Integrations Documentation

About Skyward SMS

Brightspace integrates directly with Skyward SMS 2.0 using OneRoster 1.1 REST APIs.

The integration allows clients to sync roster data (courses, sections, users, etc.) from Skyward SMS into Brightspace nightly or on-demand. The integration also sends changes to course grade items and student scores nightly or on-demand to Skyward SMS.

Learn more about OneRoster integrations

To learn more about OneRoster integrations, refer to:

Getting ready for a OneRoster integration
Configure a OneRoster integration
Important details about OneRoster REST integrations that are applicable to syncing with Skyward SMS.

Types of data supported by the integration

As part of the integration, Brightspace pulls data about users, courses, and schools from Skyward SMS, and pushes data on grades to Skyward.

Data Brightspace pulls from Skyward SMS

Rostering data pulled from Skyward includes the following:

District
Schools
Terms
Courses
Sections
Staff, students, and guardians
Enrollments

Grade data Brightspace pushes to Skyward SMS

Brightspace pushes the following grade data to Skyward:

Grade items
Student scores

Teachers can have Brightspace retrieve Grade Categories from Skyward on demand from within their course gradebook.

Org units managed by the integration

The integration with Skyward SMS manages several Brightspace Org Units, including academic sessions (such as terms and grading periods), districts and schools, course templates, and course offerings—to make sure data is effectively shared between both systems.

Academic sessions

Skyward SMS exports the School Year, Terms, and Grading Periods to Brightspace as academic sessions. The School Year and Grading Periods are not used within Brightspace. Terms are associated with Course Offerings; they can help teachers and admins search for courses by term and are important for proper grade passback to Skyward.

Districts and schools

Within IPSIS, the District and School org units are considered upper org units. An upper org unit can be any org unit in the Brightspace org hierarchy above the course template.

Typically, users are enrolled in both course offerings and the school org unit which offers the course. For example, a school in this scenario is considered an upper org unit.

Districts

The district becomes a single org unit in Brightspace:

The name of the district org unit in Brightspace is set by Skyward SMS.
The district org unit code matches its name.

School names

Each school synced with Brightspace from Skyward becomes an org unit in Brightspace:

The name of each school matches the name as defined in Skyward SMS.
The org unit code of the school matches its name.
Each school org unit is a direct child of the district org unit.

Course templates

Skyward SMS courses with active sections in the current school year that Brightspace imports become Course Templates in Brightspace.

Course template names: The name of the course template in Brightspace matches the Long Description of the course in Skyward.
The org unit code of the template is set to the Course Key in Skyward.

Course offerings

Sections in Skyward 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}-{course code}/{section number}
{name of parent course} is the Long Description of the course associated with the section in Skyward.
{course code} is the Course Key of the course associated with the section in Skyward.
<![CDATA[ ]]>{section number} is the Section Number of the Skyward section.
For example: Computer Literacy Grade 1-CPLI1/001

The org unit code of the course offering and section is set to the section number of the section in Skyward.

For example: 001

Each Skyward 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 has a school as a parent and is associated with a term.

Relationship hierarchy

The Skyward SMS integration results in district and school relationships together with associated templates, offerings, and academic sessions (term, school year, and grading period) to establish the following organization hierarchy in Brightspace.

Figure: Diagram showing the relationship between Skyward SMS entities and the Brightspace organizational hierarchy.

The diagram shows how Skyward SMS data maps into Brightspace and how those org units relate to each other.

Organization is the Brightspace root. It sits at the top of the hierarchy and is the parent for the District, School Year, Grading Period, and Term org units created from Skyward data.
District becomes a single org unit under Organization.
- Each School from Skyward becomes a child org unit of the District.
- Users are typically enrolled in both their School org unit and the Course Offerings delivered by that school.
Academic sessions from Skyward (School Year, Grading Period, and Term) are imported as Brightspace Custom org units based on mapping configuration:
- School Year and Grading Period attach at the Organization level and provide structure and context for reporting.
- Term links to the Organization and to Course Offerings, allowing offerings to inherit accurate dates and supporting correct grade export behavior.
Courses and sections are represented with three Brightspace org unit types:
- Each Skyward Course becomes a Course Template.
- Each scheduled instance of that course (a Skyward class or section in a specific school and term) becomes a Course Offering under the appropriate School, linked to the Course Template and Term.
- The same scheduled instance also becomes a Section under the Course Offering, which is where section-level enrollment is stored and maintained.

