Focus/SIS

"FOCUS helped my students get into college!"

Overall: I've been an AVID teacher/coordinator (college readiness) for 4 years, just long enough to see my 9th graders graduate from college this year. FOCUS not only allowed me to customize and provide required reports for an annual certification process, but it provided an easy checks and balance system for my students to continually track their grades, GPA's and rank. Over the years, I watched the "rank" game become a serious one among my students. Universities base everything on quartile with combined SAT/ACT scores. As an AVID teacher, my students knew their Freshman year what most TX universities required for admittance. Seeing it in print every day, watching ranks go up and down became a motivator for my students and over the years, GPA and rank became part of their vocabulary. They set goals, worked harder and I could hold them accountable because I had attendance records, grades, schedules etc. My own kids attend school 20 minutes away in another school district. It is more affluent, yet their district has nothing close to FOCUS. They contract a separate company to provide transcripts (something my students had at their fingertips) and I pay $3.50 for a copy. Most parents have no idea this is available, nor would they know what to look for if they had it. Having just resigned to seek a higher purpose, I am making it my mission to speak to other school districts about the importance of having an adequate student information system in place. As a result of my 4 year experiment using FOCUS, I had 25 first generation seniors graduate this year with 100% attending college, 85% attending universities and $1,486,000 in scholarships and grants alone. There are many districts who talk a big game about secondary education being the goal, yet they are unwilling to invest in a system that works for the student.

Pros: It provides information regarding purchasing and payroll, and a learning management system with a lesson planner, but I found it invaluable from a student's perspective. The student has complete control over his academic performance based on the transcript and grades before him. If he's college bound, and wants to earn scholarships or keep track of his rank, he can log into FOCUS on any given day and check it. He can track his attendance and see notes left to him by teachers. From a teacher's perspective, it provides any record one might need. As a coordinator who had to provide data for a certification process, it made my job much easier.

Cons: I can't imagine anything out there could be better than FOCUS. If I find it, I will come back to this post and put in my CON. The only CON is that so many school districts don't have it or something close.

"It’s not the best "

Overall: Focus is Ok. Sometimes some of the features randomly don’t work.

Pros: I like that I can search for students easily from the home screen. It is also nice that I can run reports to see which students are failing.

Cons: I don’t like the student pass feature. Many teachers don’t see the student pass, because it is not “loud” enough. There isn’t a notification that pops up to get their attention.

"Integrates multiple "

Pros: Integrates not just grades, but student documentation and all other relevant information in one place. Makes it easier as a teacher to complete grades and attendance quickly. I like that I can see all student information in one location, finding address and parent info is a real advantage. I can also see student accommodations.

Cons: In the beginning the system was slow, and crashed multiple times a day. It has been better and easier to find information as the system has been modified getting more user friendly.