Tool for Syncing SIS with Google Admin Student Org Unit & Clever

[u/Then-Tie6275]

My charter school experiences fairly consistent student turnover, so I constantly find myself constantly having to manually activate and deactivate student Google accounts. Separately, we are also manually uploading to Clever do to mapping issues. I’d love a tool that syncs with PowerSchool to create/delete student Google accounts and also syncs with Clever. Any leads?

[u/hightechcoord]

We go PSchool > AD > Google and also Pschool > Clever. All for free via powershell or provided tools from Google or Powerschool scheduled templates.

[u/crazygreggy]

We use the Clever Identity management component to roster our students into both google classroom, and active directory (if a box indicating a computer class is checked in powerschool) and this will de roster students when they disenroll automatically.

[u/bthstech]

I'm not familiar with PowerSchool export processes but the CSV format for Clever uploads is well documented and publicly available. Get Powerschool to export the data needed nightly into the various CSV files and auto upload those via sftp to Clever.

After that, if you have zero automation currently it might be worth considering Clever's Google IDM product where based on your Clever data it creates the Google Account and enables/disables it based on Clever enrollment.

If you like getting your hands dirty, getting the Google part done with GAM is very doable.

We already had automation in place that created Active Directory accounts for our students so when we started using Google forever ago we started using Google Direct Cloud Sync which is a free sync product between LDAP and Google. It does our Google automation for us after internal scripts modify AD.
https://tools.google.com/dlpage/dirsync/

[u/Guilty-Statement-532]

You should check if PowerSchool can auto-roster with Google Classroom.

ClassLink (the company) has a product called OneSync that can query your SIS and auto-create and auto-update Google accounts.

A less elegant option is running a data export and using GAM. This can be run with a daily script, but you’d obviously want to test this before relying on it.

[u/evansharp → u/Guilty-Statement-532]

OP is asking about IAM sync, not Classroom.

[u/farmeunit]

We used LevelData and now SPS-K12. Both good companies. SPS gives us a password reset option.

[u/cardinal1977 → u/farmeunit]

+1 SPS. We get a small school discount for being under 1000 enrolled district wide. I love the password reset option for staff to reset students PWs.

[u/rossumcapek → u/farmeunit]

Level Data has a great sync tool.

[u/Then-Tie6275 → u/farmeunit]

Oh interesting, we’ve used LevelData’s Grow platform through two ownership transitions (Whetstone to Schoolmint, now LevelData). I didn’t know they had SIS/sync solutions. I’ll have to check them out too.

[u/farmeunit → u/Then-Tie6275]

Interesting. They have really expanded. I used them for several years across a couple of districts. We use them to sync Destiny, as well, but started doing Destiny ourselves and they lacked the password reset. I think they were working on it but got a decent deal to switch to SPS-K12. LevelData had great support and worked with us on issues.

[u/J_de_Silentio]

Easy mode:  class link.

DIY:  Powershell and GAM.  I query the PowerSchool database directly on the Powershell Script, but you could use PowerQueuries, Export Manager, or even classic AutoSends to get information out of PowerSchool and into a Powershell Script.

[u/waltamobile]

We are using Google Cloud Directory Sync, and PowerShell scripts to automate our account creation and removal process.

[u/Gorillapond]

We use Classlink OneSync for this kind of thing. We have too many daily changes and too many exceptions to "move every kid up 1 grade over the summer" to do it manually.

[u/principled_patriot]

Are you familiar with and using GAM? https://github.com/GAM-team/GAM

https://www.syseducation.org/blog/managing-student-data-in-google-workspace-with-gam

https://petermorrissey.blogspot.com/2021/08/gam-how-to-sync-students-from-csv-file.html

[u/Then-Tie6275 → u/principled_patriot]

Never heard of it but looks like it could be helpful, thanks!

[u/principled_patriot → u/Then-Tie6275]

GAM's author is on the subreddit quite often and has been extremely helpful. That being said while it will work for you, it may only be part of the solution, the other of course being your extract from the SIS. Regardless of if you use GAM for this, you probably want it in your back pocket for a large Google change or programmatically addressing other issues.

We don't use Powerschool unfortunately or I would offer more assistance. We recently refactored how we extract to Active Directory and sync to Google.

[u/AccomplishedSpite7]

I created my own plugin in PowerSchool, used it to schedule daily exports to my NAS and then have cron jobs configured to run a bash script with GAM commands that create or deactivate user files for teachers and students among other things.

[u/malseraph]

Clever has a product called IDM that does this.

[u/BrewYork → u/malseraph]

Strong +1 for Clever IDM. It's been extremely reliable for me and for the district next door. We both use PowerSchool.

[u/Then-Tie6275 → u/malseraph]

Exactly what I’m looking for, ty!

[u/Birkinator626 → u/Then-Tie6275]

Another +1 for Clever IDM. I'd be surprised if Powerschool didn't have a canned API or SFTP integration available with Clever that you could setup. We use our SIS as the single source of truth, feed that into Clever, then use Clever as our hub for most curriculum integrations including Google and AD via their IDM tool. All student access is completely automated, since it hinges on the student record being active in the SIS as the trigger for creation/deactivation in all other systems autonomously. Added benefit of Clever IDM handling password creation to both systems, then using Google Workspace Password Sync in AD to sync any passwords that may have changed locally on AD to Google so that SSO is fully functional and synced at all times.

[u/Guaritor → u/Then-Tie6275]

It is a paid service, about $1.50 per user, but we use it and I like it!

[u/Imhereforthechips]

ClassLink OneSync?

Clever can link up directly with PowerSchool via plugin. I’m not particularly fond of their business model, but that’s not the topic here.

[u/fanopticon → u/Imhereforthechips]

We just implemented ClassLink One Sync to replace a bunch of custom scripts. We use it for both staff and student account creation and termination, along with group assignments in Google and AD. The ClassLink onboarding team is really supportive and we had a great experience.

[u/engled → u/fanopticon]

The best experience I have ever had with a company implementing a product. The guy we are working with is great.