Gradelink Reviews

Pros

Gradelink is a very simple School information System (SIS). As such, the setup time is very fast. The Gradelink support team is very helpful in getting the support that is necessary.

Cons

Because the SIS is a simple, there are not many additional features. The basic features- gradebook, lesson plans, etc. are accessible. However, the more complex features are not available.

Pros

I needed a program that would be easy to implement, easy to use, and affordable. After reviewing a number of SIS programs, Gradelink met the needs of the school. Having the program for five years I have found new staff members are able to jump in quickly, parents love the ease of communication and availability of attendance, grades, and comments concerning their children. We also use the "news" page to keep parents up to date with reminders and current events. I use the program for snow cancellation and delays, as well as blast informational emails to our community, including alumni.

Cons

There are still a couple of pieces of information that take me time to access, including a quick attendance report on an individual student or a readable transcript that is inclusive of attendance, but a part of that might be my lack of knowledge. Customer service has been excellent in helping us customize report cards, something we could not do independently. Some of the staff is still reluctant to use the planning program to its full capacity, I'm not sure if there is an overarching reason or merely a comfortability learning curve.

Pros

Accessibility and user friendly led by a competent group of people.

Cons

I love everything about this system! I have yet to encounter a problem that wasn't solved immediatly.

Pros

I like the shared family information, that parents can look at all of their children's grades in all of their classes under one login. I like the ease of communicating with one class or one grade level without having to create my own email groups. I like being able to change and manipulate the reports to our school's needs. I love the helpfulness of customer support and totally appreciate the fact that they stand with us in trying to understand how to make it work for us instead of being short on patience or frustrated with my inexperience.

Cons

I still haven't figured out how to end up with one English Literatue and Composition grade that incapsulates literature, writing, vocabulary and spelling classes with their different teachers into one final grade for the report card. As our school grows it would be helpful to have that as part of the program instead of the round about way I am doing it currently.

Pros

I like that there are a lot of functions, and it can be used for many things... for teachers, administration, lunch staff... everyone is working form the same place. We only have to have one program and it works.

Cons

There are a lot of functions, and a lot of things can be done with one program. :) This program takes some time to get used to. You have to watch ALL the training videos (the videos are good). But there are little things like having to type in the same contact person over and over for different children. There should be an option to add a new person or add an existing person to a pickup list. Also, I don't understand why the online payments don't get posted to the Ledger. If they pay with a credit card online I still have to manually add it to the Ledger so they can see that they paid for tuition. In the program we used last year it showed up automatically. One more thing, when a child is checked in/out or signed in/out for attendance, is there a way for the name of that child to be a different color or something when they are in or out. Sometimes teachers can't remember if a student was checked in or not, so they do it again, but this signs the student out. Then they have to do it again to sign them in again. If there was a way for the students' names to look different (like a different color) when they are signed in then it would be very helpful. Thank you.

Pros

Gradelink has been user friendly and provides us with all that we need to store our student information and communicate with our families at a reasonable price. The customer service has been great. It is easy for us to call and get help if we get confused or don't understand an aspect of the program. We do not need to set aside days to do teacher training. The program is simple enough that brief training sessions and video links are all we need to train new teachers. Ease of enrollment and re-enrollment are nice as well.

Cons

At times, I would like more features, such as digital sign in for our preschool and aftercare. They have a program for that, but it is not what we need, so we will wait patiently for the program to be perfected! :)

When parents enroll, we have found that they can skip certain answers by just putting in a space or a letter, for example. We would like for that feature to some how be fixed.

Pros

I love the ease of use, functionality, and cost of this software. However the part I like MOST is the customer service. Whenever we have a question or issue, Gradelink customer service/technical support representatives are helpful and friendly.

Cons

The only part of Gradelink that I don't love is the lesson planning feature. It is sufficient, and I could easily get by using that module. However, I prefer the flexibility of another lesson planning product.

