Blackbaud Tuition Management vs. Gradelink Student Information System

Smart Tuition is a good platform for schools that want to incorporate the financial aid application process and billing together. Parent use is easy to navigate, and it reduces the time spent by school staff to manage accounts. In a school where the financial aid application process is not done by a third party, Smart Tuition may not be the option they are looking to implement.

Incentivized

Gradelink is easy to use and keeps students and parents informed of the student's progress in a class. It is an excellent tool to foster communication between the teacher and the parent. Gradelink is very user-friendly and offers a variety of tools to assist the teacher in grading assignments. The teacher may select between points or percentages as well as provide a narrative for the parent to see what a particular assignment encompassed.

• Website is easy to navigate
• Customer service is very professional and helpful
• Multiple options for making payments and setting up accounts

Incentivized

• Ease of use. The interface is very user-friendly, and not intimidating to those who are not IT specialists.
• Data Management. We use Gradelink to keep all our student records current and available.

• I have been happy with Smart Tuition and have not had any issues.

Incentivized

• I wish I had a better system for tracking student specific notes (behavioral).
• I wish the admin platform and the teacher platform weren't so different, so I could learn more from teachers (who use Gradelink even more than I do).

There can be some added items such as the ability to add and differentiate assignments.

I use FACTS in my role at work, and my children's school uses Smart Tuition. I am more familiar with Smart Tuition as a parent, but it seems to be a good solution for the high school. Since we do the financial aid in-house at my school of employment, FACTS works better for us.

Incentivized

Gradelink SIS has a lot more helpful and useful features for teachers, admin, and staff. First, it has lesson plans and state standards integration which is a great help for teachers. With this feature, teachers don't have to worry about standards being in place for each lesson plan.

Incentivized

• Excellent tracking of accounts for the school
• Customer service interacts with the parents' questions
• One system for the school staff to manage

Incentivized

• Fosters Communication
• Ease of use