PowerSchool Premier 6 is the most significant upgrade to PowerSchool since it was introduced more than 12 years ago. The new SIS enhances the ReportWorks custom-report-development tool, PowerTeacher classroom management system, Pearson Inform assessment analytics, PowerScheduler Web-based master schedule builder, student/parent access, and more.
Pros: Attendance is now colored-coded to show which teaches have taken full attendance, which teachers partial attendance, and which none. The new WYSIWYG graphical reporting tool is a great addition. Other helpful new features include the checking of prerequisites and teacher recommendations, address management, and student boundary validation using Google Maps technology.
Cons: Like all SIS’s, PowerSchool has a big learning curve. The graphical reporting tool could be more robust for more complex reports. But, it is a huge step in the right direction.
Overall evaluation: The report-creation tool alone has removed the workload from one person and distributed it to all the PowerSchool users. Creating reports in PowerSchool used to involve completing a page layout without seeing the page on the screen. This new tool makes report creation a snap.
Retail price: Varies by number of students and number of schools in a district.