Pros

I chose Gradelink for our school because the basic system had so many components. Other SIS's I researched charged per component. Smartsend Pro makes communication easy. We added the online payment integration for incidentals. Gradelink allows for the flexibility to fit the needs of my school.

Cons

Adding on or starting up a new feature and/or personaliztion of the product can sometimes be time consuming.

Pros

Functions are easy to use and I continue to be surprised when Customer service shows me an easier way to accomplish a goal.

Cons

Could not customize report card the way we wanted.

Pros

Gradelink is easy to pick up and use on day one. Help and tutorials are available within the program and the support team proactively sends emails telling us how and where to find more help if we need it.

Cons

It's not 'pretty'. But this is not a feature I was shopping for.

Pros

Gradelink continues to innovate and provide our school with many new options that help us grow. For example they now have a range of tools built in to their package that help us identify and reach out to prospective families and students. They have shown us how to run open houses and recruitment strategies. Recently they came up with and showed us how to make our transition to distance learning during the quarantine seamless and easy for our teachers. They even helped our teachers develop a custom grading system just for the last trimester of distance learning. Their technical experts are available at a moment's notice and work hard until all issues are resolved. They are fantastic!!

Cons

I am hopeful that they will continue to work on adapting their SIS to Mac users as well as traditional pc's.

Pros

The software is fully featured, and offers a lot of bells-and-whistles within the basic package (attendance, grades, email messaging, discipline, GPA, reports, report-cards generation, contact info, emergency info, medical records info etc.). For a moderate price, you can add a few more features (e.g. unlimited text messaging, parent/student registration etc). The platform is very intuitive and allows a lot of customization (grade periods, grade scale, weighted grading, own discipline and attendance system etc). Support is well rounded, with a lot of online instructional materials (video and text) and phone support is very responsive. Another nice thing is that you can open simultaneously several accounts (admin, teacher, etc) in the same browser, and it has good security measures (accounts can be blocked by admin, you know who signed last and when, accounts get locked after third wrong singnin attempt etc).

Cons

The overall aspect is outdated, the colors are bleak, the whole system looks old school. Also, it behaves weirdly when averaging periods and grades (sometimes), you don't know exactly how it's done.

Pros

This software allows our admin and teachers to work smarter not harder. The the software is utilized the easier it becomes to start a new school year because so much info carries over. The information that parents and students have is presented differently because each user has a different goal for using the software. Gradelink makes it easy to integrate all aspects of the education environment into one easy to use vehicle.

Cons

The software does not allow users to edit and input their own personal information. There fore keeping up on ever-changing hone numbers and even teacher info is a challenge. The information from previous years is not as easy to access. It is accessible though.

Pros

Some of the best endorsements of Gradelink are from our teachers and parents. Teachers who aren't particularly comfortable with technology say this is the most user-friendly SIS they have ever encountered. Those who are comfortable with technology find the system easy to learn and use effectively.

I like that Gradelink just seems so intuitive. It behaves like it was designed from the school's needs up, as opposed to systems that seem to be designed from the top down by programmers to do what they think schools need.

I was the system administrator for several years and worked with Gradelink customer support extensively. They were excellent! We had to implement new report cards, and they worked closely with us through the transition. I also liked the ability to create a test student to see how something would work before running with it. For functions that are only performed once in a while, e.g. opening a new term, Gradelink has links on that page with quick how-to reminders. You don't have to open and wade through a separate help window. I found that a great time saver.

Parents find the system easy to use and so do our middle school students, who check their grades and monitor assignments routinely. We also like the communications portions of the program. The teacher pages, email capability, grade-books, etc. are all available with a single sign-in.

Cons

We've all gotten used to Microsoft and Google email products, and email from the Gradelink platform doesn't have all the features users find in dedicated email systems.

For grades, it is live right away--there isn't a way to post grades, but not publish them until a later time. That might be desirable in some isolated cases, so much of a drawback all things considered.

