Infinite Campus vs Powerschool?

[Sheryl Anderson]

Our school has been extensively researching a new Student Information System for our school. (we currently use Blackbaud...)

One big component of a new system is its ability to integrate with Google Apps. (Blackbaud does NOT!) More and more of my teachers are using Google Classroom and I want to ensure our next SIS works well with the new SIS we decide on. This is a very key component of our decision.

Anyone have any strong feelings, one way or the other, with either Infinite Campus or Powerschool? (in general or the integration with Google Apps)

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Sheryl Anderson

delasallehs.com

sand...@delasallehs.com 

[Zach Vander Veen]

Checkout Alma. https://getalma.com. I've been most impressed by their options, UI, and team. They do integrate with Google Apps - specifically using Google Classroom API. You can pull/push grades and assignments.

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Zach Vander Veen

Director of Technology | Hamilton City Schools

http://edlighten.net

[Chamberlin, Sam]

I agree with Zach.  Alma is great and we are looking at them for our future needs as well

Sam Chamberlin

Technology Director
St. Peter's ES/JH/HS School
104 West First Street
Mansfield, OH 44902
419-524-2572 x2133

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[Sheryl Anderson]

Thanks for your suggestion of Alma, however, we are too far into our decision-making process to change the choices. The two we have narrowed it down to are Infinite Campus and Powerschool based on many factors (third party software we already use). 

My post was to find out if anyone has any opinions on Infinite Campus or Powerschool when dealing with Google products.

thanks, though.

sheryl

[Charlie Gerancher I Steckel Elementary School]

I am not familiar with Infinite Campus. I can say that I'm not thrilled with PowerSchool/PowerTeacher, especially for the elementary level. The teacher interface is in serious need of an upgrade. They finally did create an html version of their grade book. However, schedules are not set up to work well at the elementary level. It's designed to work in a situation when the is a class schedule like a middle school or high school. Personally, I'm not a fan of Pearson as a company either. Good luck with your choice. I will have to check out Infinite Campus!

Charlie Gerancher | Technology Instructor | Technology Integration Coach | Steckel Elementary School 

 610.435.1521 X3124 | * geran...@whitehallcoplay.org

[Tom Donovan]

While there are plenty of valid reasons a district might not like PowerSchool, Pearson ownership can no longer be one of them.  Pearson sold PowerSchool to a private equity firm in late 2015. 

-Tom

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Tom Donovan
Chief Technology Officer
Aptakisic-Tripp SD 102
Buffalo Grove, IL

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[Tom Donovan]

Sheryl,

I have been in two districts using PowerSchool for a total of almost 20 years.  For me, two key factors that recommend it are the strength of the user community and its openness.  To elaborate on the latter, PowerSchool provides a very powerful way for individual districts to customize the user interface and for third parties to create customization packages (called plugins).  Another measure of openness is the ability to query PowerSchool’s Oracle database directly using standard query tools.

As to your question about Google Classroom integration, we use Schoology so I don’t have first-hand experience with Classroom, but personally I wouldn’t count on seamless integration with PowerSchool.  Each side (PS and Google) provide APIs for their respective systems, but leaves it to the other to develop against them.  Unfortunately, since Classroom is free, I don’t imagine Google will be developing an integration with PS any time soon, and from PowerSchool’s POV, they are developing their own LMS, so I wouldn’t bet on them developing the Classroom integration.

One of PowerSchool’s strengths is the ability to extract data using standard query tools (Navicat is my personal favorite) to make data available to a third party tool that integrates with Classroom, for example:

https://sites.google.com/a/newvisions.org/scripts_resources/add-ons/rostersync

-Tom

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Tom Donovan
Chief Technology Officer
Aptakisic-Tripp SD 102
Buffalo Grove, IL

[Zach Vander Veen]

Tom makes a good point on the APIs. Pick the SIS that has the most robust/open APIs. You may need to hire a developer (or peek the interest of some talented students) to get systems to talk with each other, but at least they can. Google's classroom API is pretty clean (and started lean - but has grown).

Down in Ohio we're pretty much stuck with the monopoly of Software Answers for our SIS. We have similar issues with SIS / G Suite integrations. We've develop a platform called "Abre" that brings G-Suite, SIS, and a few other applications into a central dashboard for our students, teachers, and (eventually) parents. It's open-source, so anyone can use it or adapt it to their needs: https://abre.io

We'll be adding a gradebook module next year. It will integrate with Classroom and any flavor of SIS (assuming that SIS has an API).

