All PowerSchool Reviews
1-25 of 170 Reviews
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Stacey
Education Management, 51 - 200 employees
Used more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
3
Reviewed February 2022
Love this Program!
Mindy
Verified reviewer
Education Management, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed January 2019
The best I've seen
I have used PowerSchool for about eight of my 15 years teaching. I would recommend it for any school. I would say one of the best features is being able to see my students' schedules, the grades they have for their classes, and a breakdown of their assignments. As a resource teacher, I often work with students who require credit recovery. It's so nice being able to see exactly how they're doing in their classes. It makes counseling and organizing so much easier.
PROSI have been teaching for 15 years and have gone through many school management systems. PowerSchool is by far the best one. I am able to take attendance, keep track of grades, access communication information for the student, I can see their schedule, their grades for each class and what they are missing in that class. Everything I need is in PowerSchool. It's visually appealing, and easy to navigate.
CONSI teach resource classes and often have several different grade levels in one class. This is set up as multiple classes with the same period number. I wish I could combine those so my attendance page and my grade book aren't so messy.
Sharon
Verified reviewer
501-1,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed June 2018
Very easy to use program
It makes looking up birth dates, parent/guardian names, addresses, phone numbers, attendance, etc. very simple and easy.
PROSI like that PowerSchool is so easy to understand and use. I am on PowerSchool daily to complete IEPs, to contact parents, or to check attendance of my students. It's easy to click the area you need and find your information. PowerSchool also gives me the capability to run reports on students so I can check for behavior referrals, print classroom rosters, and more. I can also submit my hearing screening results easily and it makes a great place to house all of the hearing information for my students.
CONSThe system logs me out after a short period of inactivity. I wish it would allow me to stay logged in longer, but perhaps this is a setting on my corporation's end and not PowerSchool itself. I really have no complaints about PowerSchool, so writing cons is difficult. It's a great, easy to use program.
Ingemar
Education Management, 11-50 employees
Used less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
2
EASE OF USE
1
VALUE FOR MONEY
2
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
1
FUNCTIONALITY
2
Reviewed February 2021
PowerSchool - Dated Software
It was difficult to use and often disrupted our day to day functions instead of improving them. The amount of training needed was too much and too often. It is definitely not cutting edge.
PROSIt is used by an immense amount of schools and school districts. It has a lot of features and components.
CONSIt is like the database programs from the 80's and 90's. It has survived so long by integrating itself so deeply into so many schools. The reason it is popular is only because it is irreplaceable in these large, districts. The cost is exorbitant. The features often cost more to add on. Even normal, everyday procedures can be difficult and need training. Training is farmed out to businesses that charge even more money. It has a very old interface. Nothing is graphical or visually pleasing. Often you must learn old database terms and codes to affect changes in the software. With the amount of money they must be making, you would think they would create a new product that is easy to use, easy on the eyes, etc. But I guess then they wouldn't be able to charge all the extra fees to learn how to use it.
Reason for choosing PowerSchool
It was decided by my predecessor
Steve
Verified reviewer
Education Management, 51-200 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed May 2019
PowerSchool
PowerSchool is an excellent product that provides all the needed features for any sized school. Assignments can be made and copied across courses. The grade book has multiple views to facilitate grading including assignment view, spreadsheet view, or Categories view. Grades can also be viewed by student as well. There is also a progress monitoring tool and can run various reports based on variety of inputs. Overall, PowerSchool more than covers the basics needed within a classroom and contains many advanced options for experienced users.
CONSWithout direct assistance, learning the features that a school district requires can be daunting. PowerSchool has many help options, but sometimes that are not the best learning tool when trying to learn a brand new system. Older teachers who relied on a paper grading system may struggle switching to a complex digital system such as PowerSchool.
Claire
Verified reviewer
Education Management, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed January 2019
Great for students and teachers
PowerSchool keeps students accountable for monitoring their progress. Most check it and use it on a daily basis.
