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Work Smarter, Not Harder: 24 Tips for the TeacherPlus Gradebook

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 15:05:23 GMT

The TeacherPlus Gradebook is an essential part of the Rediker Software system , acting as the bridge between your school’s many classrooms and the central front office. Today, we dive into the top 24 tips teachers need to know about the Gradebook so they can streamline their workflow and make the most of the system.

Article Table of Contents:

Workspace and Efficiency

Tip #1
Customize Your Startup Screen

Respawn Location – Customize Your Startup Screen

Be ready to jump-start the day the moment you log in. You can save time and clicks by setting the default location that your Gradebook will open to. Do you want to open to your most frequently used class? How about the homeroom, or a co-teaching section? You could also have it open automatically to the last used page you were on.

Navigate to Settings > General Settings > Startup Screen.

TeacherPlus Gradebook Startup Screen Settings

Tip #2
Create Seating Chart Clusters

Drag-and-Drop Easy – Create Seating Chart Clusters

Break away from the standard grid seating chart format. Maybe you have your classroom arranged in a circle? Maybe your students are breaking into pods for group study? Use the Gradebook Seating Chart to map out where everyone will sit in an alternative seating arrangement. In Edit Mode, drag-and-drop the student cards to arrange them. Save as many versions as you need. When you are done using a certain arrangement, you can easily toggle back to your standard view.

Navigate to the Seating Chart > Add New or Edit.

TeacherPlus Gradebook Seating Chart

Tip #3
Add Insights to Your Seating Chart

More Than Matching Names to Faces – Add Insights to Your Seating Chart

Customize your seating chart to add more information next to each student’s picture. Choose anything you might need to reference, such as the student’s gender, nickname, or homeroom. This data comes directly from the AdminPlus database so you can be sure it’s up to date.

Navigate to the Seating Chart > Choose Add New or Edit > “What fields to show on seat?” Toggle on any of following data points:

Picture
First and Last Name
ID Number
Averages and Grades
Assignment Columns
AdminPlus Database Field (Pick One):
Parent/Guardian
Street
City
State
ZIP
Phone
Homeroom
Gender
Birth Date
Nickname
Counselor
Student Email
IEP Writer

Tip #4
Use Quick Load (for Large Gradebooks)

Wrangle Up that Data – Use Quick Load for Large Gradebooks

Feeling the need for speed? Have too many assignments cluttering up your view? Toggle on the built-in Quick Load function to combat any lag that you might be dealing with due to a high volume of data. This will pare down the number of assignments it displays to the most recent, so even if it’s been a “long semester” and you have 10-20 assignments piling up each week, you can still manage your Gradebook with ease.

In the Quick Load Settings dialog box, do either of the following:

Select 1 Day (faster loading) for the fastest page-load.
Select x Days, in which x is a custom number of days between 1 and 99.

TeacherPlus Gradebook Quick Load Settings

Tip #5
Toggle Column Icons

Tiny But Mighty – Toggle Column Icons

Have some fun with icons in the column headings. These icons act as a quick way to flip the switch to lock/unlock the column from being edited further and share/unshare the assignment in the PlusPortals .

Dive deeper into the settings by double-clicking the column header or right-click > Edit Column Name and Details. Within the settings you can also choose to add the assignment as Coursework to the PlusPortals ahead of time, as well as display the count in averages.

As a bonus, if you have your Gradebook linked with Google Classroom , an extra icon will show up to indicate that the column data is coming from that integration.

TeacherPlus Gradebook Column Header Icons

TeacherPlus Gradebook Edit Column Settings

Tip #6
Minimize Columns and Headers

Squeeze it – Minimize Columns and Headers

TeacherPlus Gradebook Thin Column and Small Header Options

Grading and Data Shortcuts

Tip #7
Drop the Lowest Grade (Individual or Class)

Benevolent Balance – Drop the Lowest Grade

Give the students a break by dropping the biggest impact-grade for an entire class by category (homework, participation, quizzes, tests, etc.). The system automatically identifies the grade with the largest impact, so you don’t have to. Use this feature to maximize the class average for that marking period.

Spot a particular student that you want to address individually instead of the whole class? Simply right-click and choose Drop Lowest Score. From there you can set the category that it will reference specifically. A single score will automatically be dropped for that student.

TeacherPlus Gradebook Drop Scores Settings

Tip #8
Run the Grade Audit Report

The Proof is in the Pudding - Grade Audit Report

Have you ever had a parent question if their student’s grade was calculated correctly? With the Grade Audit Report, you can cover your bases with undeniable proof. Have this report handy at your next parent-teacher conference to show the detailed breakdown of how a student’s grade is calculated, including weighted calculations, excluded scores, individual category totals, and the master calculation for the quarter.

Right-click the student’s average > Audit Report. This will serve up a PDF copy of the report that you can show on screen or print out.

Tip #9
Batch Enter for All Students

Like Magic, Your Done - Batch Enter for All Students

Bypass repetitive score entry. When you know most, or all of your students have the same number of points, use the Batch Entry function to instantly set scores for everyone. This comes in handy if you are handing out participation points, for example. Even if you have one or two students with different scores, just go back in and alter those individuals. Entering in one or two separate scores beats doing it all 30 (or so) times for the whole class.

Right-Click in the assignment column and choose Batch Entry: Current Column.

TeacherPlus Gradebook Batch Entry Options

Tip #10
Unlock Header Row Stats

Statistical Madness - Unlock Header Row Stats

Did you know there are 11 hidden rows that can serve up extra stats about each of your assignments? These powerful little nuggets work behind the scenes to calculate averages, ranges, and more. Get in there and get a little crazy. Toggle on these rows and stack up a gold mine of statistical counts that could reveal trends about your assignments and students.

TeacherPlus Gradebook Header Row Options

Tip #11
Export to Excel

Time to Pivot – Export to Excel

Add a little flourish to your Gradebook data and show off with some more advanced graphical visuals. We all know Excel is king when it comes to PivotTables, so why not use it? Save your Gradebook as an Excel document and experiment with tables, graphs and charts. Who knows? This could come in handy at your next departmental meeting, parent-teacher conference, or just for your own reference.

Download the exported Excel Workbook file by going to Reports > Save as Excel.

TeacherPlus Gradebook Excel Export Options

Tip #12
Link to Google Classroom

With Our Powers Combine – Link to Google Classroom

Using Google Classroom? We understand that double-data entry is a nuisance. When it comes time to generate report cards, you’ll need those scores to come into the Gradebook and ultimately, AdminPlus . So how do you get the data from Google Classroom into the TeacherPlus Gradebook without double-data entry? Simple – you can use the built-in “Link.” When you add an assignment into the Google Classroom environment, you can then link that to a column in your Gradebook. Click the “Link Classwork” button and watch as it instantly pulls in the assignment description and points for each student. Whenever you make changes to an assignment that has already been linked, simply click the square Google Classroom icon for that column within the TeacherPlus Gradebook, and it’ll refresh any new incoming score data. Or click the round Google Classroom icon near the title of the class to Sync All.

(If you don’t see the Google Classroom Link in your Gradebook, talk to your school’s TeacherPlus Management Admin – this integration must be enabled first.)

TeacherPlus Gradebook Link to Google Classroom

Tip #13
Add Annotations

Little Reminders – Add Annotations

Add your own “secret” codes in the Gradebook and tag custom annotation notes that are meaningful for you. L = “Late.” M = “Missing.” …And SSB could mean, “Super-Secret Bonus Points!”

Annotations are a great way to set little reminders for yourself about what’s going on with a particular student’s score. Usually, the codes come pre-set from school management (via the TeacherPlus Management Site). If your school has enabled user-defined annotations for teachers, you can easily add your own too. Access it under Grading > Score Annotations > Add Annotation.

Once you have added the new code to your list, you can start using it. Toggle on Annotation Mode to unlock one-click access and add annotations codes directly to any cell. Or right-click to Enable Annotation Mode, Enter an Annotation from a List, or get into Advanced Annotation Entry.

Tip #14
Display Marking Period Point Totals

Quick “Math” - Display Marking Period Point Totals

Interested in tracking raw points earned, rather than percentages? You can easily add a dedicated column that will tally up the points for each student and automatically keep a running total during the entire marking period as you add more point-based assignments.

In the Custom View option, choose to show the Marking Period Points Earned by adding it to the Right Pane. (Check out Tip #15 to read more about Custom Views.)

TeacherPlus Gradebook Marking Period Points Earned Selection for Columns

Per Student Data and Tracking

Tip #15
Set Up Custom Views

Data Beyond the Numbers – Set Up Custom Views

The Gradebook comes with a few out-of-the-box Views, like the Report Card (RC) View or the Category Subtotals View. This is a quick way to instantly display specific columns and labels. Beyond just showing grades, scores and point calculations, you can also track individual student demographic data that’s on file in the AdminPlus Database like addresses, phone numbers, bus numbers, and locker numbers.

Get started by clicking the Template Options button in the View section of the Gradebook. Choose to add data to the Left Pane, sourced from Office Demographic Fields, System Columns or Teacher Defined Fields. You can create and save as many custom Views as you would like.

Tip #16
Know Your Student’s Preferred Identifiers

Put a Label on it (in the Gradebook) - Know Your Student’s Preferred Identifiers

As we pointed out in the previous tip, with the power of Views you can instantly arrange your Gradebook with the push of a button. These custom layouts can reveal specific demographic data associated with each student. In this tip we have a handy, specific use-case: setting up a custom View that highlights pronouns or alternative identifiers. With this, you’ll be able to quickly see the preferred way in which your students would like to be addressed.

Tip #17
Set Up a Birthday List

Did Someone Say Cupcakes? – Set Up a Birthday List

The likelihood of it being someone’s “unbirthday” is extremely high, but that’s what makes a real birthday so special! Putting aside the Alice in Wonderland reference, another common application for Gradebook Views would be to create one that lists all birthdays. That way you can easily track who is celebrating (and be prepared for any home-brought cupcakes. ��)

Tip #18
Define Your 10 Custom Fields

You’re in Charge - Define Your 10 Custom Fields

Did you know there are 10 hidden fields that can be added to your Views? While playing around with creating custom Views in the Gradebook, you might have noticed that there’s a category for Teacher Defined Fields. These 10 fields come as a blank slate so you can use them to define unique, per-student data that has to do with your classroom in particular.

Maybe you teach a literature class, and each student had to pick their favorite author? Maybe you teach a secondary language class, and each student had to pick a related nickname for that language? Add it as a row of data in your Gradebook to track it.

The data that you enter in your Teacher Defined Fields is local for you and is not broadcast out to the AdminPlus database so you can track individualized snippets that the office doesn’t need.

When you set up a new View, choose the Teacher Defined Fields radio button. From there, move any of the fields over to your Left Pane Column list. Make sure to rename it so you know what it’s for. Once it’s saved and added as a View in the Gradebook, you can fill in the data for each student.

TeacherPlus Gradebook Set Teacher Defined Fields

Tip #19
Tally Lunch Counts

Is it Lunch Time Yet? - Tally Lunch Counts

Get a jump on Lunch Counts ahead of time while you take attendance. If your school does in-classroom lunch counts, you can activate the Lunch Count Entry mode in the gradebook to track your students’ choices. An extra column will be added to your Attendance Mode where you can enter each pick. Click to toggle through the list of meal options set up by the school. From there, you can submit the Lunch Counts along with the attendance entries. This is a great way to let the cafeteria know in advance what food to prepare. It could also help with special occasions like field trips.

Turn on the Lunch Count Entry mode under Settings > General Settings > scroll down to see Lunch Count Settings.

TeacherPlus Gradebook Lunch Count Settings

Tip #20
Reference Attendance History

Time Traveling - Reference Attendance History

TeacherPlus Gradebook Weekly Attendance View

Tip #21
Take Note of Important Alerts and IEPs

Be Advised - Take Note of Important Alerts and IEPs

Keep in mind that the Gradebook can show you Student Alerts and IEP documents that might need special consideration.

If you see a little yellow “caution” icon next to a student’s name, then you know there’s something you should be aware of. This is set up within AdminPlus and can include information on allergies or other medical conditions.

You can also check if there’s an IEP for any of the students in your class by toggling on the IEP View or adding it to any of your Custom Views. You’ll see a green paper icon in the IEP column that you can click on to bring up the PDF. This document is sourced from the students’ Portfolio in the AdminPlus database, with other options for third-party integrations.

TeacherPlus Gradebook Inline Alert and IEP Icons

Privacy, Communication and Notes

Tip #22
Use Single-Student Privacy View

One-on-One Discussions – Use Single-Student Privacy View

Let’s say that you have a student that comes to your desk, and you need to show them something in your Gradebook. Or maybe it’s time for parent-teacher meetings and you need to present data for a single student. Protect the other students’ private grade data by only showing one line of information in your Gradebook.

