Skyward Student Management System - best option or not?
My school uses Skyward Student Management System for grading, attendance, and student/parent communications. In My opinion, the attendance …
Overview
What is Skyward Student Management System?
Skyward, headquartered in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, offers the Skyward Student Management System, a k-12 student information system which provides classroom tools (e.g. gradebook, attendance tracking, etc), Family Engagement tools with portal, as well as admin and student services task management.
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What is Skyward Student Management System?
Skyward Student Management System Technical Details
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
|---|---|
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Skyward, headquartered in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, offers the Skyward Student Management System, a k-12 student information system which provides classroom tools (e.g. gradebook, attendance tracking, etc), Family Engagement tools with portal, as well as admin and student services task management.
Reviewers rate Student Data Security highest, with a score of 8.8.
The most common users of Skyward Student Management System are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Skyward SMS is a versatile student management system that is widely used across various departments in schools. With its user-focused platform, educators can effectively focus on educating students and making informed decisions. The software serves as a centralized database for student information, including schedules, grades, behavior history, and contact details. Teachers find the software user-friendly and reliable for tasks such as entering grades and taking attendance. Additionally, Skyward SMS enhances communication between students, teachers, and parents, facilitating data collection and organization. Parents and students also benefit from the system by being able to access grades, receive messages from teachers, and monitor assignments. Moreover, the software's ability to share student information across years and locations within the school district makes it a convenient tool for administrators to manage various school-related tasks such as business operations, scheduling, grades, and food service. Overall, Skyward SMS has proven to be effective and useful for teachers, schools, and the entire district by increasing productivity through instant access to information and enabling accurate record-keeping while promoting communication among all stakeholders involved in a student's education journey.
Flexibility in Customization: Several users have praised Skyward for its flexibility in capturing data and customizing the system according to their specific needs. This customization capability has been highly appreciated as it allows users to tailor Skyward to their unique requirements.
Efficient Customer Support: Many reviewers have highlighted that Skyward provides quick response to trouble tickets, with the company striving to reach out to the customer within an hour and start the process of resolution. This prompt and efficient customer support has been seen as a significant advantage by users.
Dedication to User Satisfaction: Users have consistently mentioned that Skyward is very user-focused and constantly looks for ways to enhance the end-user experience and improve the system. This dedication to user satisfaction has been highly praised as it demonstrates Skyward's commitment to ensuring a positive and user-friendly experience.
Visually Unappealing Interface: Some users have expressed dissatisfaction with the current interface of Skyward Student Management System, stating that it is visually unappealing compared to more modern web products.
Confusing Terminology: Users have mentioned that the terminology used for headings in the system can be confusing. For example, labeling the caseload of students as "My Activities" instead of "My Caseload" has caused confusion and made it harder for users to navigate the system.
Difficulties with Grades Calculation: Several reviewers have reported difficulties with Skyward's ability to accurately calculate grades according to the standards-based gradebook used by some schools. This issue has created frustration among teachers who rely on accurate grade calculations for their students' academic progress.
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Reviews
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January 08, 2024
Students know Skyward is the first place to go.
Skyward is the school district's main Learning Management System (LMS). It tracks student grades, discipline, and attendance. As well as many other important pieces of information, including demographic information, IEP/504 information, and any medical alert information. It also serves as a host for communication between teachers/school staff and families, as parents can send a message to all of their student's teachers from one place, and teachers can send messages to students, parents, or both from the messaging center.
- Allow custom grading categories with editable weight.
- Automatically calculate midterm and final grades.
- Store data for students across their entire educational career.
- Integration with outside systems (Google Classroom) can be clunky at times (though it has gotten better with time.)
- Student search can only be done by last name.
- Messaging is not well integrated into the entire application, it can only be accessed from the messaging center.
66.66666666666667%
6.7
47.5%
4.8
- Consolidates grading, attendance, etc. all in one place.
- Manages data from over 2000 students in 6 buildings K-12.
- Been used by district for over 20 years.
I was not part of the selection team, which was done at the ISD level, but it was selected over others for its ability to integrate many different functions and features into one platform. So, instead of having to purchase multiple products to accomplish all we need, Skyward allows schools to get everything in one place.
200
Learning Management System (LMS). They store and organize all school-related data of students in the district. Including but not limited to grades, attendance, demographic data, class schedule, discipline, IEP/504, and health alerts. Teachers can enter grades, and students and parents go here to view grades as well as class schedules.
3
The district tech department handles all in-house support for Skyward SMS. They maintain the functionality of the system, reset user passwords, create classes, and update user data.
- Grade tracking and entry.
- Documenting student attendance.
- Creating class schedules.
- Pull grades to setup lunchtime study table.
- Track eligibility for athletics.
- Send mass communication to parents.
- Create in class assessments that auto-grade and update in real time.
- Sync grades from another LMS like Google Classroom.
- Allow students to see available courses and create their own schedule.
Not Sure
- Integration with Other Systems
I was not part of the purchasing process, so this question isn't relevant.
Focus mostly on ease of integration, as teachers all have different preferences when it comes to online resources. Having a system that easily integrates with other programs saves so much time for teachers.
- Implemented in-house
- Migrating old data.
- Training staff on use.
- Onboarding guardians.
Unsure as I do not interact with support.
No
N/A
- Entering student grades.
- Entering class attendance.
- Modifying individual student attendance.
- Modifying grades after initial entry.
- Updating missing assignments for a student.
- Scheduling messages for students/guardians.
Yes
The mobile interface is very basic, the first thing you see when entering the app is the option to open the full application on a browser. The app only really works for student attendance and viewing/modifying grades one student at a time.
March 21, 2019
Great SIS for a sophisticated school district
Student Information System, across the whole school system. Used by school officials, teachers, students, and parents.
- Skyward does really well with the teacher, student, and parent chain.
- Skyward is easy to use.
- Skyward helps the school district with state reporting.
- Very good teacher grade book.
- Excellent student online enrollment.
- Skyward should move to a more modern SQL platform.
- Skyward should perform better testing on their solution before rolling it out to users.
- The Skybuild interface should be updated including adding more fields.
- Good impact, Skyward helped the district to be more efficient.
- For sure Skyward helped the students to be more successful.
- Teachers love Skyward ‘s grade book.
- PowerSchool Student Information System, Tyler SIS, Follett Aspen Student Information System (SIS), Follett Destiny Library Manager and Follett Destiny Resource Manager
Skyward is built for the schools, easy to use and cover almost everything that school business needs. Ahead of the game functionality-wise compared to the others.
1500
Teachers, school and district officials
3
Regular IT/record keeping/ database skills
- Student demographics
- Attendance and grades
- Communication with parents
- Special education
- Data transfers to third party software vendors
- Custom forms, filled ouut on line
- Online enrollment
- Transportation, routing if developed
- Lesson plans
- Textbooks
- Child nutrition
Yes
PowerSchool SMS
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
- Third-party Reviews
Features. Skyward offered futures that other vendors did not even dream of having.
I would not change the process much, I would allow for more time to look more in-depth at more details.
- Implemented in-house
N/a
Yes
Traditional phases, starting with thorough analysis. Then going step by step getting to the final. Training was a very important step also.
Change management was minimal
We adopted the Skyward, it has suited us well.
- Data migration - expected to be a big issue.
- Personnel resisted to change.
Yes
Yes
Yes, many times if deadlines have to be meet, Skyward support was there for us. Uncounted for situations prior to issuing report cards, things had to be fixed.
- Export to excel
- Custom reports
- Teacher gradebook
- Scheduling
- Changing the schedule
Yes
Very good