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PowerSchool eSchoolPLUS

PowerSchool eSchoolPLUS

Overview

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…

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

eSchoolPLUS is a versatile and comprehensive platform that serves as the backbone of educational institutions, enabling teachers, …
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eSchoolPLUS backbone

10 out of 10
April 11, 2022
Incentivized
PowerSchool eSchoolPLUS is the primary SIS and singular source of all essential educational data for our organization. All crucial data, …
Continue reading
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Product Details

What is PowerSchool eSchoolPLUS?

PowerSchool eSchoolPLUS Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(11)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

eSchoolPLUS is a versatile and comprehensive platform that serves as the backbone of educational institutions, enabling teachers, administrators, and staff to efficiently manage student information and ensure a high-quality education for all students. Teachers rely on the platform's teacher center to effortlessly grade assignments, while the HR department utilizes its backend for payroll and tracking teacher professional development. Administrators utilize eSchoolPLUS to house student data, manage attendance, and effectively communicate with parents and employees.

With its user-friendly login portal, eSchoolPLUS provides simple and easy access for users, allowing them to access the system with just one click using their username and password. The platform is used across the entire organization, serving as the primary source of essential educational data for all grade levels and content areas. It streamlines reporting to the state department of education by providing a centralized location for all necessary information and data on students. This ensures accurate and efficient data management while saving valuable time for educators.

eSchoolPLUS offers a wide range of use cases that cater to various needs within an educational institution. From scheduling management to attendance tracking, grading, parent communication, and health management, this robust platform empowers users with the tools they need to streamline processes and enhance collaboration. The system also facilitates smooth transitions when students transfer between buildings or schools by enabling quick access to their relevant data.

Guidance counselors find value in eSchoolPLUS as they utilize it to develop schedules for students, providing seamless accessibility for all users. Teachers depend on this platform not only to enter grades but also to print transcripts for their students. Administrative assistants benefit from eSchoolPLUS as they can print bus routes and efficiently manage student information.

Overall, eSchoolPLUS is a crucial tool that revolutionizes the way educational institutions operate by providing a centralized system that optimizes data management, enhances communication with stakeholders, and streamlines administrative processes. Its extensive features make it an invaluable asset in ensuring that every student receives the best education possible.

Users have provided the following recommendations based on their experiences with the software:

  • Be patient and follow the setup steps carefully for a worthwhile outcome.
  • Consider choosing eSchoolPLUS over PowerSchool SIS, as it is regarded as more user-friendly for both administrative staff and end users.
  • Take advantage of the software's capabilities for tracking grades, attendance, and generating reports. However, be aware of the cluttered interface on the website.

While some users appreciate the software's ability to replace traditional teacher recording books and its various features for setting up the gradebook, others caution against using it due to poor design, limited scalability, and uncertainty about its future with PowerSchool.

In addition, users advise considering the recent merger with a vendor and potential implications for support resources and future guarantees. They also suggest implementing a system to train new teachers who may need assistance navigating the software.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-5 of 5)
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April 11, 2022

