A key component of any K-12 software is its capacity to support many school administrative tasks and to do so in a consistent manner. Whether you’re attempting to keep track of how much lunch money students’ have left on their account or send out hundreds of report cards to eagerly awaiting parents or ensure that you have up-do-date contact information on file for every student in the school, it is important to have effective K-12 software on hand to assist. With over 900 schools, 350,000 users and 13 years of experience, Gradelink is recommended option for any K-12 institution on the market for school management software.

In a nutshell, Gradelink offers fifteen key functions. Among other things, the software is designed to assist with attendance records and class scheduling, keeping track of medical records, and the production of reports cards and other types of reports. The software also features a flexible gradebook function, tuition and billing feature, and parent portal. Front-end features include teacher pages and school news features. In short, Gradelink is designed to both keep track of what is happening behind the scenes and ensure that the school is able to promote its staff, student and community accomplishments. An up-to-date and web-based system, Gradelink has the legs to keep up with the demands of schools of all sizes in the K-12 demographic.

• Usability. Reviews consistently praise Gradelink for its user-friendly design and attentiveness to user’s diverse needs in a school context; even non-techie staff report finding the system easy to use.

• Maintainability. Subject to ongoing updates, Gradelink is considered easy to maintain with few reported problems.

• Performance. Gradelink is a fast system, but this is not a surprise. Reports suggest that sluggish applications brought to the company’s attention are quickly fixed by the development team.
• Integration Ease. Gradelink recognizes that increasingly schools rely on social media to recruit new students and to keep in touch with parents, as well as forge links with the broader community; Gradelink can be integrated with Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. Gradelink can also be integrated with Google Calendar to ensure that all those teachers, school administrators and parents show up for meetings in as timely a manner as the school’s students.
• Functionality. There are no reported issues with Gradelink’s functionality; despite its many applications, the software receives especially high marks in terms of functionality.

• Support. Gradelink offers support during regular business hours only but users consistently praise the company for its availability and dedicated support staff.

Pros

What customers love about Gradelink:

• It’s a comprehensive software program that has the capacity to support nearly all the administrative work carried out by any K-12 schools.
• Gradelink is extremely affordable; a small school with less than 50 students can adopt Gradelink for as little as $79 per month and larger schools of 1101 to 1200 can adopt the software for $519 per month.
• It’s cloud-based and does not require an internal service.
• Can be used with EnrollMe—a premium add-on to Gradelink, which allows schools to turn their paper-based enrollment system into a streamlined online process that better serves parents and school administrators alike and hence, has the potential to raise enrollments by easing the application process.

Cons

What customers would like to see improved about Gradelink:

• Customer support is available during regular business hours but not 24/7 (nevertheless Gradelink gets high marks for support).
• There is no separate teacher dashboard; geared to administrator’s not educator’s needs.