Right-click the student’s name and choose Show Only (Hide Other Students). This is a quick way to hide everyone else's grades for a private, one-on-one discussion. When you are done, right-click the student’s name again and choose Show All Students to bring everyone back onto the view.

(MOUSE OVER IMAGE) TeacherPlus Gradebook Displaying All or One Row of Student Data

Tip #23
Generate Your Own Reports

Make it Official - Generate Your Own Reports

One of the most powerful functions any gradebook software can perform is generating reports – taking all that data that you lovingly input over the course of the school year and compiling it into an easy-to-understand summation. For this tip, let’s talk about two great options: Progress Reports for each student, and Custom Reports for the class.

Progress Reports (per Student)

Progress Reports are a great way to understand the big picture for an individual student in your class, even in the middle of the semester. No need to wait for final Report Cards from the office. These can be generated by teachers at any time and include detailed data about classroom assessment scores, possible points, missing work, skills and standards, attendance, etc.

To generate the report, right-click the student’s name and choose Progress Report. You can also use the left-side menu to go to Reports > Student > Progress Report.

Take advantage of the other report settings to pick what’s included in the report. This way, you can bring this report along to your next parent-teacher meeting and customize what parents see. If you save multiple templates, you could create a "Simplified" version for quick updates or a "Comprehensive" version with more comments, narratives and drill-down details.

Include a signature field if you want the parent to sign it right then and there at the meeting. Or upload it to PlusPortals for parents to see on their own time.

Custom Reports (per Gradebook)

While Progress Reports are great for per-student insights, other Custom Reports can be created to show general Gradebook data across your whole class and different marking periods. To get to your Report Library, navigate to Report in the left-side menu and choose Custom Reports. This is where you create and save your custom-made versions. Set your query for grades, averages, scores, skill grades, comments, narrative, attendance by student, or attendance totals by class. Include demographic fields like address, homeroom, IEP, counselor, and more. Once you run your Custom Report, you can even take it a step further by generating a Progress Report for all students included in the results, helping you narrow down any student you might want to meet with, Progress Report in-hand.

TeacherPlus Gradebook Custom Report Output

Tip #24
Add a Note - Memo vs. Narrative vs. Comment

When, where, what? - Private Memo vs. Narrative vs. Comment

There are multiple places where you can add notes called Memos, Narratives and Comments. But what’s the difference and how do you use them? For this tip, we’ll review each type:

Memos (Internal Reference)

Memos serve as a way to add internal notes about individual students. Right-click a student's name to type up a Private Memo. You can keep it brief and simple or add formatting with lists, headings and colors. These notes are for your eyes only (and school admins) and are never broadcast to parents or students. When applied, a green “M” icon will appear next to the student’s entry where you can reference the Memo at any time.

Class Memos (Progress Reports)

Not to be confused with a private, individual Memo that is attached to a single student, you can also create a Class Memo. This is a summary paragraph about what the class is learning and can be included in the Progress Report.

Add a Class Memo by going to Reports > Class Memo.

TeacherPlus Gradebook Class Memo

Narratives (Progress Reports)

Narratives will show up on Progress Reports and are perfect for detailed feedback to remark on a student's progress and behavior. They can be long-form essays, depending on the character limit your school has set.

To add a narrative, first turn on the Comments & Narratives View. This is an out-of-the-box View that comes with the Gradebook. You can also add Narratives to any new View that you create.

In the Narrative column, click the paper icon to bring up the Narrative creation tools. From here you reference current and past marking period data while you add your notes.

TeacherPlus Gradebook Narrative

Comments (Pick from a List)

Comments go hand-in-hand with the Narratives and are also shown in the Progress Reports. They can be found towards the bottom of the Narrative input screen. These are pre-defined little phrases that are set in the TeacherPlus Management Site by the school. The school can also define categories for the Comments. By default, you might see “Effort” and "Citizenship” as the two category types. From there, you can choose from a list of phrases. Choose one that applies to your student’s progress and behavior like “great work”, “positive attitude”, etc.

TeacherPlus Gradebook Comments

Learn More

Interested in learning more? Check out our Release Notes and Help Guides here: https://support.rediker.com/support/solutions/14000076362

Become a TeacherPlus “Master” by expanding your understanding of the many features and functions that come with the Gradebook. Contact us to be paired with one of our expert Rediker Professional Development Trainers today. Reach out to your Rediker Account Manager or email sales@rediker.com to get started.

Rediker Software Launches New PlusPortals Mobile App for Parents and Students

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 17:32:12 GMT

Hampden, MA – August 28, 2025 – Rediker Software, a leader in school management software, today announced the launch of its brand new PlusPortals Mobile App, now available on the Apple App Store and Google Play. The app provides enhanced communication between schools, parents, and students, replacing the former ParentPlus and StudentPlus apps with a unified, streamlined experience.

The all-new PlusPortals App introduces a simplified, intuitive user interface with colorful and engaging displays. The most exciting new concept is the Feed , which brings together items from multiple sources:

News combines school, class and group announcements.
Calendar combines school, class and group calendar events.
Scores combine information from all the student's classes.
Recent Scores from the last 30 days of assessments.
Missing Work assessments tagged by the teacher as Missing.
Assignments combine all the coursework assignments from the student’s classes.

These new feeds significantly improve how parents and students access vital school and classroom information. Other key features in the new app include the ability for parents to quickly switch between multiple students' profiles and access school announcements, grades, assignments, and other important resources from a single, convenient platform.

"This launch represents an exciting milestone in Rediker Software’s commitment to innovation and usability," said John Lynch, Chief Operations Officer at Rediker Software. "We designed the new PlusPortals App to deliver a significantly improved user experience, enabling schools to enhance engagement with their parent and student communities in a single, modern app. This app is part of a broader redesign of our PlusPortals platform."

Existing ParentPlus and StudentPlus app users will need to download the new PlusPortals Mobile App, as the former apps will be discontinued in October.

With over four decades of experience serving schools around the globe, Rediker Software continues its tradition of delivering powerful, user-friendly software solutions that empower educators, parents and students to succeed.

To learn more about the new PlusPortals Mobile App, please click here .

About Rediker Software

For more than 40 years, Rediker Software has provided schools worldwide with technology solutions that streamline administrative tasks, improve communication, and help schools thrive. Their offerings include the comprehensive student information system AdminPlus, as well as admissions and enrollment solutions, mobile apps, and communication tools serving K-12 public, independent, Catholic, charter, and international schools.

Rediker Software partners with MentisSoft to Introduce FINACS.com

Fri, 08 Aug 2025 08:31:25 GMT

The Online School Accounting Software for K-12 Schools

Hampden, MA - Rediker Software, the leading provider of school management software, today announced the launch of FINACS.com, a robust, easy-to-use accounting software created for K–12 private and independent schools. With online student billing and a full-featured accounting suite, FINACS.com empowers schools to manage tuition, expenses, and financial reporting with ease. It is fully integrated with the AdminPlus student information management platform.

Many private and independent schools still rely on spreadsheets or off-the-shelf accounting software to handle tuition billing and financial management. While these tools may cover the basics, they fall short when it comes to the specific demands of school finance. The result? Data errors, time-consuming reconciliation, and a lack of real-time financial insight. FINACS.com is purpose-built for schools, offering flexible fee structures, a powerful general ledger, built-in budgeting tools, and real-time financial reports that are always audit-ready.

“Schools need more than basic accounting tools. They need a smart, responsive system that truly understands how they work,” said Archana Agnihotri, Director of Product Strategy and Design at MentisSoft. “With FINACS.com, we’ve created a solution that’s not just easier to use—it’s made to help schools move faster, stay accurate, and make better financial decisions every step of the way.”

With rising expectations around financial transparency and accountability, schools are moving away from outdated systems and embracing modern, cloud-based solutions. FINACS.com is emerging as the go-to platform for institutions that need to streamline day-to-day financial tasks while also supporting long-term strategic planning.

With this launch of FINACS.com, Rediker Software continues to deliver the best edtech solutions for school leaders and school business officials—offering schools the tools they need to maintain complete financial oversight.

FINACS.com is now available to K–12 private and independent schools. Explore features, schedule a personalized consultation, and learn more, click here.

About Rediker Software

For more than 40 years, Rediker Software has provided schools worldwide with technology solutions that streamline administrative tasks, improve communication, and help schools thrive. Their offerings include the comprehensive student information system AdminPlus, admissions and enrollment solutions, accounting and business office software, mobile apps, and communication tools serving K-12 independent, Catholic, charter, and international schools.

About MentisSoft

MentisSoft is a leading provider of software solutions that enhance business productivity and agility, with a strong focus on the education sector. Its cloud-based platforms help educational institutions navigate complex financial processes with greater control and confidence. FINACS.com is a school accounting software that streamlines financial management for K-12 private and independent schools. It helps schools stay financially organized, compliant, and prepared for growth.

Improve Your School’s Website with Effective Website Design

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 18:55:43 GMT

Your school’s website is often the first point of contact for prospective students and their families, making it a vital tool for communication and engagement. An outdated or poorly designed website can leave a negative impression, potentially deterring families from choosing your institution.

Upgrading your school’s website is essential, but the process can be complex. From migrating content to selecting the best web design while preserving functionality, a successful transition requires meticulous planning, coordination, and communication to avoid disruptions.

Without a strategic approach, you risk losing critical data or damaging your search engine rankings. In this guide, we’ll explore why an updated website is crucial, outline the transition process, and share actionable insights for a seamless upgrade.

Why Update Your School’s Website Design?

Research shows that 57% of internet users avoid businesses with poorly designed mobile websites, and 38% interact only with sites that have appealing layouts and engaging content. Modernizing your school’s website isn’t just a preference — it’s a necessity. Here’s why:

Outdated Websites Hurt Communication and User Experience

Your school website is a hub for critical information, including homework assignments, event updates, and announcements. An outdated design with broken links and cluttered pages disrupts communication, frustrates users, and tarnishes your school’s reputation.

A modern website ensures streamlined communication, enhances user experience, and reinforces the professionalism of your institution.

SEO and Mobile-First Design Trends Demand Modernization

Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a pivotal role in maintaining your website’s visibility. Outdated designs with poor navigation and unoptimized content can push your school down in search rankings, making it harder for potential students and families to find you.

Additionally, with over 60% of web traffic coming from mobile devices, a mobile-first design is critical. Websites that aren’t mobile-friendly risk losing engagement and online visibility.

Navigation and Layout Impact User Retention

Poor navigation and outdated layouts frustrate visitors, leading to high bounce rates. Families seeking a school with a professional online presence may abandon your site if they can’t find what they need quickly. Even existing parents may stop checking for updates, reducing engagement and potentially affecting student outcomes.

Steps for a Successful Website Transition

Implementing an updated school web design requires strategic steps to ensure a smooth transition.

1. Audit Your Current Website

Begin by auditing your existing website to identify strengths and weaknesses. Gather feedback from users and assess performance areas like SEO rankings, broken links, mobile responsiveness, and page load times.

2. Plan and Set Goals

Use audit results to define clear, measurable goals for the new website. Objectives may include faster load times, improved user engagement, increased online enrollments, or better SEO performance. Develop a timeline, budget, and strategies to minimize disruptions during the transition.

3. Choose the Right Platform

Select a platform that meets your school’s needs, including seamless integration with student information systems (SIS) and learning management systems (LMS). Prioritize scalability, robust security, and ease of use to empower staff to manage content without technical expertise.

4. Content Migration

Migrate only relevant, updated content to the new website. Reorganize and refine information to improve navigation and user experience. Implement SEO best practices, such as 301 redirects, to maintain search rankings and avoid broken links.

5. Test and Perform Quality Assurance

Thoroughly test the new website across devices, operating systems, and browsers to ensure compatibility. Evaluate interactive features like forms and calendars, and conduct quality assurance checks for load times, accessibility, and SEO standards.

Key Considerations During Transition

Address these critical factors for a smooth and successful transition:

Effective Communication

Inform students, parents, and staff about the transition timeline and updates through emails, social media, and your existing website. Clear communication minimizes confusion and fosters cooperation.

ADA Compliance

Ensure the new website is accessible to all users, including those with auditory, visual, or motor disabilities. Features like text-to-speech compatibility, alt text for images, and high-contrast designs enhance inclusivity and prevent legal issues.

Maintain and Improve SEO

Monitor SEO performance throughout the transition. Implement redirects, optimize new content with relevant keywords, and update metadata to safeguard your search rankings.

RediSite by Rediker

Navigating a school website transition can be challenging, but RediSite School Websites by Rediker Software simplify the process with expert solutions tailored to K-12 schools. The foundation of our RediSite School Websites is the Duda CMS. Duda has become the first CMS to achieve an impressive 80% Core Web Vitals (CWV) pass rate . This means most sites built on the Duda platform meet Google’s standards for speed, responsiveness, and visual stability.

