PowerSchool integration and admin change of lead teacher on a class

[LindaBrock]

Seeking advice on how to handle Canvas when the lead teacher on a class section in our PowerSchool SIS changes (for example when someone goes on medical leave and the class is taken by a long-term sub).

We have the OneRoster plug-in in PowerSchool handling the sync of our SIS data to Canvas, and use PowerSchool as our authoritative grade source, so all assignments and scores pass back to the PowerTeacher Pro gradebook.

How do we handle Canvas so the new teacher gains full access to the existing assignments and scores already entered for the class? 

I have reviewed the process for cross-listing, which Canvas seems to say is the only way this can be addressed; but it also seems to require that the new teacher have an existing target course to cross-list the first teacher's class to. We don't want to create a new class section in our SIS, and have to drop and re-enroll the students there. What's the best way to handle this?

[tmacarthur]

This used to be a bigger problem for us before OneRoster. In the past, switching the lead teacher on a section would trigger the creation of new canvas classes. An admin would have to crosslist the sections back to the original class, manually change the name of the class to reflect the new teacher, and potentially move all assignments out of the assignment groups, delete the assignment groups linked to PT Pro, and then re-import the groups from PowerSchool. 

This year, we had a permanent teacher take over from a long term sub. The new class wasn't created, and the permanent teacher renamed the class to reflect their last name (instead of the long term sub). The only issue we had was needing to re-link grade passback to categories that belonged to the permanent teacher instead of the original. They didn't lose access to any assignments, content, scores, etc.

[LindaBrock]

Hello tmacarthur, thanks for the feedback; as a Canvas novice, I want to be sure I understand. You were able to change the Lead Teacher on the PowerSchool sections after the term had started, and in Canvas the new permanent teacher had full access to the existing Course and just had to reconfigure the Category Sync back to the PowerTeacher Pro gradebook?

[NicoletteStaley]

The best option is to cross-list the sections that were moved to the new teacher's empty course into the original course that contains the assignments and grades.  Then the student work and grades will be retained since submissions and grades are part of the course and not the section.  The new teacher would also have access the the original course (since they are enrolled in the section that was cross-listed). 

[LindaBrock]

Just to clarify - to follow this process we would need to create a new class section in our SIS (with no students enrolled in it) assigned to the new teacher, then cross-list that empty course section in Canvas to the original teacher's course that already contains assignments and grades? 

If that is the case it sounds like it would work if we wanted to keep the original teacher as the teacher of record in our SIS - and I assume the grades would still post back successfully to the SIS gradebook under that original teacher's identity. But can you advise what to do if we need to have the replacement teacher be the teacher of record, i.e. we need to reassign the sections to that person in our SIS?

[melodyc_lam]

@LindaBrock 

In PowerSchool, simply assign the new Teacher of Record term dates from the day they start to the day that they end the term. For the old teacher of record make sure they have an end date of the day before the start date of the new Teacher of Record.

This should avoid the need for crosslisting. The new ToR should get the old teacher's course and the students without any action on your part. If not, then crosslisting should finish the job and get everything squared away.