comment by Wisdom
I like that there are specific tools that can be used for student management, I have not used that before, and I'll like to use them someday. It is amazing how technology can manage students. I know that schools should not just graduate students based on academic standards alone, there are other standards that schools should consider as they graduate students because these students will either be an asset for the building of their society or a danger.
by Chloe Pozderac
During my three years of teaching, two years as a teacher and one year as a preservice teacher, I have used two different student management systems. During my preservice semester, I used Infinite Campus while in the two following years, I used PowerSchool. These student management systems’ functions were generally similar but also varied based on position, school, and access needed. Both systems had grade reporting capabilities, attendance tracking, personal/contact information, and special education documents. I was never trained on any of these systems, so I had to teach myself the features that I use daily and go through a lot to find out what other features I am potentially missing out on.
PowerSchool is the student management system that I have the most knowledge on due to my past teaching experiences. The features that I use daily are the systems for grade reporting and attendance tracking. The other features I use sparingly are personal/contact information, grade history, and special education documents. I access these features in certain situations when I need to contact home or refer to an IEP. One feature that I had access to at my previous school but not my current school is the student directory. At my previous school, I could look up any student’s schedule in the school, regardless if they were my student. This was helpful to ensure students were in the right location at the right time. At my current school, this feature is only available for guidance counselors and administrators. I wish I could have had some training on what features are available to me and express my interest in learning about additional features.
To get well-rounded insight, I will reference Adele Ellis’ dissertation, Teachers' perceptions on the impact of student academic achievement and parental involvement through the PowerSchool™ program in a Catholic school diocese to see parental and student usage of PowerSchool. She discusses the importance of communication between parents and teachers. These student management systems create a more open platform for parents to understand what is happening in the classroom and how they can best support their child. I was not aware of the parent communication platform until my second year using PowerSchool. I would have benefited from having knowledge about this feature in my first year.
Infinite Campus is the management system that I have interacted with the least as I only used it during my preservice semester. I will be referring to Michael Larson’s dissertation, A Case Study of Administrator, Teacher and Parent Perceptions and Usage of Infinite Campus at the Secondary School Level to provide other expertise. Overall, the users were content with the Infinite Campus platform. The system was laid out clearly and the Parent Portal was accessible and streamlined. One point the paper discusses is the importance of timely grade input from teachers to keep students and parents informed. So once again, student management systems must be appropriately used for them to be beneficial.
Therefore, while having these student management systems in place is incredibly important to communicate and connect the progress in the classroom with the accountability from their home life, it is only as effective as the user’s effort. To increase user’s effectiveness, the daily usage features must be seamless and easily accessible. Other features must be labeled clearly and sorted logically. Additionally, ensuring that the users, teachers, parents, and students, have access to training to understand the capabilities that their student management system has to offer. As technology leaders or future technology leaders, we should be encouraging individuals to gain knowledge about the potential capabilities and features of the software available, especially regarding student management learning systems.
Ellis, A. K. (2008). Teachers' perceptions on the impact of student academic achievement and parental involvement through the PowerSchool™ program in a Catholic school diocese
(Order No. 3437334). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (822410041). http://proxy.library.kent.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/teachers-perceptions-on-impact-student-academic/docview/822410041/se-2
Larson, M. K. (2021). A Case Study of Administrator, Teacher, and Parent Perceptions and Usage of Infinite Campus at the Secondary Level (Order No. 28319100). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global; Publicly Available Content Database. (2563719280). http://proxy.library.kent.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/case-study-administrator-teacher-parent/docview/2563719280/se-2
Comment by Kelli Mohn
My district uses eschoolplus (HAC) from PowerSchool for our gradebook. I used PowerSchool at my previous district but it looked very different from the version I currently use. I have also used ProgressBook. ProgressBook has been my favorite even though I have used HAC for 9 years. It's clunky, not intuitive and and teachers are very limited at what it can do for them. I look up student schedules for students (ones I have and ones I don't) all of them time! We have an A/B schedule and my students don't know what class to go to next, or a student is lost in the hallway and I help them look their schedule up. I am thankful that I have this feature and am always surprised that this isn't universal. My husband's school uses ProgressBook and he can only access his current students' schedules. One feature that we don't have access to is the consequences a student receives after a teacher create an incident report. We don't receive any written notifications or follow up from administration through our gradebook, we have to physically talk to them to find out what happened. It would be much more efficient for the documentation to connect to the incident report.
Comment by Elise Bennett
In my teaching career I have used Gradelink and Digital Academy as student management systems. Gradelink was very user friendly for teachers, students, and parents. Currently, my school uses Digital Academy. This student management system has many more features which includes attendance, medical history, student schedules, lunch orders, messaging, etc. However, it is more difficult to navigate through the system to find some of these features. Teachers were trained over the summer to use this system successfully. Parents were not trained to use this system so it can be difficult to communicate with them through this management system. I 100% agree that we have to be advocates as technology leaders for users to learn and understand student management systems.
Comment by Ethan Ozinga
The district in which I teach - Cuyahoga Falls City Schoos - use Progressbook and has been using this student management system for quite some time. Progressbook has been a great tool for the district. It is reliable, user friendly, and has an abundance of capabilites to access student information. I am very glad that you contributed this submission to the site because I have always been shocked at the lack of training that myself and my coworkers have received regarding Progressbook. When I first got hired I was never given training on Progressbook. I was given an account and my login information and I had to figure things out for myself. I have been teaching at my school for ten years and there are still so many things that I don't know about our student management system and its capabilities. I totally agree with you that we need to bring this to the attention of the school administrators in order to be sure that our student management systems are being used to their fullest potentials.