eSchoolPLUS Plus PowerSchool
April 30, 2019

eSchoolPLUS Plus PowerSchool

Christopher Power | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with eSchoolPLUS

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.
  • 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.
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.