Skyward Student Management Suite Reviews

Awesome tool for teachers, students and parents

Comments: Up-to-date information about my child's progress in school, missing assignments, grades on tests and projects. Especially my for high school student, this info can be hard to get from them and so many times you do not know about issues until it is too late. I open Skyward every night at the dinner table and we talk about grades, upcoming exams and papers. She knows I am looking and it helps her to stay on task.

Pros:

There are so many functions in one place. Check grades, missing assignments, email teachers, lunch calendar, etc. Multiple children in a family can be easily accessed together.

Cons:

When emailing a parent/teacher, they cannot respond back directly. I wish they could. It would make the line of communication more direct. But, at least they can read the message and respond back by another means.

So much potential!

Comments: I use skyward as an Assistant Principal at a High School. I am constantly looking up where students are to pull them. Constantly looking at there grade, attendance and contact information.

Pros:

-You can input almost anything into a student's profile and easily find what you are looking for. -You can run numerous reports on anything. However, you have to know exactly what you want and how to do it. You will have to get training or read up on it. -Easy for parents and students to view on your phone. -Numerous options for attendance. Absent, Tardy, walked out, didn't come back from lunch, skipped, truant, doctor, excused, and about 20 more. The only one it doesn't have is absent because more than 15 minutes late.

Cons:

-There is no easy way to print student grades, schedules and absences. It's not hard, but it's a lot of steps. Find the schedule, print the schedule to PDF, open the PDF, and then finally print the PDF. Attendance and grades are exported to excel and then you have to change the format to print on one page. Like I said, it's not hard, but why can't you just hit print. -When searching for a student with a common name, sometimes the system doesn't show all of them. -It does not tell you a student's current grade. It will show you T1, T2 and S1. T1 and T2 are the progress reports and S1 is the semester average, but it doesn't show the most current.

Waste of time and effort

Comments: Horrible

Pros:

Nothing at all do I like about Skyward.

Cons:

Very difficult to use and a waste of time and energy

AMAZING!!!!!!!

Comments: I HAVE REALIZED THAT TIMES HAVE CHANGED FOR CHILDREN IN SCHOOL NOW BECAUSE THEY CAN'T TRICK THEIR PARENTS INTO THINKING THAT THEY HAVEN'T RECEIVED THEIR REPORT CARDS BECAUSE OF THE SKYWARD SCHOOL MANAGEMENT APP.

Pros:

I LOVE THAT SCHOOLS OFFER SKYWARD TO PARENT SO THAT THEY CAN KEEP UP WITH THEIR CHILDREN'S HOMEWORK AND CLASS WORK AS WELL AS ALLOWING PARENTS TO ADD MONEY TO THEIR KIDS LUNCH ACCOUNTS. YOU CAN SEE YOUR CHILD/CHILDREN'S GRADES AS WELL AS WHICH ASSIGNMENTS THEY ARE MISSING. YOU CAN ALSO SEE HOW MANY QUESTIONS THEY MISSED ON A QUIZ OR TEST. IT ALSO ALLOWS YOU TO HAVE MORE THAN ONE CHILD LISTED AND THEY ALL CAN BE AT DIFFERENT SCHOOLS. AMAZING!!!!!

Cons:

There isn't anything that I don't like about this software. It is the best thing that they have created.

Generally good software to manage student information.

Pros:

It has a comprehensive set of features that allow student management. From the teacher side the data is fairly easy to view and input of the gradebook and attendance is relatively easy.

Cons:

It is somewhat difficult to learn. There are many variables that can confuse teachers in creating gradebooks and in accessing information. The reports are not particularly intuitive to use.

Easy to use and find information

Pros:

This product is so easy to use once you get the hang of it! It's a great way to keep all of your students information in one place. You can take lunch count, keep account balances, and more. It's great to have all the information in one place.

Cons:

It's confusing to navigate when you first get started. Once you get the hang of it it gets easy.

Skyward has improved a lot

Comments: My overall experience with Skyward is positive. It is a useful tool once you learn it, which might take some effort though.

Pros:

This is a really versatile program and great for storing all your data. Ilike how you can easily convert the data into Excel. I used to work in a school and would use Skyward. Once you understand how and where the information is stored, you can easily navigate through everything.

