PowerSchool SIS

Pros

-Really helpful database
-Had the ability to hold a lot of different data points for a ton of different facets of student data.

Cons

-Learning curve in figuring out how to navigate
-A decent amount of room for human error (in not updating things). I know this is user error and I'm not sure what the solution is, but it wasn't uncommon for people to decide to not take the time to update contact information.

Pros

One of the best reasons to use PowerSchool is that this software is all encompassing for the school district. We use this software for attendance, grades, teacher grade book, reports, state reporting, and even to manage our lunch program and student fees.

PowerSchool keeps parents and students informed. Parents (and students) have real-time access to their student's information which includes but is not limited to attendance, grades, and lunch balances.

Cons

In the "Old" days, Pearson used to download the state reporting updates automatically overnight for us. Now, I have to go to the PowerSource site to get the download and install the updates myself, which is time consuming and causes me to take PowerSchool offline during the work day.

Pros

Covers the bases and is used in many districts so once learned can be used at many places.

Cons

Not very user friendly. Often too difficult to navigate and must jump too many screens to get the information you need.

Pros

Here are the pros I see with PowerSchool as an administrator:
- Easy-to-use for newcomers
- Tons of potential and features
- They really do have incredible customer support. They offer a site where you can make suggestions, and upvote other ideas. They do release those features commonly, too.
- It's a one-stop-shop for almost every SIS need

Cons

Due to some major recent updates with the platform (specifically gradebook becoming web-based, called PowerTeacher Pro), I do not have any major complaints regarding it. I cannot speak to the programming side, but in my role as a troubleshooter for teachers, I find it very easy to use. I have noticed and heard that it doesn't always react/respond well across different OS. Due to the fact that it is web-based, this could be problematic if the internet was down.

Pros

If there is something that you want to do with your student data, PowerSchool is likely able to help you do it but...

Cons

Figuring out the process to get anything done can be onerous and support is not well set up to help with strategy level decisions but instead is better suited to dealing with one-off issues.

Alternatives Considered

Pros

PowerSchool is a great tool for both me and my child. It is easy to navigate and displays perfectly on mobile devices. I can access grades, assignments and GPA quickly and easily. It is a streamlined and modern format, buttons are accessible and the dashboard gives you all necessary information on one screen. The classes button nicely displays each class, grade and assignments associated with that class. I also love the new schedule feature.

Cons

Since this is the first software program we have used related to school information I don't have anything to compare it to. It hasn't presented any challenges for us yet.

Pros

I have a child in the 2nd and 11th grade. I am able to navigate both students information under one account. As a parent, I enjoy using Powerschool to stay up-to-date with my children teachers, classes and grades. I like how I can view every assignment, test, quiz or project; by its name, date and grade without contacting the teacher. Powerschool keep records of attendance, school events, and class schedules; to name a few. I like how the Powerschool software gives my children a sense of accountability. My high schooler cannot state any excuses of not knowing her assignments or grades. Students are provided with their own access to Powerschool which helps them keep up with their own grades.

Cons

The software generates each student with an username and password for the parents and students. The parent are allowed to change their password. Although, my information remains the same, I have had to recreate my account several times throughout the school year...using the same information!

Pros

There are several things that I like about Powerschool. I get nightly emails that notify me of my children's grades. This is helpful to let me know if they have missing assignments. Powerschool also has links to view their lunch accounts, see their standardized test scores, and more. This software is also great because it can help a parent monitor their children's attendance. The software is easy to use and a great asset to our school.

Cons

The thing I like least is that I continue to get the email notifications even when the kids are out on Spring Break and other breaks.

Pros

I liked the look of Powerschools. Thats really all I liked. It wasn't useful and it wasn't user friendly.

Cons

As a Student Information System, it sort of works but it isn't easy to maneuver around.

Pros

I like that my assignments, grades, attendance and class information can be accessed easily from home or school.

Cons

I had an issue with recovering password, but it was eventually reset and resolved. No major complaints.

