with PowerSchool.
- Click Export to queue export of grades from your course. Once exports for all other courses complete, grades from your course are exported.
- The page refreshes and takes you to the View All Exports page. This page provides an overview of who sent the grades and when.
- Once the export has completed, click the name of the export (typically the name of the course) to view details that include, Course name, Export start and end dates, User who initiated the export, and a list of students, grade items, and scores.
Grade categories are exported if any of the following reasons are met:
- Category is new and not previously been sent.
- Category has been updated since it was last sent. This includes name, delete, restore from delete, etc.
- Category failed to be sent during the last export.
Grade items are exported if any of the following reasons are met:
- Grade item is new and not sent previously.
- Grade item has been updated since it was last sent. This includes name, academic session, points, being deleted, restored from being deleted, etc.
- Grade item failed to be sent during the last export.
- The parent category has been modified since the last export.
Student scores are exported if any of the following reasons are met:
- Score is new and not previously been sent.
- Score has been updated since it was last sent.
- Score failed to be sent during the last export.
- The parent grade item or the parent category has been modified since the last export.
How do I view the history of grade exports for my course?
You can refer to previous exports at any time if you’d like to see when changes were sent to GG4L School Passport.
To view a history of grade exports
- In the Grades tool, click the Enter Grades tab.
- Click Export to SIS.
- Click View Export History located at the top-right of the page. The View All Exports page provides an overview of who sent the grades and when.
- Click the name of an export (typically the name of the course) to view details of the export which includes, course name, export start and end dates, user who initiated the export, and a list of students, grade items, and scores.
How long does it take for synchronized grades to appear in PowerSchool?
Brightspace syncs with GG4L School Passport once per day, and GG4L School Passport syncs with PowerSchool once per day. During the syncs between systems, the following occurs:
- When GG4L School Passport syncs with PowerSchool, it pulls rostering changes and sends changes to grades that it received from Brightspace since its last sync with PowerSchool.
- When Brightspace syncs with GG4L School Passport, it pulls changes to roster data and sends changes to grades since its last sync with School Passport.
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Note:
- The time of day when Brightspace syncs with School Passport can be configured by an administrator in IPSIS Administration > Configuration. Clients should work with their Implementation Specialist during the integration setup to determine the most appropriate time of day to configure the synchronization between PowerSchool and GG4L School Passport.
- D2L recommends that GG4L School Passport syncs with PowerSchool before Brightspace syncs with School Passport. This ensures important roster updates are propagated to Brightspace as quickly as possible.
- Grades may take up to two days to appear in PowerSchool.
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The following example illustrates the two-step synchronization that occurs on Friday morning, highlighting when and which data is transferred:
- Friday 1:00 AM sync between PowerSchool and GG4L School Passport:
- GG4L School Passport pulls all changes from PowerSchool (users, classes, and sections) that took place Thursday during the day.
- GG4L School Passport sends grade items and scores to PowerSchool that it received the previous day from Brightspace. These would include either:
- The changes that took place Wednesday in Brightspace and that were sent to School Passport before 5:00 AM Thursday.
- The changes that took place Thursday that it received when teachers executed the Export to SIS function from within the Grades tool.
- Friday 5:00 AM sync between GG4L School Passport and Brightspace:
- Brightspace pulls rostering updates (deltas) from GG4L School Passport. These are the changes that occurred Thursday in PowerSchool.
- Brightspace sends to School Passport all grade updates that took place throughout Thursday.
Can I still passback grades to PowerSchool even though I teach from a merged course in Brightspace?
Yes, grades within merged courses are handled by Brightspace and GG4L School Passport. Here’s an example scenario:
- Two sections from PowerSchool have been merged into one in Brightspace section. For example, let’s start with Course1 (Section1) and Course2 (Section2). Course2 is then merged into Course1. As a result, Course1 will contain both Section1 (with its group of students) and Section2 (with the group of students from Course2).
- Now, assume Course1 has a grade item called Week1 Lab Writeup, students have been graded, and grades export runs:
- Brightspace sends the grade item Week1 Lab Writeup and scores for students in Section1. In PowerSchool, a new Assignment is created called Week1 Lab Writeup in Section1 and students in that section receive their grades.
- Brightspace then sends the grade item Week1 Lab Writeup and scores for students in Section2. In PowerSchool a new Assignment is created, also called Week1 Lab Writeup and students in that section receive their grades.
What happens with grades passback when I delete grade categories and items?
If you delete a category from PowerSchool that has been synchronized with Brightspace the link between those categories is broken. Recreating the category in PowerSchool with the same name is not sufficient to re-establish the link. To do so, you must create a new category in Brightspace (with the same name as used in PowerSchool) and move the grade items to the new category.
If you delete a PowerSchool Assignment that has been synchronized with a grade item in Brightspace, further changes to the grade item and student scores will fail to export to PowerSchool. If you need to PowerSchool Assignment, contact your Brightspace administrator who will work with D2L Support to re-establish the link.
Additional References
The updated PowerSchool plug-in is available for download. Customers should work with GG4L and their implementation team to download and update the plug-in, and configure their integration with the new plug-in.