PROSI've used this software as both a student and as a teacher, and have always appreciated it. When I was in middle school and high school I would check my grades on PowerSchool, and it was always very convenient and easy to use. Now that I am a teacher, I like that I can easily upload grades and print reports through it. It is so smooth and quick to use and is a great way to develop communication between parents, teachers, and students.
CONSIt's a really good software and I don't have any major complaints. One downside is that students complain about the app being difficult to use and say that it crashes often.
Doug
Verified reviewer
Education Management, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
3
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed May 2019
Powerschool review
Great information tool to keep tabs on student progress...ideal for a parent to monitor their kiddos grades and attendance at it's base level. Great mobile app!
PROSThis is a nice program to gather all of a students information in one place. The reports are very detailed showing as much information as is put into it.
CONSSome of the attendance reports are challenging to read all of the various codes down at the bottom of the screen, seemingly only separated by commas. The information is only as good as the administrator and has a lot of possibilities for expansion if the administrator chooses to do so. In our case, it is way underutilized.
Alexis
Education Management, 5,001-10,000 employees
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
3
EASE OF USE
3
VALUE FOR MONEY
3
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed December 2023
PowerSchool Education Tool
I like that PowerSchool is a one stop shop for many different things. I primarily used PowerSchool to give assessments for my students and track their progress. My school also had me track HB1416 students' hours using PowerSchool and it was a good centralized place that everyone could easily access. Inputting grades is also easy and efficient.
CONSOne thing that I do not like is how essay question answers are displayed. As an English Teacher, we often write essays and they are frequently on tests. When I go to grade them, I cannot see but a small portion of the essay at one time. It's difficult to read the essay in one go. I also am unable to leave feedback or make comments.
John
Verified reviewer
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed June 2018
Excellent for grading/attendance, and reporting
The versatility. It provides many needed reports, such as attendance, honor rolls, and even connects to Cognos reporting. Report cards are easily printed.
CONSI have found that the fields we see for student information are quite limited. Our system talks to our SIS, so it may be an issue there, but perhaps there's a way to customize your SIS fields to make it more expansive that I just don't know of yet...
Stephanie
Verified reviewer
Education Management, 11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed April 2019
Easy to use
As a teacher I use PowerSchool and PowerTeacher daily for attendance, checking the kids' information, such as birth dates, parent numbers, addresses, ect. You can add grades and seating charts as well. I'm also able to check on my special needs students' IEPs and edit my sections of them. It is a brilliant tool and keeps everything organized and all in one place.
PROSI use it daily at school. I didn't have to take any special training, as it's pretty easy to figure out. I can go in and edit things I've previously put in without having to go to any hassle re-accessing and changing things.
CONSSometimes I have to go through clicking two or three menu items before I remember the combination I need to get to the place I want.
Audra
Verified reviewer
Higher Education, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed November 2019
power school in your school
Love it. It’s a great platform to use for your school.
PROSI love PowerSchool. I have used other platforms but none are as easy to use as this one. The amount of features available is incomparable to other platforms.
CONSIt was difficult to understand how to use at first. But once I began using I was able to pick up many of the ticks and tips.
Judy
Education Management, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed November 2018
Easy transition
My school loves using PowerSchool. It is so versatile. Every level teacher can use the program. My work is in the office and I managed the program by inputting the students, setting up the classes and did the rollover each year. I enjoyed learning every part of the program. It was a rewarding challenge. It was a pleasure to introduce the staff to PowerSchool.
PROSI LOVED the videos that trained me in every step as I was in charge of the transition to PowerSchool for our school. I worked with our contact from PowerSchool who walked me through the data set up and transfer of our students information. Working with her was very helpful, but for the fine tuning I returned over and over to the videos to reinforce knowledge of the program. I loved turning around and training the schools staff in the use of PowerSchool by being able to tell them specifically which videos applied to them so they were brought up to speed very quickly, then if they had the desire they could go on to learn more. Each teacher was able to do the minimum required by our board and many of the younger teachers delved in even further for a more robust experience.
