Knowledge is ‘PowerSchool’ for CMCSS Parents, Students

Instead of signing the dotted line, parents and guardians of CMCSS students should be prepared to just sign on beginning with the first progress report of the year on August 27th. The School System introduced PowerSchool three years ago as an online tool for students and parents to get up-to-date student academic information.

Beginning this school year all progress reports and 9 week grade reports will be available online through PowerSchool, which provides secure and important information about student academic progress. If a parent does not have internet access, hard copies may be requested from a school. Parents who already have a PowerSchool “parent” password, will log into the system for the first time this school year by clicking on “Create an Account” and then follow the directions. The link is https://powerschool.cmcss.net/public/.

Students and parents have separate passwords, giving them access at different levels. Because of the sensitive information obtained through the parent password, parents can only get their access information by first going to the school to receive it. Many parents have used their children’s passwords to scan grade information, but a parent password will provide for weekly emailed updates, emails to and from their child’s teacher(s), and the ability to acknowledge receipt of grades. A parent password also will allow the setup of multiple children with a single log-on.

For parents who don’t have online access, a hard copy of progress reports and grade reports may be requested from the school.

During the 2009-10 school year, 28 percent of students’ parents logged in to PowerSchool at least once, and 67.4% of the students had at least one student log-in. Six schools piloted an all paperless grade reporting system last year. They were Montgomery Central Middle School, Northwest High , Northeast High, Barkers Mill Elementary, West Creek High and Rossview High.

A video about PowerSchool was produced by the CMCSS Parent Communications Group in conjunction with FOCUS WebTV. Go to http://focus.cmcss.net, click on Inside CMCSS, then click on “PowerSchool”.