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PowerSchool Student Information System has been widely praised by users for its ease of use and intuitive interface. Teachers, …
Overview
What is PowerSchool SIS?
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…
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Demo showing PowerSchool Tuition Plugin
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Product Details
- About
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- Downloadables
- FAQs
What is PowerSchool SIS?
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.
PowerSchool SIS Screenshots
PowerSchool SIS Videos
PowerSchool delivers innovative tools for the digital classroom
Customer testimonials
Customer testimonials
PowerSchool SIS Competitors
- Infinite Campus
- Skyward
- Aeries
PowerSchool SIS Technical Details
| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | Apple iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, Mobile Web |
| Supported Languages | Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Greek, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese |
Frequently Asked Questions
Infinite Campus are common alternatives for PowerSchool SIS.
Reviewers rate Student Data Security and Class Scheduling highest, with a score of 9.4.
The most common users of PowerSchool SIS are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
PowerSchool SIS Customer Size Distribution
| Consumers | 0% |
|---|---|
| Small Businesses (1-50 employees) | 30% |
| Mid-Size Companies (51-500 employees) | 70% |
| Enterprises (more than 500 employees) | 0% |
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Reviews and Ratings
(70)
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!
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
PowerSchool Student Information System has been widely praised by users for its ease of use and intuitive interface. Teachers, administrators, students, and parents have found the program to be relatively easy to learn and navigate. With PowerSchool, users can access attendance records, record grades, create progress reports and report cards, enter and view demographics, and create seating arrangements. Additionally, teachers can easily enter assignments into the grade book and communicate due dates and assignment expectations to students and parents. The program also serves as a centralized location for student management and information storage, allowing for unified student histories and easy transfers between schools within a district or county. PowerSchool integrates seamlessly with other educational systems, enabling the sharing of data and account management. Overall, PowerSchool Student Information System streamlines administrative tasks, improves communication between all stakeholders, and enhances the overall management of student information.
Customizability: Users have praised PowerSchool Student Information System for its highly customizable nature, with multiple reviewers stating that they can create their own fields and tables to tailor the system to their specific needs. This flexibility allows them to efficiently manage and track student information in a way that aligns with their unique requirements.
Integration capabilities: Several users have expressed appreciation for PowerSchool's extensive list of partners, highlighting that it simplifies the process of managing student data across multiple platforms. Reviewers have mentioned that if users already use another system for student data, chances are high that it can integrate seamlessly with PowerSchool. This integration capability enhances efficiency and provides a seamless experience for users.
Strong support system: Multiple reviewers have commended PowerSchool's strong support system, emphasizing the quick response time from customer support. They mentioned rarely being put on hold when calling support and finding reliable assistance through active user forums. The responsive customer support offered by PowerSchool ensures that users receive timely help when needed, enhancing their overall experience with the software.
Lack of Intuitiveness: Several users have found PowerSchool to be unintuitive, making it difficult for them to navigate and find the features they need. Some reviewers mentioned that certain functions require programming knowledge, which can be a barrier for administrators who are not familiar with coding.
Slow Performance: Reviewers have reported slow page loads and sluggish performance when managing student data in PowerSchool. This issue has been mentioned by multiple users, indicating that it is a common concern. The slow speed can hamper productivity and frustrate users trying to complete tasks efficiently.
Limited Integration and External Access: Users have expressed frustration with the limited integration options available in PowerSchool. Some reviewers have specifically mentioned difficulty in integrating external platforms or accessing the database for external integrations. This lack of flexibility restricts users from seamlessly incorporating other tools or systems into their workflow, hindering efficiency and collaboration efforts.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-17 of 17)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
April 12, 2022
PowerSchool SIS Powers up!
I use PowerSchool Student Information System everyday in the morning for checking attendance, for synching grades from Schoology, for monitoring students' grades quarterly and throughout the school year in all subjects, log entries, login details , demographics and medical alert. PowerSchool SIS resolves issues in grading student's works and daily attendance.
- keeping and recording grades
- checking attendance
- keeping students' academic records
- keeping student's private information
- PowerSchool Student Information System is better if it has the capacity of sending emails to parents and students
- PowerSchool Student Information System is better if it has the capacity of sending alerts to parents if student is late or tardy or absent in class
April 11, 2022
PowerSchool Keeps Everything in One Place!
We use Power School to manage our student information, and student enrollment, schedule classes, give grades and report cards and communicate grades to parents and guardians. It is our go-to place for student management and a place to store information. We use Power School throughout our county in all of the schools.
- Scheduling students.
- Grades
- Integration with other products.
- Scheduling students could use a more streamlined approach.
- Learning how to use PowerSchool can seem intimidating at first.