CONSThe process of beginning our school on PowerSchool was a bit difficult because the consultant assigned to my school seemed to make assumptions maybe based on other schools she had worked with? This was done without my input which resulted in my needing to go in and hand make some changes int eh initial data transfer which took a large amount of time.
Charisa
Education Management, 51-200 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed April 2019
PowerSchool for Substitute Teacher
I have found PowerSchool very easy to use as a substitute teacher. Even when I sub for multiple teachers in one day, I can easily log in with my substitute login details to different teachers' classrooms. It has made it much easier for me to remember student names, as the ID pictures of students are paired with their names, and I can also review teacher-made seating charts on PowerSchool. I have found this attendance software much easier than the paper systems used by other school districts I have worked for.
PROSI am a substitute teacher for a charter school that encompasses three schools: elementary, middle, and high school. PowerSchool's login page for me makes it very easy to switch between the schools, as I can log into all three schools from the same login page. Most of my work on powerschool is attendance, so I don't use all administrative features of the site, but as a substitute, I have my own login page that gives me access to class rosters for the specific teachers I'm subbing. This makes attendance easier and gives me access to student ID photos so I don't have to struggle with students names.
CONSAs a sub, I don't have access to the grades in powerschool, so i only have partial access to the site. However, I don't need that access, as I am not responsible for students grades. My access is appropriate to my position.
Lisa
Education Management, 51-200 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed September 2021
Power School - a LMS that has everything
We implemented this year after piloting a few components last year. It was been very smooth
PROSOur school decided to switch our LMS to powerschool because of it's ability to do payroll and other business office functions. It truly is an all in one solution and our teachers/ instructional staff are happy because they truly get the education side of things.
CONSIt is expensive but worth it. You won't find another LMS that has everything integrated on the business and academic side of things.
Reasons for switching to PowerSchool
Wanted an all in 1 solution
Dylan
Education Management, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
5
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed March 2019
Powerschool meets needs but could be better
Does what it needs to and nothing more. Has induced its fair share of frustration with slow performance. If I had a choice, we would use something else for grade books.
PROSDaily functionality is decent. It is an ol system for attendance, seating charts, looking up student information, etc. The in-browser functions are simple and straight forward generally. Clean interface, streamlined user experience.
CONSPowerschool can be buggy. Some features are slow or have issues working consistently. Biggest gripe - the grade book function. It is very slow, cluttered, and can be a pain to use. Interface cannot be customized which leads to lots of unnecessary buttons. Lots of issues connecting with servers. Does not work when there are issues with internet connectivity. Needs features like building reports for student groups, assignments, progression/growth, etc.
Heather
Machinery, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed March 2021
Keeps you up to date almost instantly with your child's progress in school
Before PowerSchool, I struggled to know what was going on in my daughter's classes and by the time I received a progress report, it was too late to fix grades or errors or intervene before it went too far. Now, I have almost real-time updates and it has really helped me keep her on track in school.
PROSI love that the app will tell me as soon as she is marked tardy or absent and anytime her class grade changes. I can look back and look up what grade she receives on any assignment and I can obtain each of her teacher's contact info right there in the app. It also tracks her school lunch account balance so I know when I need to re-fund it.
CONSIt would be great if they would integrate a way to load the school lunch account through the app but maybe that's in the works.
Richard
Computer Software, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed February 2020
Great for keeping track of grades
I really love PowerSchool. I think this should be a requirement for all school districts since the parents will always know what's going on. You even get notifications if the kids are marked absent. I absolutely love this program.
PROSPowerschool is am amazing product. I love how you can keep track of the kid's grades in real time and how it shows you their upcoming assignments. The software is so great that our school district stopped using paper report cards and now use Powerschool.
CONSThe only complaint that I have is really more of a suggestion than a complaint. I wish they had a system integrated with school lunches where you can use Powerschool to reload the kid's lunch account. This would eliminate having to use two apps.
