Sycamore Education

Kommentare: Overall we were happy with Sycamore. I highly recommend them for smaller schools and it may be the right fit for larger schools. I think they just need to evaluate what workflows are most important to them and understand the trade-offs of having a wider than deeper program.

Vorteile: First of all, they have excellent customer service. They really are doing their best to help schools succeed. They have great integrations with google, which for us was one of the primary deciding reasons for going with them. They now have a quality app and more features than most programs have for a fraction of the cost. They also have a REST API which is extremely helpful for expanding the potential of the software.

Nachteile: One of the hard parts about being an educational software is that it is hard to know when to stop developing different​ features and instead focus on making the features they do have into amazing experiences. IMO Sycamore has a broader instead of deeper development philosophy. This is good for small schools that need a comprehensive solution, but it can be frustrating for schools with more users that end up choosing multiple solutions because the overall experience and depth of usability are better. An example of this is how they have 3 different enrollment/admissions portals that they have tried to develop. Instead of making one amazing, they have tried multiple times. Their most recent one is promising, but still,​ isn't​ usable for schools who need all of the features available.

Vorteile: Communication has increased between parents and teachers as grades can be tracked and paper grades don't get lost. It also has provided accountability in that teachers are posting grades on a more timely basis. It allows consistency between grades and years. The system is very powerful; customer service is probably the most helpful that I have encountered. I love the ability to create transcripts and that these are kept on the system. It tracks attendance much better than we were doing previously. The medical logs have been helpful. Doing online admissions has taken us to a new level as well.

Nachteile: The system isn't as intuitive as I would like. Because I have worked with it several years, it's much easier now and people end up coming to me to figure out how to do specific things with it.
I have been frustrated a bit b/c it doesn't allow for creative flexibility (for instance transcripts don't have a lot of space for extra activities) or for things that aren't the same in different countries. We have worked around a lot of the barriers, and Sycamore has been very helpful to put things on the list of potential fixes.

Kommentare: Centralized Student Records and Report Cards. Centralized Calendar and Attendance.

Vorteile: Moving from paper report cards a few years back to centralized report cards and student information through Sycamore has been an excellent transition. Their setup team worked to make it a smooth transition. We probably only use half of its functionality at this point but we saw immediate wins with a centralized calendar, documents and family data. The reporting functionality of the system is also very helpful. As we compared Sycamore to other SIS options, it became clear that it was one of the best values that we researched. The live US based tech support has been outstanding. Every staff person I have talked to knows the system well and has been extremely helpful. I highly recommend Sycamore.

Nachteile: The user interface can be difficult to navigate sometimes and find the exact feature you are looking for. It is an excellent School Information System (SIS) but we did realize that its functionality around lesson plans and curriculum is very basic.

Kommentare: 1. I would love to see you all at the Mid-Atlantic Convention in Lancaster PA. 2. I had a new family comment that they were telling a group of people their child was coming to the school. Someone in the group, who does not have a child at our school and we are not sure how they even know about the school, spoke up and said "Well they have Sycamore and it is a wonderful program!". Someone is talking!

Vorteile: 1, Very cost effective
2. You are purchasing all that the program has to offer. There are no additional fees for upgrades
3. Customer Service is awesome! Quick to respond, helpful and you can reach them by phone or PAN.
4. Very user friendly
5. HIGH HIGH rate of parent satisfaction with being able to access grades, teachers, one another, etc. All of them rave about the program!
6. Sycamore Leaf keeps us updated
7. Sycamore is always seeking to improve their program
8. PAN - we absolutely LOVE this feature. Our high school classrooms are in "learning cottages" aka trailers - and the teachers are separated. This feature allows all of us to feel so connected!

Nachteile: 1, Not too many or serious... we did notice that if you make a change on the family or student information (you have the mother's name wrong ex.) then when you correct it, you cannot do it in just one area, you have to go into multiple areas. 2. We had some issues with the GPA configuration. I did not deal with it, but I know our high school conselor had numerous phone calls and PAN' s to get it figured out properly. For some reason we now have to do something different to get our proper grading. 3. Getting my parents over the learning curve of using the program. It is frustrating to hear them say " We seldom check Sycamore" and in our memos and everything else we keep saying HOW MUCH we put on Sycamore and to check it out. Word of mouth is helping this... I hear parents telling other parents that they really need to use it, or someone asking another how they knew about something and they will say "on Sycamore" .

Kommentare: This database keeps all of our school management information secure and well-organized. There are fields for lots of information and the ability to add custom fields as well. There are features for organizing events, room use, cafeteria management, etc. It does allow teachers to record grades and the grades are then accessible by parents and report cards are easy to generate.

Vorteile: The support is fantastic. Trouble tickets are answered quickly and phone support is great.
The database is securely hosted on-line so it can be accessed anywhere and there is no set-up for a new computer.
The cafeteria feature works really well even with 24 teachers entering attendance / lunch orders at the same time.
Easy to send batch emails and individual emails to parents.

Nachteile: We don't use the "pass-a-note" feature very much. Sometimes parents use it and it comes up on the teacher's screen when they log-on in the morning.