iGradePlus vs. PowerSchool Student Information System

The program works very well for me, even though I am the only one in my school to use it. My colleagues are Thai, and they would have a difficult time working with this English program. Also, there is quite a bit of the program that deals with parental contact and other items used more in a United States school system that wouldn't work here very well.

PowerSchool Student Information System is a cool software that can be highly recommended to anyone who is living in the educational management space. It is proven that this software can reduce your manual workload massively if you use it right. Plus it is really worth the price you pay. Especially if you are in the administrative field, this software will help you to minimize manual efforts put into student registrations, staffing recruitment, and main resource management processes.

Incentivized

• It's record keeping function is robust in its free version.
• Client support is very responsive.
• It's set up guide is thorough.
• The homepage with the news feed is clean and easy on the eyes.

• PowerSchool houses student or staff information that can be easily accessed by those teachers and administrators who need the information. This allows everyone to go to one place to access information.
• Parents can view their child's grades at any time with their protected login on a parent portal. This allows teachers to keep parents informed and involved in their child's progress at school. When everyone works together it increases our students' chance for success.
• PowerSchool offers videos to train new users. When we have new employees, the videos can be accessed at any time the employee needs as opposed to them waiting for someone to help them.

Incentivized

• The transcript templates need to be improved.
• I would love to see them add services for canteen management (point of sale).
• I would love to see them add services for library management (circulation).

• Does not consistently communicate with related software such as Illuminate for Special Education Students.
• Drop down menus frequently refresh as data is entered which slows down the user's ability to enter information.
• Icons are sometimes unclear and not easily understandable. Word labels for some items might be more effective.

Incentivized

We would be starting over at square one if we did not continue our PowerSchool subscription. We do not have a program in a place that would take its place.

Incentivized

They have good instructions. There are some pages that appear confusing at first, but there are enough directions around for me to figure out what I need to do to accomplish what I need to. I don't always remember what I need to do when it is a task that happens only once or only a few times a year. The grade report section looks difficult, but I have always been able to find out what I need to do there without too much time or effort. Also, when I need to import students from a previous year into a new grade book, the program has provided the information I need to do that

Great features, but it can feel very cumbersome at times

Incentivized

Overall, I have not had to use support for PowerSchool Student Information System because our school district gives us training in each area in which we will be utilizing PowerSchool Student Information System. In terms of in-user support, I feel that there is mild to moderate user support that is built into PowerSchool SIS.

Incentivized

I have worked with FACTS (formerly known as RenWeb) and I enjoyed all of its features. It almost has too many rings and bells. iGradePlus has many of the same features for a much lower price. Parents and students are able to log in to see the grades. We can print our report cards. We can keep track of tuition. There are some features that I would like to see in the future, such as canteen management (point of sale) and library management (circulation) but for right now, it is perfect for our young school

I have heard good things for Infinite Campus and Skyward. I would [evaluate] each of them and see what fits your needs. Each has their strengths and weaknesses and so picking the right one for your needs is important. PowerSchool [Student Information System] does have some great features, but lacks some fundamental reports and functions to make it top notch.

Incentivized

• More than half of our clients monitor their child's attendance and lesson logs as seen through the parent portal access count.
• Our record keeping is now centralized.
• iGradePlus became a proof of our legitimacy for some of our parents.

• It has created shortcuts for all staff members, saving us time.
• In creating shortcuts and combining many different systems into one, it is saving our school money.
• It has created a safety net for teachers because grades and student information is stored electronically, which means teachers not having to worry about losing or misplacing their grade books.

Incentivized