PowerSchool Erfahrungen

PowerSchool: Nice Interface and Easy to Use Features

Kommentare: Overall, PowerSchool offers an easy to navigate attendance and grading system for schools. They have done a nice job with the layout in that most things are easy to find and where you would be expected to find them. There are many customizations available at the district level, so successful implementation will also be dependent on your district set up and ensuring that they are getting input from the appropriate stakeholders.

Vorteile:

My school district switched over to PowerSchool about a year and a half ago. I now use it for grades, attendance, lunch counts, reports, and many other things. What I like most about PowerSchool is the interface. As a teacher, when I log in, the initial screen shows the things I use on a daily basis- attendance, lunch count, and contact information. I like that it is set up in a way that the things I use the most are right there. There is then an additional menu called "Power Teacher Pro" that is used for things like grade entries and reports that I might use more on a monthly basis. The report options offer lots of different variables and allows the user to create PDF, excel, and other types of files. Having these different options has been helpful.

Nachteile:

The user experience has been a positive one for me. However, the initial training we received could use some improvement. The training modules are fairly dry to sit through and can be confusing to navigate.

Great for employee training!

Vorteile:

We loved using Powerschool for new employee training. It had so much to offer and was very easy to use!

Nachteile:

There is nothing that I dislike about Powerschool.

PowerSchool Education Tool

Vorteile:

I like that PowerSchool is a one stop shop for many different things. I primarily used PowerSchool to give assessments for my students and track their progress. My school also had me track HB1416 students' hours using PowerSchool and it was a good centralized place that everyone could easily access. Inputting grades is also easy and efficient.

Nachteile:

One thing that I do not like is how essay question answers are displayed. As an English Teacher, we often write essays and they are frequently on tests. When I go to grade them, I cannot see but a small portion of the essay at one time. It's difficult to read the essay in one go. I also am unable to leave feedback or make comments.

I used this software in middle school and starting sophomore year in high school.

Kommentare: I think this was a significant upgrade from the software my school used to use for grading, although that software did have the grade calculation function that we wished PowerSchool had. The best thing about now using PowerSchool is that it doesn't crash as easily and it's easier to see grades at a glance. Additionally, teachers can make announcements and that function has been really helpful for my school as a whole.

Vorteile:

My favorite function in this software is that you can submit assignments through this and it will send you an email update that lets you know that it was turned in. This is helpful because sometimes teachers don't notice that something was turned in and will count it late and this way students have a way to back up their claim that it isn't late. I also really like that teachers can do things like vocab tests and simple multiple choice tests that self-grade and auto-input the grades because it's less work for both the teacher and the student and it's a fast turnaround. The third thing that I like about this software is that you can look at the calendar on the landing page and immediately see which assignments are more urgent (in terms of due dates). This makes our lives a lot easier because that way we don't have to write all the dates down for the assignments we have yet to complete.

Nachteile:

The software will sometimes crash and give us a picture of a cat with a ball of yarn and say that it's just tangled up, which gets frustrating because a lot of people my age obsessively check their grades and remind themselves of assignments, and we get very fidgety and stressed out if we can't see the grades because of all the things that could be being updated but that we just aren't able to see. Also, as far as my school's use of this software goes, we can't test to see what our grade would be if we get a certain grade on another assignment that the teacher has assigned point values to already. This is a function available in some other softwares in this category so students get frustrated that it's possible but the school makes it so we have to use outside resources to figure it out, or just our general math knowledge, when it could be much easier.

The best I've seen

Kommentare: I have used PowerSchool for about eight of my 15 years teaching. I would recommend it for any school. I would say one of the best features is being able to see my students' schedules, the grades they have for their classes, and a breakdown of their assignments. As a resource teacher, I often work with students who require credit recovery. It's so nice being able to see exactly how they're doing in their classes. It makes counseling and organizing so much easier.

Vorteile:

I have been teaching for 15 years and have gone through many school management systems. PowerSchool is by far the best one. I am able to take attendance, keep track of grades, access communication information for the student, I can see their schedule, their grades for each class and what they are missing in that class. Everything I need is in PowerSchool. It's visually appealing, and easy to navigate.