FWIW.

[Charlie Gerancher I Steckel Elementary School]

It sounds like the Powerschool aspect of the platform is far better/robust than the Powerteacher interface that teachers must use daily. I hope the company does something about that. The teacher interface is quite outdated.  

Charlie

Charlie Gerancher | Technology Instructor | Technology Integration Coach | Steckel Elementary School 

 610.435.1521 X3124 | * geran...@whitehallcoplay.org

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Zach Vander Veen

Director of Technology | Hamilton City Schools

http://edlighten.net

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[Tom Donovan]

Actually, PowerSchool is well along in the process of migrating from the web-based PowerTeacher portal + Java-based gradebook to a fully HTML5 "PowerTeacher Pro” solution.  They’re definitely moving in the right direction, though because gradebooks are very personal tools and grading philosophies & practices vary from school to school and even teacher to teacher, no tool is likely to wow everyone on a given faculty.

-Tom

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Tom Donovan
Chief Technology Officer
Aptakisic-Tripp SD 102
Buffalo Grove, IL

[Charlie Gerancher I Steckel Elementary School]

Yes, the HTML5 version has been available since late spring 2016 I believe. I'm looking forward to it. But, I would like them to update the PowerTeacher interface as well. This is where teachers do attendance, lunch count and see class lists, etc. It's quite dated and could use some more user-friendly navigation.

Charlie

Charlie Gerancher | Technology Instructor | Technology Integration Coach | Steckel Elementary School 

 610.435.1521 X3124 | * geran...@whitehallcoplay.org

On Wed, Mar 8, 2017 at 12:39 PM, Tom Donovan <donova...@gmail.com> wrote:

Actually, PowerSchool is well along in the process of migrating from the web-based PowerTeacher portal + Java-based gradebook to a fully HTML5 "PowerTeacher Pro” solution.  They’re definitely moving in the right direction, though because gradebooks are very personal tools and grading philosophies & practices vary from school to school and even teacher to teacher, no tool is likely to wow everyone on a given faculty.

-Tom

--
Tom Donovan
Chief Technology Officer
Aptakisic-Tripp SD 102
Buffalo Grove, IL

On Mar 7, 2017, 2:42 PM -0600, Charlie Gerancher I Steckel Elementary School <gerancherc@whitehallcoplay.org>, wrote:

It sounds like the Powerschool aspect of the platform is far better/robust than the Powerteacher interface that teachers must use daily. I hope the company does something about that. The teacher interface is quite outdated.  

Charlie

[Bjorn Behrendt]

We started using the HTML5 version of power teacher this year.   The teachers picked it up quite easily, and there was not much that they missed about the old one.   I will say that it is important for the zoom to be 100% or else you will lose students from the list.

Bjorn Behrendt M.Ed ~ Never Stop Learning

   b...@edlisten.com | Blog: Edlisten.com

On Wed, Mar 8, 2017 at 12:44 PM, Charlie Gerancher I Steckel Elementary School <geran...@whitehallcoplay.org> wrote:

Yes, the HTML5 version has been available since late spring 2016 I believe. I'm looking forward to it. But, I would like them to update the PowerTeacher interface as well. This is where teachers do attendance, lunch count and see class lists, etc. It's quite dated and could use some more user-friendly navigation.

Charlie

Charlie Gerancher | Technology Instructor | Technology Integration Coach | Steckel Elementary School 

 610.435.1521 X3124 | * gerancherc@whitehallcoplay.org

On Wed, Mar 8, 2017 at 12:39 PM, Tom Donovan <donova...@gmail.com> wrote:

Actually, PowerSchool is well along in the process of migrating from the web-based PowerTeacher portal + Java-based gradebook to a fully HTML5 "PowerTeacher Pro” solution.  They’re definitely moving in the right direction, though because gradebooks are very personal tools and grading philosophies & practices vary from school to school and even teacher to teacher, no tool is likely to wow everyone on a given faculty.

-Tom

--
Tom Donovan
Chief Technology Officer
Aptakisic-Tripp SD 102
Buffalo Grove, IL

On Mar 7, 2017, 2:42 PM -0600, Charlie Gerancher I Steckel Elementary School <geran...@whitehallcoplay.org>, wrote:

It sounds like the Powerschool aspect of the platform is far better/robust than the Powerteacher interface that teachers must use daily. I hope the company does something about that. The teacher interface is quite outdated.  