- Some of the selections in the program are small and hard to read or see.
PowerSchool Student Information System is being used by our entire school district to manage student registration, classroom rosters, grading, reporting, communications, and more. This system integrates with a variety of other educational systems that we use for academic needs. Rosters from PowerSchool Student Information System are shared seamlessly with other platforms, allowing for smooth account management of all systems. We currently use PowerSchool Student Information System with Google, Canvas (our learning management system), Discovery Education, and Clever.
- What I like best about PowerSchool Student Information System is that you can use it as a very basic level (rosters, attendance, grades) or go to very deep levels of integration with other PowerSchool systems (registration, human resources, special education).
- The PowerSchool Student Information System support system is strong among current users of the product. There is a vibrant community of end users who are willing to help other users.
- Resources for self learning are abundant in the PowerSchool Student Information System Community site.
- What I don't like is that it sometimes too complex for the typical user.
- Secretaries live in PowerSchool Student Information System as part of their duties. Some of the knowledge necessary to get the most out of PowerSchool Student Information System requires some level of programming knowledge, which is beyond most secretaries' skill sets.
- As PowerSchool continues to purchase other platforms to expand their offerings, it is difficult to stay up to speed on all of the trainings.
- Bigger is not always better. Just because you can expand and offer features doesn't mean you should.
December 23, 2019
PowerSchool Student Information System Review from an Educator
PowerSchool is being used by my organization as a full-roll-out Student Information System portal. Not only can staff track attendance, grades, etc., but also parents can login to their Parent View of Power School and then can access their student's grades, attendance, and notifications there. I find power school very user friendly and enjoy using it over Schoolology.
- Grade Book
- Attendance
- IEP Integration
- Benchmark Score Integration
PowerSchool's SIS is the way we keep track of all the information for every student in the district. It is an easy program to manage, which is key for us. We also use other PowerSchool tools and having the SIS as the backbone allows all those programs to work really well. It does exactly what it's supposed to do, which is to manage student information.
- Easy to move students around.
- Easy to update student information when changes happen.
- Teacher search can be difficult.
- Data can be lost when teachers are shuffled.
December 20, 2019
PowerSchool Student Information System is a Win, Win
PowerSchool Student Information System is being used by my entire school system to keep track of student demographics, scheduling, grades, and special education IEP files. By having all this information in one place, our record-keeping is effectively streamlined.
- Scheduling is easy.
- The gradebook is convenient and easy to use.
- Sometimes setting up the gradebook can be tricky.
December 18, 2019
Educator gives PowerSchool A+
Floyd County School System in Rome, GA uses PowerSchool to take attendance, see birthdays, rosters, input grades and take lunch orders in the cafeteria. It is incredibly user intuitive and only takes my fellow teachers and me a few minutes to put in grades. At my old school, we used another much more complicated and difficult system. PowerSchool has made my life as a teacher so much easier.
- Ease of Use: the menu is very straight forward and easy to navigate through.
- Mobile site/App: I appreciate that there’s a mobile version of the site as well as the app so I can input grades from my smartphone on the go.
- When going to the GA LDS site for our TKES performance review, we don’t get an email like we used to (when the system was not through PowerSchool) when our administrator fills out a document we need to complete.
- I wish it were linked to my email and reminders for inputting grades could be set up on a certain day each month to send me an email reminding of when they’re due.
December 17, 2019
Best-in-Class SIS that will take you well into the future!
We use PowerSchool as the master source for all student data. We also use it for managing state reporting data. We have found that it is very customizable and can be tailored to house the data we need. We have 2 school districts, and it is used by both. It allows us to keep all data in a single location to best manage the quality of our data. Importing and exporting data and automating those processes has been invaluable, as we have connected PowerSchool to our state testing system, therefore our roster within other systems is accurate, even when a new student is enrolled.
- PowerSchool SIS has made reporting much easier. The ability for us to have instant reports for our administrator is very important, but the ability to pull the raw data and customize our own reports is crucial.
- Tracking attendance is very important as we have truancy issues in our district and often have to provide documentation for court. It is very easy to track, print reports and customize our attendance codes.
- The good is that PowerSchool is easy to use, the ugly is that you will need a dedicated person if you ever want to do a lot of customizations. So someone with a basic technical knowledge of relational databases is key to getting your money's worth out of PowerSchool. Frequently we need additional reports not already offered in PowerSchool, so we have someone that is familiar with sql that can create them inside of PowerSchool.
- The built-in report card module for standards based report cards has always been my biggest disappointment. It's not that it's not there, it's just that you need someone with a programming mentality to be able to make a nice clean report. And changes are tedious and time-consuming to make.