Nachteile:

I teach resource classes and often have several different grade levels in one class. This is set up as multiple classes with the same period number. I wish I could combine those so my attendance page and my grade book aren't so messy.

Very easy to use program

Kommentare: It makes looking up birth dates, parent/guardian names, addresses, phone numbers, attendance, etc. very simple and easy.

Vorteile:

I like that PowerSchool is so easy to understand and use. I am on PowerSchool daily to complete IEPs, to contact parents, or to check attendance of my students. It's easy to click the area you need and find your information. PowerSchool also gives me the capability to run reports on students so I can check for behavior referrals, print classroom rosters, and more. I can also submit my hearing screening results easily and it makes a great place to house all of the hearing information for my students.

Nachteile:

The system logs me out after a short period of inactivity. I wish it would allow me to stay logged in longer, but perhaps this is a setting on my corporation's end and not PowerSchool itself. I really have no complaints about PowerSchool, so writing cons is difficult. It's a great, easy to use program.

Does the job, could be better

Vorteile:

You can see your grades at a glance and this is really convenient for students. You can make submissions through Google Drive without relinquishing your ownership of the document like Google Classroom does (I understand the premise of that strategy, but it's majorly inconvenient).

Nachteile:

Unlike in Canvas, you can't test what kind of grades you'll need on weighted assignments to maintain a certain overall grade. The UI/UX are also designed kind of poorly and my school frequently gets errors saying that PowerSchool is undergoing development. I never get those messages from Canvas. It's also extremely frustrating that I can't submit documents from Google Drive if they're in a Team Drive, whether or not they're owned by me.

Great for students and teachers

Kommentare: PowerSchool keeps students accountable for monitoring their progress. Most check it and use it on a daily basis.

Vorteile:

I've used this software as both a student and as a teacher, and have always appreciated it. When I was in middle school and high school I would check my grades on PowerSchool, and it was always very convenient and easy to use. Now that I am a teacher, I like that I can easily upload grades and print reports through it. It is so smooth and quick to use and is a great way to develop communication between parents, teachers, and students.

Nachteile:

It's a really good software and I don't have any major complaints. One downside is that students complain about the app being difficult to use and say that it crashes often.

Powerschool review

Kommentare: Great information tool to keep tabs on student progress...ideal for a parent to monitor their kiddos grades and attendance at it's base level. Great mobile app!

Vorteile:

This is a nice program to gather all of a students information in one place. The reports are very detailed showing as much information as is put into it.

Nachteile:

Some of the attendance reports are challenging to read all of the various codes down at the bottom of the screen, seemingly only separated by commas. The information is only as good as the administrator and has a lot of possibilities for expansion if the administrator chooses to do so. In our case, it is way underutilized.

Excellent for grading/attendance, and reporting

Vorteile:

The versatility. It provides many needed reports, such as attendance, honor rolls, and even connects to Cognos reporting. Report cards are easily printed.

Nachteile:

I have found that the fields we see for student information are quite limited. Our system talks to our SIS, so it may be an issue there, but perhaps there's a way to customize your SIS fields to make it more expansive that I just don't know of yet...

PowerSchool

Vorteile:

I am able to view real-time grades for my children to know where there struggles are before the end of the marking period. Very user friendly.

Nachteile:

No issues thus far

Powerschool

Kommentare: Powerschool is a really helpful tool for me and my kids and all of my problems have been resolved.

Vorteile:

What I liked most about Powerschool is that I can easily find my child's account and if they have an insufficient lunch balance I can put money into their account online

Nachteile:

What I expected more of from Powerschool was remembering my login information. Recently, I tried logging in with my username and password and it said it doesn't remember my device.

The Worst Report Card Software - Ever!

Kommentare: Frustrating and infuriating. This program is way too complex for people that do not have a computer background or a programming background. It was not designed for the end-user in mind. For that reason, it should not be used in elementary school.