Pros

The product works well - we have been using it for decades. As with most software, greater flexibility and power means more options, and a greater need for training.

Cons

The tie-in with Enrollment could be better - the process for migrating user data is obtuse, and the year-to-year rollover is not as seamless as it should be. There is usually some cleanup that must be done - features turned back on, accounts reactivated, etc - that takes time to sort out.

Pros

We purchased PowerSchool in 2011 and have used it since. PowerSchool is a robust and user-friendly SIS.

Cons

PowerSchool bought it's self out a few year back. Since that time, I have not been on board with the business model. We are small district and PowerSchool is a premium product. Since the purchase, they have begun acquiring 3rd party vendors instead of updating their software. They pick one preferred vendor and that vendor has full access integration to PS but you pay top dollar for that integration. As small as we are, we cannot afford to add everyone of these integrations just to have a "better" system that we are already paying top dollar for! This is my biggest issue with PS at the moment.

Pros

PowerSchool's gradebook system is pretty easy to use. The administrator can set grade weights if that is something that is standard across your school.

Cons

The main page for recording attendance, viewing student/parent contact information, viewing attendance report is not very intuitive. Once you know how to use it, it is fine. However, there are several different clicks you have to make to achieve what you want, and the first few times it is trial and error finding out how to get what you want.

Pros

The best part about the software is the ability for users to contact both students and parents in a timely manners. It is also much easier to contact groups of students if the need for this arises. Also, the building of and construction of classes is fairly easy to create.

Cons

When moving from student to student and the entering of grades, the saving option and instant updates to the grade structure lag a little. Must go through multiple steps in order to do this.

Pros

Parents can see their students' progress in almost real time. I get notifications whenever a teacher inputs a grade for my child, allowing me to have conversations with them about their learning on a regular basis and without having to wait for progress reports or report cards.

Cons

This does require teachers to input grades on a regular basis, and regrettably, not every teacher does. The software design, while effective, does feel a bit clunky. For example, if I get a notification about a grade change, it takes many. many seconds from my logging in to see that new grade pop up.

Pros

I like the search features and reporting capabilities best. Reports can be exported to a excel for further data manipulation. I use PowerSchool daily. I could not imagine my job without it. I can manage student and staff infomation remotely. This syncs with student registration and discipline softwares. PowerSchool has been the foundation for my school district for almost twenty years. Updates and support are timely and easy to facilitate. You can't go wrong with PowerSchool.

Cons

PowerSchool is a web based application. When internet access goes down so does PowerSchool. That is the only issue I ever have. Which is really not a PowerSchool issue at all, especially since the ability to log on from anywhere is a huge plus.

Pros

This program has a fabulous integration between school and parent access. Grade books, attendance, behavior, and all other aspects are updated in Real Time. The online registration process has been a tremendous help to our secretarial staff.

Cons

First time users have a learning curve. Many new teachers report that it is not intuitive or user friendly for learning. Seems to have a compatibility issue with Mac OS.

Pros

I like everything that i have used in powerschool. It is always more features being added.

Cons

Nothing that i can think about at this time.

Pros

I've used PS at various schools over the years, and they've tried, tried so hard, to improve. Their latest GUI is not as awful as the original.

Cons

New software built atop a shabby 1990's foundation. Every thing I do requires multiple clicks where a smarter UX could shorten it to 1.

Pros

I like that it lets us know any health problems that the student may have. This is something that scares me a bit about subbing, not knowing what health problems they have and knowing what to do.

Cons

I just wished that along with the health information it told us what to do if they were to face a problem that required our help, for example having an asthma attack.

Pros

PowerSchool gives teachers like me a great deal of detail and data on our students. This can be your one stop shop for contact information, grades, standard performance, reading levels, and more for all of your students!

Cons

PowerSchool is not easy to navigate, and it often requires you to visit multiple pages to get all the information you need. If I wanted to see a specific data point on all my students, I have to visit all of their individual pages - or if there is another way to get to it, I haven't been able to figure it out yet. For all of the data points teachers are expected to keep track of, I wish this made it easier to quickly access and see what I needed.