TASHA
Automotive, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed February 2021
Everyone with kiddos should use this software!
We can keep up with the kids missing assignments on a daily basis! That makes life beyond a breeze, compared to finding out at midterms how they are doing. The ease of talking to teachers, seeing all work that should be in, and all courses being taken with a current schedule is the BEST! THANK YOU FOR MAKING POWERSCHOOL AVAILABLE TO US PARENTS! If you havent tried this software, Please DO! You'll wonder how you went without it, and will Never live without it again!
PROSThe fact that I can see the beat details of Our children's current: Grades, schedules, assignments turned in, and missing assignments is by FAR THE BEST comfort a parent can have on their side! Hard for Us to be blindfolded by our kids when such a great application exists!
CONSThere is nothing I have to say negative about this software whatsoever! Thank you for creating such a thing!
Kelly
Education Management, 501-1,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed June 2021
Powerschool to help you keep it all straight
Powerschool makes it unnecessary to keep a traditional paper grade book.
PROSI love Powerschool! I have been using it for several years. It is awesome in that it keeps up with tardies, absences - both excused and unexcused, and of course it keeps up with assignments and grades. I love the various reports that it can run.
CONSWe could use Powerschool for more than we use it. Looks like lunch counts can be kept and discipline issues can be input into Powerschool, but we don't use those features at this time.
Reasons for switching to PowerSchool
Not sure
Peter
Education Management, 501-1,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
3
EASE OF USE
3
VALUE FOR MONEY
3
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
3
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed June 2019
PowerSchool
It is generally good. I have used four of the major SMS systems and PowerSchool is weak in some areas and strong in others. They all have their drawbacks, but PowerSchool was the most budget friendly option for a district with 10K+ students.
PROSI like the ability to use the APEX SQL system to get any data that I want
CONSPowerSchool has a large learning curve and requires some technical prowess with understanding how tables link in a database.
Reason for choosing PowerSchool
Price
Reasons for switching to PowerSchool
Old product became outdated and could not keep up with new state data requirements
Jenna
Education Management, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed May 2023
PowerSchool Has the Power!
We would not survive without this resource!
PROSPowerSchool is a staple in my daily work life. It keeps all important data in one organized place.
CONSThere are times where loading is slow or pages will say "Not Found" when they are there.
Angie
Education Management, 201-500 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed December 2020
PowerSchool
It has been a great tool for have students documents easily accessible. It is great to evaluate students needs because you can access prior years progress.
PROSIt holds unlimited student documents and can even access student documents from other schools with admin privileges
CONSIt is nit always the easy to run reports. It is also not to find students if you are not sure of the spelling.
Reason for choosing PowerSchool
It was a system wide decision. Deciding on by the district,
Anonymous
51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed January 2019
Very Easy to Navigate
As a special area teacher, PowerSchool is easy to navigate for my 16 classes and 350 students. It allows me to quickly look at schedules and demographics to find important information.
CONSAs a teacher, I would like to provide section nicknames to make it easier to find the section I am looking for. We have the title from the district, but I would like to identify these differently to make it easier for myself to find.
Jamie
E-Learning, 5,001-10,000 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
3
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed August 2019
Good software but difficult to get into
I like how detailed Powerschool is and how it provides a cohesive place for teachers to access information regarding their students. The program offers a one stop places to access student alerts, attendance, and any other imperative information one might need.
CONSAs a new teacher, I found Powerschool difficult to figure out at first. There are a number of options that are available but that I do not know how to truly utilize. I am sure that with support and guidance it would be easier, but the number of options can seem at first like a huge barrier to overcome.
Pamela
Primary/Secondary Education, 201-500 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed January 2020
This program is so versatile!
I use it daily in my job with my student records and it is very reliable which is great because I depend on this program to do my job.
PROSI like the ease of the navigation with this program. It can be customized to fit what you need to get from it. There are numerous ways to query what you need to find out.
CONSSometimes it is hard to figure out the exact formula to make a query work.