Keeping a school well-managed and orderly is a significant undertaking that comes with a lot of duties. There are many vital features to maintain as a member of the school, whether you are the school administrator, principal, superintendent, or teacher, to guarantee that the school works smoothly and efficiently. This encompasses a wide range of tasks, including admission, enrollment system, academic records, medical records, lunch records, facilitate collaboration, and report cards, to name a few. In today’s world, how can a school maintain everything organised?
The Student Information System, or SIS system, is a database that stores information about students. When properly deployed, it forms the centre of the school’s system, organising all of the school’s digital data management and making things easier to administer. This is incredible.
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What is K-12 Student Information System?
First and foremost, let us explain what a Student Information System (SIS) is. SIS, often known as School Management System (SMS), is a web-based software meant to make school administration and life easier. Its primary focus is on record keeping, which includes easily enrolling new students, maintaining academic records such as test results and attendance, as well as medical records for both students and teachers, assisting schools in collecting tuition fees and payments, and creating a system that is not only accessible by faculty but also students and parents. These are just a few examples of how a school’s information system functions.
A K-12 student information system (SIS) organises and tracks all of the student information that teachers and administrators need to run their classrooms or schools. These systems keep track of information like grades and attendance data. Many K-12 SISs allow students to access information that is relevant to them. Parents usually have access to a K-12 SIS, which is one feature that distinguishes these programmes from those used in higher education. An SMS option is included in many K-12 student information systems, allowing instructors and parents to connect directly. This permits a teacher to keep a parent informed about their child’s social and academic growth in class. A learning management system (LMS) and a classroom management tool are frequently integrated with a K-12 SIS.
Highlights of a Student Information System
A product must meet the following criteria to be considered for the K-12 Student Information System category:
- Keep track of important student information.
- Include a website where parents can get information about their children.
- Provide reporting options.
- Take care of student admissions.
- Provides a module for teachers.
Advantages Of Using A K-12 Student Information System (SIS)
- Processes for recruitment and enrollment become simple and painless
Recruitment might be the most damaging aspect of any organisation. The goal of the student management system isn’t just to keep students engaged. Assisting customers through the recruitment and enrollment processes exceeds their service expectations.
One of the most important characteristics of the student management system is simplified student recruitment and enrollment process that benefits students in a variety of ways.
- Manages student data from beginning to end in an efficient manner.
Students bring a plethora of data and information with them. Dealing with student registration, attendance, and academic progress manually can be a tedious process for school administrators.
If you could manage everything with just a few clicks, it would save your institution a lot of time and capital. With an efficient student information system, going paperless is now a viable option. An SIS allows you to enter data, organise it, analyse it, and compare it all in one place.
- A Student portal that is comprehensive
Another significant advantage of the student management system is the student portal. Students can use an SIS to keep track of their schedules, attendance, courses, and invoices/payment dues.
Students can use the student portal to keep track of their daily activities and check themes for discussion, schedules, and grades, among other things.
- Reduces the number of human errors.
Data will abound at educational institutions. When done manually, there is a risk of inaccuracies creeping in, which can have a negative impact on the student’s entire year. Such issues are eliminated with an SIS, which allows you to input data, organise it, analyse it, and compare it all in one go.
Furthermore, the student information system increases efficiency by resolving even the most complicated grading problems.
- Improved Communication with the help of the Parental Portal
Right from their child’s learning, and academic progress, they wish to have everything in an easy to handle format. Quick communication in the form of reminders and notifications is all that they want.
The benefit of a student information system would rightly help such parents to instantly view their child’s grades, attendance, and progress.
Now that we have looked at what be if it’s an SIS system can provide you let us look at some good options of SIS systems for your institutions.
5 Best K-12 Student Information System in 2022
Blackbaud Student Information System
The Blackbaud Student Information System is a learning management system (LMS) that assists K-12 schools and higher education institutions in streamlining administrative procedures such as attendance monitoring, grading, and more. Students can utilise the self-service portal to check out upcoming class schedules, request specialised courses, and get their grades.
Organizations can use the Blackbaud Student Information System to track students’ academic progress, adjust the look of transcripts or report cards, and build tailored education programmes. Faculty members can keep track of their students’ misconduct and see their academic profiles to get access to enrollment information, attendance history, and medical notes all from one place. It also allows users to import data and link the software with Blackbaud’s own products.
Key Features of Blackbaud Student Information System
- Fundraising
- Engagement and Marketing
- Tuition Management and Financial Aid
- Customizable Gradebooks for Students and Teachers
- Management of Volunteers
- Tools for School Lunches
- Histories of Health
Pros:
The fact that OnRecord interfaces with other Blackbaud products are the main selling factor. The discovery of people and find me now features are useful. If you know where to search, you can find a plethora of fine-tuned options.