Pros

It is seriously a complete LMS for K-12 ... ability to access student information, manage grading, and communicating student progress.

Cons

Not able to connect with Google Classroom

Pros

This app is so detail oriented it is great! The teachers put grades in and as parents we can see it immediately. We can email the teacher right from the app if needed and everything is very clear and easy to read. The classes are broken down by individual and so are the assignments. Very user friendly for everyone to use, my child has no problem navigating the app.

Cons

I do wish it were the same app on all devices, my daughter and I have different devices so sometimes it is hard to see exactly what she is looking at.

Pros

Powerschool Pro has all the features I need. I can publish and push grades out to parents. I can hold back formative assessments. I can create groupings. I can scan all of my class sections for proficiency at a button click.

Cons

Powerschool can take a little while to setup. You will need to tutor parents on how to use Powerschool. The reports are amazing, but take time to figure out how to run them properly.

Pros

Gradebook and SIS all in one place that allowed parents to interact and view live grades on a daily basis. Creating new profiles was easy... for students, not so much faculty.

Cons

The user interface was aged. It felt way older than it should have been. It also was a PAIN to set up new years, calendars, etc. If there is a warning when setting things up that says, "If you do this step wrong, you can kiss a weekend of your life goodbye fixing the problem," then something isn't right, in my opinion. The parent portal was nice, but again, not as user friendly as I think it could have been.

Pros

Powerschool SIS has so many features and capabilities. It is used daily in our schools to keep track of many aspects of a student's daily schedule.

Cons

There are many features that could intimidate a user who is just beginning to work with the program.

Pros

Powerschool have been helpful on managing student data, especially for remote learning. We can input and upload documents and data for all persons to have access in one place.

Cons

Sometimes the updates and a create discrepancies in the information stored.

Pros

It’s easy to use for teachers and parents.

Cons

It can be a little complicated and doesn’t always work as well on Mobil devices.

Pros

Good management staff and good development for student brain

Cons

Good knowledge provide for the student good knowledgeable for the future

Pros

The ability to customize the SIS product with PowerSchool and third party vendors is a nice feature. It's ability to integrate with other education products is also a strength.

Cons

The training we received was very minimal. Our district felt like there was a lot left up to us to figure out after completing the trainings that were included with the implementation process. There are a lot of unknown costs that come along with the base product. Our district has had to purchase many additional training hours and third party plugins to customize the product to fit our needs.

Pros

Powerschool Pro bundles grades and attendance into one program. We can change our attendance up to midnight, which is a real benefit in this new Virtual environment. PowerSchool has built-in graphical seating chart (click and drag) that can be printed - amazing feature! We can do attendance from the seating charge grid - a huge timesaver!
When taking attendance, we can set the timeframe into the past, and get a great visual feel for students that have been missing excessive classes, for example.
Clicking on Student View, I can see all their demographic info in one place, or all their grades and attendance for all classes. So helpful when making that Parent Call to know if the child is struggling in all of his classes, or just having trouble in my class.
Gradebook is very robust - we are allowed to change the columns/view, for example, to accommodate the all the different screen sizes on our various devices we are using. Weighting grades is a click of a mouse, as are categories. Grades can be overridden, and re-calculated, at the click of a mouse.
A fantastic feature of PowerSchool Pro is the ability to see a summary screen for the entire class by grading period (instead of individual grades). I can instantly identify students who made or missed their semester goal by 1 or2 points, for example, and then look at all their report cards to date to see what happened. I can easily see "low" or "high" classes and adjust my teaching style.

