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Modesto City Schools
  Modesto City Schools > Students and Parents > Pages > General Information

 General Information

 

 Why did Modesto City Schools choose PowerSchool

PowerSchool is the leading web-based student information system on the market today. It continues to win the CODIE award for best student management system. Approximately 5000 schools currently use PowerSchool. You can check out PowerSchool’s website at http://www.powerschool.com.

Our school district recognizes the importance of empowering all of the constituencies in the education community (teachers, administrators, parents) who can help students achieve their full potential. PowerSchool delivers tools that make record keeping simple for teachers, facilitate data-driven decisions by school administrators, and provide parents with real-time access to their children’s performance and whereabouts.

As you know, browser-based networks represent the future of network technology. Because PowerSchool is a browser-based system, the server only needs to be installed at one location to provide access to the entire district. This represents a substantial cost savings to the district because hardware will not have to be replicated at each location. The end user, whether it be a student, parent, teacher or administrator, uses a standard Internet browser such as Netscape, Firefox, Safari or MS Internet Explorer to access the data.

 How does PowerSchool help parents, students, and teachers?

Students and parents can keep track of their grades and attendance. A student sometimes does not know he/she is in trouble in certain classes, until it is too late. Progress Reports given out in the old system, had old information by the time it got home to the parent or given to the student. Now a student knows where they stand and can do something about it before that grade goes to a report card. PowerSchool provides access to parents and guardians to enable them to communicate with teachers and monitor grades, attendance, and homework assignments in real time from home or the office or ANYWHERE there is an internet connection.

Teachers use a program called PowerTeacher Gradebook. It is the grade-keeping portion of PowerSchool. Teachers use PowerTeacher Gradebook in the classroom to record grades, take attendance, create log entries, and make notes for themselves and for parents. PowerTeacher Gradebook sends data to the PowerSchool server every time teachers save their work. Teachers take attendance directly in PowerSchool. Remember the old days of.. “Can someone take this ATTENDANCE SHEET to the office?” Those days are gone. Once a teacher submits the attendance, the secretary in the grade level office can view it immediately. For that matter, so can students and parents.

 What is required for a parent to connect to the PowerSchool server?

Users need the following to connect:

• A computer with a connection to the Internet
• Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Camino, or any comparable web browser
• A login and password supplied by MCS