In effect, Skyward defines the full structure—from Districts and Schools, through academic sessions, to Course Templates, Course Offerings, and Sections—and Brightspace mirrors that hierarchy so course data, enrollments, and grades remain aligned with the SIS.

Users imported into Brightspace within the integration

Brightspace imports different information for students, teachers, parents, guardians, and other administrative or learning staff from Skyward.

Important: A guardian, teacher, or student missing a last name, such as those with only a single name, cannot be created in Brightspace. All users must have both a first name and a last name to meet system requirements.

Teachers and students

For students imported from Skyward SMS, the following properties are saved to Brightspace:

first name
last name
email
username
org defined ID (this is the Other ID for the student in Skyward SMS)
role (student)
parent/guardian relationships
school enrollment(s) (students are not enrolled into the district org unit)

For teachers, the following properties are used to create a user in Brightspace:

first name
last name
email
username
role (teacher)
school enrollment(s) (teachers are not enrolled into the district org unit)

Important: Skyward’s implementation of OneRoster does not transmit a recognizable identifier, such as a teacher number, that aligns with visible data in the Skyward UI. As a result, IPSIS assigns the SIS record ID as the Org Defined ID for teachers in Brightspace.

Parents and guardians

Family members in Skyward are synchronized with Brightspace automatically.

Including parent/guardian contacts in the integration makes it possible for clients to use Brightspace for Parents & Guardians.

The following data elements are supported when retrieving parent/guardian contacts:

first name
last name
email
username
role (always guardian)
school enrollment(s) (guardians are not enrolled into the district org unit)

Important: Skyward’s implementation of OneRoster does not transmit a recognizable identifier for guardians, such as a name or internal ID, that aligns with visible data in the Skyward UI. As a result, IPSIS assigns the SIS record ID as the Org Defined ID for guardians in Brightspace.

Other administrative or learning staff

Currently, only students, teachers, and guardians sync with Brightspace.

Understanding how Brightspace exports grades to Skyward SMS

Brightspace exports properties of grade categories, graded activities, and student grades to Skyward SMS.

Properties of grade categories received from Skyward SMS

Teachers must sync categories from Skyward into the gradebook of each of their course offerings. Skyward does not allow integration partners to create categories within Skyward SMS from an external source like Brightspace.

The only property of a grade category exported by Skyward to Brightspace is its name.

Properties of graded activities exported to Skyward SMS

The following table shows how grade item properties in Brightspace relate to the settings of Skyward Assignments.

Brightspace Grade Item	Skyward Assignment
Category	Category
Name	Description
Description	Detailed Description
Maximum points	Max Score
Due Date/End Date (from activity)	Proposed Due Date, Actual Due Date, and Assign Date

The following Skyward Assignment properties are not sent to Skyward:

Weight Multiplier
Post to Family Access
Post to Student Access

The following Brightspace grade item properties are not sent to Skyward:

Can Exceed
Bonus
Exclude from Final Grade Calculation
Grade Scheme

Determining the Due Date

The Due Date and Assign Date for a Skyward Assignment is determined as follows.

When the grade item is associated with an activity

If the Brightspace grade item is associated with an activity (for example, a quiz or assignment), Brightspace uses:

the activity’s Due Date if set; if not, then
the activity’s End Date if set; if not, then
the End Date of the associated academic session (term).

When the Brightspace grade item is not associated with an activity

If the Brightspace grade item is not associated with an activity, Brightspace uses the Academic Session (semester) End Date.

Supported grade item types

The following Brightspace grade item types can sync with Skyward:

Numeric
Selectbox
Formula
Pass/Fail

Important: Calculated and Text grade items do not sync with Skyward SMS.

Properties of student grades exported to Skyward

When exporting student grades to Skyward, Brightspace sends the following information with each student grade:

Numeric score (Score in Skyward, not Grade)
Comment
Date of the last update to the score
Whether the student is exempt (No Score in Skyward)

Note: Brightspace Grade Schemes do not affect the transfer of grades. Whether grades are displayed as letters or percentages, Brightspace exports only the underlying numeric scores during synchronization.

Note: Skyward accepts student scores from Brightspace that exceed the maximum points.

Information that Brightspace does not send to Skyward

Brightspace does not export the following information about grades to Skyward:

Final grades
Late indicators on activities associated with grade items
Except for exemptions (No Count), Skyward Assignment student score statuses such as Special Code, Missing, and Absent
Student outcomes (standards, mastery results) data

Determining which categories, items, and student scores are exported to Skyward

Brightspace only exports new items and changes to Skyward during on-demand and nightly synchronization.