eSchoolPLUS backbone

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
  • Grading
  • Scheduling
  • Attendance
  • Reporting
  • Visualization
  • Printable reports
  • Graphs/dashboards
PowerSchool eSchoolPLUS is a highly effective data warehouse, with easy input and nearly boundless ways to get to the raw information. For a team with strong capabilities in report writing (say, SQL/IBM Cognos, etc) the opportunity to get to the base of the information and communicate it well is incredibly strong. However, if you are relying on stock reports to get you what you need, it may be imperfect.
  • Reporting
  • Home Access Center
  • Gradebook
Student Data (6)
83.33333333333334%
8.3
Student Attendance Tracking
80%
8.0
Student Health Information
70%
7.0
Grade Book Management
100%
10.0
Student Background Records
100%
10.0
Student and Parent Portal
80%
8.0
Transcript Management
70%
7.0
Student and Faculty Administration (12)
84.16666666666666%
8.4
Integrations with 3rd-Party Education Technology
100%
10.0
Online Registration Management
50%
5.0
District Communications, such as messaging and alerting
50%
5.0
Roster Management
100%
10.0
Platform Customization
100%
10.0
Teacher Self-Service
60%
6.0
Student Data Security
100%
10.0
Community Support
80%
8.0
Class Scheduling
90%
9.0
State and National-level Reporting
100%
10.0
Compliance Support
100%
10.0
Teacher and Parent Mobile Application
80%
8.0
  • Simplified state and federal reporting
  • Easier audit-ready attendance manage
  • Straightforward gradebook design
PowerSchool eSchoolPLUS effectively allowed for access to all data, while enabling links to other critical PowerSchool platforms like Kickboard, Enrollment, and other software platforms.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our entire organization uses the eSchoolPLUS platform across all grade levels and content areas. Administratively, this program is used to house student data, manage attendance, as well as communicate with parents as well as other employees. We manage contact data, testing scores, student information, ad well as grades and competencies.
  • 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.
  • Format, while easy to use, can appear dated and not eye-catching.
  • New users may be overwhelmed by the expansiveness of the product(s).
As a classroom teacher, I can log into Power School eSchoolPLUS and access all pertinent information about a student. With contact information and a built-in email component to the program, I can speak to parents and other teachers within our organization efficiently. I can also access student testing data, medical information, and current academic performance to get a better picture of each student’s needs and circumstances.
  • Seamless parent engagement.
  • Staff communication is streamlined.
  • All data can be found and accessed in one program.
eSchoolPLUS was much easier to use at all levels of our organization. The ability to input grades vs. the competencies and standards-based assessments given in primary and intermediate grades as a game changer. Many of our district employees prefer eSchoolPLUS hands down.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use PowerSchool eSchoolPLUS as our SIS system across the school district to track student demographics, attendance, and grades. All information that need to be reported to the state department of education is tracked through this platform. It helps us to have a mostly one place stop to look for information and data on our students.
  • Ease of entering information once familiar with platform.
  • One stop shop for information.
  • Customer service is easy to access to help in situations.
  • 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.
We utilize PowerSchool every day in our classrooms for inputting data on our students regarding attendance and grades. We also use it to retrieve student information needed for various situations. The longer with use this platform, the easier it becomes us it and to know exactly where to go to find what we are needing.
  • Access to information.
  • Tools accessible based on role in district.
  • Can be difficult to use in the beginning.
PowerSchool is more user friendly when compared to Blackbaud, even with the need to learn the steps and where things are located. It was easy for me to move from using one system in a previous district to using PowerSchool in another district.
Not Sure
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
It had the ability to store and input the information we were looking for in our district.
We would follow our same process as it is what we do for all products with being the largest school district in our state.
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.
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.
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.
Christopher Power | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
eSchoolPLUS is actually used across a wide spectrum of operations within the school district. It addresses more issues and problems than I could have imagined. Looking into how teachers use it, administrators use it, and Human Resources uses it, this platform has a large degree of application. For teachers, it is the most effective because it allows tracking of all students and family information from grades K through 12. The school performance benchmarks for students are tracked through every single grade, a huge asset to making sure that all students are receiving the best education possible because all stakeholders are up to date on the students' performance as well as their needs. The log-in portal makes it very simple and easy to access. It has one-click access, just put in your user name and password and you can access the portal. The teacher center is used for grading, while the HR department is able to use its backend for payroll and tracking teacher PD.
  • 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.
  • 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.
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.
  • 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.
One platform is SKEDULA that would be a direct competitor with eSchoolPLUS. However, the issue with SKEDULA is that they do not have the breadth of tools that eSchoolPLUS and PowerSchool offers. With SKEDULA you can also input grades and marking periods, but the platform they use is harder to use on the website. Their mobile platform is easy, but its web platform is extremely slow to use. They also send you to an alternate website for inputting marking period grades, rather than being able to input final marking period grades and comments directly into the normal grading section of the student/teacher portal. I would rather eSchoolPLUS over SKEDULA as it has more functions and has a much more appealing Menu drop down and links. Navigating the website quickly is important, and that navigation system they have is actually the simplest to understand and use that I've been able to use in education. Moodle is another platform I do use and would recommend to some degree, but it would not be my choice when compared to the variety of functions in scheduling, reporting, and intervention that eSchoolPLUS provides.
Angel Swalve | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
eSchoolPLUS is being used across our whole organization as our student information system, to store and access all our district's student and teacher information.
  • 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.
  • 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.
eSchoolPLUS allows our entire organization to access Student Information quickly and easily, and allows us to format the data we need in a user-friendly environment. eSchoolPLUS has a few flaws, as it seems to not be thoroughly tested before releasing updates from user tickets that cause other functionality to break in an attempt to fix another issue.
  • 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.
We have used Gradespeed in the past, but that was over 10 years ago and I was not involved in the transition to the new software. I just know that when eSchoolPLUS came into use, we transitioned smoothly and efficiently.
Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft SQL Server, BeyondTrust Remote Support (Formerely Bomgar Remote Support)
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