Cons:

It is not the most intuitive program when it comes to finding information. There are a lot of tabs and categories and it might take a while to find the information your are looking for. It still has room for improving the flow of things.

Use product

Comments: Its a great product just needs some bugs worked out.

Pros:

The ability to track my kids school records and grades and absences and the ability to contact a teacher anytime.

Cons:

Sometimes the websites are down. Sometimes they had issues with updating the grades but other than that it works great.

This software offers so many functions in one place.

Pros:

It is possible choose how I want my screen to look and can choose the information presented. Additionally, It can access pertinent school information.

Cons:

This software is possible to use as a student information system and also be used for finances and food service.

Skyward: necessary but not exciting

Pros:

Skyward does its job: it allows us to record absences from employment and then redirects us to a website for assigning subs.

Cons:

I wish that assigning and requesting subs was integrated into Skyward, because having the two sites allows for so much redundancy.

Skyward - great for attendance, everything else is just ok.

Comments: Overall, it works for what we need it at our school (an attendance management system and to keep track of class rosters). However, I think it is unfortunate we can't use more of it's capabilities and that we use so many different systems instead of it all being streamlined into one. I wish being able to toggle how to print and see attendance and class data was easier and more intuitive.

Pros:

Our school mostly uses this for class rosters and tracking attendance. For those purposes, it works really quite well. Tracking attendance is quick and easy, you can go in and mark students as absent or present or tardy. You can also click "all here". You can add in health notes about students and other important things we need to know as teachers.

Cons:

The other features we don't use because they aren't good (e.g. the grade book) and we use it with schoology instead as it links with assignments that can be turned in. However, I really wish we could streamline it and use all one program for everything (learning management system, grade book, attendance, etc.) or that they all connected. Also, while the class rosters and schedules work and can be printed, it is not intuitive how to do so. They are not displayed well or functional for how I'd like to use them. While I like I can go in and see student notes and data, you have to click on students individually which sometimes is difficult.

My review of skyward

Comments: Overall, my experience with Skyward is pretty good. I don’t have any other complaints. Other than that annoying password reset thing that it does. Fix that and I would say you are completely perfect.

Pros:

The user interfaces designed very well, and the ease of use is not notch. I was able to learn skyward within one day when I started working for the school district. So I would say that ease-of-use is by far my favorite part of the software.

Cons:

Having to reset my password every couple of weeks is rather annoying. If we could fix that, I would really appreciate it. I don’t like having to call tech-support to reset my password every two weeks to one month.

East Allen County Schools, Indiana Skyward Qmlative Review

Comments: Excellent 2.5 years in. Good training, good support, great tool, and it does everything we need the SIS to do.

Pros:

Skyward does a good job of meeting teachers needs, making grading and attendance easy, and simply making teachers' jobs easier.

Cons:

Adding columns or data within a screen is easy to do (2 clicks to start), but the process of choosing the correct data you want is a rabbit hole. There is SO MUCH data in the database, that you need to know an exact pathway in order to add the correct data to a screen.

An Awful Experience for Two Household Families

Comments: As a parent of children in a two household family, Skyward has been nothing short of a frustrating experience. The system designates the categories of Family 1 and Family 2. Being listed as Family 2 means that I get excluded from important communications, am restricted from scheduling parent teacher conferences, and at one point was told I could not check out my own child from school to go to a dentist's appointment. I have voiced these concerns multiple times in my district only to be informed that the frustrations I have voiced are voiced several times over by other parents and that Skyward has done nothing to address these complaints. It appears that NO consideration was given in the design, or implementation of two household families who share the responsibility of raising their kids. For context, my ex and I share 50/50 joint physical and legal custody which means I am equally responsible for their financial, physical, and educational wellbeing.

Pros:

Being listed as Family 2 means I don't get much of any benefit out of Skyward other than seeing my kids' grades and progress.

Cons:

The software is clunky, not user friendly, not family friendly, and serves only as a repository of data that is very uneasily accessed.

Skyward is amazing for grading.

Comments: I love using Skyward to manage my students grades and to print off report cards.

Pros:

I love how easily I can input grades for all of my students in multiple courses. The attendance function is easy and I can enter attendance quickly every morning. I also love that I can pull reports for all of my students at once and print them for viewing.

Cons:

Finding a specific report is difficult. You have to go through several different hyperlinks to get to the one you want and sometimes it's not the correct one and you have to start over. The reports are a little bit confusing but once you find the correct one it is helpful.

