PowerSchool SIS Reviews & Product Details

PowerSchool has many other platforms to integrate, Unified Talent, Enrollment Express, Naviance, Performance Matters,...etc. It is like one shop for all Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The price for customization of the reports is very expensive. Also, the Sped, ESL, GT alerts are not great. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Import and export features are best for me. For example, yearly locker assignments are a breeze using this feature. PowerScheduler is a great tool with enough scheduling options to make it useful even for tiny schools like ours. We use automated scheduling, then the manual features to tweak. Additionally, I appreciate the reporting features for attendance letters, report cards, and fees due. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Demographic and contact information pages are not up to date, requiring us to create custom pages for what seems like basic information (cell phones, etc.). I also wish the pre-requisites worked better so we can use this feature while registering students in the spring before they've completed their classes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Powerschool U is decent. However, the menus themselves are totally unintuitive. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Everything.

-The databases are a nightmare to wrangle--they just keep on adding tables instead of reorganizing them. You'll spend hours poring through documentation, which may not even be accurate.

-Support is extremely condescending, but at the same time ignorant of the product. Don't expect them to help you migrate your data--hire a consultant if you feel you can't do it on your own.

-Powerschool claims to have an integrated environment, but in reality, its myriad acquisitions are barely integrated, or integrated in an illogical way. There's three different support sites with different logins. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The customizations and reports are more robust than some other solutions. This SIS seems to be better suited to a smaller district. They have many options for enhancements to the SIS, but at a cost. Power Teacher Pro seems to be a good fit for our district.

UPDATE: We have been live for two months now, and are still experiencing issues with the software. I do like the student field value and school id override fields for state reporting purposes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The implementation process is impossible. They do not provide the level of support that I would expect from a company of this size. Many other SIS products, including the one we came from, have a much deeper understanding of the needs of a district.

The data management and validation are nearly impossible to complete.

They do not have data crosswalks for their other SIS (eSchool PLUS) to the Powerschool SIS.

One department doesn't know what the other is doing.

They want you to do most of the work yourself while they collect their money. We were promised so many things that are not coming to fruition. The entire process for us, from start to finish has been a disaster.

It feels as though we are beta testers and not end-users of a "proven product."

The system navigation is not user-friendly and requires SQL and HTML knowledge to perform basic searches and tasks.

Reports are sometimes hard to find. Grades have to be sorted through to find anything. It is much more difficult to use than others I have used in the past and has less functionality.

UPDATE: We have been live for two months now, and are still experiencing issues with the software. This software feels like a step back for our district compared to eSchoolPLUS. End users are still struggling to find what they need, reports are very difficult to find, accessing student data takes 10 steps instead of 1 or 2. There are so many illogical sequences to complete a task, that it seems like a waste of time and is counterintuitive. There are no true Progress Reports...a custom report was written so we could print a progress report, but they are simply 'Live Grades' and not a progress report as of a specific date and time. Data for state reporting (PIMS) was horrific...it took weeks to do data cleanup and we are still not close to done. User security leaves so much to be desired...it is very difficult to assign users with appropriate access privileges without giving them more than is needed. We have to have customized reports for our report cards and transcripts because what comes out of the box is terrible. We are still experiencing numerous integration issues with every single third-party software we use (Clever, Primero, Transfinder, PowerSchool Special Programs!?). If we could go back in time, we would. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like that the program is simple and easy to navigate. The grade book is pretty easy to use once you know where to look for the menu. Very easy to copy assignments from one class to another. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I dislike how much time it takes to enter grades into the gradebook. There should be a bulk edit option, and the lack of one makes me want to enter grades in Schoology instead. If the two are owned by the same parent company then why is the gradebook in Schoology better equipped for online classes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The most beneficial thing that PowerSchool offers districts is the ability to customize it on the fly to fit your district's needs. Every district is different and most other SIS will customize their products, but for a price, with PowerSchool you can do it yourself. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The weakest aspect of PowerSchool might be technical support, but where it lacks in that area the network of users and power users is super strong and I've never had an issue that I couldn't solve contacting school that use PowerSchool. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I can access some of my student data through this. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It does not seem to synch well with other platforms. It is also not customizable by users. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The convenience of one place for assignments posted to communicate with students and parents is what I like most. I also like to ability to import projects from Teams into PowerSchool. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It would be helpful if I didn't have to scroll all the way through my list of classes after entering grades on one class. When I "save" grades and go back to the list, I wish we could pick up where we left off in the list, rather than the page beginning at the top. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I appreciate that all student data is housed in a central location. Improvements have been made to the PowerTeacher Pro portion and tools that make grade input more convenient. SchoolNet assessments are also helpful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

When utilizing administrative features, searching for students is difficult. It shows that it should have capabilities such as searching with different fields, however they are not at all intuitive and some of them do not work. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Powerschool is user-friendly. It allows for quick and easy grade entry. Commenting ability for individual assignments and individual students is useful. Easy ability to flag assignments as missing, late, etc. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I can't say that I have any complaints. The program was easy to learn and has been used in our district for quite a few years. I can easily look up student data and information. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.