Performance Matters Basics
Overview
Performance Matters is one of the many applications offered by PowerSchool. Performance Matters Assessment, Analytics and Intervention bring together all student data in one integrated platform allowing a holistic view of student data trends.
Assessment allows teachers to create online assessments that have technologically-enhanced items or upload answer sheets for scoring. All assessment scores integrate with Analytics and with Gradebook in PowerSchool Teacher.
Analytics brings assessment data together with other performance indicators such as attendance and discipline for a holistic view of each student. Analytics allows users to guide instruction by using relevant data, and measure outcomes with data-driven insights that reflect the impact on student outcomes. Analytics also contains early warning indicators that can alert staff to the need to intervene. Reports can be viewed, downloaded, and/or shared securely with key stakeholders.
Intervention allows SRBI Coordinators to track progress of students in intervention and share data with classroom teachers, PPS, support staff, the school-based data team, or other key stakeholders.
Logging in
Log in to PowerSchool Teacher or Admin. In the upper right corner, look for the icon with an arrow below your name.
After selecting that icon, click on the link to Performance Matters.
Landing Page (MyDashboard)
The view on your landing page will differ depending on your access level.
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Classroom and content area teachers have access to the data for students on their roster as determined by the PowerSchool setup.
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Art, music, and PE teachers have access to all students.
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Principals, Specialists and PPS staff have access to all students and school data.
To return to the landing page at any time, click on the “Performance Matters” logo in the top left corner.
Landing Page (MyDashboard) Features
News & Assignments tab
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Video tutorials about navigating the dashboard and how to use advanced features are located here.
Shared Reports tab:
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Access reports shared with you by other users on this tab.
Student Details
By entering a student’s name and clicking the blue bar titled “Go to student detail”, you land on the Student Details page. Here you will find information pertaining to a particular student including: intervention data, schedules, test results, attendance, grades and early warning indicators.
Baseball Card Report
On the landing page, select Reports to view the Baseball Card Report.
The Baseball Card Report is a “build your own” report to compare student performance based on multiple measures.
Adding data to the report
On the left select the Resource folder to drill down to the data you want added to the report on the right. Check the boxes next to the data. Most folders contain achievement data, but the Early Warning Indicators’ folders include achievement, attendance and discipline data.
Use “Manage Columns” to add demographic data to the report.
Filtering
If you want the report to display a select group of students, select Add Student Filter to narrow (Restrict) your selection. ***Your available filters will depend on your level of access.***
Changing the Column Order
Drag and drop column headers to reorder the columns.
Removing Entire Columns
Click the “x” in the top right corner of any column header to delete the column of data. Or uncheck the box you selected on the left.
Removing Rows of Blank Data
To remove blank rows of data, click a white box below a column header. A red diagonal line will appear. Click “Apply swatching”. Please be aware that when swatching is applied to a column, the rows with no data are removed, even if the other columns contained data for those students.
Sorting
Click the carets next to the white boxes to sort the data.
Performance Level Color Coding
When assessments have associated performance levels, color coding will enable you to view students by level, and limit the levels you view. You can filter by color coded levels by applying swatching.
Sharing
Click the Share button to share your report with other users. The system will automatically generate a URL for you to copy and paste into an email. When the recipient of the email clicks on the URL, they will get a report showing them only the students for whom they have access according to their role.
The shared link is dynamic. If additional students were to become part of that report’s group (such as a new student who enrolls) even after you create the link, those students are automatically added to the report.
Downloading
After a report is created it can be downloaded to Excel. The Excel file is static meaning it will not automatically update and everyone who views it will see the same students in the file despite their access level.
Viewing intervention data
You can use a variety of methods to access intervention data.
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You can navigate to student details using a variety of methods. From the dashboard a user with principal access can select the “Schools” tab, then a specific teacher. You can filter to the students currently enrolled in interventions by selecting the blue-green “Int” attribute. Next, select a particular student to view the Student Details page.
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From the dashboard, you can search for a specific student and view the student’s detail page.
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You can also navigate to the Student Details page by selecting a student’s name from the Baseball Card report.
Once at the Student Details page, select the Intervention tab in the middle of the page. The interventions in which the student has been enrolled in for the year will be listed. Select View Chart to view progress monitoring information.