PowerSchool eSchoolPLUS vs. Schoolmint Hero

It is well suited for Charter Schools. I say charter schools because most charts are built from the ground up, and using a specific set of tools from PowerSchool will help all departments to work seamlessly together. The hardest part of the education process is being able to track your own payroll, PD, overtime hours, emails and messages, grades and documentation for students. Schools in perpetual existence have a hard time converting all their documents and processes to a brand new portal. However, new schools, private schools, charter schools, even new online universities would have an easier and much more effective time purchasing and using every single tool that comes from PowerSchool. I believe that it is bigger than just using eSchoolPLUS for education, but using efinance, and atrieve are important also. In terms of eSchoolPLUS it is useful in all schools because it does make the teacher's jobs easier. Managing curriculum, lesson and grade data is quick and easy and engagement is relatively simple on the website and on my mobile iPhone.

Incentivized

Hero is a great time saver for any busy school administrator. Students are able to use technology to earn positive points and also track and manage their own discipline. It is user-friendly and adaptable to the specific needs of the school. I love writing my own tracking codes and setting the action thresholds.

Incentivized

• One-stop resource for student data, from test scores to medical alerts.
• Parent information, including contact and custody details, are readily accessible.
• Clean and easy-to-use format makes finding what you need very easy.

Incentivized

• Allows ALL students to earn points at the push of a button.
• Connects with infinite Campus so student schedules and info are always accurate on the Hero site.
• Allows teachers to create their own groups for after school programs or even small groups in their classrooms.

• It can be difficult to find information when first beginning with it.
• It can take many steps to perform one task.
• Can run slowly on certain networks.

Incentivized

• Hero had the Hero Homeroom where teachers could collaborate and receive rewards but that was discontinued. I think that a similar reward system for those who are supposed to be inputting information would be helpful, where consistency for the required input is rewarded. For example: teachers were to be recording points for all their students every period every day - if they received points for completing their input & could then choose to spend those points on rewards that would help encourage participation to make it more successful overall.
• Too hands-off in making sure that implementation is as successful as possible.
• Too techie for non-tech savvy people.

Incentivized

It is a great product

again. for the day to day usage, adding points is a bit of a chore but I keep doing it because the students respond

Incentivized

This would be the same reasoning as in the previous question. It is all about having enough bandwidth to run it across your district and buildings.

Incentivized

Reports do run in a reasonable amount of time based upon the number of entries you are working with. You are also able to continue working on other areas while the report is being created so your device is not tied up during this process.

Incentivized

Someone is always available. I like being able to call, chat, or email as needed. There are also a lot of tutorials and webinars provided. Hero does a good job of providing tools for onboarding new users and customers as well. It is easy to find whatever information you are looking for.

Incentivized

PowerSchool eSchoolPLUS effectively allowed for access to all data, while enabling links to other critical PowerSchool platforms like Kickboard, Enrollment, and other software platforms.

Incentivized

We used a tardy tracking system a couple years ago but it wasn't as efficient as Hero. It did not keep track of any positive behaviors. I don't remember the name of the system but I know it only focused on the negative behaviors and giving out consequences for those negative behaviors.

Incentivized

There are days when PowerSchool can be very slow when loading. You definitely have to make sure you have the bandwidth in your district to run the platform appropriately.

Incentivized

• Our Return on Investment is high, as it makes our jobs easier, allowing us more time to troubleshoot and train staff instead of digging for student information.
• Overall our business objective is to store and access student information quickly, efficiently, and securely. eSchoolPLUS allows us to do that.
• eSchoolPLUS has no negative impact on our ROI. Sometimes, after an update, there is a learning curve and bug fixes that need to be worked around, but in general, it is a great product and there is little downtime for our organization.

Incentivized

• Definitely worth the money. The kids are happy, they're using the program as often as they can, and they appreciate the opportunity to be rewarded for their good behavior.
• We've been able to sustain a store, and that's super awesome. I know we wouldn't be able to without the help of Hero and the ways in which we keep the hype.
• I think I need more help with teacher adoption. We have a lot of initiatives at our school, so we're trying to take on a little more than we can chew at this point. We're getting there though!