Grade items

A grade item is exported if any of the following conditions are met:

The grade item is new and has not previously been sent.
The grade item has been updated since it was last sent. This includes name, academic session, points, having been deleted, restored from being deleted, etc.
The grade item failed to be sent during the last export.
The parent category has been modified since the last export.

Student scores

A student’s score is exported if any of the following conditions are met:

The score is new and has not previously been sent.
The score has been updated since it was last sent.
The score failed to be sent during the last export.
The parent grade item or the parent category has been modified since the last export.

Populating a Brightspace grade book with existing categories and assignments from Skyward

Brightspace does not pull in Assignments from Skyward to populate the grade book of a course.

Avoiding problems when grades synchronize

Brightspace uses automated nightly synchronizations to simplify the transfer of grade items and scores while allowing for flexibility in grading processes.

Grade items in Brightspace and Assignments in Skyward

A grade item created in Brightspace creates a corresponding assignment in Skyward. Changes made to the Assignment name, description, max points, and due date settings in Skyward can be overwritten by the integration based on the equivalent properties in Brightspace. If changes to these properties are needed, either the teacher should make the changes in Brightspace or stop the grade item from being exported.

Since the integration does not connect Brightspace grade items to existing Skyward Assignments, those existing assignments and student scores can be modified independently, and the integration does not alter them.

Student scores

Students can be scored in either Brightspace or Skyward. However, if changes to scores are made in Brightspace, the integration overwrites scores in Skyward when grades are exported. If a teacher wishes to prevent changes to scores in Skyward from being overwritten by the integration, the teacher can stop the grade item from being exported.

Example: You create a quiz named Math Week 10 Quiz in Brightspace, and Brightspace exports it to Skyward. If you change a student’s score in Skyward, the integration overwrites that change with the score currently in Brightspace if it is updated there.

Customers typically transition slowly from needing teachers to enter all grades into Skyward, to a subset of teachers and courses exporting grades from Brightspace, and then to all teachers using Brightspace to record and export to Skyward. The integration ensures that:

Teachers can continue to record grades in Skyward for a subset of sections.
Teachers can use Brightspace as the source of truth for grades in some courses while using Skyward to enter grades in other sections.

Making sure grades are displayed uniformly to students in Brightspace and Skyward

If students or parents will see grades in both Brightspace and Skyward, align category properties, the grade items contributing to the final grade, and the grade display options across both systems.

Configure grade schemes in each system with the same settings: To show grades consistently in both systems, configure each system with the same display settings such as letters, points, or percentages.
Adjust final settings: Since all grade items sent to Skyward are automatically flagged (in Skyward) to be included in the final grade (unless exempt), adjust the appropriate settings in both systems. If a grade item is not sent to Skyward and the settings between the systems are different, the student may see different final grades between Brightspace and Skyward.
Exclude diagnostic/formative grades from the final grade in Brightspace: If a teacher is capturing additional grades in Brightspace to provide formative feedback to students, consider excluding the grade item from the final grade in Brightspace, and consider excluding it from being transferred to Skyward by removing the Academic Session from the grade item.
Apply the same weight to categories and items in both systems: In a weighted gradebook, set the weights of categories and items to be the same between systems so that students see the same category scores and calculation of final grade.

Deleting grade items and scores that are part of grades export

When grade items or student scores are deleted in Brightspace, the system sends corresponding “delete” messages to Skyward. However, Skyward does not automatically remove Assignments or scores in response. Teachers must manually delete the relevant items and scores directly within Skyward to maintain consistency between systems.

If a grade item is restored in Brightspace, its connection to the corresponding Skyward Assignment is also re-established. Teachers can resume scoring students, and those scores are successfully exported to Skyward and linked to the appropriate Assignment.

Important: Recreating a deleted grade item in Brightspace is not sufficient to re-establish the link with the original Skyward Assignment. To restore the connection, the teacher must restore the original grade item. Once restored, the link is reactivated, allowing scores to be exported to Skyward and correctly associated with the corresponding Assignment.

Administrator guide

This section explains how to perform administrator tasks to set up and maintain the integration.

How do I trigger the synchronization between Skyward and Brightspace before the nightly sync?

By default, Brightspace synchronizes with Skyward once daily. The synchronization occurs at a predetermined time of day.

If you need to sync changes to rostering data due to recent changes in your SIS, you can manually initiate a sync in Brightspace from the Dashboard in IPSIS Administration.

