PowerSchool

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.