Skyward requires Skills

Comments: Everytime we feel as though we need a retraining between the quarters to use it - to find the button or link that we need to report. It is easy to keep grades, but difficult to find the report, build a template or transfer grades between quarters/semesters. There is lots of keying in on the teachers side. There have been other report managing systems that I have used that have been a lot nicer for data keeping.

Pros:

We use this software daily and I like the idea of a gradebook that is on-line to report grades virtually, especially with the changes in our world.

Cons:

Difficult to use, not really user friendly (or teacher friendly rather) for the lower grades. I found that many upper elementary, middle school or high school enjoyed it and used it in so many other ways. We currently only use it to report attendance, grades and scan school entry documents. I am sure there are many other features that this platform offers.

Nice but need enhancements

Pros:

It is a very good software, full of features and options, to some extent easy to use specially for the daily basis tasks. Very good support.

Cons:

Not very opened to customizations, and being an international customer our requests are not heard or taken into consideration.

EXCELLENT SCHOOL SOFTWARE

Comments: We have to keep detailed records on everything from students to the financial. This software does it all. It allows multiple people to see the same data and manipulate it, all while having secure separate log-ins. It keeps all the data, runs all reports and keeps logs of who has done what and when.

Pros:

Skyward keeps all of the records and any information that you can possibly want to report, accessible at your fingertips.

Cons:

The annual cost is a little much, not sure how it compares to other school softwares. It takes some training to use. If you know computers and how they work, it will be a snap. I did not find it very intuitive.

Skwyard Teacher

Comments: I use skyward for entering grades and communicating with parents.

Pros:

Skyward has the ability to send mass messages to parents without having to send individual emails , which would otherwise be time consuming

Cons:

Skyward should be set up so that it integrates seamlessly from Google classroom or other LMS to export grades

Skyward

Comments: Overall, I have had a great experience. I am able to easily modify the grading program to fit my needs.

Pros:

This is a really easy program to use for grading students. I also use the program to create online tests.

Cons:

I can make seating charts with this program, but it does not allow me to print them off as a full page. I have had out IT guy look at this, but we cannot figure out how to do it.

There are some nice features

Comments: I am a teacher. My whole district uses Skyward. I have around 300 students at any given time.

Pros:

I love that I can send mass emails to all parents. I am impressed by some of the reports that I can generate from the website.

Cons:

Some of the features are clunky and hard to use. It is extremely difficult to access messages that people have sent me in Skyward.

I miss Skyward!

Comments: Skyward makes things easier: reports, emailing parent, emailing other teachers, emailing classes en mass, putting in grades, adding extra credit, tracking in general, and adding notes. It's just all easier in Skyward. I think this is one of the best LMS systems that I have used.

Pros:

I loved how easy, once you learned the ropes, Skyward was to operate. It was literally my one stop shop. And now, I have 4 LMS systems that I use and this makes me miss the simplicity of Skyward.

Cons:

The learning curve is steep, but once you learn, as a teacher, Skyward can make your life easier than doing everything on your own.

SKYWARD makes a teacher's life easy!

Comments: I love using Skyward for my classroom needs

Pros:

I love that I am able to use this for my gradebook and to contact families

Cons:

I do not like that there isn't a assign 50 and missing button.

LOVE SKYWARD

Comments: I have always loved this program once I started using it (2001?), it was PAC back then.
Like everything in life, skyward needs some tweeks:) That is why you have four stars, also if you were to get five stars then we wouldn't need you anymore and believe me there are times I need your help. That all said, I work with Food Service, there are a few tips & tricks I would love to learn from you. I wish you offered a one-on-one quick tip sessions to sign up for.

Pros:

Easy to use, can do multiple windows to jump from one area to another is huge!

Cons:

Food Service application letter set up:(

Excellent program for student management

Comments: I am not the secretary at our school, so I don't get into as much detail with this software as she does, however I do use Skyward on a daily basis. For the information I need about students, this program works very well for me. I am pleased with the organization of information.

Pros:

The organization of this software is something I really like. I can get on the program without having too much user knowledge and find what I am looking for. I think it has a wonderful array of information options for our students' profiles. This is a user friendly software.

Cons:

I use this software every day and for the level of use, I don't have any negative issues.