Our school district utilizes PowerSchool throughout the district. It is our primary data hub for all student information including demographics, grades, attendance, and discipline. Every department in the school uses PowerSchool including, teachers, students, administrators, business office, and nurses.
PowerSchool addresses all of our student data needs. We have to collect and manage an enormous amount of student data and PowerSchool offers the ability to handle all of our student data needs.
PowerSchool addresses all of our student data needs. We have to collect and manage an enormous amount of student data and PowerSchool offers the ability to handle all of our student data needs.
- Manage demographic data to help us manage constantly changing state reporting requirements.
- Provide an excellent Gradebook for teachers that provides instant sync of grades to both the PowerSchool database and parent apps.
- At this time I wish PowerSchool would do a better job in attendance tracking. The current system works without errors, but can be cumbersome with the amount of data available.
- Uploading standardized test scores is also cumbersome. It can be done but takes some time to complete, and we had to create custom screens for people to be able to utilize that data effectively.
October 25, 2019
PowerSchool Student System Review
PowerSchool Student Information is used across the entire division to manage student records and grades. It contains student information ranging from demographics to classes they are taking, teachers, grades, etc. It is also used by teachers to print a variety of reports ranging from rosters to individual student reports and attendance.
- A wonderful student grade management tool. Easy interface to navigate. Used to add assignments, grade assignments, and categories and percentages.
- Can print detailed reports with the option to select features to print.
- Able to review a student's schedule, classes, grades in other classes, teacher's name and student demographics.
- When creating assignments sometimes a feature is blocked by a pop-up window.
- Would like to be able to print a student's overall attendance record for management.
October 24, 2019
Power up with PowerSchool
Our school district uses PowerSchool as our primary student information system (SIS). Teachers access it daily to report grades. Parents access it regularly to check grades. The administration uses it to record all attendance. Students access it not only to verify assignments but also to select classes when balloting happens. We connect to PowerSchool through our learning management software (LMS), our mobile platforms, as well as traditional desktops.
- The mobile app for students and parents is user-friendly and always up to date.
- Information for master scheduling is well done and of vital importance.
- Custom reports and settings are accessible.
- There is a need for a mobile app for the administration to easily view information while away from their desks.
- It would be nice if it had a more robust data warehouse for assessment data.
December 11, 2018
To PowerSchool, or not to PowerSchool...
We use PowerSchool for several pieces of our student information. First, we use it for attendance and to track absences and tardies. Secondly, we use the lunch count section. We have just begin to use the automated messaging/calling feature for delinquent lunch balances to help notify families of balances. We also use the gradebook installed to our desktops. It is nice to have a program that all faculty uses so that we are able to help each other with difficulties. It is also nice to have all of our student information in one spot to access.
- Automated calling/messaging for delinquent lunch balances
- Ease of accessing student information quickly
- Ability to view how students are doing in other classrooms and not just classes with you
- It can be difficult adding assignments to the gradebook if you don't click the right sequence of boxes
- Some information is buried in reports where you wouldn't expect them to be
- Setting up the gradebook for the first time may not make sense, especially if you are using standards based grading
November 23, 2018
PowerSchool Makes Databasing Student Information a Breeze.
It is used as the district-wide student database. Students only need to be registered once in a single location. It allows for one unified history for each student. Transfers from one school to another are simple and easy and all a student's records follow them from one place to another without anything getting lost. There is no confusion for parents and all supporting documentation can be uploaded and attached to each child's record cutting down on the amount of hard copy paperwork that needs to be kept on each student. Anytime someone needs to reference a document it is right there and they don't have to go hunting for the permanent record files.
- PowerSchool can be customized to fit your exact needs. Pages and content can be modified/added or substracted to fit exactly what you need to save for each student.
- Students can be transferred from one location to another easily. This makes continuity of data and reocrds seamless.
- PowerSchool can be set up to work with other systems like IEP Direct and SchoolMessenger. This allows for easier communications with parents and easier communications between schools for special education services.
- My district has customized PowerSchool to fit what we need it to do and is constantly updated as the State of CT comes up with new laws and regulations we need to abide by.
- My biggest issue is not being able to see what the teachers see. PowerSchool and PowerTeacher are not the same and what they see isn't always what I see.
- Cross-platform usage isn't always easy.
November 21, 2018
PowerSchool offers a customizable platform for K-12 schools to manage student information in a way that all stakeholders can utilize.
I work for a school district located in a rural area with three schools - elementary, middle, and high school. We use PowerSchool Student Information System in all of our schools to keep track of our students for many things such as grades, attendance, demographics, contact information, etc. It acts as an electronic file of everything we need to store on our students.