Pros

Every information we need is stored in G.Link. All lesson plans and standards are together. Standards carry a lot of information for teachers. Grades are easily entered and are not lost. Parents communication has gotten better this year because of G.Link. Every teacher has a web page that she/he can design.
Administrators can publish their announcement daily, weekly and monthly.

We like the fact that it prepares the students' report cards and transcripts. We do not have to do that any more. The discipline, students' health life, parents' information is all there for us.
Teachers like it so much. They still need to get used to it and the deadlines they receive but I know for a fact that they like the features in the lesson plans such as copy and paste the whole week then make daily changes. I keep teaching this feature because that 's what will make their planning so easy, especially for those ho have 6 different subjects to plan.

I love how the administrator can easily check teachers' lesson plans, up to date grades. Teachers reports is another feature that is really valuable. Once teacher understand how to use, they can retrieve a lot of information from those reports and use.

The Gradelink staff and team members are extremely sharp and helpful. They usually give us answers right a way even if we call 10 times a day. They still help.
They know well that once we get it we will stop calling them. I love their big support.

Cons

One thing does bother me. We want to send information to parents such as pictures, newsletters and so on. We can not send 2 at the time or more than one.
We have to wait a certain time in order to send another info. This does work for us as we have to send timely information. Something that we have to send today, we can wait until next week to send. It is time sensitive.

Pros

I do enjoy this software immensely! It has a lot of great features, which meld together seamlessly. I have used this software both as a guidance counselor with full admin privileges, and as a teacher. It is easily accessible to parents, and allows teachers to keep parents informed on a daily basis. The platform appears to be solid, and I don't have random "grade changes" while I'm not looking! I've listed four small issues below. When these are fixed, it will be fairly close to perfect, and I will be able to give it five stars all around. As with any multiple-feature computer program, there is a learning curve.
Customer support is always there and willing to talk to us.

Cons

1. We cannot set up grading differently for middle school and high school. (We would like 25% per quarter, 10% exam for middle school, 40/40/20 for high school.) 2. We cannot easily select out parent vs. student e-mail in the Communicate section. 3. I would like to ability to write a comment on a transcript that is neither a test nor an award. 4. I would like to have the ability to print out a grade level of transcript. Specifying graduation year rather than grade level would be fine.

Pros

Once you learn it; it is easy to remember how to apply skills and teach others.

Cons

There are times when I would like to export information to create mailing labels or rosters for testing and to my knowledge, I am not able to do this with Gradelink.

Pros

This software helps us organize our student and parent population. We keep track of attendance and grading which allows us to print out report cards and keep grading information on gradelink.com. We can keep track of student alumni so we can keep in touch. We also are able to use the system to keep in touch with potential families who are looking for quality education. Customer service is fabulous! Every time I call with a question they help me in a friendly manner and solve my problem. We use the system keep track of hours at the Preschool and aftercare and thus are able to quickly see who may owe for such services.

Cons

They are still developing some aspects so sometimes a feature is not yet available. Such as last year we were looking at the sign in/out feature but it was not ready. This year we are using it!

Pros

Love that we can mass email, individuals or whole grades. Gradelink is user friendly, everything is in one place. There are a lot of tools that parents can use to access grades, assignments, teacher's pages, and now we've set it up for discipline. (instead of using a separate program) Parents also have input on community service hours, we can add ACT/SAT scores to transcripts, too.

Cons

That the "Not Re-enrolled" button doesn't work. It just gives all students, instead of the ones not re-enrolled.
Teachers not having the ability to send a text for their classes. - So, they have to use "Remind"

Pros

We really trust Gradelink, as they previously hosted our old site and always do a great job with our school package we have through them. Since we knew we were overdue for an updated website, it was an automatic choice for us to ask Gradelink to handle the design. We are so thrilled with our new website! It is so much cleaner, fresher, user-friendly, precise and engaging. Vince helped us take the next best steps and continues to assure us beyond the finished product, which demonstrates outstanding customer service. Rep was absolutely phenomenal! So very patient, detail-oriented, honest, attentive and kind he went above and beyond to make sure we were satisfied with the final product and that we felt comfortable to collaborate and share our ideas and needs during the building process. Our site needed so much work, and he was always very gracious in our planning meetings. His expertise was so evident and he worked extremely hard to ensure our satisfaction. Genuine excitement about our website project was also evident and helped spur us along when we needed to envision our future site. We are so grateful for Rep and Gradelink!