Cons

PowerSchool (the website) goes down periodically for maintenance, and there is NO way for a "mere teacher" to find out when it will come back up! If you are a teacher, you CANNOT contact PowerSchool directly - you must go through your "representative" who is (for my campus) NEVER available.
Right now, yes, it is the holidays, but with NO NOTICE the program has been down for a week with NO IDEA of when it will ever come back up. I had made arrangements with some of my failing students over the Break, and so had other teachers. We are trying to find the student contact info and grade info that is all locked away in PowerSchool that we foolishly thought we would be able to access. With no luck. And we cannot even ASK when it might come back up. This happens regularly on Saturdays, Spring break - times when I am trying to catch up. I now keep my grades in an Excel spreadsheet so I can at least get at them. Teachers beware!
Another weakness currently is the Attendance Audit - for our District it only goes back 2 weeks. In High School, students lose credit after 4 absences / semester and it would be nice to be able to quickly see who those students are from a report.
Lastly, they have an Attendance feature that allows you to group separate classes into one session, but that feature is MISSING for grades. If your periods are coded as different Classes by your District, you will be forced to open, close, enter grades, repeat... over and over for each separate class.

Pros

PowerSchool was a fast, powerful student management system.

The customizations were vast, and when properly trained, performed by indistrict staff. Custom Fields, Custom Reports, Custom Exports, Direct Database Exports and Imports. These are features that should be standard in many Student Information Systems, but unfortunately Not.

PowerSchool also integrates very easily with a number of other applications. There is a built in export / import scheduler. There is an API, and many other features that take much time.

The navigation system is superb, and the "selection" driver for searches and reports allows for vast customization and detail.

We created custom reports for Honor Roll certifications, Perfect Attendance, and a number of very regular activities.

Cons

PowerSchool was behind the ball when it came to State Reports. It didn't keep up often, and many of the reporting fields required duplication in a separate area of the data just to populate. Sometimes a student's demographic record would say one thing, and the report tab would say another. Constant looking at Reporting Release notes was necessary to make sure things were working correctly.

Many support calls were made to make sure state reporting was working appropriately.

Also, not a normal problem, but PowerSchool didn't focus on it's relationships with at least our State well enough. Without good support to the State, and communication, it allowed a 3rd party to swoop in gobble up much of our reason.

I am actually angry, because we don't have PowerSchool anymore.

Pros

PowerSchool SIS is a great student-based SIS. It is easy to use, and easy to modify to what you need it to be. I like that we are able to modify and customize pages, it has made it easy for us to streamline the product to use for re-enrollment, pre-registration, and keeping up-to-date on student information. It has allowed us to bridge the gap between when PowerSchool did not yet have partner products and today where it has plenty of partners and other tools available, however, due to the customization we are able to do without many of the paid additions.

I like that the software was also, easily learnable. I took over the role as PS Admin from a true tech genius, and was able to learn the software within a year, and make it my own within two while also teaching and working IT. I only had to consult a small handful of times for issues that even left them scratching their head, which is very reassuring.

Cons

While PowerSchool SIS is a great system, there are some areas that could use some help. There are plenty of times and locations where you will see the message "Cannot be undone." or "Submit only if you know what you are doing and it is absolutely necessary" or something to that effect, however, there are other areas where it is just as dangerous and nonreversible that lack any warning. We had a user delete three years worth of student grade records by hitting the return key in USM rather than hitting the button to modify. It went with the delete command, which is right next to modify (I would personally prefer them on opposite sides of the screen where I cannot personally mess that one up), but it also deleted without the checkbox to verify the delete command being checked.

I also hate that as the scheduler (I do it all), I have to schedule twice essentially due to co-teaching, once to build the framework with the lead teacher in PowerScheduler, and again on the live-side to add co-teachers.

Additionally, since this is a student-based SIS, there are some limitations for parents and families. There are a lot of times that we need to manually move data with families, the parent account setup, at least according to the parents, could be easier.

Pros

PowerSchool is an easy to use system. I have used it for over 3 years, but I felt comfortable with it after just a few days. The things you will use it for every day as a teacher (attendance and lunch count) are right there on the front page and easy to use. I can enter my attendance and lunch counts in probably about 20 seconds.