Important: Your role must have the following permissions in Brightspace to trigger syncs between IPSIS and Skyward:

IPSIS Administration > Access IPSIS Administration Console
IPSIS Administration > Manage IPSIS Bulk Operations

Trigger a synchronization between Brightspace and Skyward

To trigger a synchronization between Brightspace and Skyward:

Navigate to Admin Tools > IPSIS Administration.
Click the source system for the Skyward integration.
From the Dashboard tab, click Run Update Now.
IPSIS synchronizes changes from Skyward.

Troubleshooting manual synchronization problems

If the IPSIS Administration tool is not available to you or the option to run a sync is not available, contact your LMS administrator. Your role requires the following permissions:

IPSIS Administration > Access IPSIS Administration Console
IPSIS Administration > Manage IPSIS Bulk Operations

How do I enable teachers to export grades to Skyward?

LMS administrators can update permissions for teacher accounts so that they can export grades on demand from within the gradebooks of their courses.

Update permissions for teacher user roles so they can export grades

To make it so that teachers can export grades to Skyward:

Navigate to Admin Tools > IPSIS Administration.
Click the source system for the Skyward 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.
Navigate to Admin Tools > Roles and Permissions.
Find and click the role for teacher users.
From the Filter by Tool drop-down, select Grades.
Click Apply Filter.
In the Course Offering column, select the checkbox for the Export Grades permission.
Click Save and Close.

Once the configuration option is enabled, and teachers have the Grades > Export Grades permission, teachers can initiate a grades export to Skyward from within the Grades tool in their courses.

Troubleshooting teacher permissions

Teachers may not be able to see the Export to SIS button for any of the following reasons:

The user’s role does not have the Grades > Export Grades permission.
The integration is not configured to allow users to export.
The course was created manually in Brightspace and is not part of the integration with Skyward. To confirm this, search for the name of the course under the Audit Log tab of IPSIS Administration.

How do I stop grade changes in Brightspace from synchronizing with Skyward after grades are finalized at the end of the school year?

After the school year concludes, schools typically allow teachers a short window to finalize grades in both Brightspace and the SIS. Once grades are finalized, districts expect no further changes—reports are generated, and data is pulled into other systems for processing. Any changes to student grades after this point can lead to data inconsistencies.

To prevent new grade changes in Brightspace from being pushed to Skyward, you have several options:

Role-Based Permissions: Remove the Grades > Export Grades permission from teacher roles. This prevents teachers from manually pushing grade changes to the SIS after the finalization period.
Course Activation Control: If your school uses administrators to manually activate or deactivate courses (rather than relying on start/end dates), configure grade export settings to export grades only from active courses. This ensures that changes to grades in inactive courses are excluded from SIS exports. Additionally, ensure teachers do not have permission to manually export grades from course gradebooks.
Course Date-Based Control: If your integration uses start and end dates to manage course status, configure grade export settings to export grades only from courses that have started and not yet ended. Once a course reaches its end date, Brightspace stops exporting grade changes to Skyward. As with the previous method, teachers must not have permission to manually export grades from their course gradebooks.
Remove Academic Session from Grade Items: Teachers can remove the Academic Session association from each Brightspace grade item. Without this session link, IPSIS does not export the grade item or any associated student scores to Skyward.

Note: If you disable the Users with the “Export Grades” permission can export grades to the SIS setting but know that teachers will need to be able to export grades in the next term or semester, you must re-enable it at the beginning of the next school year.

Make Brightspace stop exporting grade changes at the end of the school year

To update Brightspace grade export options so that they no longer push changes to Skyward:

Navigate to Admin Tools > IPSIS Administration.
Click the source system for the Skyward integration.
Click the Configuration tab.
In the Grades Export section, do any of the following:
- To prevent teachers from pushing changes to the SIS, disable the Users with the “Export Grades” permission can export grades to the SIS setting.
- To make it so that Brightspace only exports grades from active courses, select Only export grades from active courses.
- If your integration is configured with start and end dates for courses, to export grades only from courses that have started and not ended, select Only export grades from courses that have started and not ended.
Click Save Configuration to save your changes.

Teacher guide

This section contains instructions on how teachers can perform common tasks as part of their work across Brightspace and Skyward.

How do I set up Brightspace grade categories to match Skyward?

Grade categories must be imported from Skyward into the gradebook of your Brightspace course. Once imported, you can associate grade items with these categories—this association is required for the grade items and student scores to be successfully exported to Skyward.

