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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    PowerSchool SIS

    Score6.3 out of 10
    Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
    The PowerSchool Student Information System covers administrative needs, such as scheduling, attendance, reporting, data management, faculty management, emergency/medical and health management, registration, and more for K-12 schools and districts. It is easy to use and boasts an industry-leading gradebook, PowerTeacher Pro. Users enjoy a fully web-based SIS that is flexible, configurable, and scalable with real-time updates on any operating system, browser or device.N/A

    Sakai

    Score8.7 out of 10
    N/ASakai is an open source learning management system provided by the Apero Foundation. The LMS provides what it calls Core and Expanded Features. The Core Features encompass an integrated tool set that is tested by the Sakai community members and is then included with each new release. The tool set can be configured by: instructors, students, research investigators and project leaders. The other set of tools, known as “Contrib Tools” are specific to Sakai tools and innovations that are developed…N/A
    Pricing
    PowerSchool SISSakai
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    PowerSchool SISSakai
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Must contact vendor for pricing information.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    PowerSchool SISSakai
    Considered Both Products
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    No answer on this topic
    Apereo
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    95%
    Would buy again
    18 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    14 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    89%
    Happy with the feature set
    17 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    90%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    9 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    92%
    Implementation went as expected
    12 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    PowerSchool SISSakai
    Student and Faculty Administration
    Comparison of Student and Faculty Administration features of PowerSchool Student Information System and Sakai
    Feature
    PowerSchool Student Information System
    8.5
    3 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Sakai
    -
    Ratings
    Integrations with 3rd-Party Education Technology9.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Online Registration Management10.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    District Communications, such as messaging and alerting8.12 Ratings00 Ratings
    Roster Management9.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Platform Customization7.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Teacher Self-Service9.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Student Data Security9.43 Ratings00 Ratings
    Community Support7.43 Ratings00 Ratings
    Class Scheduling9.43 Ratings00 Ratings
    State and National-level Reporting7.12 Ratings00 Ratings
    Compliance Support7.62 Ratings00 Ratings
    Teacher and Parent Mobile Application8.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Learning Management
    Comparison of Learning Management features of PowerSchool Student Information System and Sakai
    Feature
    PowerSchool Student Information System
    -
    Ratings
    Sakai
    7.9
    5 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Course authoring00 Ratings8.05 Ratings
    Course catalog or library00 Ratings7.04 Ratings
    Player/Portal00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Learning content00 Ratings8.05 Ratings
    Mobile friendly00 Ratings7.05 Ratings
    Progress tracking & certifications00 Ratings8.05 Ratings
    Assignments00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Compliance management00 Ratings7.04 Ratings
    Learning administration00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
    Learning reporting & analytics00 Ratings6.05 Ratings
    Social learning00 Ratings9.04 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    PowerSchool SISSakai
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Google Classroom
    Score8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Schoolmint Hero
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Schoology Learning
    Score8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Schoolmint Hero
    Score9.7 out of 10
    D2L Brightspace
    Score7.8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    PowerSchool SISSakai
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (32 ratings)
    9.0
    (14 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.4
    (3 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.5
    (12 ratings)
    8.1
    (3 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    PowerSchool SISSakai
    Likelihood to Recommend
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    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
    Read full review
    Apereo
    I've used Sakai to supplement my Public Speaking class. Public Speaking is very much a F2F type course, so I didn't use Sakai much for course content delivery. However, I did use it to post my syllabus, post my lecture slides, communicate any class announcements, and to conduct a final exam for the class. Building the final exam was very simple and I was easily able to swap out questions to vary it from term to term. Before I was a staff member and lecturer, I used Sakai as a student. My instructor used Sakai to varying degrees. I really appreciated it being the one-stop-receptacle for all-things class related. If I somehow lost an assignment instruction sheet, I could rely on it being posted there. For multimedia work it was lacking, at that time, but I know Sakai has been updated over time and I hope that part of it has improved. If I was ever frustrated by Sakai, it was because faculty used it in a piecemeal way. It's fine not to want to use the gradebook, but don't enter some grades and not others. It's wonderful to upload class documents to it; but don't do some and not others. Whatever way you're going to use Sakai, commit to it and use it well. Your students will thank you.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    • 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
    Read full review
    Apereo
    • Sakai is flexible, providing a way for our customers (instructors) to customize their courses while staying in line with consistency and continuity of course design. This has allowed our courses to be far less cookie-cutter and stale. This is mostly accomplished through Sakai's LTI functionality and it's Lessons tool. This is particularly notable because not every course is the same, nor should it be. Our faculty and course developers can draw from OER resources, course text publisher assessment quiz banks and pull in content from sources from our library databases and services like YouTube.
    • Sakai is customizable, allowing us to pair it with our student information system to automatically create and track with student registration data - including adding new students and removing students who have elected to drop a course. The customization features also include being able to create course templates for individual schools or courses using specific tools or sequences of tools as well as a way to personalize content for students when they engage with each lesson.
    • Sakai is stable in the market. We have been using Sakai for almost 10 years and continue to see it improve; responding to changing trends in browser technologies, mobile platforms and accessibility requirements. Multiple programs offered over the years have been recognized by outside organizations like BestColleges.com for our programs and given high marks by students taking the courses offered in Sakai.
    • Sakai allows our faculty to inform it's continued evolution. We work closely with the developers, having a front seat to how things can work and function for our faculty. There have been multiple occasions where faculty ask, "Can Sakai do this?" and the answer is never "No."
    Read full review
    Cons
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    • 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
    Read full review
    Apereo
    • The coming upgrade will address many issues, the visual presentation of sites and courses
    • The Forums (discussion) tool is not natively integrated into the Gradebook, but needs another step to connect the two.
    • The Wiki tool is awkward and not WYSIWYG. But I understand that is common with wikis in most platforms
    • The Help documentation could use some focus on student needs rather that course developer needs
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    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
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    Apereo
    Sakai is a good general learning management system - it is not leading edge but rather a stable system with standard learning management system features. It can be fairly easily customized and is fairly easy to learn from both student learning and faculty administrative vantage points. New paradigms for online learning though are emergent so the current field should also be investigated with competitors.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    Great features, but it can feel very cumbersome at times
    Incentivized
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    Apereo
    When faculty are preparing courses from term to term, a portion of the content is static within a specific discipline. The time it takes to import past lessons into new versions of Sakai can be an inefficient use of my time. When I want to add new content and edit from the old content, it's reliant upon me to cut and paste the content from term to term rather than simply import and edit from a backup.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    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
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    Apereo
    Since Sakai is open-source their documentation is often lacking and support is absolutely needed onsite. Internal documentation is more important with Sakai than other services. The Sakai community is fun, passionate, engaged, and absolutely doing their best, but it's an uphill battle against the current market and trends.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    No answers on this topic
    Apereo
    No, I don't
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    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
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    Apereo
    As an adjunct professor, I didn't pick Sakai for the university. I have experience with Moodle, Blackboard, eCollege, iBoard and now Sakai. I would have to say that Sakai is one of my all time favorite LMSs to use as it is very easy to navigate.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    • 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
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    Apereo
    • Sakai makes it easy for students to monitor grades which puts their minds at ease.
    • Sakai makes it easy for teachers to assign and receive assignments from students.
    • Communication is one of the most important and one of the most taxing parts of an educational system. Sakai makes this process just a little bit easier.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    PowerSchool SIS Screenshots

    Screenshot of Student attendanceScreenshot of Standards-based gradingScreenshot of At-risk dashboardScreenshot of Parent view of student schedule