Alma SIS

Pros

What I liked the most about this Software is that it helps teachers to stay organized in their daily plannings, but also in the evaluation process.

This was my first year as a teacher, and I loved using ALMA because I got the chance to put all the information that I needed in that Software. Just by clicking on ALMA I could take attendance, find information about my students, update my plannings, follow the CCSS Standards and upload the grades.

Cons

At the beginning of the school year, it was a little complicated for me to understand how ALMA worked. I had to ask many times to the Principal of my school about how to upload my daily plannings and align the assessments to the Standards. However, after a few weeks of practicing, it became easier for me.

Pros

Alma is easier than our former software and allows us to use our Standards Based Grading which is our priority. Parents were able to quickly learn how to use the system and the attendance feature is great. Students were also able to learn the system and although it doesn't have a comprehensive calendar with their schedules and our school activities, they were able to use the daily tab to track their classes.

Cons

The calendar is static and unable to be exported to phones/other calendars so we had to create an app for that. The reports are not as in-depth as needed and we aren't able to save our filters/criteria that we use often. They are still working on SBG reporting so many items we aren't able to track as we typically do through reports. The report card set up is limited for what we need in our report cards; we had to use every work-around to get a report card as we needed, but they do work now.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Alma SIS

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Alma SIS

Pros

Alma SIS is understandable to use and all the school management needs are included in it.

Cons

But Alma SIS doesn't match our region. Especially in the payment section. Furthermore, the time difference makes slower our connection.

Pros

I like that I can look up any student in our school and see that student's schedule and current information.

Cons

1. Our students (Seniors especially) cannot get their current transcripts. This is troubling for many reasons. Perhaps the most important being their choices for scholarships and higher education will be affected by this. Students cannot apply for financial assistance through scholarships without current transcripts. I have personally spoken with at least three students who have missed out on scholarship opportunities, simply because they cannot access current transcripts.
2. Can't see overall student GPA
3. Can't see student class rank
4. Student Mobile usage is very confusing. Can't see grades the way they should.
5. Ease of access is horrible
6. No mobile app, and mobile website is very difficult to read
7. Not organized well
8. When emailing "all students" I cannot exclude certain classes; I can't email multiple classes at once without including EVERYONE
9. For attendance, it is very confusing. If a student is marked present first class, they are marked present for the entire day. This was clearly set up for use in an Elementary School. High School is different. We need to be able to see where our students are throughout the day.
10. Inputting grades takes many more steps than our previous system. There is no way to toggle between students with the keyboard.
11. There should be a way to block certain people from seeing certain information. At the beginning of the school year, student Social Security Numbers were viewable by any teacher or staff in our building.

Pros

I like that this service is very user friendly, and easy to find the answers to questions that I have.

Cons

I think maybe a feature could be added where teachers could add notes and comments, not just administrators.