PowerSchool Student Information System vs. Rosetta Stone Language Learning Software

PowerSchool is great for schools to keep track of student information, schedules, and grades. It integrates with other programs to make setting up classes easier and faster. PowerSchool gives teachers a singular place to find information or input students' grades. It also has an app for parents or guardians to use to check their student's grades which is very useful.

Incentivized

To be honest, the software is a bit expensive, especially compared with some free apps. But I think it's worth it. On my end, I need to live and work in a bilingual city, I would need to learn how to use French in real life, and Rosetta Stone provides real conversation, animation, cartoon or illustations to show us how to actually use this language, I really appreciate it! We all know French has a lof of liaison, if I only learnt the grammer from the book, I could barely understand what they are talking about, but Rosetta Stone is good, the speed and liaison matches what people speak in real life, I could understand 40% of talk in French by only learning in Rosetta Stone for 1 year. Maybe I'm not a fast learner but I'm already satisfied! However it has some issues, as I mentioned above, the app needs some UI update, and I need to be really close to my mic so it can record my voice properly.

Incentivized

• PowerSchool houses student or staff information that can be easily accessed by those teachers and administrators who need the information. This allows everyone to go to one place to access information.
• Parents can view their child's grades at any time with their protected login on a parent portal. This allows teachers to keep parents informed and involved in their child's progress at school. When everyone works together it increases our students' chance for success.
• PowerSchool offers videos to train new users. When we have new employees, the videos can be accessed at any time the employee needs as opposed to them waiting for someone to help them.

Incentivized

• Tracks user interaction
• Customer service availability
• Accessibility

Incentivized

• The user interface could be more intuitive. Because of the many features, it can sometimes be difficult for administrators to find what they are looking for.
• A recent upgrade allowing for more flexibility in the relationship between students and parents was long in coming and didn't go very smoothly. We are now dealing with a ton of clean-up after the upgrade. Even after we have cleaned everything up, there is still a ways to go before PowerSchool is on par with other SIS systems in that area. In their defense though, they are actively working on getting caught up.

Incentivized

• One has to have a high speed Internet connection to use Rosetta Stone. Not everyone has that.

The district is unlikely to change systems due to the cost of training and tech support to facilitate such a switch.

Incentivized

Great features, but it can feel very cumbersome at times

Incentivized

Rosetta Stone is a very comprehensive program with several different components. In truth after an initial orientation by a teacher, students (adults or school children) are able to use the software and navigate through its sections.

Overall, I have not had to use support for PowerSchool Student Information System because our school district gives us training in each area in which we will be utilizing PowerSchool Student Information System. In terms of in-user support, I feel that there is mild to moderate user support that is built into PowerSchool SIS.

Incentivized

I would have liked to give a 10 but there are some areas where Rosetta Stone could improve that would help those using it in an educational setting. That being said, I have seen such good results in my students that I feel this is a very worthwhile product. One of my biggest fears going into this new school year was that with all the changes being made to the Leaning English Language Programs in the district we might lose Rosetta Stone as a tool for our ELLs. I'm happy to say that the district also saw the value of this program.

Incentivized

Each software I used in my career had special features which were specifically unique for them. PowerSchool Student Information System was an impressive software that offered the ability to ease student registrations and admissions online using web forms where students and parents could submit and upload their information and necessary documents to the school/institute with just a few clicks. Even though this feature is available on a few other similar software, PowerSchool Student Information System was the only software that was specialized in this area.

Incentivized

In the past, I have tried iReady, Edmentum, and others; however, Rosetta Stone has by and far provided the best success in my classroom with helping the newcomers and beginning English language learners. Most of the other programs did not start close enough to the basics for these students to be able to build the confidence they needed to gain success with the program.

Incentivized

• Having one system within the school district is beneficial. Teachers are able to access a variety of information and also do input all within the same program.
• Communication with parents has been impacted greatly, as they always have information at their fingertips without teachers having to call or email them with a grade update. Parents are able to check student's grades at any time.

Incentivized

• increases customer base due to employees more well versed in different languages
• better customer support scores, since we can now tailor to our different clientle

Incentivized