Sycamore School

Good Product with Great Potential

Comentarios: Awesome software and features. It was the perfect fit for our start-up organization, and we're still using it.

Puntos a favor:

The simplicity of the software package and the ease of implementation. Sycamore offers the software without nickel and diming for add-ons or necessary features. For a small and/or non-profit institution, it is an AWESOME option at a very reasonable cost.

Puntos en contra:

Not much support in terms of online manuals/support. I function better as a self-directed learner, and the online manuals and videos that were available at the time I onboarded were not very helpful. On the other hand, the phone support was very helpful in assisting when I couldn't find the answer online.

Very Intuitive Software to Use

Comentarios: Overall, Sycamore School has been a very positive change for our school. The cost of the product initially drew us in this direction. Had we known the quality of the product and ease of use, we would have changed even sooner than we did. We are so glad we changed 3 years ago!

Puntos a favor:

Our school was able to implement the Sycamore system without a lot of support. The software is laid out in a way that is intuitive and logical. Most questions that we asked ourselves were easily discovered by our own team. Whenever we had questions that we could not find (rare), the tech support quickly resolved the matter for us. The transition for us was much easier than we thought it could be. The Sycamore software has also been simple for our clients (both students and teachers) to navigate. We used the software as our mail tool during our spring of 2020 change to remote learning. Parents had little trouble navigating around Sycamore to find the instruction and information for remote learning. We never anticipated using it that way, but it did a good job for us.

Puntos en contra:

Sycamore has a few idiosyncracies that one has to get used to. Some listings require the user to go back to the beginning of the list after a choice has been made. Little things that I am sure will be refined over time.

Clunky, Outdated

Puntos a favor:

I really cannot be positive. It looks like an early 90' s site, where more and more junk accumulated on to it.

Puntos en contra:

Menus are redundant and hard to navigate. Day long classes are restricted to grading all subjects with the same exact categories. The system glitches, does not updated posted grades after, say, dropping a lowest grade. Pass a note is obnoxious and nearly useless as a communication tool. If using the website for attendance, and a student comes in late, you have to go through multiple windows just to mark them present. Integration is a joke. There is no organization for uploaded files that can be navigated, and trying to use it with Google Classroom was a tedious, painful joke. The email feature is way out of date and grossly insecure (one must disable security features in gmail for it to work) I could go on, but it is like death by a thousand paper cuts.

An SIS Worth Considering

Comentarios: Sycamore School has been a great tool for our school. It has everything we need without the expensive price tag. It can be laborious to navigate and use at times so training is really important when implementing this product.

Puntos a favor:

It has many features and lots of options giving it great customization.

Puntos en contra:

It can be hard to navigate and find what you need.

Exceptional School Management System

Comentarios: We have had a great working relationship with Sycamore. They are always responsive and very knowledgeable in solving our problems. They are a great partner.

Puntos a favor:

We really value the ease of use with Sycamore and the various needs that the system meets. The Sycamore team is always looking for ways to improve. They also are always looking for creative ways to manage the daily demands of running a school.

Puntos en contra:

Overall we have been very satisfied with Sycamore and their team of developers. There is nothing that we like least about Sycamore.

Very Easy to Use

Puntos a favor:

Very easy to use once you know how to use the software. The On-Boarding one-on-one contact was greatly appreciated during the start-up process. The Support Ticket team is very responsive. I enjoy the ease of the Online Help, the only troublesome part of that is not all of the features being presented (maybe the Online Help just needs to be updated?).

Puntos en contra:

Have yet to be able to fully integrate our Google Classrooms with Sycamore, so the teachers aren't able to use that feature as they would like. Feels like some features could be simpler to get to.

Comprehensive Edu Software

Comentarios: Overall we were happy with Sycamore. I highly recommend them for smaller schools and it may be the right fit for larger schools. I think they just need to evaluate what workflows are most important to them and understand the trade-offs of having a wider than deeper program.

Puntos a favor:

First of all, they have excellent customer service. They really are doing their best to help schools succeed. They have great integrations with google, which for us was one of the primary deciding reasons for going with them. They now have a quality app and more features than most programs have for a fraction of the cost. They also have a REST API which is extremely helpful for expanding the potential of the software.

