What happens when you sign in
Skylight signs in to Skyward as you, reads the same pages you can read, and does the math somewhere nicer.
You give Skylight your Skyward login
The same username and password you use for Plano ISD Skyward. Skylight uses it for one thing: signing in to Skyward as you.
It signs in and reads your pages
It follows the district sign-in chain, then reads the screens you would have read yourself: grades, assignments, attendance, schedule, academic history. No extension and no automated browser. It talks to Skyward directly.
It works the grades out again
Assignments get grouped into their categories and weighted the way your course weights them. That is why a grade moves when you change an assignment, and it is what makes what-if work at all.
You pick what gets kept
Guest mode keeps everything in the tab and saves nothing. An account keeps your Skyward login and grades encrypted. On top of that you can let a background job check for you. Each option says what it costs before you pick it.
Changes find you
Every sync gets compared with the last one. New grades turn into one-line summaries in your activity feed, a desktop notification if a tab is open, and a push notification on your phone if you asked for it.
No email, because your Skyward login is the proof
You sign in with a Skylight username, which starts out as your Skyward username. There is no email address and nothing to verify. A working school login already proves who you are, and the app needs it anyway.
Signing up
Creating an account signs in to Skyward once. If that fails, no account gets made. You pick a Skylight username and password. One account per student.
Forgot your password?
Sign in to Skyward again. Skylight recognises the student behind that login and lets you set a new password. No email round-trip, because there is no email.
Changing your mind
Background alerts go on and off in Settings whenever you like. Turning them off deletes the extra key copy, and Delete everything wipes the rest.
What happens on a refresh
A sync signs in, reads the small screens first and the grade detail after, and skips anything that has not changed. A normal refresh does a fraction of the work of the first load.
- The first sync may run in two passes, and you can watch it happen
- Courses that have not changed are skipped
- Anything new is compared against the last snapshot to build your activity feed
- With background alerts on, the same job runs every 15 minutes without you
- AP Calculus BC 100 on Unit 2 Exam 90.3 → 91.5 +1.2 2m
- AP Calculus BC 44/50 on Derivative quiz 91.5 → 91.1 −0.4 1h
- AP Physics 1 96 on Lab report 87.4 → 88.2 +0.8 3h
- English III 88 on Essay 2 95.4 → 94.9 −0.5 Yesterday
Every change also lands in your browser or on your phone, in the same shape.
Where this can go wrong
Skylight reads Skyward's own website. If the district changes how that site works, Skylight can stop working until someone updates it. It is unofficial, it only supports Plano ISD Skyward logins, and it cannot do anything your own Skyward account cannot.
It also inherits Skyward's security ceiling. Anyone who knows a student's Skyward login can already read everything Skylight shows by signing in to Skyward directly, and could use that login to reset that student's Skylight password.
Try it on your own grades
Sign in with your Skyward login, or use guest mode, which saves nothing.