Top Rated Focus SIS Alternatives
Keep all student data in one place. It's also easy to put in grades and take attendance. The notifications when you first sign in is also very helpful. I always forget to take attendance and it's the first thing I see so I always do that when I sign in. I also really like how I can do my lesson plans on Focus. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
There are a lot of tabs so it gets confusing. Also, do grade configurations is a little confusing as well. I feel like there are too many options for a lot of simple things. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
12 out of 13 Total Reviews for Focus SIS
single sign on feature, everything in one place. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
not being able to see the total count of students after I take attendance.
with admin access I would like to be able to view teachers gradebooks instead of looking up students individually to see what their grades are in the class. I am an ESE support teacher and it would help me a lot to see the grades of the students I support by seeing the teacher's gradebook.
Some data can be consolidated. The emails for parents can be found in multiple locations. Should be in just one place. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
FOCUS is very user friendly and provides the ability to maintain student, user and teacher information all in one area. You can access student records, staff/user credentials, and teacher schedules all at the click of a button. Advanced reports can be created and modified to fit the data you need. It's simple to walk through and offers multiple options to maintain all your student / school records in one place. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
At times, due to all the information that FOCUS can provide, it looks a bit overwhelming. There are many sections and links to get to areas that could be more simplified. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I like being able to grade from anywhere. I also like being able to have multiple tabs of the program open in order to quickly switch from attendance to grades. I like having the classroom log feature to keep track of my communication with parents and students. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Focus seems like a grade portal with hidden treasures. So hidden that they never get used. While I like being able to grade from anywhere, I do think that it's time for a system facelift. Maybe it's just the version my school district uses, but it does look outdated. From my use of the system it appears that you can assign students assignments. I am still unsure of how to use this element of the program. There are also some features that aren't as clear to use, like submitting a grade change request. I do wish everything was laid out a bit better, but I think since the system has been used for so long it would probably take a substantial amount of effort to rehaul the system, have a group of users test it out and get the kinks out, then transfer the old data to the new system. Overall Focus works, but it does leave more to be desired. My wishlist would include a classroom log that could maybe import files from other programs like maybe class dojo or emails. A cleaner, straight to the point way of updating a grade. Lastly, I am not sure what the parents see, but is there an app for parents/students? If not, one would definitely help. Many of my students come from homes with either no computer in them or limited functioning internet capable devices. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I like that there are so many features and functions such as pulling attendance, present and past enrollments, disciplinary referrals, grades, and statewide assessments. As an administrator, I am able to see very involved data about students academic records. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
As an another user stated, the website is not customizable. I am not one for the aesthetic presence, but there are a few things about the layout I would change if possible. The website can be a little finicky when you hover the mouse over what you want and can easily go away if you slightly move the cursor. It seems too clustered. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I love the homepage layout. I have the birthdays of the students to the far right and the featured programs in the middle with my "find a student" section to my left. On the top I have my tabs for things such as schedules, grades, assessments, attendance, reports etc. The icons next to each students help identify them based on individual needs for example if they are SPED, ESL/LEP, At Risk, 504, GT, Medical Alert the list goes on it's as simple as memorizing the meaning of each icon. You have varies ways to getting what you are looking for from different screens as well. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I dislike not being able to personalize my screen. While I enjoy seeing whose birthday it is as soon as I log into the home screen we have over 1,200 student on my campus in which I am only responsible for 390. It would be nice to know how many of my 12th graders have birthdays that week compared to the entire school. Secondly, I don't use all the featured programs so m=being able to take out some of the ones I don't need and make room for the programs I use daily such as attendance, grades and student info would be amazing. Another thing I hate is being logged out every time I am idle for over 3-4 minutes. While there is a "Help" button we can click it is pretty much useless as it's only articles. A live chat agent would be great! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Ease of use. It's user friendly for grading and attendance. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Navigation could be more streamlined. Sometimes it takes lots of clicks to get to student info. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The system was good for putting in grades. I learned to love it eventually. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The system crashed a lot. Customer service was almost impossible to get hold of. Not a lot of people were available to help fix issues. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I like the snapshot information I can get in each section or categoy for each individual student. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I don't like that the schedule shown is not providing me with a "real-time". For instance, if a student is in 4th period, it would be nice if that line was highlighted. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