Puntos en contra:

One of the hard parts about being an educational software is that it is hard to know when to stop developing different​ features and instead focus on making the features they do have into amazing experiences. IMO Sycamore has a broader instead of deeper development philosophy. This is good for small schools that need a comprehensive solution, but it can be frustrating for schools with more users that end up choosing multiple solutions because the overall experience and depth of usability are better. An example of this is how they have 3 different enrollment/admissions portals that they have tried to develop. Instead of making one amazing, they have tried multiple times. Their most recent one is promising, but still,​ isn't​ usable for schools who need all of the features available.

We've used Sycamore Education for six years. Great product!

Comentarios: Our old SI system was clunky and slow. Sycamore Education revolutionized our daily workload and processes. Highly recommended for private schools.

Puntos a favor:

Ease of use. Customer support. Frequent updates/upgrades. Meets all IS needs for our private school.

Puntos en contra:

Graphics, as well as look & feel could use an update. Wish this product would integrate with our online curriculum.

All-around system for schools

Comentarios: We used this at a small Christian school and it really helped us streamline our workflows!

Puntos a favor:

I really liked how it integrated grading, communication, and attendance.

Puntos en contra:

The multiple pop-up windows got annoying after a while. It would be good to integrate some sort of video instruction capabilities where teachers could post information for the students.

It’s a great teaching tool!

Puntos a favor:

It’s very efficient for all my teaching needs!

Puntos en contra:

There is really nothing I dislike about this software!

Sycamore

Puntos a favor:

There are very little pros, except that I easily reached a customer service rep when I needed help with an issue.

Puntos en contra:

I did not like Sycamore as an LMS. I found its interface to be clunky, filled with unnecessary options, and difficult to navigate. For example, to this day, I still have no idea how to create an assignment so that a student can upload there work. Believe me, I tried to figure it out. Eventually I gave up and used another system. The grade book was another problematic feature. At the end of the semester, it does not show final grades computed with the final exam. You have to go into each individual student and look at there "grade report" to see the end computation. I do not recommend this system. There are much better LMS's available.

Bringing Sycamore to Japan

Comentarios: My experience has been truly outstanding!

Puntos a favor:

I used Sycamore Education for years at a Christian school in Illinois. When I came to Japan last year, I realized that my new school was not using a school management system. I was very happy to have previous experience with Sycamore. As the principal, I was able to address the school board with our great need, and they approved the purchase of Sycamore. Our teachers are very happy to be able to post grades, our parents are happy to have direct access to their child's academic progress on a daily basis, and our office administrator is happy to be able to print report cards in minutes. I continue to be very pleased with the functionality of Sycamore as well as the outstanding customer support!

Puntos en contra:

On occasion, a screen pops up notifying me there is an error. When I click on the drop down bar again, the error screen is gone. It's not a big issue, and hasn't slowed us down. This never occurred when I previously used the software.

Sycamore School

Puntos a favor:

I like the variety of features that Sycamore has available. From attendance to correspondence, Sycamore has all the features that a school might need.

Puntos en contra:

Sycamore is very click heavy. To find a feature generally requires several clicks, and may not be where you think it would be.

Sycamore enabled us to get into the 21st century by using an online management system. We love it!

Puntos a favor:

Communication has increased between parents and teachers as grades can be tracked and paper grades don't get lost. It also has provided accountability in that teachers are posting grades on a more timely basis. It allows consistency between grades and years. The system is very powerful; customer service is probably the most helpful that I have encountered. I love the ability to create transcripts and that these are kept on the system. It tracks attendance much better than we were doing previously. The medical logs have been helpful. Doing online admissions has taken us to a new level as well.

Puntos en contra:

The system isn't as intuitive as I would like. Because I have worked with it several years, it's much easier now and people end up coming to me to figure out how to do specific things with it. I have been frustrated a bit b/c it doesn't allow for creative flexibility (for instance transcripts don't have a lot of space for extra activities) or for things that aren't the same in different countries. We have worked around a lot of the barriers, and Sycamore has been very helpful to put things on the list of potential fixes.