The grading part is also easy to use. You can fill in grades and comments for all students as a timesaver. The fill comment can even be used to add each students individual name...which is a nice feature.

Cons

When the report cards print, they have a fairly basic set up. This might be something that is adjustable at the district level. I have seen other report cards look a little more professional- adding things like a school image.

Pros

We are able to easily share data with the district who authorizes our charter school because we are in the same software. We can collect student demographics, contact information, grades, attendance, transfer information, and cumulative information all in one location. Through PowerTeacher we are able to combine the gradebook with the SIS. Once I became familiar with the field names I can easily get filtered lists of students. I can also pull simple Excel lists of specific fields. Parents and students are also able to login and see information about attendance, assignments, and grades.

Cons

I have found it very difficult to find any written information about the basic structure of the database. I struggled to find the specific reports I need and often have to "made do" with something that is close to what I'm looking for. As a charter school we are required to begin tracking data on students as soon as they apply to our school. We are not able to use PowerSchool for student records until they have been accepted so we have to use a separate database and then enter them into PowerSchool.

Pros

PowerSchool SIS has been an easy and intuitive tool for us to manage different types of data and records securely and seamlessly. It is an all-in-one tool for data management and is very fundamental for the functioning of our school. Its wide range of features including attendance, customizability, easy user interface, different student and parent platforms, enhanced parental control, remote mobile application, grading, fees management, and a lot more has helped us in keeping paperless records and reducing work. Lastly, it has various integration options i.e. PowerPack, PowerSchool Ecollect forms, PowerSchool enrollment that we use in our institute to save time as well as resources.

Cons

Theirs nothing much that I dislike about PowerSchool SIS. Although, the user interface can be improved as use of more modern elements would give a better look and it would be easier to navigate. Rest everything is perfect.

Pros

The capabilities and information that is available at your fingertips is extremely helpful. Very easy to pre-enroll and enroll students. We have account creation automated through PowerSchool, so when a student is enrolled, within 24 hours their school accounts are created, such as Active Directory, email, etc. This is very handy for our department.

Some of the features available in PowerSchool are: information management, reporting, IEP tracking , admissions management, billing and payment, student information management, student portal, parent portal, registration and scheduling, gradebooks and transcripts to name a few. Having everything in one place has been convenient for our staff and students.

Cons

There are so many bells and whistles, sometimes it is hard to figure out how to complete a task. However their help menu is very helpful. We also have the privilege of having our ISD available for help.

Pros

This is a simple platform that I, as a teacher, use daily to communicate with faculty and students. I post messages, documents, videos, and various other files into individual classrooms I set up for my students. There they can find the syllabus and see how the class is broken up into units. They are alerted by email when changes or updates have been made.

For our school faculty page, it's a way for them to post commonly used materials and handbooks, college counseling information, deadlines. It's been an invaluable tool for keeping me organized. And I am NOT that tech savvy and I was able to use it immediately with almost no learning curve.

Cons

I feel like I learn about new features all the time. I wish there was a way to learn about them earlier or that they were more obvious in style. Overall, I have very little to say against this program.

Pros

Powerschool gives me POWER to manage student information from attendance, schedule, to grades inputting and printing. It has also great features that stores students' contacts, demographics, cumulative grade information, quick lookup of grades, submit log entry, teacher comments and test results. With all of these, teachers have a great tool as a class record. Likewise, parents have access to monitor their students progress in school while administration has reliable, accurate and responsive information system.

Cons

Using PowerSchool Student Information System, teachers like me has enjoyed recording and monitoring students progress over the year. Indeed, PowerSchool gives me power to manage my students' information in a click, anywhere and anytime. Thank you PowerSchool!

Pros

PowerSchool Student Information System is so very easy to use. I love that it contains so many features. I can do health records, parent info, attendance, class rosters, student info, special education and testing info, and more can be found in this system for our students.

