PowerSchool SIS

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

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.

Being able to view grades and teacher comments

The navigation labeling is confusing and misleading. What is the difference between "Grade History" and "Historical Grades"? They are two separate pages, but the distinction is not obvious to me. There is nothing shown on either one. "Grades and Attendance" only displays attendance, not grades. Finally found grades under "Standards Grades History" but had to scroll down to see it. The first thing shown is a schedule. This is not an expected information architecture.

The grades are laid out in a table with numbers, letters, and symbols indicating performance. You need to scoll up and down to see what they mean in the legend at the bottom of the page. There are 13 different symbols to have to refer to in the legend. You easily lose your place going back and forth to see what the symbol is supposed to indicate. I'd rather have it spelled out in the table instead of referring to a symbol. You could probably even put the legend in a floating div to the left or right of the grade table so it's easier to reference.

The usability of this site is poor. I needed help from others to find what I was looking for. The overall design is lackluster. Could use quite a few improvements to make this a better experience.

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.

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.

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.

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.