Charlie

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[Charlie Gerancher I Steckel Elementary School]

Hey Bjorn,

Thanks for that tip. I wish our admin would give us access to it. I was told they are only giving access to certain people next year and then maybe to everyone the year after that. They are worried people will have trouble with the transition. I'm thinking it's going to be far easier to use than the Java version. How is it integrated? Do you access it from the PowerTeacher interface? 

Charlie

Charlie Gerancher | Technology Instructor | Technology Integration Coach | Steckel Elementary School 

 610.435.1521 X3124 | * geran...@whitehallcoplay.org

On Tue, Mar 21, 2017 at 10:08 AM, Bjorn Behrendt <b...@edlisten.com> wrote:

We started using the HTML5 version of power teacher this year.   The teachers picked it up quite easily, and there was not much that they missed about the old one.   I will say that it is important for the zoom to be 100% or else you will lose students from the list.

Bjorn Behrendt M.Ed ~ Never Stop Learning

   b...@edlisten.com | Blog: Edlisten.com

[Bjorn Behrendt]

The interface is completely different, but pretty easy to pick up.   Basically when you log into the web interface to take attendance, or look at the kids "backpack", there is a link on the left for PowerTeacher.

I fibbed a little bit and told my teachers that this was the new interface and let them assume the old one was inaccessible.   Over the next few weeks I had teachers coming to me asking how to do certain things, but nobody actually asked for the old one back.   The thing everyone liked was not having to set the term weights manually, especially me who had to double-check everyone entries.  

Bjorn Behrendt M.Ed ~ Never Stop Learning

   b...@edlisten.com | Blog: Edlisten.com

On Tue, Mar 21, 2017 at 2:34 PM, Charlie Gerancher I Steckel Elementary School <geran...@whitehallcoplay.org> wrote:

Hey Bjorn,

Thanks for that tip. I wish our admin would give us access to it. I was told they are only giving access to certain people next year and then maybe to everyone the year after that. They are worried people will have trouble with the transition. I'm thinking it's going to be far easier to use than the Java version. How is it integrated? Do you access it from the PowerTeacher interface? 

Charlie

Charlie Gerancher | Technology Instructor | Technology Integration Coach | Steckel Elementary School 

 610.435.1521 X3124 | * gerancherc@whitehallcoplay.org

On Tue, Mar 21, 2017 at 10:08 AM, Bjorn Behrendt <b...@edlisten.com> wrote:

We started using the HTML5 version of power teacher this year.   The teachers picked it up quite easily, and there was not much that they missed about the old one.   I will say that it is important for the zoom to be 100% or else you will lose students from the list.

Bjorn Behrendt M.Ed ~ Never Stop Learning

   b...@edlisten.com | Blog: Edlisten.com

[Charlie Gerancher I Steckel Elementary School]

Ha! Sometimes you have to "fib"! I wish they would overhaul the PowerTeacher interface where the backpack, etc are located. You can't have nice names for the classes. They are truncated and cryptic. As a special subject teacher, mine looks crazy. The scheduling part also doesn't play nice in an elementary school. It's designed for true course schedules. But, I am looking forward to the new grade book. Just wish our admin wasn't so bent on baby steps.

Thanks again for the info,

Charlie

Charlie Gerancher | Technology Instructor | Technology Integration Coach | Steckel Elementary School 

 610.435.1521 X3124 | * geran...@whitehallcoplay.org

On Tue, Mar 28, 2017 at 10:04 PM, Bjorn Behrendt <b...@edlisten.com> wrote:

The interface is completely different, but pretty easy to pick up.   Basically when you log into the web interface to take attendance, or look at the kids "backpack", there is a link on the left for PowerTeacher.

I fibbed a little bit and told my teachers that this was the new interface and let them assume the old one was inaccessible.   Over the next few weeks I had teachers coming to me asking how to do certain things, but nobody actually asked for the old one back.   The thing everyone liked was not having to set the term weights manually, especially me who had to double-check everyone entries.  

Bjorn Behrendt M.Ed ~ Never Stop Learning

   b...@edlisten.com | Blog: Edlisten.com