RediSite Features

Mobile-First Design: Fully optimized for mobile devices.
SEO Optimization: Advanced tools to manage sitemaps, URLs, and metadata, plus an intuitive dashboard for analytics.
ADA Compliance: Includes automated tools like the AudioEye Accessibility Widget to maintain accessibility standards.
User-Friendly CMS: A simple content management system enables easy updates without technical expertise.
Drag-and-Drop Editor: Effortlessly customize layouts with intuitive drag-and-drop functionality.

RediSite has successfully transformed websites for schools like Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School (MA) and Point of Grace Christian School (FL), improving traffic, engagement, and user experience.

Post-Launch Optimization

Launching your new website is just the beginning. Continuous optimization ensures long-term success.

Monitor Performance

Track metrics like traffic, engagement, and load times with tools like Google Analytics. Address performance issues promptly to maintain user satisfaction.

Update Regularly

Keep content fresh with news, updates, and new pages for events or achievements. Timely software updates enhance security and functionality.

Collect Feedback

Encourage feedback through surveys or forms to identify areas for improvement and ensure your website meets user needs.

Conclusion

Transitioning to a more modern school website can be challenging, but the benefits are undeniable. With proper planning and execution, you can enhance your school’s online presence, boost engagement, and streamline communication.

If you’re ready to upgrade, RediSite by Rediker provides an affordable solution to help your school create an appealing, functional, and user-friendly website. Don’t wait—take the first step toward modernizing your school’s website today!

Rediker Software Appoints Ted Chmura as Director of Sales

Fri, 26 Jul 2024 17:06:35 GMT

July 26, 2024 abiron

Hampden, MA - Rediker Software, a leading provider of student administrative software solutions for K-12 schools, is pleased to announce the appointment of Ted Chmura III as the new Director of Sales. In his new role, Ted will lead the sales team in driving growth and expanding the company's footprint in the ed-tech market.

Ted has many years of experience in Sales, Marketing, and Technology. For over a decade, Ted has served as the Technical Sales Manager for Rediker Software. He has played a key role in showcasing the company's administrative software solutions in informative webinars and presentations to schools around the world. Known for his enthusiasm and in-depth knowledge of Rediker's software capabilities, Ted effectively connects with educators, understanding their specific needs and translating those insights into tailored solutions. His efforts have not only highlighted the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of Rediker's products, but have also underscored their impact on enhancing administrative processes within schools.

"I am thrilled to take on this new challenge as Director of Sales," said Ted Chmura. "Rediker Software has long been at the forefront of delivering innovative, affordable solutions that empower educators and streamline school operations. Our goal is to save schools time and money so they can spend less time with data and more time with students. That’s what’s most important here at Rediker. I look forward to further strengthening our relationships with schools worldwide and driving continued success."

Ted Chmura's appointment reaffirms Rediker Software's mission to deliver cutting-edge technology solutions that meet the evolving needs of educational institutions. His leadership will be instrumental in driving strategies that foster growth and propel the company forward in its next stages of development.

About Rediker Software

For more than 45 years, Rediker Software has been a leader in school administrative software for private, public, international, religious, and independent schools. The company's products include AdminPlus, an online SIS solution, AdmissionsPlus, TeacherPlus Gradebook, PlusPortals, and RediSite school websites.

The Top Benefits of a Student Information System (SIS)

jschreck@rediker.com (John Schreck) — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 15:54:50 GMT

Success in the hectic K-12 school environment of today depends on effective administration and organization. Several administrative, academic, financial, and compliance tasks can be managed on an integrated platform provided by a student information system (SIS). An SIS can greatly improve how well educational institutions run overall by automating these procedures. This blog will examine the many advantages that districts and schools can get from putting in place a student information system.

What is an SIS, or Student Information System?

A software program called a Student Information System (SIS) is intended to handle and document enrollment details, academic standing, and other necessary administrative tasks. As the focal point for all student-related data, it guarantees that the information is correct, safe, and easily available. Among other features, SIS platforms frequently include modules for scheduling, reporting, attendance, school-to-home communication, and grading. Schools may better manage their operations with the help of these systems, which are made to integrate different educational activities.

Benefits for Educational Institutions of Student Information Systems

Every facet of school operations is touched by the multitude of advantages that come with implementing a SIS, from better academic results to financial management. We go into more detail on each advantage below.

Benefits to Administration

Student data management made easy: This is one of an SIS's main benefits. Schools can quickly save, manage, and retrieve student information with an SIS. This lowers the possibility of data loss or errors and does away with the necessity for paper recordkeeping. Every student record—personal information, academic standing, and attendance included—is kept in a single database that is always available to authorized staff.

Effective registration and enrollment procedures: Manual handling of these procedures can be time-consuming and prone to mistakes. With the automation of these procedures made possible by a SIS, data entry is accurate and quick. In addition to saving time, this guarantees an accurate record of all student data right from the start. The system facilitates schools' management of their admissions process by handling huge volumes of data quickly and accurately.

Grade input and attendance tracking are made easy for teachers using a SIS. Grades are computed automatically by the system, which also produces reports. By easing their administrative load, teachers are able to concentrate more on teaching and student engagement.

Reduced complexity in teacher, student, and parent communication: Good school-to-home communication is essential to learning. Integrating your schools’ messaging, email, and notifications are features of an SIS. These resources facilitate prompt and effective contact between parents, teachers, and students. Through the system, teachers can directly notify everyone of changes in student progress, upcoming events, or important announcements.

Benefits for Students

Academic records are centralized and easily accessible with a SIS, as is progress monitoring. Grades, assignments, and attendance records are all viewable from a single interface by teachers and students. Teachers can more successfully track student progress and students can remain on top of their academic obligations when there is openness.

Individualized learning experiences made possible by data analysis: Teachers can pinpoint each student's unique talents and shortcomings by examining their data. Using data, teachers may customize learning opportunities to suit the requirements of every student. Every kid can have their own learning plan created to guarantee they get the help they need to achieve.

Curriculum planning and scheduling are integrated when a SIS is used to help arrange and match the two. Lesson plans, class schedules, and resource allocation are all done by teachers with efficiency. The system guarantees timely and well-organized achievement of instructional objectives, therefore enhancing general academic results.

Support for services related to academic advising and counseling: The SIS provides extensive student data for these education professionals. Among the information are behavioral reports, attendance records, and academic performance. Advisors and counselors can assure students stay on track both academically and personally by giving them access to this information.

Amounts Received

Improved accounting and fee collecting for better financial management An SIS automates accounting, billing, and fee collecting procedures, streamlining financial administration. Because the system makes sure that every financial transaction is accurately documented, there is less chance of mistakes and inconsistencies.

Schools may manage their budgets and project future financial needs by using data-driven insights from the SIS. Comprehensive financial data from the system enables administrators to make well-informed choices about financial planning and resource distribution.

Integration with financial assistance procedures: Financial aid administration can be time- and complexity-intensive. An SIS can streamline application, payout, and compliance requirements. With this integration, students are guaranteed prompt receipt of the financial assistance they require.

Automation and less administrative overhead save costs: Routine administrative task automation saves a great deal of time and money by reducing the requirement for a large administrative staff. These savings can be transferred by schools to other vital areas such as academic offerings and student support services.

Gains from Compliance and Reporting

Ensuring legal adherence to security and privacy regulations: Education places great emphasis on data security and privacy. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is one of the data privacy rules and regulations that an SIS helps schools to comply with. Sensitive student information is safeguarded by security measures in the system that limit access to only authorized staff.

Report creation for the needs of compliance and certification: Many times, accreditation and compliance regulations call for thorough reporting. Accurate and fast generation of these reports by a SIS guarantees that schools adhere to all requirements. This capacity eases the accreditation and compliance procedures, which lessens the administrative load on employees.

Easy access to thorough and comprehensive records facilitate audits and assessments. Schools that can prove they follow rules and guidelines will keep their accreditation status.

Benefits to Student and Parent Engagement

Students' and parents' real-time information access: Students and parents may access grades, attendance, assignments, and other critical data in real time using an SIS. Students who are more accountable and engaged as a result of this openness stay on track academically.

Toolkits for teacher, parent, and student collaboration: The SIS's integrated collaboration features help teachers, parents, and students communicate and work together. Good collaboration and support are made possible by tools like discussion boards, messaging, and document sharing.

Mechanisms for feedback collection for ongoing development: Many SISs have functionality for collecting parent and student feedback. By using this feedback, educational plans, initiatives, and services may be enhanced and the school will be able to satisfy the demands of its community.

Raising general satisfaction and retention rates: An SIS raises parents' and students' general satisfaction by offering a smooth and open system. Greater retention rates and improved educational results follow from this.

In conclusion, with so many advantages in administrative, academic, financial, compliance, and engagement domains, a Student Information System is an essential instrument for contemporary educational institutions. Schools may guarantee effective administration, higher academic results, and greater satisfaction for all parties by putting an SIS into place. Purchasing an SIS is about changing the educational experience for parents, teachers, and students in equal measure as it is about technology.

Empower Your School's Financial Operations with Rediker's New FINACS Student Billing Platform

jschreck@rediker.com (John Schreck) — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 12:00:00 GMT

March 26, 2024, Hampden, MA

Rediker Software, a trusted leader in educational management solutions for over 45 years, is excited to announce the launch of FINACS Student Billing , a web-based financial management platform designed specifically for K-12 private and independent schools. This innovative solution integrates with Rediker's AdminPlus student information system, offering schools a more intuitive, efficient, and comprehensive approach to managing school billing and financial data.

FINACS Student Billing revolutionizes school financial management by providing a range of powerful features, including:

Integrated Online Payments: Accept secure online payments from parents and guardians, streamlining the collection process and improving cash flow.
AdminPlus Field Mapping: Leverage existing data from AdminPlus to eliminate manual data entry and ensure accuracy.
Intuitive Menu Navigation: Access features and functionalities with ease through a user-friendly and modern interface.
At-a-Glance Dashboard: Gain instant insights into key financial metrics with a customizable dashboard.
Single Screen View for Family and Student Info: View all relevant family and student information on a single screen, saving time and effort.
Additional Features: FINACS Student Billing also offers features such as tuition payment plans, the ability to divide tuition between families or sponsors, batch invoice creation, dual currency support, and robust chart of accounts management.

"With the introduction of FINACS Student Billing, we are setting a new standard for financial management in the education sector,” says Robbin Vipond-Lauzon, President, at Rediker Software. “This platform embodies our commitment to innovation and our dedication to supporting the administrative needs of private and independent K-12 schools. We're proud to offer a solution that not only simplifies financial processes but also enhances operational efficiency across the board."

For more information about FINACS Student Billing and to request a demo, visit https://www.rediker.com/solutions/integrations-and-partnerships/student-billing .

About Rediker Software

Rediker Software has been a leader in school management software for K-12 schools for over 45 years. With a focus on innovation and customer service, Rediker Software provides schools with comprehensive solutions for student information systems, gradebook, admissions, scheduling, billing, and more, helping educators and administrators achieve operational excellence and foster educational success.

Rediker Software Sets New Standard in Admissions and Enrollment Management Solutions for K-12 Schools with Latest AdmissionsPlus Update

jschreck@rediker.com (John Schreck) — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 19:48:40 GMT

February 28, 2024, Hampden, MA

Rediker Software, a leading provider of school management solutions, announces the release of a major update to its flagship admissions management software, AdmissionsPlus. Building on its success as a comprehensive admissions and enrollment management software for K-12 schools, this latest version delivers a streamlined workflow, an intuitive and modern interface, and a host of powerful new features designed to simplify and enhance the enrollment process for schools and families alike.

“We’re thrilled to unveil this significant upgrade to AdmissionsPlus,” said Robbin Vipond-Lauzon, President at Rediker Software. “We listened to our valued customers and focused on creating an even more user-friendly and efficient experience for managing admissions, from the initial inquiry to enrollment. The result is a software solution that empowers schools to attract, engage, and welcome new students with ease.”

Key Features of the new AdmissionsPlus include:

Enhanced User Interface: A modern, intuitive design for an improved user experience. Streamlined workflows and a clear information hierarchy ensure everyone stays informed and on the same page.
Features for All Types of K-12 Schools: AdmissionsPlus is designed for all types of PK-12 schools, including charter, independent, international, and public schools.
Improved Workflow: Streamlined operations for quicker and more efficient admissions management, saving valuable time and eliminating errors.
Mobile Device Support: Responsive design for easy access on various devices.
Customization Options: Tailored features to suit the unique requirements of different schools and grades.
Powerful Reporting and Analytics: Gain deeper insights into your admissions data with comprehensive reports and analytics. Track applicant demographics, recruitment efforts, and enrollment trends to make informed decisions and optimize your strategy.
Seamless Integrations: AdmissionsPlus seamlessly integrates with Rediker’s AdminPlus SIS, and also works with any SIS.