Vorteile:

Absolutely nothing. Myself and my colleagues are literally typing our report cards in word documents or Google docs and copying and pasting them into this program because we have no other choice. See below

Nachteile:

This software is so difficult to use. PowerSchool owned our previous software which was user friendly and specific to the needs of Ontario teachers… then they decided to stop supporting that program and encouraged our board to go with this new program. First, everything is in a very small font. The ‘comment’ window that you type in is in a black background making it equally difficult to see. The comment window does not expand to the whole screen…it might expand to 30% of the screen, which means you can never view your whole comment while you are working. There is no way to quickly preview what you were typing or to see if you have enough room for the comment. Everything in the drop-down menus is in code and not in user-friendly recognizable words. My report cards have now taken an extra 50 hours and I’ve only got through five kids with 21 more to go. Also there was no training provided for teachers beyond watching a one hour webinar. I’ve read other peoples reviews and it seems like there was lots of training involved. Quite frankly there are way too many things in this program that do not and would not be used by a classroom teacher.

Easy transition

Kommentare: My school loves using PowerSchool. It is so versatile. Every level teacher can use the program. My work is in the office and I managed the program by inputting the students, setting up the classes and did the rollover each year. I enjoyed learning every part of the program. It was a rewarding challenge. It was a pleasure to introduce the staff to PowerSchool.

Vorteile:

I LOVED the videos that trained me in every step as I was in charge of the transition to PowerSchool for our school. I worked with our contact from PowerSchool who walked me through the data set up and transfer of our students information. Working with her was very helpful, but for the fine tuning I returned over and over to the videos to reinforce knowledge of the program. I loved turning around and training the schools staff in the use of PowerSchool by being able to tell them specifically which videos applied to them so they were brought up to speed very quickly, then if they had the desire they could go on to learn more. Each teacher was able to do the minimum required by our board and many of the younger teachers delved in even further for a more robust experience.

Nachteile:

The process of beginning our school on PowerSchool was a bit difficult because the consultant assigned to my school seemed to make assumptions maybe based on other schools she had worked with? This was done without my input which resulted in my needing to go in and hand make some changes int eh initial data transfer which took a large amount of time.

Great option for districts!

Kommentare: Great to use, countless features, up-to-date, etc. I highly recommend it!

Vorteile:

PowerSchool is a phenomenal option for managing student data. Here are the pros I see with the software: - easy-to-use for newcomers - tons of features and layers of data management - great customer support and help videos. They even offer a site where you can make suggestions and upvote ideas that could be released in future updates. - updated, web-based gradebook platform - really just a great one-stop-shop for almost all of your SIS needs

Nachteile:

They have gone through some major updates, which thew some people for a loop, but I think they were needed and necessary. I do not have any major complaints really.

PowerSchool for Substitute Teacher

Kommentare: I have found PowerSchool very easy to use as a substitute teacher. Even when I sub for multiple teachers in one day, I can easily log in with my substitute login details to different teachers' classrooms. It has made it much easier for me to remember student names, as the ID pictures of students are paired with their names, and I can also review teacher-made seating charts on PowerSchool. I have found this attendance software much easier than the paper systems used by other school districts I have worked for.

Vorteile:

I am a substitute teacher for a charter school that encompasses three schools: elementary, middle, and high school. PowerSchool's login page for me makes it very easy to switch between the schools, as I can log into all three schools from the same login page. Most of my work on powerschool is attendance, so I don't use all administrative features of the site, but as a substitute, I have my own login page that gives me access to class rosters for the specific teachers I'm subbing. This makes attendance easier and gives me access to student ID photos so I don't have to struggle with students names.

Nachteile:

As a sub, I don't have access to the grades in powerschool, so i only have partial access to the site. However, I don't need that access, as I am not responsible for students grades. My access is appropriate to my position.

PowerSchool is the the BEST school information system out available

Kommentare: I would be lost without this software.

Vorteile:

Our schools have been using this SIS since 2008. PowerSchool is very intuitive and easy to learn. I provide tech support to our school office and teacher users. The parents and students also have accounts to log in and verify grades, attendance, school bulletin messages and more. Updates and edits made by teachers and office staff are in Real Time so the data is always up to date.

Nachteile:

PowerSchool university is expensive training. It is very good training though.

