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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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Product Demos
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% |
Comparisons
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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
(1-2 of 2)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
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
- It has allowed delinquent lunch balances to be taken care of in a timely manner
- Teachers have quick access to needed student demographic information
- All student information is easy to find in one location and available for parents to access if they so choose
I used Blackbaud at a different school system so there was not a choice or selection. I feel that it was pretty similar to PowerSchool so I had a very smooth transition from one platform to the other. The gradebooks felt very similar, along with the recording and reports aspects of each platform.
Our school uses PowerSchool in all areas. Administration utilizes it to track student demographics including attendance, lunch balances, and discipline referrals. Teachers use the platform to record attendance and grades.
1
Our school is very small and has a limited budget. We have one technology person that takes care of our infrastructure. The support our IT person receives through PowerSchool helps him troubleshoot problems as they arise and that typically takes place through online communication.
- Attendance tracking
- Student demographics
- Discipline tracking
- Automated communications (attendance, cancellations)
- Submit discipline referral directly in PowerSchool
No
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Vendor Reputation
I believe we wouldn't change our process. We looked very carefully at the choices available to us within our budget constraints. We truly believe and still do that PowerSchool gave us the most bang for our buck.
- Implemented in-house
No
Change management was a small part of the implementation and was well-handled
Allowing teachers the ability to input information into the system and track data
- Teachers remembering to login
- Teachers knowing where to go to find the information
- Self-taught
Yes! I was not afraid to jump in so that helped me. I could see if teachers are scared of technology that they might find the interface confusing and difficult.
We had issues with printing student reports during our progress reporting window. We received a response the same day and the support team worked with us to figure out the glitch by the next day. Our teachers were very happy!
- Taking attendance in the online portal
- Reporting lunch count
- Looking up student demographics
- Remembering where certain reports are located
- Creating assignments in the grade book can be cumbersome if you don’t know the correct sequence
I was not apart of this part of the process.
No
March 21, 2018
PowerSchool? Power cool!
PowerSchool Student Information System is being used by my entire organization in one way or another. It is solving a myriad of problems/issues for my organization. With PowerSchool, my school is able to take and access attendance records, record grades by using the grade book feature, create progress reports along with report cards, enter and look at demographics school-wide and per student/class, enter comments into the progress and report cards, create seating arrangements for each class we teach, enter in assignments into the grade book and have them weighted by category or by curriculum standards. PowerSchool is taking many different separate items that both teachers and administrators have to complete or deal with on a daily basis, and puts them in one place, making things easy and accessible to everyone, including parents and students as well.
- It allows teachers to add in formative and sumative assignments into their grade book with ease
- It allows for easy attendance taking
- It allows for quick reference of students performance not only in your class, but in others as well.
- The function to enter in comments on report cards could be easier to access.
- I think there should be a function to re-use weights for categories ( e.g. classwork, homework, quizzes. etc.) that you have previously used for classes.
- After assigning the same assignment for multiple classes, if you have taken the shortcut to create them by simply filling out the information on the assignment form and then clicking on multiple classes grade books for it to be added to, if you then decide not to give said assignment to one of the classes you chose, you cannot only delete the assignment from that class, the system will delete the assignments from every class!
- 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.
- Student Data Syste
PowerSchool blows the other Student Information System that my school used out of the water. The other Student Information System was a glorified grade book/report creator, and had no other function. PowerSchool has so many functions and elements inside of one program that it is literally one of the only programs that my school needs for staff to keep records for grades, attendance, and demographics all in one place.
Yes
PowerSchool replaced the Student Data System for our organization. The reason that PowerSchool replaced the Student Data System, was because the Student Data System was a glorified grade book and report creator. It wasn't really practical for taking attendance or seeing at a quick glance at how specific students were doing in multiple classes throughout the year. PowerSchool offered these options to us, so we chose PowerSchool over the Student Data System.
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
The single most important factor in the decision to change from Student Data System to PowerSchool was the amount of functions and elements that PowerSchool included in its system that the Student Data System did not. This in turn would make things easier and quicker to access saving teachers and staff time, and in the long run, saving our school money by not having to employ the use of multiple types of software to achieve the same goal.
If we had to do it again, I'm not sure that we would change our evaluation and selection process. Our school tried to find the program that included the most features, with the most ease of use, and chose that program to have our staff use. This selection process kept the staff and school in mind, while thinking of what would be fastest and easiest to use, and most economically efficient for our organization.