Rediker Software is committed to providing K-12 schools with innovative solutions that simplify operations and enhance student success. The latest version of AdmissionsPlus is a testament to that commitment, offering schools a streamlined and user-friendly way to manage enrollment and build a strong foundation for their students’ future.

For more information about AdmissionsPlus and the new features, and to take a guided tour, please visit Rediker's Admissions and Enrollment page .

About Rediker Software

For more than 45 years, Rediker Software has been a leader in school administrative software for private, public, international, religious and independent schools. The company's products include AdminPlus, a cloud-based SIS solution, TeacherPlus Gradebook, ParentPlus and StudentPlus Web Portals, AdmissionsPlus, and Teacher Evaluator.

People and Technology: A Culture of Connection

Thu, 18 May 2023 19:25:00 GMT

Replacing a student information system can be a challenging process for any school system, requiring the establishment of employee ownership, a seamless data transition, and the maximization of training opportunities. This is not a cavalier decision, and it is essential to partner with a vendor, such as Rediker who understands the needs of schools.

The First Challenge

For more than 10 years, the 15 elementary schools within the Diocese of Paterson utilized a single student information system to manage attendance, report cards, and other administrative tasks. While it initially fulfilled their requirements, the system gradually became obsolete. The system failed to cater to the diverse family structures by lacking suitable parent contact information storage. Additionally, there was no secure centralized location to store student and staff documents, and the teacher software was inadequate to meet their needs.

Furthermore, the old database lacked flexibility in customization, resulting in challenges when generating reports and a lack of options for parents to update their native language and demographic information. Inadequate support and technical assistance from the SIS vendor further compounded difficulties in obtaining answers regarding the software.

The Solution

In 2016, the Catholic Schools Office of the Diocese of Paterson formed a search committee to evaluate several systems that could deliver better performance, up-to-date features, and an overall improved user experience. Additionally, they sought a company that could provide comprehensive user support, ensuring assistance was available when and how users needed it.

After researching numerous vendors, the diocese selected Rediker Software as it provided the best solution to better serve the school communities. With an intuitive interface, the new SIS was designed to be more user-friendly and gave teachers and administrators the tools to manage student data and communicate with parents effectively.

Nevertheless, implementing the software posed several challenges. While many faculty and staff members were enthusiastic about the transition, some remained hesitant to embrace an unfamiliar technology. The primary concern was the difficulty in learning the new system, coupled with the fear of encountering issues while attempting to execute a task without the requisite knowledge or recall of how to complete it.

So, rather than implement the new system in all the elementary schools at once, the committee chose four schools to pilot the program. "We thought it best to win the people over who wanted the change first," explained Mary Wrenn, Director of Educational Technology. "It was important that these four schools were receptive to pilot the SIS. They showed their colleagues the change was necessary and beneficial."

Wrenn, who at the time was working as a teacher and tech coordinator at one of the four pilot schools, transitioned to her new position in 2017 where part of her job was to get the remainder of the schools on board. This included scheduling and attending the training sessions for each school's teachers and AdminPlus users. With encouragement, guidance, and support from both Wrenn and Rediker, users were able to overcome anxiety and roadblocks.

The Second Challenge

By 2018, all the remaining elementary schools had adopted AdminPlus, and implementation and training commenced. However, in 2020, the outbreak of COVID-19 compelled the schools to close, necessitating a shift to remote or hybrid learning for students. Fortunately, the schools had the necessary resources and tools to manage this situation.

"Because of Covid restrictions, the Parent Portal and email capabilities in AdminPlus were progressive steps in report card distribution," noted Wrenn. "It required the schools to encourage parents to be more accountable for checking in online through the portal."

The departure of experienced teachers resulted in the hiring of teachers unfamiliar with TeacherPlus Gradebook, which can prolong the implementation process. This created the additional obligation of having to train new teachers by the first day of school so they could hit the ground running. Training new teachers and integrating them with the rest of the staff was paramount.

The Results

Since the Catholic Schools Office of the Diocese of Paterson implemented AdminPlus, the robust system has met all of their core needs. It has proven to be a powerful solution that's user-friendly, allows easy access to all student data, and provides essential information for parents and students to open up lines of communication.

"When it comes to AdminPlus, the home screen is intuitive, giving users the ability to sort and pull up what they want and send it to an Excel file to work with that data," noted Wrenn. The database is more easily customized and has the ability to email report cards or any other documents or attachments without leaving the program.

The software is built so that users can set up and save the views they need. For example, when it comes to creating rosters for testing, or finding information on student demographics, Wrenn is able to easily and quickly gather the data to run reports.

The feedback on the gradebook has been overwhelmingly positive, primarily due to its interface, which resembles a traditional gradebook. It boasts of user-friendly features that simplify the grading process. Additionally, the Parent Portal has been a powerful tool, with some schools using the Portfolio feature since inception. Administrators upload report cards in the Portfolio and encourage parents to access them. This functionality has proved to be a convenient way for parents to keep track of their child's progress.

Being proactive throughout the implementation and training process has also driven success and helped form a strong partnership between Rediker and the Diocese. "The training and support are just fantastic," Wrenn said. "Engaging (the new users) with Rediker's support was a huge help to bringing everyone else on board. Everyone is increasing their use of the software day by day," she said.

With the help of a dedicated Success Manager at Rediker and an implementation team helping drive success, the outcome has been a positive one for all. Success Manager Sharon Swaby noted, "It's been a great partnership with the Diocese. We've been able to get through some tough hurdles (but with our support) it has really cemented our partnership."

"Creating a partnership with Rediker, onboarding stakeholders to the process, and giving the schools the time needed empowered them to embrace the change of a new system, overcome their challenges and take full ownership of their student information," said Mary Baier, Superintendent of Schools.

Today, progress is increasing with the use of new products such as the billing and admissions software."Rediker's quality products combined with the outstanding tech support, not just at the time of implementation, but years later especially when added to the various avenues of training available, has been an equation for success," said Wrenn.

Rediker Software Partners with DonorPerfect to Support PK-12 School Fundraising

Fri, 20 Jan 2023 09:30:00 GMT

Jan 20, 2023 abiron

Rediker Software, a leader in school administrative software, announces its new partnership with DonorPerfect, a powerful fundraising growth platform that enables PK-12 schools to raise money, grow their community of supporters, and engage donors more easily. DonorPerfect helps school staff implement smart fundraising solutions and data-driven best practices.

“Rediker Software is always looking for best-of-breed partnerships to deliver the best solutions for independent school educators,” said John Schreck, Director of Marketing at Rediker Software. “Alumni and donors love to stay connected with their favorite alma mater. The integration between AdminPlus and DonorPerfect makes it easier for educators and school fundraising professionals to cultivate student, parent, and alumni relationships. DonorPerfect is an ideal solution to nurture relationships with donors and improve a school’s fundraising efforts.”

AdminPlus, Rediker Software’s student information system for independent and catholic schools, now integrates with DonorPerfect, which offers tools and features to help schools gain and retain donors while simplifying daily fundraising work. The DonorPerfect Online (DPO) Application Programming Interface (API) makes it possible to populate donor information from contacts in AdminPlus, saving educators time and eliminating double data entry. School fundraising administrators can build effective acquisition lists, personalize and/or automate communication with donors, manage fundraising events, and process donations online through DonorPerfect, while only needing to source and maintain contacts from one database.

About DonorPerfect

DonorPerfect Fundraising offers tools, features, and best practices that empower schools to gain and retain donors, simplify their daily work, and grow the community. From intelligent dashboards that turn data into insights to comprehensive donor profiles primed for segmentation, DonorPerfect helps schools effectively adopt today’s most powerful fundraising strategies with ease.

About Rediker Software

For more than 40 years, Rediker Software has been a leader in school administrative software for private, public, international, religious and independent schools. The company's products include AdminPlus, a cloud-based SIS solution, TeacherPlus Gradebook, ParentPlus and StudentPlus Web Portals, AdmissionsPlus, and Teacher Evaluator.

Rediker Launches New Mobile App for AdminPlus Student Information System

Tue, 06 Dec 2022 20:20:00 GMT

Dec 6, 2022 abiron

Rediker Software, a leader in school administrative software for over 40 years, has released a new mobile app for AdminPlus, its cloud-based student information system for K-12 schools. The app gives school administrators quick access to student and staff data, attendance, grades, schedules, and more on the go with their Android or iOS devices.

The new mobile app provides a completely new interface and dashboard to improve how quickly school staff can access the information they need. “The dashboard is a big improvement,” says Sue Van Wyck, Product Owner at Rediker Software with over 18 years of experience working for a public school district. “It shows the day’s attendance totals, infraction totals, and enrollment numbers. Enrollment can be grouped by two different variables of their choosing. I can't tell you how many times administrators asked me for our current counts, such as the number of special ed students by grade level, or the number of students in a homeroom. Now they can quickly get those counts and click on the subtotals to see the list of students.”

School staff can quickly report incidents and discipline infractions while on the scene with the mobile app, while also being able to view previous occurrences and details.

AdminPlus notification features are also now included in the AdminPlus mobile app. When there’s an emergency, cancellation, or important update, administrators can quickly notify contacts within the school community via email, text and voice message.

“We are always innovating to create a better experience for K-12 educators and school leaders,” says John Schreck, Rediker’s Director of Marketing for over 15 years. “Our new mobile app makes it easier for school staff to get important student data when they need it. Whether checking a student’s schedule, attendance, grades and GPA, or detailing an infraction, this new app makes it easy and will save time. Another great improvement is having all the AP Notify features for mass notifications and messaging included in the same app. Previously, this was a separate app, but is now part of the same, powerful AdminPlus app for student and staff data.”

The new app uses the same cloud-based database used by Rediker’s PlusPortals and TeacherPlus GradeBook, creating a fast and easy user experience with no additional syncing needed. For school districts and dioceses, administrators can easily switch between schools within the app. Two-factor authentication keeps the app secure.

About Rediker Software

PlusPortals Introduces Online Meetings in Groups, Quiz and Coursework Submission Reports, and More in Major Update Release

Wed, 17 Aug 2022 12:30:00 GMT

Aug 17, 2022 abiron

Rediker Software, a leader in school administrative software, has released a major update for PlusPortals, a family of web portals designed to streamline K-12 school communication and keep parents and students connected with the classroom. Since early 2020, the ability for schools to effectively engage and interact with parents and students online became a necessity, and schools had to evolve quickly. PlusPortals helped to meet this challenge, supporting online learning and remote classroom workflows. To enhance popular online engagement features, the latest PlusPortals update includes over 15 new improvements to the product, including online meetings in groups, coursework, and quiz submission reporting, and new filtering tools for calendar events.

Improved Personalized Calendar

PlusPortals features customized, combined calendars that can include homework, tests, field trips, sports, and other events. School calendar events can now be targeted to individual grade levels. The calendar filtering controls have also been upgraded so multiple categories can be selected. These improvements will populate parent and student calendars with more relevant information and allow the user to view the categories of interest to them.

Online Meetings in Groups

In PlusPortals, the groups feature connects teachers and staff with students and parents for extracurricular or academic groups. “I remember when I was a Database Coordinator for a public school district,” says Sue Van Wyck, Business Analyst at Rediker Software with over 18 years of experience working in a public school district. “I was very excited when groups became dynamic based on a demographic field. This enabled me to make separate groups for School Counselors, Special Ed Case Managers, and even for the Athletic Director. Each group can have completely different access based on their needs.”

Group administrators can now add online meetings for the groups they are assigned to. They can either add a Microsoft Teams meeting or a custom link, allowing them to use any online meeting platform. “We introduced online meetings for the classroom teacher in 2020,” says Van Wyck. "This has since been a very popular feature for our schools, so we wanted to expand this functionality to groups.”

Coursework Submission Reporting Tool

Parents and students stay up to date with the portals’ class pages that can include homework, quizzes, announcements, links, and other documents. “In my day, students passed in their assignments directly to the teacher,” says Van Wyck. “Now assignments are turned in electronically from Google Drive, quizzes can be created online by the teacher on PlusPortals, and classrooms can participate in online discussion sessions.”

The new submission reporting tool allows teachers to quickly determine which students have or have not turned in an assignment, submitted a quiz, or participated in a discussion. Teachers also have access to open an unsubmitted quiz for a student and submit it as is.

Schools Can Measure Engagement

Through PlusPortals, email can be sent to any group of recipients, filtered by user type, groups, grade level, students, and parents. School administrators can now access and analyze email statistics for specific emails.

“As a school PlusPortals administrator, I was able to see overall email statistics and check for bounce backs and open rates,” says Van Wyck. “Occasionally, I was asked for statistics on a particular message because the administrators wanted to know if it was well-received. This new feature allows the portal administrator to access a specific email and see the response statistics by date.”

Administrators can also choose to track and confirm that parents or students have opened important documents, such as report cards, that have been added to a student’s E-Portfolio.