Because PowerSchool holds so much information on our students that we can sort and download specific information electronically to use in different ways. For example, if I purchase an online assessment or program that requires student names and grade levels to be entered into their system, I am able to easily export the information from PowerSchool in a CSV file that can be uploaded into the online assessment or program. This saves me hours of time and allows us to begin using the assessment or program sooner.
Because PowerSchool holds so much information on our students that we can sort and download specific information electronically to use in different ways. For example, if I purchase an online assessment or program that requires student names and grade levels to be entered into their system, I am able to easily export the information from PowerSchool in a CSV file that can be uploaded into the online assessment or program. This saves me hours of time and allows us to begin using the assessment or program sooner.
- 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.
- It would be great if PowerSchool had an alert pop-up for teachers when they use an assignment category that is not set up in Final Grade Calculation. As it is, if a teacher used an assignment category that is not set up, they cannot print a report card.
- PowerScheduler does not work for our secondary schools because we have limited classes available. We would love a solution that could help with this.
November 08, 2018
PowerSchool - Solid and Flexible
We use PowerSchool SIS across the entire school for managing student demographics, parents, emergency and other student contacts, assignments and grades, schedules, attendance, discipline and medical alerts as well as special education needs. All our teachers use the integrated grade book. Parents and students have access to see grades, assignments and due dates through a parent/student portal or an app, which has eliminated the need for printed report cards.
- PowerSchool is highly customizable. We are able to create any field or table that is not part of the stock product.
- PowerSchool's list of partners is extensive. If you use any other system for information relating to student data, chances are that they will be able to integrate with PowerSchool
- Whenever I call Support, only rarely have I been put on hold. My call normally goes straight through to a support person.
- There are also several very active user forums. I have had many questions answered through one of those.
- The user interface could be more intuitive. Because of the many features, it can sometimes be difficult for administrators to find what they are looking for.
- A recent upgrade allowing for more flexibility in the relationship between students and parents was long in coming and didn't go very smoothly. We are now dealing with a ton of clean-up after the upgrade. Even after we have cleaned everything up, there is still a ways to go before PowerSchool is on par with other SIS systems in that area. In their defense though, they are actively working on getting caught up.
PowerSchool Student Information System is used throughout the school. It is used by teachers, administrators, students, and parents. The program is used to house students personal/home information, which allows their school team members to effectively communicate with their given family members. This information is updated by the guidance department or an administrator. PowerSchool Student Information System also provides detailed school information, including grades, attendance, GPA, as well as behavior and communication logs for given school members with administrative logins. The school information is updated by guidance, administrators, as well as classroom teachers.
Students, parents, and support personnel are able to view information but are unable to make any changes within the system. The only time students are able to make edits are during course selection time, where they work within a specific page and submit their requests for the following years classes. The most beneficial part of the PowerSchool Student Information System is for students, parents, and support personnel to view the student's updated grades, which include grades for specific assessments and assignments, as well as missing work.
Students, parents, and support personnel are able to view information but are unable to make any changes within the system. The only time students are able to make edits are during course selection time, where they work within a specific page and submit their requests for the following years classes. The most beneficial part of the PowerSchool Student Information System is for students, parents, and support personnel to view the student's updated grades, which include grades for specific assessments and assignments, as well as missing work.
- Having one linked system for student information including grades, data, attendance, etc., linked up to the grade-book (Power Teacher Pro) is very convenient for teachers.
- PowerSchool allows support staff, administration, parents, and students to all view overall grades as well as detailed information. This is a nice feature so that all members of a student's team can be on the same page, especially when there are missing assignments.
- PowerSchool has the feature to alert parents when students are absent from a class. Parents can check student's attendance at any time, but also can be alerted.
- While administrators have the ability to view schedules in a format that is easy to view, students and teachers are unable to have a yearlong or trimester long schedule that is printer friendly.
- The view available for looking back on attendance is not user-friendly. The grid per block is hard to read on both the screen and after being printed.
- As a teacher, there is no place within PowerSchool to document communication with students or parents. Having a log would be a nice feature so that there is a record and other staff members could see the history of communication.
November 09, 2017
PowerSchool Student Information System Review
PowerSchool is being used by the entire Catholic School to manage student demographic information, classes, registration, and grades. We have even expanded it out to now use PowerSchool's Learning Management System. It is a daily tool that is the center of how we keep and manage the abundance of our student information.
- User Friendly for both our students and staff.
- Very customizable, and supported by a lot of other vendors/services.
- Solid performance.
- Has shown to be very secure, and is trusted by families.
- Sales department could be better.
- Some features or settings can be hidden.
- Installing certain services can require a complex series of steps, and things are sometimes not very intuitive.