Enable export for a grade category in Brightspace

To import categories from Skyward:

In the Grades tool, click the Manage Grades tab.
From the More Actions button, click Sync Categories from SIS.
Categories that are available to your section in Skyward are added to your Brightspace gradebook.

Note: If you previously created grade categories in your Brightspace course that share the same names as those in Skyward, you may see duplicate categories after importing. To avoid this, it is recommended to import categories from Skyward when initially setting up your Brightspace gradebook. This ensures proper alignment between systems and helps prevent confusion or export issues later.

Troubleshooting missing export options

If the Sync Categories from SIS option is not visible, your course offering might not be included in the Brightspace–Skyward integration. To verify whether your course is managed by this integration, contact your LMS administrator for confirmation.

How do I set up a Brightspace grade item to be sent to Skyward?

Brightspace only sends data for grade items that are assigned to Academic Sessions and come from Course Offerings managed by the Brightspace–Skyward integration.

Set up a Brightspace grade item to sync with Skyward

To assign an Academic Session and Category to a grade item in Brightspace so it will sync with Skyward:

In the Grades tool, click the Manage Grades tab and find the grade item you want to update.
In the row for the grade item, click the options menu and then click Edit.
Choose the 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. The item in the list corresponds to the name of the term associated with your section in Skyward.
Click Save and Close to save your changes.

The grade item and student grades are now included in the export of grades to Skyward.

Troubleshooting missing grade association options

If the Academic Session field is not available, your course offering is not managed by the integration. Only courses managed by the Brightspace–Skyward integration can have course grades exported. Contact your LMS administrator to confirm if your course is part of the integration.

If you do not see the correct Skyward term in the list, this indicates a failure of the integration. Contact your LMS administrator for further support.

How do I verify which categories and grade items are enabled for export to Skyward?

Important: Only categories and grade items for courses created through the Brightspace–Skyward integration can be exported. If you do not know whether your course is managed by the integration, contact your Brightspace administrator for assistance.

You can verify which categories and grade items are enabled for export to Skyward from the Brightspace Grades tool. The system uses a SIS tag to identify categories that are enabled for syncing with Skyward, and term names to identify associated grade items that have also been enabled.

Confirm which categories and grade items are enabled for export to Skyward

To see which categories and grade items are enabled for export to Skyward:

In the Grades tool, click the Manage Grades tab.
Under the SIS Exports column, do the following:
- Verify that categories that were synced from Skyward have a SIS tag.
- Verify that grade items are associated with the correct term names.

How do I sync grades from my Brightspace course with Skyward?

Depending on settings configured by your administrator, Brightspace can export grades to Skyward nightly and when triggered manually by a teacher within a course offering. To know which options your school offers, contact your Brightspace administrator.

If your system administrator has granted your user role permission to do so, you can manually export grades on demand from the Brightspace Grades tool.

Manually export grades from Brightspace to Skyward

To manually export grades from Brightspace to Skyward:

In the Grades tool, click the Enter Grades tab.
Click Export to SIS. The Export Grades page opens.
Optionally, do any of the following:
- If you manage courses in multiple sections, use the Section drop-down list to select the correct section for the course you want to export grades for.
- If you manage courses across multiple academic sessions, use the Academic Session drop-down list to select the session for the course you want to export grades for.
The Overview section lists the Categories and Grade items for the Section and Academic Session you selected. If grades are configured for nightly syncs with Skyward, Scheduled Export is displayed.
To queue export of grades from your course, click Export. The page refreshes and opens the View All Exports page, where you can monitor exports triggered by users within the course. Your grades are exported once any other exports for other courses in the queue are complete.
Once the export is complete, click your export in the list to confirm the course name, export start and end dates, your username, a list of exported students, grade items, and scores, and any errors.

Troubleshooting missing grade updates in Skyward

If exported grade items do not appear in Skyward, do the following:

Confirm that grade items and categories are enabled for export to Skyward.
Check the Grade Export History page.

How do I view the history of grade exports for my course?

To see when different changes were sent to Skyward, you can review previous on-demand grades exports in the View All Exports page at any time.

Note: Grade changes exported as part of the nightly sync between Brightspace and Skyward do not appear on the Export History page.

Review grade export history

To view the history of grade exports triggered by users in your course offering:

In the Grades tool, click the Enter Grades tab.
Click Export to SIS.
In the upper-right of the page, click View Export History. The View All Exports page shows an overview of who sent the grades and when.
Click the name of the export you want to inspect to see the course name, export start and end dates, the user who initiated it, and a list of students, grade items, and scores.