Love this Program!

Kommentare: Overall, this system is quick, easy, and very well set up. I would recommend Powerschool to anyone to use for special education tracking and documentation.

Vorteile:

PowerSchool is super helpful for special education legal documents. It contains documents for IEPs, evaluations, invitations, MDRs, etc. All drop down menu friendly. It also tracks the dates and timelines for special education students. There are also sections for parent communication, service capture, etc.

Nachteile:

I wish so badly there were 504 forms within Power School. Having all special education and 504 forms in one place would be helpful. I also don't like that only one person can be working in the page at one time. With multiple providers, this gets hectic when trying to meet timelines together. There can be a lag in the system for when someone gets out of the document too keeping the page locked.

Decent All-in-One

Kommentare: I have been using it for five or more years. It has definitely changed some in that time, which has required some adjustment. Overall, it is a great program for putting a lot of information into the same area rather than having several programs to do different aspects of the teaching job. It is fairly easy to use most of the time, but definitely requires some detailed training or a lot of playing if you have never used it before.

Vorteile:

I like that I can take attendance, grade, create data sheets, and more all in the same program. It makes it so that we don't have to learn several programs and try to manually combine our information.

Nachteile:

Sometimes it isn't clear where you need to go in order to change or find certain items. It took some playing to find out where to go for things like weighing grades or finding the grades of students who dropped or switched classes.

Student management software

Kommentare: PowerSchool has streamlined the attendance process in our system. This software enables the user to provide information about individual students, record attendance and behavioral issues and record grades simply and easily.

Vorteile:

This platform allows you to take attendance, make special notations and record grades all using the same program.

Nachteile:

The software can be a little temperamental. An administrator that understands all of the elements needs to manage the implementation, and oversee the utilization.

A lot of features but often too cumbersome

Vorteile:

PowerSchool has almost anything you would ever need to know about your students stored in a single place. It is by far one of the most sophisticated student management systems I have ever used. I like how easy it is to look up a student and get relevant data ASAP.

Nachteile:

There is almost too much in PowerSchool. PowerSchool is not set-up for you to be able to contact a support rep to get questions answered. Your district has to pay for each person who is designated a PowerSchool contact person. This person then becomes you sole liaison between you and a very complicated product. Simply put PowerSchool is powerful, but way too complicated it you want to do anything more than simple reporting.

Power School - a LMS that has everything

Kommentare: We implemented this year after piloting a few components last year. It was been very smooth

Vorteile:

Our school decided to switch our LMS to powerschool because of it's ability to do payroll and other business office functions. It truly is an all in one solution and our teachers/ instructional staff are happy because they truly get the education side of things.

Nachteile:

It is expensive but worth it. You won't find another LMS that has everything integrated on the business and academic side of things.

Expensive but powerful

Kommentare: Due to the expense, my school doesn’t use all of the products offered by Powerschool, so my experience is not as fruitful.

Vorteile:

I like the scope of the products they offer, from LMS to ATS, Records management and evaluation cycles.

Nachteile:

It is too expensive for a small or growing school to justify.

PowerSchool helps Teachers in Multiple Ways

Vorteile:

I use PowerSchool daily. I take attendance in PowerSchool, I use the seating charts, and I enter all of my grades in PowerSchool. I love that my school can upload student pictures. I have nearly 130 students, so it's helpful to be able to see their faces to learn their names. Setting up assignments and entering grades is super easy and you can weight your assignments, you can add extra credit, and you can have PowerSchool figure out final grades, etc. I think it's very useful for anyone who teaches.

Nachteile:

I like everything about the software, I find it invaluable in my day to day life.

Easy To Use and Organize

Vorteile:

At it's very basic usage, Powerschool is simple to learn and easy to use to take and record attendance, lunch count, tardies, etc. My favorite feature is the customizable options for grading! This has helped me to have accountability and provide proof for parents of grades, missing, and completed assignments.

Nachteile:

Powerschool is easy on the teacher's end, but a little trickier on the parent end. There are more hoops to jump through and I find the parent view is not as friendly as the teacher view.