Hi all! I'm going to a new school next year and they'll use Powerschool. Anyone know much about this software? Last year, we used teacherease, and I kind of wished I had known more about it beforehand so I could have known that I had the capability to send form emails to parents about things like missing homework or behavior issues and had drafted them before school started. Does Powerschool have this ability? Are you able to set up class websites though it, or is it just an online gradebook? Anything else cool, or frustrating, about it that I maybe can plan with it or around for next year? Thanks in advance for any help!
PowerSchool is a complete student information system. While it does contain a web based gradebook, it will typically run and maintain absolutely all student data in your school. You will likely use it for attendance, grading, and any reporting you may need to do (like athletic eligibility, or whatever...)
PowerTeacher is the gradebook part of powerschool. Through it, you can look up student schedules, health alerts and find demographic info such as addresses, phone numbers, and parent email addresses. As far as I know, you cannot email through powerteacher. PowerSchool is the administrative part of the program. It does scheduling, report cards, tracking attendance, etc. I find PowerTeacher to be very easy to use.
We switched from IGPro to Power School in January and it was a pretty easy switch. Everything's right there in one place and it's rather user friendly. I don't think you can email directly through it though.
We use it also- parents are able to check their child's grades on it 24/7. You can set up groups within the system, and you can make progress reports & report cards. To me, the hardest part is setting up the gradebook at the start of school. Other than that- it is pretty easy.
I used it at my last job and it was very easy to use. We used it for attendance, lunch count and entering grades. Parents have a user name and password that they can use to check and see how their child is doing. Also, you can up your grades however you want them (total points, percentages, etc.) at the beginning of the year and it basically does the rest of the work for you. I would also print out grade reports for each student at conference time which listed every assignment they had done and their grade on each.
Remember, when parents have access to it, they can see their kids' grades 24/7. That means they know how on top of submitting grades you are. The teachers (3-6) at my school learned that as well as learning that they need to have a BACKUP GRADE BOOK! ...just in case ummmm... something crashes! All I had to use it for was attendance and accessing student data. (K-2 didn't use Power Grade or Power Teacher, whatever it's called. Just PowerSchool.)
I echo what everyone else has said! Advantages: Easy to Use Weighs Grades Automatically (once you set the weight) Easy to see if anyone is missing an assignment Easy to Calculate Grades Disadvantages: Parents can see their child's grades at any time ( I had a parent call during the school day b/c I entered a C in the gradebook!) And of course, make sure you back up all info (I also recorded grades in a regular paper gradebook)
my favorite feature is the missing assignment report. It prints an individual report for each student that is missing an assignment, date it was due, points etc. I printed out a hard copy every friday for a hard copy at the elem. level where I work now we don't have parent access available but when I did student teaching and used it there was an e-mail feature.
Not all schools have the parent access turned on. We've used PowerSchool in its various incarnations for about 5 years, but the parent access wasn't turned on until this past school year. Personally, I like that the parents (and kids) can see grades and ask questions if necessary. The parents know that we are only expected to update grades once a week and I never had anyone on my back about how often I entered grades. The kids did find some keying errors I had made, and I fixed them. I keep a paper gradebook for just that reason - I'm human and I make mistakes.