Cons:
Even though BB has promised a better system for the past two years, reporting is outdated and in need of development. There are almost no interactive matrices or graphically advanced metric tools in the reports, which are just simple column and row exports.
Facts SIS
FACTS Student Information System (previously RenWeb) is a school management tool that manages admissions and enrollment for K-12 institutions. It allows information to flow freely between all parties involved in an educational setting, including administrators, teachers, parents, and students.
Key Features of Facts SIS
- Admissions\sAttendance
- Management of the cafeteria
- Communication
- Reporting in its entirety
- Management of health data
- Partners and services for integration
- Formalized report cards
- Scheduling
- Information management for employees
- Grading based on standards
- Monitoring of student behaviour
- Information management for students and their families
- Transcripts
Pros:
FACTS unifies all of the school’s needs, including lunch ordering, attendance, billing, grades, and tuition payments, among others.
Cons:
There are some FACTS package components that do not work as well as the basic product (RenWeb as SIS). In addition, support for various components differs.
Frontline SIS
Frontline SIS is a student information system that assists K-12 and special education institutions with enrollment, classroom scheduling, parent communications, records administration, and data import/export. Administrators can use the software to construct teaching schedules based on course requests, automate career paths, and streamline the registration process.
On a unified dashboard, businesses may keep track of data, register students, coordinate budgets, and build procedures for special initiatives. It also allows teachers to keep track of attendance, assignments, tests, and other important information.
Key Features Of Frontline SIS
- Online Registration & Enrollment
- Student and Parent Dashboards for Budget Reporting
- Attendance
- Tools for Lunch
- Gradebooks for Medical Records
- Records of State and Federal Reporting Discipline
Pros
You can set upgrade access for different users in-progress book, so you may share your classroom with other teachers or service providers and control who can input, alter, or simply view grades.
Cons
At times, the text formatting features can be a little clumsy.
Ellucian SIS
Ellucian is a cloud-based software company that provides professional solutions to higher education institutions in order to assist them to construct a connected campus. The platform, which is designed for institutions of all sizes, includes solutions for finance, IT, student services, human resources, recruiting, and admissions.
Ellucian’s components include Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), which includes solutions like Banner and PowerCampus. Constituent Relationship Management includes tools such as CRM Advise, Degree Works, CRM Recruit, and CRM Advance; Integration and Analytics include Ellucian Analytics, Ethos Framework, and Workflow.
Ellucian assists users in developing plans, managing resources, and deploying services to meet educational goals.
Key Features Of Ellucian
- Tools for advising on registration and administration
- Reporting on key issues
- Tools for advising on registration and administration
- Reporting on key issues
Pros:
It’s a high-end piece of software. Very steady. It connects to Microsoft’s LDAP server.
Cons:
Its sis account management necessitates prior education if the application. It’s difficult to manage. When compared to rival software in the higher education market, the pricing is exorbitant.
Administrator’s Plus
Rediker’s AdminPlus is a cloud-based student information solution that assists schools in collecting, managing, and analysing student data. Public and private schools of various sizes and grade levels can use the solution.
Attendance, scheduling, enrollment, discipline, student billing, grade book, report cards, and parent and student portals are among the solution’s core modules. They connect to a customizable student information database, which stores critical student and staff data and makes it available for real-time analysis and reporting.
Schools can use the report cards module to record and update both letter and numeric grades, as well as create report cards and transcripts. It also interfaces with the TeacherPlus Web grade book and the ParentPlus Web site to make reporting and communication more efficient.
Key features of AdminPlus
- Appointment Management Expense Management
- Medical records in the electronic format
- Inventory management
- Billing and Revenue Cycle Management for
- Scheduling
- System for Managing students
- record Lab Information System
Pros:
contains a large number of modules that are specific to the tasks that must be completed. Whether it’s database data for research and surveys, programming for bookings or programmes for printing reports to share or send, the framework has it all.
Cons:
It’s counterintuitive. It takes some time to get used to. The user interface is a little antiquated.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, an SIS registration maintains your alumni contacts while also keeping your students engaged and pleased. After graduation, most SIS automatically joins students in their alumni network with the same login credentials. Isn’t it usually preferable to have a leg up on your competitors? You might not look like your peers right now, but it won’t last long. Adopting a digital approach to student information management will help you stand out in a crowd of people who share your passion. The advantages of these systems can only be felt.
For more information on K-12, Student Information Systems head to SaaSworthy.
