#1 most frequent
United States of America
100.0%92 installations of 92
What is PowerSchool eSchoolPLUS?
eSchoolPLUS is a student information system for managing student demographics, grades, scheduling & attendance, discipline & report cards, and other information in k-12. eSchoolPLUS was developed by Sungard K-12 Education which was acquired by PowerSchool in March 2017. It is now owned and supported by PowerSchool.
Categories & Use Cases
Top Performing Features
Integrations with 3rd-Party Education Technology
The student management system can send and receive data from other educational systems with little to no manual steps required.
Category average: 7.9
Roster Management
Faculty and administrators can view, edit, and update their class rosters effectively.
Category average: 8.7
Platform Customization
The student management system can be adjusted or customized to fit specific or unique needs of the school.
Category average: 8.3
Areas for Improvement
Teacher Self-Service
Teachers can easily navigate and work within the system without requiring IT personnel or specialized skills for recurring activities.
Category average: 8.4
Online Registration Management
The system supports administrative setup and management of registration processes, and allows students to register for classes online.
Category average: 8.6
District Communications, such as messaging and alerting
The platform supports communications district-wide and/or with between specific individuals. Examples include alerts, announcements, and direct messaging between faculty and parents.
Category average: 8.4
Who Buys & Uses PowerSchool eSchoolPLUS
eSchoolPLUS Plus PowerSchool
Pros
- The user interface is spectacular. By being able to access grades and all student data in one place, it really makes parent-teacher meetings easy and quick. Most parents come into meeting with teachers already seeing all the progress of the students. This increases engagement definitely within the district.
- Working with school operations is important. Most schools have multiple platforms for every single aspect of education. Having the payroll portal accessible with the same login for your school and student information makes it easy for us teachers. I guess the strength would be how they have streamlined a lot of the day to day tasks of all departments affiliated with schools, and they made it accessible in one web platform.
- Tracking your own professional development courses can be lengthy. Inputting and tracking them via the website makes it easier and less paperwork.
- Naturally, the most important strength is the mobile capability of the platform. Being able to be mobile so teachers, parents, students, and admin can access any and all documentation is important. Websites are difficult to navigate, so having a web platform helps greatly.
Cons
- One area with room for improvement would be in the ability to message counselors within the platform. Sending emails is lengthy. Some platforms allow for you to text/chat message other logged in users in real time. This would be a great help to quickly reach out to specific teachers, admin or counselors. Communication is important and that feature would improve usage.
- The experts at Power School are very supportive. The tech team makes it easy to use with professional development, but I think teachers need easier literature on how to access all the functions and features of the platform. Maybe an online version where when you click your interest it will direct you to how to access certain parts of the portal and what they do. With such a vast platform it is pretty cumbersome.
- I would love to be able to download the charts and graphs that come up with students in the student portal. The key student performance indicators are great to follow, but downloading them as image files would be great to use for presentations and sharing with other people within the school.
Return on Investment
- Negatives I mentioned are that there is no texting function. Being able to "chat" on the platform with other users that are logged in would be a huge help As a result, this has a negative impact because it takes a longer time to message and wait for responses via email and direct messaging emails.
- A positive impact would be that this investment does make it easier for educators. If educators are cared for and their jobs are made easier, they can focus more on the students than on paperwork or grades and performance assessments.
- On overall objectives for the school, it does help to increase graduation rates. Counselors can track student progress from K-12, meaning that it is easier for interventions. Catching student needs at an earlier age help increase the likelihood of all students graduating on time. It also impacts drop out rates and students who stay enrolled in college. Being able to help students at a young age helps them to appreciate education more.
Other Software Used
Apple iCloud, Google Charts, Google Authenticator
eSchoolPLUS give our organization the security, reliability and functionality to make our days happier!
Pros
- Allows us to access our student information quickly.
- Allows us to perform advanced searches to find data quickly.
- Offers us a one-stop place for all our student information needs.
Cons
- When updates are made, little bugs in the updates break other issues that weren't broken before.
- I'd like to see more testing done before updates are released to minimize troubleshooting time.
- Tickets for bugs/repairs often take a long time to be processed and fixed.
Return on Investment
- 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.
Other Software Used
Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft SQL Server, BeyondTrust Remote Support (Formerely Bomgar Remote Support)
eSchoolPLUS backbone
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
PowerSchool eSchoolPLUS is the primary SIS and singular source of all essential educational data for our organization. All crucial data, outside employment and financial, runs through eSchool. Scheduling management and design, attendance, grading, parent communication, health management, and all other data reside within the system as an easily accessible point for all educators to utilize.
Pros
- Grading
- Scheduling
- Attendance
- Reporting
Cons
- Visualization
- Printable reports
- Graphs/dashboards
Most Important Features
- Reporting
- Home Access Center
- Gradebook
Return on Investment
- Simplified state and federal reporting
- Easier audit-ready attendance manage
- Straightforward gradebook design
Alternatives Considered
PowerSchool Student Information System and Infinite Campus
Other Software Used
Kickboard, from PowerSchool, PowerSchool Enrollment (formerly Registration), Financial Edge
PowerSchool: Definitely a PLUS!
Pros
- 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.
Cons
- Format, while easy to use, can appear dated and not eye-catching.
- New users may be overwhelmed by the expansiveness of the product(s).
Return on Investment
- Seamless parent engagement.
- Staff communication is streamlined.
- All data can be found and accessed in one program.
Alternatives Considered
Schoology and a PowerSchool Unified Classroom product
Other Software Used
Google Classroom, Moodle, ActiveCollab
Is PowerSchool the right choice...
Pros
- Ease of entering information once familiar with platform.
- One stop shop for information.
- Customer service is easy to access to help in situations.
Cons
- 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.
Return on Investment
- Access to information.
- Tools accessible based on role in district.
- Can be difficult to use in the beginning.
Alternatives Considered
Blackbaud Education Management Solutions
Other Software Used
Blackbaud Education Management Solutions, Kahoot!, Nearpod