About Rediker Software

For more than 40 years, Rediker Software has been a leader in school administrative software for private, public, international, religious, and independent schools. The company's products include AdminPlus, a cloud-based SIS solution, TeacherPlus Gradebook, ParentPlus and StudentPlus Web Portals, AdmissionsPlus, and Teacher Evaluator.

Robbin Vipond-Lauzon Appointed as President of Rediker Software

Mon, 16 May 2022 12:37:35 GMT

May 16, 2022 sbryce

Rediker Software, a leading provider of K-12 student information systems, is pleased to announce the appointment of Robbin Vipond-Lauzon as President of the company. In this position, she will be responsible for the day-to-day company operations, including product development, sales, and customer support.

For the past three years as Rediker's Chief Financial Officer, Vipond-Lauzon managed the company's finances, tracking cash flow and financial planning. She was also responsible for analyzing the company's financial strengths and weaknesses and proposing corrective actions.

With her proven track record of driving growth and innovation in the education technology industry, in her new role Vipond-Lauzon will lead the company to even greater success and positively impact the lives of students, parents, and educators nationwide.

"As the new company president, I am excited to take on this role," stated Vipond-Lauzon. "I am committed to leading Rediker Software with integrity and a continuous focus on our customers. Together with our talented team, we will continue to innovate, grow, and provide our schools with the best educational technologies in the industry."

Before joining Rediker Software, Vipond-Lauzon was the Vice President of Finance at Healthy Living Market and Café. A Granby, MA resident, Vipond-Lauzon holds a bachelor’s degree in Business & Accounting from Framingham State University and an MBA from Georgia State University. Vipond-Lauzon is also an actively licensed CPA with the state of Massachusetts.

"We are thrilled to announce that Robbin will be joining our team as the new President of our company, said Marketing Director John Schreck. "She has a strong focus on connecting with customers and understanding their needs. This will be key in driving future development and ensuring our products meet the ever-changing needs of K-12 schools."

About Rediker Software

Rediker Software Recognized as a Leading Education Technology Provider for K-12 Christian Schools

Wed, 15 Dec 2021 05:05:05 GMT

Dec 15, 2021 sbryce

Christian School Products (CSP) recently cited Rediker Software along with 32 other companies for having one of the top products for K-12 Christian Schools. Rediker Software serves PK-12 Christian and faith-based schools by providing cloud-based school management and secure, mobile-ready solutions to support online learning and school-to-home communication. The AdminPlus SIS handles demographics, attendance, report cards with standards and skills, master schedule building, discipline, mass notifications, and more, all in one affordable, easy-to-use system. Web gradebooks and web portals for teachers, parent and students help to support all learning modalities. AdmissionsPlus supports online admissions and virtual enrollment with online applications, online payments and more.

Christian School Products provides the latest information and resources about products, furnishings, building supplies, technology, media, and more for today’s Christian school. This bi-monthly publication introduces school leaders to new products that are helping schools. “Our sole mission is to help (our readers) make purchasing decisions, so we’re all about products, all the time,” the magazine notes. “In every issue, every single product or service we cover in the magazine is there because we think it's something that you will find useful, so we're excited about each and every one in all of our issues.”

“For over 40 years, Rediker Software has worked with Christian and faith-based schools - both in the U.S. and around the world - to meet their technology needs and drive student success,” said John Schreck, Director of Marketing at Rediker. “We are honored to be recognized by Christian School Products, and we share their commitment to serve and support Christian educators, parents and students.”

About Christian School Products

Targeting private schools in the fastest-growing areas of the country, Christian School Products is the only magazine specifically designed for the religious school market. Through in-depth articles and comprehensive product showcases, Christian School Products provides guidance, expertise, collaboration, and timely information to Christian school leaders.

Case Study: How People and Technology Drove Admissions Growth

Fri, 19 Nov 2021 05:06:06 GMT

The Challenge

Between the fall of 2019 and the fall of 2020, Catholic schools in the U.S. lost more than 111,000 students. It was the largest decline in nearly 50 years. From the 1960s, overall enrollment has plummeted from more than 5 million to about 1.7 million now. The long-term enrollment decline has resulted from demographic changes, parents’ difficulty affording tuition and competition from public and other private schools. Factors related to the pandemic have only aggravated those problems.

In Connecticut, enrollment declines have led to numerous school closures and consolidations, with the majority of closures affecting elementary grades. For the Catholic Academy of Bridgeport (CAB), which is made up of four elementary schools on four campuses and comprised of 900 students, they were seeing similar consistent declines in enrollment.

By 2019, enrollment numbers had dropped significantly, and despite efforts from the administration, the school could not reverse the trend. Before a closure was considered, the school began digging in to find out why they were losing students.

It took looking at the four campuses and seeing how they functioned to begin correcting the downward trend. It also took hiring an executive director to oversee the four campuses. Hired as Executive Director in July 2019, Angela Pohlen discovered that the four campuses were acting independently from one another so the left hand, so to speak, never knew what the right hand was doing. So, when a parent inquired about enrolling their child at one campus and found there was no space, the inquiry was never passed on to the other campuses.

With her wealth of instructional and systematic know-how, Pohlen worked to bring the four campuses together as a cohesive unit. Each campus would no longer act as an island but rather one school where each office knew what the other was doing. But to look at new ways to increase enrollment also took looking outside the box. Pohlen realized that they needed help from an outside source in order to improve their business practices and to facilitate growth.

“We had been exploring hiring an enrollment consultant as part of our strategic plan for over a year,” said Pohlen. (We were looking for) “help with data and trend analysis as well as to help us utilize our resources better, and to work better together as an Academy,” she said.

The Solution

In the fall of 2019, CAB hired a consultant specializing in implementing growth strategies for private faith-based schools. Marie Keith, founder and president of Re-Consulting LLC, came to the school with eight years’ experience helping Catholic schools remain open – and even flourish. After a thorough analysis of the school’s current enrollment strategy and an assessment of how current inquiries were being handled, she collaborated with the central staff and school leaders to develop and implement an enrollment management plan.

What she discovered was that the schools did not have the parents’ best interests in mind. Rather than offering convenient times for parents to apply, they limited them to school hours and piles of paperwork. She also saw that they were just keeping the campuses open, not increasing enrollment. But before spending more money on marketing and advertising, they needed to fix the internal operations first, she said. That meant utilizing technology.

“Parents aren’t nine-to-fivers anymore,” Keith pointed out. “If a parent is sitting at home at 9 p.m. thinking about their child’s education, they need instant gratification. That means being able to fill out a form and have it sent to the school immediately. Then it becomes the school’s job to follow up with that family. For schools, it’s no longer a ‘Field of Dreams’, meaning ‘if you build it they will come’. It’s their job to chase them down, find out what their child’s needs are and show them how their school can meet their needs,” she said.

Knowing that the school used Rediker Software’s Administrator’s Plus school management software, and after a thorough evaluation of the tool, Keith encouraged the Catholic Academy to implement AdmissionsPlus. Because of its integration with Administrator’s Plus, the school could help streamline the admissions and enrollment process with an online experience that was easy to use and offered families the convenience to apply from any device at any time, to schedule school visits, upload documents, submit forms, and more.

AdmissionsPlus shows exactly where each applicant is in the process. I love that it all ports right over to the SIS to maintain them as a student. Marie Keith President RE- CONSULTING, LLC.

“AdmissionsPlus shows exactly where each applicant is in the process. I love that it all ports right over to the SIS to maintain them as a student,” Keith said. “I also love that it’s easy to use and all the admins took to it so easily. With support and accountability, the admins are held responsible for putting in great notes so that anyone who views an applicant’s file can see exactly what contact has taken place and where they are in the process.”

Keith also saw the importance of identifying the most qualified staff member at the school to own enrollment. Angela Mantero had been working as an admin at St. Ann’s, one of the four school campuses, when she was tapped by Keith for the position of Enrollment Coordinator at the Catholic Academy. The CAB needed a leader, a driver, someone who saw the ‘big picture’ and how enrollment connected to everything that happens in a school (budget, hires, ordering of materials, space, etc.). Mantero had all that, plus she had the drive to succeed.

When Mantero was at St. Ann’s, each campus office worked independently. But once Pohlen pulled the campuses together and Keith introduced AdmissionsPlus to the staff, everyone began to work as a team. There was some pushback initially using the software, said Mantero, but once everyone saw what the software could do, they no longer felt that what they had been doing was most efficient. Now as the administrator of AdmissionsPlus, she can view the four campuses globally and work as the clearinghouse where she can see how many prospects there are at each school and can send students where there are openings.

“I like how AdmissionsPlus streamlines the process between the four campuses, allows me to view all four campuses at once to monitor the process, and unites each campus in a common process,” Mantero said. “I like how easy it is to modify an application, add forms, and customize it as we go. Being able to access it remotely, especially working virtually, is also important, and having information at our fingertips,” she said.

Keith not only suggested implementing AdmissionsPlus, she helped get the software customized to meet the needs of each campus and assisted in having each campus admin trained equally. She worked directly with Rediker to customize the software for the CAB, had a great understanding of its capabilities from the beginning, and arranged all the training sessions for them according to their availability. And, as they learned more through the training sessions, Keith would point out what the software could do, suggest how they should/could use it to their best advantage, and encourage them to expand their thinking and ways of doing things to maximize the software’s capabilities.

The Results

As the Catholic Academy entered the new school year in 2021, school enrollment had grown by nearly 20% over the year before. With an online admissions software to track and communicate with each applicant step by step through the entire admissions process, the school now offers prospective students and families a convenient experience for applying to any one of their campuses.

It enables them to apply at any time, not just when the school is open, and in several languages. The software benefits families by making the process simple and clear. Collecting all the necessary data from the beginning, in one place, allows the campus and the family to then focus on the experience of the school, having completed the “red tape” up front.

“It makes the process more professional and appear more competitive, creating a deeper desire in the family to attend the academy,” said Mantero. “There is a distinct process to applying to the CAB, it is not an automatic acceptance, and I believe this increased our value in their eyes.”

The CAB has been so impressed with the results of both AdmissionsPlus and with Keith, they have signed her on for another year to continue into the next phase of the admissions process. As they move forward they will focus on growth, data and metrics, marketing, and building relationships with the other ethnic communities where they see students coming from.

“I’d like to continue to grow the school another 10% to ideally reach their capacity of 1,000 for 22-23,” said Keith. “The CAB team and I are currently working with Rediker to institute continuous enrollment in lieu of chasing down families to re-enroll each year. Through this simple on-line process, we will be able to start enrolling new students much sooner and plan for expansion as needed,” she said.

They will also start analyzing the data in Rediker to determine things like demographics, how their leads heard about the CAB, what schools/daycares they are coming from, what their ratio of Catholic to non-Catholic is, and more. And now that the internal staff is trained on handling leads efficiently, they are ready to focus on bringing more leads in to the schools.

We believe that some of the internal processes we have put into place, along with using Rediker much more and across the four campuses to centralize our information, has contributed to our enrollment successes. Angela Pohlen Executive Director

“We will do this by getting out into the community. Using the data we have, we can build relationships for referrals, churches that we will want to advertise, and so on, said Keith. “We will also build relationships within various ethnic communities where we see students coming.”

Pohlen is looking forward to having the CAB learn more aspects of the AdmissionsPlus software. “We want to be able to track touch points, make notes on where people hear about us, why they leave, and so on,” said Pohlen. “We believe that some of the internal processes we have put into place, along with using Rediker much more and across the four campuses to centralize our information, has contributed to our enrollment successes,” she said.

And Mantero says she now has the confidence to add forms to the application process, and as they realize certain paper forms they require (Home Language Survey, Records Release Forms, Health/Medical Records), that normally would have accompanied a paper application/registration, they can add them to the online application process from the beginning, making the admin’s job easier.

Rediker Software’s AdmissionsPlus now unites the four campuses to one Academy, as they want it to be. And each campus feels they are a part of the bigger Academy instead of an island unto themselves. Prospects get the same experience regardless of which campus they are applying to and they feel that Academy unity instead of different schools.

Rediker Software Achieves OneRoster® 1.1 IMS Global Certification for TeacherPlus Gradebook

Thu, 14 Oct 2021 05:09:14 GMT

Rediker Software, a leader in school administrative software, is proud to announce that it has achieved OneRoster® 1.1 certification from IMS Global Learning Consortium for its TeacherPlus Gradebook.

Certification is achieved through conformance testing and authorization processes developed for specific versions and/or profiles of the IMS Global specifications. (See our TeacherPlus Gradebook listing on the IMS Global website: TeacherPlus Gradebook | IMS Global ).

OneRoster is the standard specification for securely sharing class roster information, course materials and grades between systems. OneRoster supports the commonly used .csv mode for exchange and the latest real-time web services mode known as REST. Adopting the OneRoster standard allows schools to stop the error-prone burden of manually creating unique class roster data extracts and duplicate data entry of grades.