Cons

Everyone on our team isn't super "techy" so there will be a learning curve. However, we are glad that we can utilize the monthly support that Gradelink offers.

Pros

Gradelink has made it much easier for our staff and parents to keep track of our students' progress academically. I appreciate that I receive a copy of every initial email that goes out so that I am better aware of any potential issues. Grading parameters are easy to set up. We create individual schedules for our students as well.

Cons

What can be a bit time consuming is posting daily assignments. We also have to go into every individual account to click on the indicator for our parents to receive low grade alerts. As it is now, we would have to assume that parents would choose that option. Since we want to make sure our parents are notified whenever a student has a low grade, we must go into every student's account and click on that notifier. It would be great if Admins could do that with one click for the student body.

We also use Gradelink for our billing. While paying is relatively simple for our parents, understanding the balance sheet is not. Also, for some reason, even when a parent has paid a balance in full, it will still "look" like they have a balance.

Pros

I love how easy it is to set up and use. The user interface is very easy to get staff to buy into using. We had tried a different product first and it was just too much for my users.

I am very happy with the reliability of Gradelink. We have been using it for a number of years and Gradelink has been down less than 5 times. Ever. Wish I could say the same about our internal network!

I am very pleased with support. Everybody is friendly and responsive. Problems large and small have been handled as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Cons

The stuff that is missing like:
historical student census data -- how many in each class last year, 3 years ago? how many re-enrolled this year compared to last three years? etc.
seating chart with pictures report
different attendance reports (monthly for National School Lunch)
more financial report options
ability to enter the school calendar and have attendance automatically marked NS for those days.
Little stuff that annoys but doesn't really prevent me from accomplishing what I need to.

Pros

Professional and Intuitive - Our website is easy for our families to navigate and the final design reflects the personal and intimate feel that defines us as a small private school located in Washington State. When we were in the planning process with Gradelink's Education Consultant and Website Specialist, did an amazing job configuring the online tools that would save us time and money and then seamlessly integrated them into our website. All of our school tour scheduling is now online. He designed a custom form that handles our complex afterschool care program registration procedures. Yearly or monthly tuition payments are easily made through our online store. All of these improvements have saved our staff hours of paperwork and time and have allowed them to focus on what really matters to us..... the kids.

Cons

I would love to be able to sort the Family Directory by Teacher! ;)

Pros

Gradelink provides me the opportunity to manage the daily data of the school program which I supervise. Everything that I need to do in my position, including attendance, grades, class listings, and report cards, is provided within the realm of this program.

Cons

I wish that Gradelink provided 24/7 support services. As I am located on the East Coast and Gradelink is located on the West Coast, there is a 3 hour time difference between my location and Gradelink's offices. Gradelink does offer customer support each morning beginning at 6:30 AM Pacific time. However, that means that I have to wait until 9:30 AM EDT until I can call for support. Many times, I cannot get an answer, which means that I have to leave a message with the hope of a return call. I think, then, that the one area that Gradelink needs to work on is the providing better technical support.

Pros

It's very easy to get information from GL into Excel where it can be manipulated. GL accepts a lot of information, and it's easy to update.

Cons

Navigation is really not intuitive. Information is compartmentalized and difficult to access. To change a student's attendance, instead of just looking up the student, I have to go look up the student's homeroom, then go to Attendance and find that homeroom, and change it there. I can't look at all of a student's attendance in Student module--I have to go to Administrator Reports, and do Custom Attendance. Teachers cannot see a lot of the information on a student for no reason that I've been able to discern.