Schoolmint Hero vs. Skyward Student Management System

I would highly recommend this as long as you are able to get 90% or more buy-in. However, if there is not a MAJORITY buy-in I don't feel it will be successful. My colleagues and I found that classroom management was much improved in the classrooms of us who were sold on using it and used it with fidelity, adding extra intensives because of infidelity in other classrooms. It became obvious to the administration that the lack of buy-in was destroying the program outcome.

Incentivized

Skyward SMS is well suited as a Student Management System for anyone who wants to drive their organization based on data. The capabilities of using the fields available as well as adding our own custom forms make data collection extremely easy. Reporting abilities take that data and allow us to make sense of what has been collected

Incentivized

• Tracking tardy behavior quickly across settings.
• Tracking positive behaviors.
• Intentionally rewarding positive behaviors immediately for all students.
• Quickly alerting alarming behaviors.
• Allowing for all students to be successful throughout the day across all settings.
• Allows all staff to reward all students for exhibiting positive behaviors.

Incentivized

• Skyward does well with managing the students' information. It was easy to find a student's schedule, grades, behavior record, or family information because it was all separated out.
• Another strength is the system’s way of requesting time off. All of the steps are laid out in a organized manner, and you can check the status of the request with one click.
• Skyward also pairs well with other applications. Whenever I need a substitute for a class, Skyward links me to Aesop (the absence software) and allows me to put in the request. When I’m done, Skyward updates automatically with that information.

Incentivized

• Students need to have direct online access to picking their prizes based on the points they've earned. It will give more focus on doing what's right.
• Teachers need to have the ability to create their own positive rewards in the system based on their subject area.
• Is there a way to have the system remember your username so you don't have to type it out every time you sign in?

Incentivized

• Skyward's reporting can get confusing so it would be nice if it was cleaner and possibly came with some common reports other schools use too.
• Skyward's GUI is out of date and needs a refresher.
• Skyward can have compatibility issues after an update.

Incentivized

It is a great product

It is the system I am most comfortable with, so having to learn a new system outweighs any problems I have with Skyward.

Incentivized

again. for the day to day usage, adding points is a bit of a chore but I keep doing it because the students respond

Incentivized

It takes some time to get used to navigating the features and layers, but once you know your way around it, it's pretty good.

Incentivized

Someone is always available. I like being able to call, chat, or email as needed. There are also a lot of tutorials and webinars provided. Hero does a good job of providing tools for onboarding new users and customers as well. It is easy to find whatever information you are looking for.

Incentivized

Overall great job, issues were taken care of. People in support do care.

Incentivized

Yes, I was part of the implementation team.

Incentivized

We have used Class Dojo and Progress Book. Hero is great for discipline specifically. We also have e-school, but it does not allow the level of detail and follow up that Hero has. Before Hero, we had a really ineffective system for tracking student discipline, and it was hard to be consistent.

Incentivized

Skyward is used differently at our school than GoGuardian. GoGuardian is used to monitor student use of technology during school hours, and Skyward is used to track student data such as attendance, uniform, tardy arrivals, grades, and behavior. Overall, Skyward's interface is more user-friendly than GoGuardian. GoGuardian requires even more clicking around to find what you are looking for

Incentivized

• Definitely worth the money. The kids are happy, they're using the program as often as they can, and they appreciate the opportunity to be rewarded for their good behavior.
• We've been able to sustain a store, and that's super awesome. I know we wouldn't be able to without the help of Hero and the ways in which we keep the hype.
• I think I need more help with teacher adoption. We have a lot of initiatives at our school, so we're trying to take on a little more than we can chew at this point. We're getting there though!

• I believe that we have had a great Return on our Investment as we have been using this software at a district-wide level for several years now and it keeps being an effective management software system for our students and families.

Incentivized