Teachers and administrators can save substantial amounts of time and avoid countless issues using OneRoster. With accurate rosters, TeacherPlus Gradebook users prevent missing student accounts and incorrect class groups, which are major stumbling blocks to using online resources in the classroom. Rediker’s certification efforts demonstrate a commitment to the continued development and adoption of learning technologies throughout K–12 schools.

“One of the biggest challenges in school software is the difficulty of connecting the multitude of systems now being used,” explains John Lynch, VP of Development and Support. “Our OneRoster certification is a big step forward that specifically enables us to offer improved flexibility and interoperability to our schools through an established and recognized integration. This will allow our schools to share information more easily between systems that will help them with things like data analytics and much more,” he said.

About Rediker Software

For 40 years, Rediker Software has been a leader in school administrative software for private, public, international, religious, and independent schools. The company’s products include AdminPlus, a cloud-based SIS solution, TeacherPlus Gradebook, ParentPlus and StudentPlus Web Portals, AdmissionsPlus, and Teacher Evaluator.

Rediker Software’s New AP Notify Mobile App - Keeping the Learning Community Connected and Engaged

Wed, 14 Apr 2021 05:12:40 GMT

April 14, 2021

Rediker Software is now offering a new and improved AP Notify user experience for AdminPlus schools, districts and dioceses. With the new AP Notify mobile app, users can send text, voice, and email notifications to students, parents, and staff. And school personnel can send notifications to the entire district/diocese as well as individual schools.

In one simple app, users can get emergency alerts, school, district and diocese announcements and events, class news, assignment due dates, sports and extracurricular schedules, PTA announcements and more delivered straight to their iOS or Android device.

Parents can also review school-level notifications, district and diocese-level notifications, and classroom notifications from teachers, as well as other kinds of important student data. With the new app, it’s now easier than ever for parents to stay connected to school and classroom updates such as emergency alerts and school cancellations and delays.

Scheduling text, voice and email notifications to launch at a specific time takes the worry out of managing messages to constituents. And, when a message is sent, it can be tracked to determine if it was received by each recipient. Any combination of students, staff or contacts can be selected using AdminPlus’ selection criteria for adding recipients.

“Rediker Software partners with many school districts and Catholic dioceses around the country. It is more important than ever that district and diocesan staff have an easy, effective way to quickly communicate with their entire school community,” said Marketing Director John Schreck.

“We have been providing mass messaging and emergency notifications for many years, but this new AP Notify App creates an even better experience for the leaders of multi-school environments, and continues to deliver the fast, mobile-ready access that parents and students demand, ” he said.

About Rediker Software

For 40 years, Rediker Software has been a leader in school administrative software for private, public, international, religious and independent schools. The company’s products include AdminPlus, a cloud-based SIS solution, TeacherPlus Gradebook, ParentPlus and StudentPlus Web Portals, RediSite Responsive Websites, AdmissionsPlus, and Teacher Evaluator.

Streamline the Charter School Online Enrollment Process: Managing Lotteries & Waitlists With AdmissionsPlus

Mon, 05 Apr 2021 18:28:27 GMT

A school’s enrollment and admissions process can be both time-consuming and frustrating at best. With the recent shift to even more virtual and online processes, finding a solution to enroll children in school successfully needs to be flexible, secure, and mobile-ready.

With ever-increasing demand, charter schools also face their own unique admissions and enrollment challenges. Last year, there were more than 7,400 public charter schools providing individualized education and learning opportunities to more than 3 million students throughout the U.S. And millions more would attend a charter school if they had the option.

With so many students seeking charter school enrollment, charter schools have employed a lottery system whereby students are selected via a random drawing process. And where seats are limited, students not selected initially are put on a waiting list. To fairly provide everyone with the opportunity for enrollment, both a randomized and blind lottery is essential.

To best handle enrollment, charter schools can benefit from investing in an online enrollment management system to streamline the process. Rediker Software’s newest online admissions management system, AdmissionsPlus, is equipped with the tools to efficiently run a charter school’s online enrollment and lottery and waitlist operations. Completely customizable for each grade and program, AdmissionsPlus’ fully responsive online forms allow registrars to track and communicate with applicants through the entire process. Once a student’s enrollment information is submitted, the data is easily sent to the school’s student information system for tracking, communication, analysis, and decision-making.

Charter schools can also securely adjust waitlist rankings for a prospective student, batch generate and assign unique lottery numbers to selected applicants, and launch custom email notifications informing families of their child’s newly assigned waitlist or lottery number. And when a prospective family withdraws their application, the waitlist rearranges instantly and other families are informed of their new waitlist status via email.

With Rediker’s new AdmissionsPlus, parents, students and school admissions offices can also benefit from the following convenient features:

Adjust waitlist ranking for a prospective student based on currently attending sibling(s) and randomly generated lottery number. This sort order gives a waitlist order.
Customizable lottery allows schools to sort on up to six fields of their choice in the order of their preference.
As prospects accept offered seats, the total number of open seats is adjusted appropriately to help track enrollment.
Virtually conduct and manage easy lottery and wait list operations by applicant or by grade level. Calculate the number of open seats depending on the active student count from AdminPlus.

“Charter schools in the U.S. continue to face growing demand in their communities, with tens of thousands of students on charter waitlists in the state of Massachusetts, as just one example,” said Marketing Director John Schreck. “At the same time, families expect a seamless, mobile-friendly experience as they research and apply to charter schools. Here at Rediker, we have worked closely with hundreds of charter schools and charter school companies across the country to provide the best technology to serve their students and families,” he said.

Rediker Software Announces Improved Integrated Payment Processing Services for K – 12 Schools

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 15:06:20 GMT

Mar 17, 2021 sbryce

Rediker Software is proud to announce an improved integrated payment processing service that delivers faster payment processing to save schools money and drive better value. With lower and more competitive rates, and no processing or transaction fees, Rediker Software’s Payment Services offers consolidated reporting across multiple products, including AdminPlus Online Forms, AdmissionsPlus and RediSite school websites.

Rediker’s payment processing service is now highly competitive with other payment solutions as we’ve cut our credit card and e-check rates up to 45%. And any monthly or per transaction fees previously incurred from payment providers have been eliminated, allowing schools to pass these fees to parents in AdminPlus Online Forms and AdmissionsPlus.

With improved consolidated reporting, Rediker provides a detailed, consolidated report with each deposit to the school’s account across multiple products. A breakdown of transactions processed, funds deposited and fees assessed are provided to improve the payment reconciliation process.

The improved payment processing service is integrated with Rediker’s premier products. With Payment Services:

AdminPlus Online Forms: Parents can submit permission slips, make payments and review payment status in AdminPlus Online Forms. Payments can be viewed any time under a student’s portfolio after a permission slip has been completed.
AdmissionsPlus: A secure payment of application fees can be made during the application process in AdmissionsPlus. Parents can verify their payment was completed on the main page of their account.
RediSite E-Commerce: Parents can purchase school supplies from the online school store directly in RediSite. Schools receive funds quickly and save money.

“Rediker’s payment processing provides streamlined reporting, simple rates, and a variety of payment frequencies to meet the needs of our customers,” said Product Owner Gina Mawyer. “With this secure and integrated platform, we help schools increase efficiency and provide cost savings.”

Rediker Payment Services are available for U.S. schools. To learn more about our integrated payment processing service, contact Sales@rediker.com.

About Rediker Software

Six Steps to a Successful Schedule: Put your School Priorities into Action and Create an Effective Master Schedule

Tue, 26 Jan 2021 21:20:12 GMT

"Our schedule is exceptionally complex, and AdminPlus has delivered results for our students that have surpassed our expectations. With the help of your product, 97% of our students have been scheduled successfully for the upcoming semester - a number that we could have only dreamed about a few years ago."

Thomas Barhorst, Principal

Ursuline Academy, Cincinnati, OH

Building a master schedule is an enormous undertaking many Catholic schools and Dioceses face each year. Between the requirements students need at each grade level, teacher and room availability, course requests, and more, planning out a high school schedule that works for everyone can consume more hours (or weeks!) than any other school process.

Whatever type of master schedule your school adopts, it will only be successful with thorough planning, organization and evaluation of the scheduling model, as well as proper teacher/administrator training. Only when a school reflects on its priorities and considers all its options, can they begin to create a master schedule.

If you are passionate about your schedule but every year find this task to be a time-consuming headache, it is time to find the tools to help you meet your goals. By following these six simple steps, you can create the best master schedule ever.

1. Know your Terminology.

If you haven't built a schedule in the past, getting a solid understanding of the difference between a singleton and a doubleton, teacher pools and room pools, conflicts and constraints, among others, is essential. Planning out a successful high school schedule requires a solid grasp of the variables involved for the outcome to optimize the student experience, maximize instructional time and support teachers.

2. Assigning Courses to your Students.

Depending on the school model you use, you can choose to assign courses to students, allow them to choose their own, or do a combination of both. Students may submit course requests online, you can generate sign-up sheets via course request forms, or you can produce a Master Course List with details such as level, credits, weights, etc. and print any of these details on students’ schedules.

3. Know Your Options: Scheduling Preferences and Requirements.

Once your school has considered its priorities, options and trade-offs you can create your master schedule. This includes determining the number and length of periods or period exclusions, prerequisites, course priority levels, block rotations, and more. Excluding periods, for example, can accommodate part-time teachers, break up the number of courses in a row, or allow for scheduling staff meetings. The schedule you create needs to coincide with your school model, teacher availability, special programs, and class size.

4. Fine Tune and Perfect Your Schedule.

An effective schedule will provide students with opportunities to take the courses they need to be college ready. With the right combination of core courses, advanced options and electives, the schedule will provide both students and teachers with an equitable balance of classroom study and strategic instructional planning.

5. Use Software to Build with Control and Confidence.

Master Schedule Builder. It can help you prep your Course Requests, listing all students' requests by department to ensure appropriate course selections; and generate a tally report of students who requested each course by grade, gender, or other criteria.

Time pools - or groupings of possible meeting times that can be linked to courses - allow for courses that meet only some days in the rotation, or meet more than one period on some days. The Master Schedule Builder will try to select a room from the pool that matches both the course and teacher preferences. The builder also tests each possible meeting time and shows you which times are the best. You can also keep your options open by saving and retrieving builds any time during the process.

6. Evaluate and Resolve Conflicts.

Once you have a schedule in place, it is time to evaluate and resolve conflicts, such as exceeding section optimums, higher priority courses, and teacher availability. By working with the most difficult courses first, other sections and blocks will fall into place around them. And, if using a schedule builder like Rediker’s, you can easily click and view student schedules and conflicts at any stage of the build, allowing you to evaluate how to adjust your build to maximize course fulfillment and finalize your master schedule.

Master Scheduling is a complex procedure that requires the careful management and direction of a school’s resources. Once your school reflects on its priorities, considers its options, and selects the best schedule components, they will be well on their way to truly mastering the master schedule at your school.

Tips to Prepare for the Admissions Season and Exceed Your Enrollment Goals

Wed, 21 Oct 2020 15:10:53 GMT

Oct 21, 2020 sbryce

Looking for software tips to make your Admissions season run smoothly? Rediker Software’s Admissions expert Cloid Helton is a former principal who understands the unique needs of the Catholic school Admissions office. Recognizing that each school operates differently, and that every school’s admission process is a little different, Cloid has trained 100’s of schools on how to maximize their admissions management tools to exceed enrollment goals.

Cloid has been training Catholic schools for more than 20 years and below, he offers the following insights for your Admissions staff:

1. Make online inquiry, application and visitation forms easily available on your school website and be sure those forms are responsive and mobile-ready for parents. Each form completed sends data to your admissions database to begin the outreach process to prospective students and their families.

2. Customize the admissions and enrollment process to meet your school’s specific needs.

Admissions staff can set different prospect requirements for different grades, different programs, or from school to school within a diocese. Rediker’s AdmissionsPlus can be customized to meet every school's admissions needs.

3. For high schools, request a list of possible prospects from feeder middle schools in an Excel spreadsheet. They can easily be imported into your software. Forms are pre-filled with corresponding data fields for families that have completed other forms for siblings already enrolled.

4. Track prospects (prospects, potential students, inquiries, etc.) over time for special events/camps. With Appointments in AdmissionsPlus, you can create events and track who was invited and associate prospects with those events.

5. Email and communicate with different filtered groups easily

Drill down to focus on the specifics you are looking for such as grade level, sex or race via search and sort. Generate emails to prospective families meeting your requirements.

6. Create a paperless solution.

Everything can be done online, saving countless hours of paperwork. From inquiry and visitation forms, to e-recommendations and payments, the entire admissions process can be completed with no downloads or installs. This will help you keep on top of the progress of each application and ensure that you have all the key information you need at any one time.