Administrator

Comentarios: 1. I would love to see you all at the Mid-Atlantic Convention in Lancaster PA. 2. I had a new family comment that they were telling a group of people their child was coming to the school. Someone in the group, who does not have a child at our school and we are not sure how they even know about the school, spoke up and said "Well they have Sycamore and it is a wonderful program!". Someone is talking!

Puntos a favor:

1, Very cost effective 2. You are purchasing all that the program has to offer. There are no additional fees for upgrades 3. Customer Service is awesome! Quick to respond, helpful and you can reach them by phone or PAN. 4. Very user friendly 5. HIGH HIGH rate of parent satisfaction with being able to access grades, teachers, one another, etc. All of them rave about the program! 6. Sycamore Leaf keeps us updated 7. Sycamore is always seeking to improve their program 8. PAN - we absolutely LOVE this feature. Our high school classrooms are in "learning cottages" aka trailers - and the teachers are separated. This feature allows all of us to feel so connected!

Puntos en contra:

1, Not too many or serious... we did notice that if you make a change on the family or student information (you have the mother's name wrong ex.) then when you correct it, you cannot do it in just one area, you have to go into multiple areas. 2. We had some issues with the GPA configuration. I did not deal with it, but I know our high school conselor had numerous phone calls and PAN' s to get it figured out properly. For some reason we now have to do something different to get our proper grading. 3. Getting my parents over the learning curve of using the program. It is frustrating to hear them say " We seldom check Sycamore" and in our memos and everything else we keep saying HOW MUCH we put on Sycamore and to check it out. Word of mouth is helping this... I hear parents telling other parents that they really need to use it, or someone asking another how they knew about something and they will say "on Sycamore" .

Comprehensive School Information System

Comentarios: Centralized Student Records and Report Cards. Centralized Calendar and Attendance.

Puntos a favor:

Moving from paper report cards a few years back to centralized report cards and student information through Sycamore has been an excellent transition. Their setup team worked to make it a smooth transition. We probably only use half of its functionality at this point but we saw immediate wins with a centralized calendar, documents and family data. The reporting functionality of the system is also very helpful. As we compared Sycamore to other SIS options, it became clear that it was one of the best values that we researched. The live US based tech support has been outstanding. Every staff person I have talked to knows the system well and has been extremely helpful. I highly recommend Sycamore.

Puntos en contra:

The user interface can be difficult to navigate sometimes and find the exact feature you are looking for. It is an excellent School Information System (SIS) but we did realize that its functionality around lesson plans and curriculum is very basic.

Streamlines School Functions

Comentarios: Overall I like the product. My school has started using more of the functionality of the software and receiving announcements and other important information has been helpful.

Puntos a favor:

I like the app for my phone. It streamlines my ability to quickly send attendance to our office. I also like the school directory so that I can easily pull up information for any school family.

Puntos en contra:

Sending group emails (batch emails) isn't obvious to me. I wish the email portion seemed more like gmail or other email applications.

Using Sycamore Daily

Comentarios: The problems we have been able to solve mainly are having the ability to look up information at a few clicks of the computer. We have the ability to see many needs for our students and our faculty.

Puntos a favor:

The features that are most useful to me are the attendance and ease of updating when students are tardy or leave early. Our daily health screening is something that has been helpful with our new guidelines.

Puntos en contra:

ALL the Clicks to get to where we need to be.

Sycamore is a great solution for small and medium sized schools. It is very reliable.

Comentarios: This database keeps all of our school management information secure and well-organized. There are fields for lots of information and the ability to add custom fields as well. There are features for organizing events, room use, cafeteria management, etc. It does allow teachers to record grades and the grades are then accessible by parents and report cards are easy to generate.

Puntos a favor:

The support is fantastic. Trouble tickets are answered quickly and phone support is great. The database is securely hosted on-line so it can be accessed anywhere and there is no set-up for a new computer. The cafeteria feature works really well even with 24 teachers entering attendance / lunch orders at the same time. Easy to send batch emails and individual emails to parents.

Puntos en contra:

We don't use the "pass-a-note" feature very much. Sometimes parents use it and it comes up on the teacher's screen when they log-on in the morning.

