Rediker Administrator's Plus vs. Skyward Student Management System

It's a great system for storing student information and extracting it into usable data. If you're looking for a robust report creation system, though, it's not the best choice unless you have someone skilled with programming languages.

Incentivized

There is nothing specific that I would say sets it apart from any other LMS, but once you are used to the user interface and various features, it does everything that is needed and integrates well enough with other software to function. Probably isn't necessary in a smaller setting, but for multiple building districts, it is certainly robust enough to handle data collection and storage.

Incentivized

• The ease of data exports into easy Excel Spreadsheets is one of my favorite features. It allows me the ability to quickly see data and arrange it for ease of use of our teachers, administrative staff, and stakeholders.
• Administrative Plus can be easily customized to display student record data in the most relevant way for our organization.
• The customer service support team is always quick to respond, and extremely helpful. I can reach them through user forums, emails, or a phone call, and I know they will always provide a fast and thorough response.

Incentivized

• Flexibility. This multitude of fields available makes it easy to capture data the way we want or need to.
• Quick response to trouble tickets. The company strives to reach out to the customer within an hour and start the process of resolution.
• User focused. Improvements to the system always look at how the end user experience can be enhanced.

Incentivized

• Their reports feature needs to be more user friendly. They use their own personal code to write reports, and it's not very user friendly to the average person. It would be much nicer to have a WYSIWYG editor where I could create what I wanted without having to know their special language.
• The system could use a more modern face lift, and perhaps a more intuitive interface.
• The sync process between the Parent, Teacher, and Student Portals is slow. Data should be continually synced between the two in real time, instead of initiated by the user.

Incentivized

• Confusion when it comes to student grades- sometimes there are two different letter grades for a student for what is posted as "TR1" and "PR1." How does a teacher know which of these grades will be posted to a student's report card? How does a teacher know what the student's actual grade is for a particular course?
• Switching between the Educator Access Plus and Student Management tabs can be complicated, especially for those new to the system. Why can't everything be in one place?
• I recognize that Skyward logs out after a certain period of inactivity to preserve privacy of users, but is there a way to change those settings so that Skyward does not log out as frequently? It is difficult to keep having to log back in completely again.

Incentivized

It is the system I am most comfortable with, so having to learn a new system outweighs any problems I have with Skyward.

Incentivized

It takes some time to get used to navigating the features and layers, but once you know your way around it, it's pretty good.

Incentivized

Overall great job, issues were taken care of. People in support do care.

Incentivized

Yes, I was part of the implementation team.

Incentivized

We were using Aeries for our student information system prior to Rediker, and it was a messy database with too much redundancy, making it difficult to extract the data you were looking for from the system.

Incentivized

I, personally, have not used other Student Management Systems, but having used Skyward, I do not necessarily feel any overwhelming desire to seek out the competitive software programs. Skyward does what it says it will and provides my school district with an easy and organized way to share and access all of the relevant student and family information we need. It serves it's purpose well and meets our needs.

Incentivized

• A less expensive alternative as far as Student Information Systems go.

Incentivized

• Overall, Skyward has had a positive impact. One way is the student information that is shared and available to see. If I need to know something about a student’s academic history, Skyward has it.
• Another way it has impacted our district is the way it has streamlined all of our payroll information. I can see check histories, different parts of my salary, and the year-end totals all in one place.
• Skyward has also made a big impact on our district by making it easier to communicate with parents. All the parents’ contact information is available and email is even included in the program.

Incentivized