Online Admissions for Catholic Schools with AdmissionsPlus from Rediker Software

Admissions and enrollment methods geared to attract and retain students are more important than ever. With online features to provide a streamlined and easy-to-use system for enrollment needs, Rediker Software’s new fully web-based AdmissionsPlus platform makes it simple to track and communicate with each applicant step-by-step through the entire admissions process.

To prepare for the Admissions season, Catholic school admissions offices need to connect and engage with prospective families first. With fully responsive, mobile friendly online inquiries and enrollment forms, AdmissionsPlus can help start the dialogue. School staff can quickly view prospect data and drill down on prospects that meet their school’s needs, from GPAs and entrance exam scores to athletics and school alumni. Powerful reporting tools provide data to see how many prospects are applying to each school, grade level and program, and how many prospects are in each admissions step.

AdmissionsPlus has been completely redesigned as an HTML5 application so it doesn’t require a client install and works on multiple browsers and operating systems. The Parent Account and Parent Forms can be accessed from any mobile device, so prospective families now have a convenient online experience while they schedule visits, request recommendations, make payments, and more.

Organizing data couldn’t be simpler with AdmissionsPlus. At-a-glance dashboard graphs and charts are customizable by user, allowing each user to have their own personalized dashboard view so they can see exactly what is important to them. The dashboard can display upcoming calendar events, a list of prospects that have not been contacted in a set number of days, and a breakdown of prospects by decision. Staff can also customize the Admissions process so they can set separate prospect requirements for different grades and programs, or from school to school within a diocese.

With Rediker’s web-based admissions management software, AdmissionsPlus, the entire process of initial inquiry to application acceptance and enrollment can now be done online.

Case Study: Centralized System Brings Consistency Between Schools

Tue, 12 Feb 2019 19:20:36 GMT

The Challenge

In July 2017, the Diocese of Erie launched the Erie Catholic School System as part of Building in Truth and Love, the comprehensive plan for diocesan schools in Erie, PA. The new system renewed focus on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) across the curriculum through new science labs, improved access to technology, an emphasis on problem solving, and teamwork.

No longer operating as independent, parish-based schools but as a unified organization, Erie Catholic was looking for a cost-effective school management system that would meet the needs of all the departments in each school. And, with an entirely new staff to train at each school, the new system would need to be easy to use, streamline work-flow, save time, and improve communication between all stakeholders.

As the Superintendent of Erie Catholic Schools, James Gallagher initiated a search for a new SIS (Student Information System) within months of being hired to the newly established position. But while he brought with him a wealth of experience improving schools throughout the region, and was overseeing key aspects of school operations, he turned to his new school system and the director of technology to identify potential software providers.

The Solution

Gallagher and the Catholic Schools Office of the Diocese of Erie formed a committee made up of principals, teachers, parents, and administrators from schools within the new system. Concurrently, a search for a director of technology was underway, and John Schroeck was selected to oversee the implementation and use of technology throughout the system’s six elementary schools. With Schroeck’s background as a technology coordinator and a technology teacher for 25 years, he and the committee searched for an SIS that would meet each school’s student data demands.

The six schools used a mish-mash of programs for their SIS system, including Excel, FileMaker Pro, Access, and others. They needed a fully integrated, centralized solution that offered web-based delivery, mobile accessibility and time-saving data automation. “At one of the first meetings with the new leadership I listed having a consistent and robust SIS as vital,” said Schroeck. “We had to be able to easily share demographic information, improve school/family communication, standardize grading and report cards, and handle the finances among all the schools,” he said.

While the committee met with a variety of SIS vendors, they were most impressed by the features offered by Rediker Software, including its ease of use for both teachers and parents, and the myriad components that met the needs of each school department. They were also influenced by Rediker’s history as a true family-owned business. The idea that for nearly four decades Rediker Software operated as a multi-generational family business and not a faceless mega-company was reassuring. As the president of the Erie Catholic School System Damon Finazzo wrote in his welcome to the new school system, “… family is what we’re all about.”

Once the sale was complete, the task force was responsible for returning to the six schools and promoting the new SIS to the teachers, parents and administration. According to Schroeck, this was a monumental task, but with the assistance of a “personal” Implementation Manager at Rediker, he was guided through the process. “We were able to get each school to ask questions so when timelines came, they were met,” said Sharon Swaby, Rediker Software’s Implementation Manager for Erie. “Connecting the dots also helped the process move smoothly.”

The different groups that worked with the program had to take responsibility for learning how to use AdminPlus and its other components. Principals and secretaries attended numerous trainings, making sure they were proficient in each module they used to ensure the success of the new school system. Teachers were trained from each of the six schools who, in turn, taught other teachers how to use the gradebook and web portals. “Sharon advised me not to funnel all the implementation to myself,” Schroeck noted. This proved to be invaluable advice.

The Results

A year and a half later, Erie Catholic Schools are a unified system of schools, with consistency between all buildings for grading, generating report cards, attendance, and demographics information. With the addition of Rediker’s Online Forms, what would have taken weeks for each school to gather and input information with paper forms, now takes a fraction of the time. “The online forms made our system startup a much smoother process,” said Schroeck.

The Erie Catholic Office can also now centrally manage the school RediSite websites, their finances with FINACS, and the admissions process with Admissions Plus Pro. This allows the central office to operate much more efficiently. It also allows them to offer a level of assistance to the schools that was not available before.

“The Erie Catholic School System has been successfully operating for the past year and a half,” Schroeck said. “A big part of this success can be attributed to our adoption of Rediker’s SIS.”

The director of technology now has confidence in Rediker and knows that the company has Erie’s best interests at heart. “Because of our actions, John is happy with the outcome of the partnership,” said Swaby.

Improving Re-Enrollment with Online Forms

Some of the schools within the Erie Catholic School system were missing basic student demographic information. With the setup of Online Forms this year, the goal was to have 75% of the parents re-enroll online instead of using paper re-enrollment. They met that goal with close to 1,200 students being enrolled.

“We had almost 400 more students re-enroll online this year compared to last year,” said Schroeck. “The school secretaries have all expressed how much smoother the re-enrollment process has gone this year compared to the past.”

Rediker Software Releases Teacher Gradebook Mobile App for iOS and Android Phones

Fri, 28 Sep 2018 14:58:05 GMT

Sep 28, 2018 sbryce

Rediker Software, a leader in school administrative software, announces the release of the TeacherPlus for Phones app on iOS and Android. TeacherPlus is an easy-to-use gradebook designed specifically for Administrator's Plus schools. The TeacherPlus for Phones app allows for teachers to easily take attendance daily or by period, view student profiles, and easily access their contact information right on their phones.

Teachers can also view and submit grades, create columns, enter scores and annotations, analyze statistics, and easily call and email contacts from their iOS or Android phones. The app helps simplify classroom management and organize everyday life on one simple device, allowing teachers to easily keep parents informed of their child’s progress. It is the perfect mobile companion for TeacherPlus Gradebook users.

Jay Sansing, Database and Systems Administrator at Grace-St. Luke's Episcopal School in Memphis, TN is pleased with the new Rediker app. "Glad you guys came out with a TeacherPlus app for phones; it’s already very popular with our teachers,” he said. “Taking attendance with an iPhone was a much-requested feature around here, and we appreciate you guys delivering on that."

Rediker’s new TeacherPlus for Phones provides teachers with the tools they need to interact, connect and communicate with their students, and provide them with real-time feedback. To access the app, teachers simply login using their TeacherPlus account. The app is free to all TeacherPlus schools and is downloadable via Google Play and itunes.

About Rediker Software

For nearly 40 years, Rediker Software has been a leader in school administrative software for private, public, international, religious and independent schools. Through its innovative solutions, Rediker Software helps schools in over 120 countries manage administrative tasks, maximize school-to-home communication and inspire student performance and success. The company’s products include AdminPlus, a cloud-based SIS solution, TeacherPlus Gradebook, ParentPlus and StudentPlus Web Portals, RediSite Responsive Websites, Admissions Plus Pro, and Teacher Evaluator. Rediker Software offers experience, reliability, unsurpassed technical support, ease of use, and leading-edge features not found in any other system.

Case Study: Growing Charter School Gains Long-Term Technology Partnership - Capital City Public Charter School, Washington, D.C.

Fri, 22 Sep 2017 19:53:14 GMT

The Challenge

As a free public school that operates independently of the local school system, Capital City Public Charter School develops its own curriculum, manages its own budget, secures and manages its own facility, and determines its own staffing model and personnel policies. The public charter school also faces the daunting task of managing a system for collecting and storing student demographic data, tracking and communicating with newly matched students, engaging with parents, and maintaining a professional website that is mobile friendly.

As the school grew from a small PK-8 school to a PK – 12 educational institute serving nearly 1,000 students, a student information system that could handle all of these tasks was vital. The school secured an SIS system that handled their needs at the time. Capital City relied on this system to manage much of its operations but when support for the software was no longer available, the school realized they needed to search for a new integrated cloud-hosted solution.

The Solution

Because of the inauspicious experience with their former vendor, Capital City sought out a new SIS company that would provide them with stability and a long-term partnership. They also needed a school management solution that could meet all of their student data collection and enrollment needs, and satisfy their Mac-based infrastructure.

A team with representation across all functional areas of the school was formed and a rigorous evaluation process began in early 2015. The team scrutinized each potential vendor’s credentials and created a grid to track system functionality, sustainability and to standardize processes. Wil Hawk, Director of School Information Systems, managed a substantial amount of the legwork, researching different platforms, gaining buy-in and soliciting feedback from key stakeholders. Hawk knew that the system they would ultimately choose would run a considerable amount of the school’s operations and affect their entire user community.

Working with a non-profit technology consultant organization, an RFI (Request for Information) was issued to identify potential software providers. Hawk’s team looked at nearly 100 different products initially, and then narrowed that number to 30. Since there are distinct lower, middle and high school programs - each with its own identity, space, principal and staff - the needs of each group had to be addressed.

The grid was further broken down to divide priorities into ‘required’ versus ‘desired’. Among their priorities was a model that could handle state reporting, that could integrate with a suite of products, and that could be customized where needed. Another essential element was a modernized, responsive school website. Because the school’s student population is multilingual, with 50% of that being Spanish-speaking, having a website for both English and Spanish speakers was imperative.

When the final two contenders demonstrated their products to the team, the deciding factors came down to three. “The ethos of the company was really important,” Hawk stated. “Rediker’s credibility and character really spoke to us.” In addition, the interface was friendlier than its competitor and the training model more flexible, he said.

The Results

By choosing Rediker Software, Capital City is not only achieving numerous benefits, they are getting support from Rediker Software as often as they need. Support for AdminPlus users not only includes an interactive web portal, but training done at the convenience of the school. As AdminPlus is completely cloud based, the system can also support an “all-Mac shop” such as Capital City’s.

By moving to the cloud, school administrators and teachers can instantly share data and engage with parents and students in a secure environment using Rediker’s PlusPortals. The portals are fully integrated with AdminPlus so communicating with teachers, parents, students, staff and other community stakeholders is easy. Further, Rediker’s RediSite website keeps families engaged and informed about everything from attendance and assignments to school events and fundraisers.

Rediker’s integrated solutions, including the school cafeteria and library, connect departments, faculty and staff. And because the school enrolls new students through a state-run random lottery process, Rediker’s Admissions Plus Pro with online applications makes it easy to track and communicate with each student’s family, from matched notification to enrollment.

Capital City Public Charter School now has a next-generation data management system that is affordable, centralized and secure. “Rediker has provided our school with a suite of products that allows us access to everything from attendance records and scheduling software to new efficacies such as the PlusPortals and our bilingual website. We are enthusiastic about our future with Rediker Software,” Hawk noted.

More About Capital City Public Charter School

Capital City Public Charter School was founded in 2000 by a committed group of parents and educators, making it the first parent-founded public charter school in Washington, D.C. The school began as a PreK-8th grade program with 135 students and amended its charter in 2006 to add a high school program. The high school opened in 2008 and graduated its first class of seniors in 2012. Since then, 100% of graduating seniors in each senior class have been accepted to college.

The school now serves 981 students in grades PK3-12. Students come from nearly every zip code in the District of Columbia and represent a broad range of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Capital City Public Charter School students acquire a love of learning, along with a strong sense of community and character. Each will graduate as young adults who are self-directed, intellectually engaged and possess a commitment to personal and civic responsibility.

Rediker Software’s Successful Pilot Project with the Archdiocese of Washington Leads to Archdiocesan-wide Use of Student Management System in its Schools

Thu, 08 Sep 2016 17:37:24 GMT

September 8, 2016

This fall, with the start of a new school year, a new student management system will be used in schools in the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.

Last fall, nine schools in the Archdiocese piloted Rediker Software’s Administrator’s Plus – a cloud-based student information system that helps educators better track student data and communicate with parents and families. The success of the software pilot has led to the archdiocese making a decision to roll Administrator’s Plus out to its remaining 44 archdiocesan schools.