Easy to Use

Comentarios: Overall, my experience with the program has been good. The customer service has always been great to help with any issues or questions that we may have, no matter how big or small.

Puntos a favor:

Sycamore is a fairly easy school management system to navigate .

Puntos en contra:

There have been some features and reports that would be nice to have that aren’t included as of yet.

Sycamore

Comentarios: Overall, Sycamore has been a good experience for us, despite its flaws, and it has helped us manage our school.

Puntos a favor:

Sycamore does a lot. It can do almost anything you would need a SIS to do, and it has the best google classroom integration of any SIS and LMS out there.

Puntos en contra:

Sycamore can be tedious to navigate at times, and some of the design decisions are baffling. It is not easy to figure things out without training.

Our school has used Sycamore for years, and each year we continue to utilize new elements in it.

Comentarios: centralized data and communication for our whole school on many diffeerent levels: administration and management, staff-wide, with families, with students, and with prospective families/students.

Puntos a favor:

Sycamore keeps all our school data in one place so that the office, administration, and teachers can all share information. The more we learn to use it, the more helpful it is for us! I absolutely love the customer support. They respond quickly, kindly, and are always helpful. They are open to suggestions for change, and often we see those changes take place!

Puntos en contra:

We sometimes call it "clickamore". There are often a lot of steps embedding in a process. That said, there are a lot of shortcuts that I keep learning about that make me like using Sycamore more and more!

It's the customer service that takes this SIS over the top!

Comentarios: I have worked with sycamore as a parent, staff member, and super user (software administrator) over the last 7 years. What makes Sycamore work so well, is that it is constantly growing and making enhancements as the needs of it's users grow yet still keeping to the same "feel" and design so that students, parents and teachers don't have to re-learn the software every time there is an enhancement. The software itself is pretty comprehensive and has been easy to use. We have several schools in our district using the software as well, so as parents move from Elementary School to Middle to our High School, they have appreciated not having to learn a new platform, and those that come from outside our district have commented on how easy it was to make the transition. New teachers grasp on to it's layout very quickly. It's hard to really talk about cons, because anytime I have found a quirk or issue, Sycamore has been very receptive to those concerns and actively found a solution or came up with an enhancement. They are always growing the product. Which leads me to their support system and customer service. Most of the time I can find my answers in their Online manual or videos. When I need a bit more help, as a Sycamore Super User, can submit a support ticket any time of day and will get a response within the hour...very very rarely have I not connected with a live person when I have phoned, which I rarely have to do. The support staff is well educated in the software and the nicest people you will ever talk/chat with. As a teacher, you can chat anytime during the school day with a support tech, even just to ask a "where do I find" question...no question is too menial. Overall, you will never find an SIS that meets every schools needs or ways of doing things, so what becomes important is finding an SIS that does the job, is continually growing and advancing, and provides outstanding customer service. This is what Sycamore provides it's customers.

We have used Sycamore for about 5 years and are happy with the value for COI.

Puntos a favor:

I am most happy with the ability to access grades and grading where and when ever I have internet access. I don't need to carry a gradebook or storage device with my grade spreadsheets, like years past. Being able to excuse students from assignments or customize who the assignment is assigned to is invaluable.

Puntos en contra:

The interface is improving, but feels a day late the the UI/UX game. We started to use the library module when we first setup with Sycamore, but it needs work and features. The lesson planner for teachers should be scrapped and a connection made with Planbook.com. The Scamore planbook makes it hard to move lessons when things happen like fire drills or snow days.

Sycamore does what we need it to do. The customer service is really what keeps us here.

Comentarios: Grade/report card preparation is so much easier for our staff. We have a reliable method of communicating with our parents and staff. (We just need to get parents to log in more regularly!)

Puntos a favor:

Easy to use for parents and staff; customer service is the BEST -- quick to respond , servant-minded and very competent.

Puntos en contra:

There are a few quirks, like only uploading a single photo at a time (unlike something like Facebook where several can be done with a click). We had to go with a different accounting system (Quick Books Online) because we couldn't integrate it with Sycamore. Email is hard to manage at times.