PowerSchool Unified Classroom

This is the only way to stay on top of you students grades, so nice to see what they have upcoming and what has been turned in and graded

I love all the forms that drop in. It's especially nice when they automatically fill in information from previous forms.
It's easy to switch from form to form (invites, IEP, MET, transfer, etc).
It is simple to fill in the boxes provided, note the red boxes that aren't done, and save the forms.
It is helpful that the sections of an IEP will have a check next to them to show when that page is filled. The caseload glance is easy and wonderful to quick see all due dates.
Parent contact logs and service capture are helpful logging places for such information.

I wish it was easier to work on with more than one user at a time. Often, it lags on timing with when a user exits which locks you out from that page.
I also wish this system had forms for 504 plans. It would streamline that system!
It can be tedious to switch from parent log to another because you have to go all the way back out to enter it. It would be super helpful if they had parent logs all in one area rather than going through each child.

There are a number of different pre-entered selections to use for testing and whatnot, so that is helpful. Inputting your own is also not that difficult to do.

You can only search selections by one parameter at a time. I can either look stories up and see whether or not they cover the necessary standard I need to cover or I can look up the standard and hope a story covers that standard more than once. I wish there was a way to cross reference this. Also, there isn't a way to incorporate your own rubric on writing questions. You must choose whether it is a 4, 3, 2, or 1 point rubric. In my state, we have a three part, 10 point rubric and would be helpful to grade students' responses the same way that the state test and my classroom grades them.

I like that I am able to track student attendance, grades, and assignments. Additionally, I like that I can access my grade books from previous years for reference. Even with the update, I can continue to access my past Grade books. With the program, I can also create attendance sheets and seating charts quickly and efficiently. Historically grades and attendance are stored within the program, in addition to state and national assessment scores. Student demographic information and familial information can be loaded as well. With administrative rights, one can access even more information; including the master schedule and teacher schedules. As well as, the student look up for the entire school or the entire school district.

I do not like the new grade book update. The format is difficult to use and a time waster. As a teacher, I spend a lot of time inputting grades, therefore anything that is redundant is an irritant. I see how they attempted to make the program almost more like an app in some ways, but that format doesn't make sense for a grade book.

This software is our main student database. It houses all kind of data that administrators, teachers, and district level personnel can access and use. One of the best parts of the software is the ability to limit access to certain groups of people. I have been using PowerSchool for years and they always listen to feedback and improve things. I think this is one of their greatest characteristics.

Because Powerschool is so robust, it often requires many clicks to access what you are looking for. This is an obvious downside to a software that does this much.