In 2015, the Archdiocese of Washington conducted a comprehensive request for proposal (RFP) process to evaluate vendors who could provide a data management solution with advanced reporting capabilities such as built-in statistical reporting tools to produce archdiocesan-wide reports, pie charts and graphs using live or historical data, as well as an integrated, full service system with the best long-term value. After evaluating demonstrations from multiple vendors, it was clear Rediker Software was the leader in all areas.

“The archdiocese needed a standardized system for collecting and tracking student demographic and enrollment information,” said William Ryan, Superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Archdiocese of Washington. Ryan, who was part of the final selection committee also noted, “We required something that would address not only the needs of the students and their parents, but the teachers and administrators as well.”

What set Rediker Software apart from the competition, Ryan continued, was their ability to provide the central school administration office of the archdiocese with a reliable system that can streamline school processes. For instance, Rediker’s Diocesan Manager for Administrator’s Plus provides the central diocesan schools administration office with instant access to real-time, archdiocesan level snapshots, including the number of absences per school each day, discipline incidents by school or current enrollment per school. “Improved access to data will benefit our staff with accurate and real-time data and enable better communication between our school administrators and the parent community,” Ryan said.

Administrator's Plus is seamlessly integrated with the TeacherPlus web gradebook and the ParentPlus portal, creating a complete, secure online solution for school management. The comprehensive integration of these systems will not only meet all of their needs, but will continue to provide the best long-term value.

“We see our investment in Rediker Software as a critical way to communicate with our schools,” added Shannon Norris, archdiocesan Director for Educational Technology. “Prior to Administrator’s Plus, we utilized other student management systems that proved to be challenging because they did not have all of the elements that we desired. Rediker’s platform offers everything we are looking for in one product. The feedback from the pilot phase has been that Administrator’s Plus is user friendly – it’s easy to learn and easy for IT administrators to manage, she said.”

Rediker President Andrew Anderlonis is very pleased to be partnering with the Archdiocese of Washington. “By selecting Rediker Software, the archdiocese will benefit from our integrated products and solutions backed by the best support team in the industry,” he stated. “We are able to offer a total solution that will help with everything from streamlining administrative tasks to maximizing school-to-home communication, from apps to websites, with our complete product offerings. We are very excited to be working with this great archdiocese,” Anderlonis added.

About the Archdiocese of Washington

The Archdiocese of Washington is home to over 620,000 Catholics, 139 parishes and 94 archdiocesan and independent schools located in the District of Columbia and the five Maryland counties of Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, Prince George’s, and Saint Mary’s. Twenty Catholic high schools, and 74 early childhood and elementary schools educate nearly 27,000 children while its service agencies, including Catholic Charities and Victory Housing, have made the archdiocese one of the largest private social service providers in the region.

About Rediker Software

For over 35 years, Rediker Software has been a leader in school administrative software for private, public, international, religious and independent schools. Through its innovative solutions, Rediker Software helps schools in over 120 countries manage administrative tasks, maximize school-to-home communication and inspire student performance and success. The company’s products include AdminPlus, a cloud-based SIS solution, TeacherPlus Gradebook, Plus Portals for parents and students, Admissions Plus Pro, and Teacher Evaluator. Rediker Software offers experience, reliability, unsurpassed technical support, ease of use, and leading-edge features not found in any other system.

Diocesan School Case Study: Archdiocese of Mobile, AL

Wed, 06 Jul 2016 13:36:11 GMT

The Challenge

One of the greatest challenges the Archdiocese of Mobile faced was finding an affordable software solution that addressed the requirements of their elementary schools, including student data, attendance, discipline, and report cards. The 14 schools in Alabama were using an out-of-date student management system that no longer met their needs, and those who had been familiar with it had either retired or moved on.

The Archdiocese was also in need of a system that met the mobile demands of the parents who depended on their phones to receive information about their children. Some families in the rural areas of the Archdiocese didn’t have great internet connectivity so having access to data on their mobile devices was vital.

Time and organization were also key factors in the Archdiocese’s decision to move to a new system. They needed each of the schools to be set up quickly so that everyone was up and running by the end of the 2016 school year. And, because each school would mirror the next, the setup required an organized, structured schedule.

The Solution

In 2015, the Archdiocese set out to find a system that would best suit the needs of its elementary schools. First, a search committee consisting of principals, teachers, and office staff was created and charged with developing a list of the capabilities they required in a student management system. Next, they sought out vendors whose systems could handle the needs of each individual using the software. Their goal was to find a system that could easily be used across all levels of ability, from the novice user to the savvy IT coordinator.

The search committee scrutinized each vendor’s customer base and history, looking for a system that was both economical and easy to use, as well as functional across all areas, including school administration, school office staff, and teachers.

Rediker Software was selected in late 2015 after meeting all of their criteria; each decision maker felt their individual needs had been addressed and that the student management system could essentially run all of their operations.

Karen Abreo, Associate Superintendent for Academics, Larry Hamilton, Director of Technology, and Sherry Cook, Tech Coordinator at Christ the King, worked with Rediker’s implementation team to organize the project into three phases: planning, configuration, and training. The process began by defining what would be standard across all schools and what would be up to the individual schools. Although initially, they thought all of their data should be stored in one location, after more consideration, they decided they wanted each school to store its own data, citing that users and permissions should be done at the school level and that parents' information at one school should not show up in any other school’s data.

The Results

The Archdiocese began implementing AdminPlus in 2016. Once completed, the elementary schools will have the integration they are seeking to enable school administrators and teachers to manage all student, staff and school data across all 14 schools in the Archdiocese. They can also instantly engage with parents and students in a secure environment.

“We see Rediker Software and Administrator’s Plus continually growing in capability to offer us a complete, unified solution the Archdiocese can use for years to come,” notes Abreo. “AdminPlus goes far beyond the ability to just track and record data. Rediker’s design lets Catholic schools of all sizes, as well as entire Archdiocese’s economically construct systems to meet their exact needs.”

To accommodate the Archdiocese, each school’s data is being configured to adapt to their processes. At the same time, Rediker continues to design the system for ease of use to ensure that users at all levels of technical proficiency can use the system effectively.

By partnering with Rediker Software, the Archdiocese of Mobile is seeing numerous benefits:

Instantly sharing information online:

Parents are often just as hungry for information about their children as teachers and administrative staff. Parents in the Mobile Archdiocese depend on their mobile devices to receive this information. Rediker’s PlusPortals provide multiple, integrated, and convenient channels for delivering information to, and facilitating communication with, parents and students. Providing that information via a cellphone app not only makes the stakeholders happy, but it reduces the administrative burden inherent in manual communication throughout the Archdiocese.

Accessing student and staff data on iOS and Android devices:

When staff are away from their computers they can still have their important student information at their fingertips with Rediker Software’s AP Mobile Apps for iOS & Android®. And with the TeacherPlus Gradebook app, teachers can take attendance and enter grades while up and about in the classroom or on the go.

Automating the Re-enrollment Process:

With AdminPlus Online Forms, Rediker Software can also help save parents the frustration of completing the same paper enrollment forms year after year, and the Archdiocese staff from manually updating records in AdminPlus. Online Forms streamline data collection in a paperless process that eliminates hundreds of hours of data entry, and will ultimately save each elementary school time and money. Staff can easily create their own forms to be filled in by their school’s constituents online.

Searching across all schools:

The Archdiocesan administration can now quickly call up a student or staff member in any elementary school in the Archdiocese to view photos, demographic data, and other critical information. Built-in statistical reporting tools also allow staff to easily produce diocesan-wide reports, pie charts and graphs using live data or historical data in just a matter of minutes.

Long-term partner for success:

The Archdiocese of Mobile’s expectations for Rediker Software are being met. As Abreo and the key players at each of the schools work with the training and implementation teams at Rediker, they are receiving the support they need to become successful. “We couldn’t be happier with the process so far,” Abreo said. “We have found the Rediker staff to be so supportive as we plan out step by step how we will configure the data at each school. And we expect that training at the Rediker headquarters will be second to none.

“The Rediker team is in tune with the needs and wants of school administrators and support staff and have developed solutions that are relevant and practical for all school personnel,” she said.

What's Up at Rediker Software

Work Smarter, Not Harder: 24 Tips for the TeacherPlus Gradebook

Article Table of Contents:

Workspace and Efficiency

Tip #1 Customize Your Startup Screen

Respawn Location – Customize Your Startup Screen

Tip #2 Create Seating Chart Clusters

Drag-and-Drop Easy – Create Seating Chart Clusters

Tip #3 Add Insights to Your Seating Chart

More Than Matching Names to Faces – Add Insights to Your Seating Chart

Tip #4 Use Quick Load (for Large Gradebooks)

Wrangle Up that Data – Use Quick Load for Large Gradebooks

Tip #5 Toggle Column Icons

Tiny But Mighty – Toggle Column Icons

Tip #6 Minimize Columns and Headers

Squeeze it – Minimize Columns and Headers

Grading and Data Shortcuts

Tip #7 Drop the Lowest Grade (Individual or Class)

Benevolent Balance – Drop the Lowest Grade

Tip #8 Run the Grade Audit Report

The Proof is in the Pudding - Grade Audit Report

Tip #9 Batch Enter for All Students

Like Magic, Your Done - Batch Enter for All Students

Tip #10 Unlock Header Row Stats

Statistical Madness - Unlock Header Row Stats

Tip #11 Export to Excel

Time to Pivot – Export to Excel

Tip #12 Link to Google Classroom

With Our Powers Combine – Link to Google Classroom

Tip #13 Add Annotations

Little Reminders – Add Annotations

Tip #14 Display Marking Period Point Totals

Quick “Math” - Display Marking Period Point Totals

Per Student Data and Tracking

Tip #15 Set Up Custom Views

Data Beyond the Numbers – Set Up Custom Views

Tip #16 Know Your Student’s Preferred Identifiers

Put a Label on it (in the Gradebook) - Know Your Student’s Preferred Identifiers

Tip #17 Set Up a Birthday List

Did Someone Say Cupcakes? – Set Up a Birthday List

Tip #18 Define Your 10 Custom Fields

You’re in Charge - Define Your 10 Custom Fields

Tip #19 Tally Lunch Counts

Is it Lunch Time Yet? - Tally Lunch Counts

Tip #20 Reference Attendance History

Time Traveling - Reference Attendance History

Tip #21 Take Note of Important Alerts and IEPs

Be Advised - Take Note of Important Alerts and IEPs

Privacy, Communication and Notes

Tip #22 Use Single-Student Privacy View

One-on-One Discussions – Use Single-Student Privacy View

Tip #23 Generate Your Own Reports

Make it Official - Generate Your Own Reports

Progress Reports (per Student)

Custom Reports (per Gradebook)

Tip #24 Add a Note - Memo vs. Narrative vs. Comment

When, where, what? - Private Memo vs. Narrative vs. Comment

Memos (Internal Reference)

Class Memos (Progress Reports)

Narratives (Progress Reports)

Comments (Pick from a List)

Learn More

Rediker Software Launches New PlusPortals Mobile App for Parents and Students

About Rediker Software

Rediker Software partners with MentisSoft to Introduce FINACS.com

The Online School Accounting Software for K-12 Schools

﻿ About Rediker Software

﻿ About MentisSoft

Improve Your School’s Website with Effective Website Design

Why Update Your School’s Website Design?

Outdated Websites Hurt Communication and User Experience

SEO and Mobile-First Design Trends Demand Modernization

Navigation and Layout Impact User Retention

Steps for a Successful Website Transition

1. Audit Your Current Website

2. Plan and Set Goals

3. Choose the Right Platform

4. Content Migration

5. Test and Perform Quality Assurance

Key Considerations During Transition

Tip #1
Customize Your Startup Screen

Tip #2
Create Seating Chart Clusters

Tip #3
Add Insights to Your Seating Chart

Tip #4
Use Quick Load (for Large Gradebooks)

Tip #5
Toggle Column Icons

Tip #6
Minimize Columns and Headers

Tip #7
Drop the Lowest Grade (Individual or Class)

Tip #8
Run the Grade Audit Report

Tip #9
Batch Enter for All Students

Tip #10
Unlock Header Row Stats

Tip #11
Export to Excel

Tip #12
Link to Google Classroom

Tip #13
Add Annotations

Tip #14
Display Marking Period Point Totals

Tip #15
Set Up Custom Views

Tip #16
Know Your Student’s Preferred Identifiers

Tip #17
Set Up a Birthday List

Tip #18
Define Your 10 Custom Fields

Tip #19
Tally Lunch Counts

Tip #20
Reference Attendance History

Tip #21
Take Note of Important Alerts and IEPs

Tip #22
Use Single-Student Privacy View

Tip #23
Generate Your Own Reports

Tip #24
Add a Note - Memo vs. Narrative vs. Comment

About Rediker Software

About MentisSoft