Cons

This may be on our school corporation's end, but it times out too quickly. When I am searching for students and information, I may be on PowerSchool for a period of time. If I don't click something within a short period of time, it logs me out and I have to log in again. Annoying, but this may be a time set by my employer and not a part of the PowerSchool Student system.

Pros

I like that it updates the students every time I input a grade (after I hit "save"). That is motivational for students.

Cons

Please note that the cons that exist here are features that exist in almost every other SIS that I have used in my experience and prevent me from using this efficiently. Not in order: 1) I cannot toggle between the first quarter, second quarter, and semester exam. The semester exam is not even there. 2) If I want to input the same grade for an assignment for all students, there isn't a code where I can fill down or copy a score from one student to the rest. 3) The assignments automatically default to percent-based, so if I put a 10 out of 10, it comes out as 10%, and I have to remember to select "points" instead of percent. 4) If multiple classes have the exact same assignment but a different point-amount or dates, I cannot change particular features of that assignment for that class, once the assignment is created. 5) There is no symbol that calculates as a 0 but is a notification for absentees. Instead, they see the 0 (even if I have the green absentee symbol next to it), and automatically think, "That's it." It demotivates students, even if I repeatedly remind them they can make it up if they were absent. Other programs use "Z" for this feature. 6) I cannot press tab between columns. 7) The bar on the right with the number pad, student information, etc., that appears when inputting grades, takes up too much room, especially if I am splitting my screen between PowerSchool and a spreadsheet. Those are the top cons, but there are more.

Pros

PowerSchool SIS has been around for a long time. The software has eveloved with the needs of the schools and the parents. We have many districts in our state running this SIS and I don't think we could ever change. The SIS is easy to use as a teacher, student, parent, office personnel, and it is easy to support. There are many custom addons and other features PowerSchool can accomodate if not native to the plateform.

Cons

Somtimes we have diffuclut time reaching knowledgable support staff when we have issues.

Pros

Powerschool does come with a lot of features that let you integrate most of the tools you need to run a school. Nice interface.

Cons

Lack of integration with spreadsheets (which could make your work easier if you're in a hurry), and not that user friendly. Over complicated processes for lists, etc. I know other school softwares that are way easier to use.

Pros

It saves a lot of time and is easy to use. It is very helpful to the Administrators and Teachers with all information for the students. Parents can view all information online for their child only and information from the school. Historical information is great.

Cons

There is nothing that i can think that i like the least at this time.

Pros

What I like best about Powerschool is that all of the information that is pertinent to my job is housed in one location that I can easily access from any location; this being even more important working remotely during the quarantine. I could access everything I needed from student information to professional training and resources. No clicking in and out of program is necessary .

Cons

The only frustrating aspect of Powerschool seemed to be the timing of the updates. They always seemed to coincide with interim and the end of a grading period time frame not allowing for last minute adjustments to be made on students progress when assignments are submitted late or last minute.

Pros

Powerschool streamlines all of the students information in one place to make it convenient to contact home, look at demographics data, attendance, and more.

Cons

The only con is it can be difficult to get information updated as if parents/students do not know their account info they must go through the site admin which can delay information updates.

Pros

I love PowerSchool! I use it for attendance, grades, and to access information about my students. I love that I can get everything I need in one place.

Cons

Really, there isn't anything I don't like about PowerSchool. I've used other systems and this is the one I prefer.

Pros

Used this software for the last 5 years. Very simple and easy to learn. Also easy to set up grading categories

Cons

Our school did not purchase the entire package (with the ability to organize classes and use as a learning system.

Pros

They listened to concerns and came out with updates to fix issues. Our administrators send out upgrade tutorials so we have the cutting edge knowledge. Once you use it regularly it becomes second nature.

Cons

Inability to run reports with specific field of information. Had to rely on administrators to update and create reports that weren't standard. No friendly user manual, used one created by our administrators.

Pros

Plenty of applications to use with our school.

Cons

Too difficult to work for our small school. All the options just got in the way and caused confusion.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing PowerSchool SIS

Reasons for Switching to PowerSchool SIS