Opinions on Edutrack?

[imeverywoman]

I was out with some friends last night and they were singing the praises of Edutrack and it's capabilities. They were telling me of the lesson plans, etc., that it imports, but upon viewing said plans, I was not at all impressed.

 

I'm wondering if it is worth using to keep track of grades, etc., and how *you* have liked it, if at all.

 

Have you found anything better?

 

Thanks, y'all! :)

[Alyce]

I love it. I bought it mostly to keep track of the high school years and for the fact that it would do transcripts. It keeps everything and there are forms for almost anything you can imagine. There is a place to do course descriptions, book lists, extracurricular activities, curriculum lists and of course it does lesson plans and grades. The beauty is that all I do is type and everything is written out for me nicely and in a very organized manner. I like that it keeps track of grades and credit hours. All that said, I bought mine 5-6 years ago and there has not been a new revision since. The company keeps saying it is going to come out with a new version but it hasn't. The other negative is that it will not do weighted grades automatically you have to do them by hand. It wasn't really a problem for me until it came time to do the transcript. I had to provide the school with a weighted and unweighted GPA. It was no problem to do the weighted GPA by hand but I would have preferred the program to do it. I will say that it makes a beautiful very professional looking transcript and for that I rate it high. If I were to do it over again 1) would I do a computer grading program - yes. It is just easier and keeps everything at my fingertips. 2) would I buy Edu-Track again - No. It does print a wonderful transcript but the company just hasn't produced the way it should have. 3) What would I recommend - HomeSchool Tracker. Now keep in mind I've never used this program but it is cheaper than Edu-Track and has frequent updates which you don't have to pay for. The basic edition is free and for a fee you can upgrade to Plus version. It does all the things Edu-Track does but it also does weighted grades. Perhaps you can ask someone who has used Home School Tracker for more info or at least get the free version and try it for yourself. This program was not available when I bought Edu-Track. If I weren't finishing with HSing this year I'd probably try it out myself.

[Michelle in MO]

I love it. I bought it mostly to keep track of the high school years and for the fact that it would do transcripts. It keeps everything and there are forms for almost anything you can imagine. There is a place to do course descriptions, book lists, extracurricular activities, curriculum lists and of course it does lesson plans and grades. The beauty is that all I do is type and everything is written out for me nicely and in a very organized manner. I like that it keeps track of grades and credit hours. All that said, I bought mine 5-6 years ago and there has not been a new revision since. The company keeps saying it is going to come out with a new version but it hasn't. The other negative is that it will not do weighted grades automatically you have to do them by hand. It wasn't really a problem for me until it came time to do the transcript. I had to provide the school with a weighted and unweighted GPA. It was no problem to do the weighted GPA by hand but I would have preferred the program to do it. I will say that it makes a beautiful very professional looking transcript and for that I rate it high. If I were to do it over again 1) would I do a computer grading program - yes. It is just easier and keeps everything at my fingertips. 2) would I buy Edu-Track again - No. It does print a wonderful transcript but the company just hasn't produced the way it should have. 3) What would I recommend - HomeSchool Tracker. Now keep in mind I've never used this program but it is cheaper than Edu-Track and has frequent updates which you don't have to pay for. The basic edition is free and for a fee you can upgrade to Plus version. It does all the things Edu-Track does but it also does weighted grades. Perhaps you can ask someone who has used Home School Tracker for more info or at least get the free version and try it for yourself. This program was not available when I bought Edu-Track. If I weren't finishing with HSing this year I'd probably try it out myself.

Agreeing here with Alyce. I bought Edu-Track about 7 years ago (while we were still homeschooling) and loved it, but it is somewhat limited in its capabilities. It does not handle weighted grades, like HomeSchool Tracker, which was an annoyance for me when I was trying to put together a transcript last year. I think HomeSchool Tracker will do weighted grades, i.e., honors courses, etc. I did not do that on our transcripts. However, what I mean by weighted grades (in this instance) was the ability to assign, say, 60% of a science grade from tests, 30% from labs, and 10% from other written work. Edu-Track did not do that for me. Their updates were not very frequent, although two years ago they had some updates, so I bought the updated version.

 

I think I would give the edge to HomeSchool Tracker, and had I known about it 7 years ago, I would have purchased that. As it was, though, Edu-Track was nevertheless still a tremendous timesaver for me and helped me keep track of hours, etc., which would have been exceedingly tedious to do by hand.

 

HTH!

[parias1126]

Agreeing here with Alyce. I bought Edu-Track about 7 years ago (while we were still homeschooling) and loved it, but it is somewhat limited in its capabilities. It does not handle weighted grades, like HomeSchool Tracker, which was an annoyance for me when I was trying to put together a transcript last year. I think HomeSchool Tracker will do weighted grades, i.e., honors courses, etc. I did not do that on our transcripts. However, what I mean by weighted grades (in this instance) was the ability to assign, say, 60% of a science grade from tests, 30% from labs, and 10% from other written work. Edu-Track did not do that for me. Their updates were not very frequent, although two years ago they had some updates, so I bought the updated version.

 

I think I would give the edge to HomeSchool Tracker, and had I known about it 7 years ago, I would have purchased that. As it was, though, Edu-Track was nevertheless still a tremendous timesaver for me and helped me keep track of hours, etc., which would have been exceedingly tedious to do by hand.

 

HTH!

 

I used Homeschool Tracker (not plus) for the past two years. It did not do weighted grades (unless it has changed or it is just for plus). I have since switched to the forms from the Donna Young website which I love and I can use them on my iMAC which was a huge plus for me!

 

Pam

[Pip]

Homeschool Tracker Plus will do weighted grades. That is why we are going to use it. Plus the free updates are nice. The free version is very nice but limited compared to the Plus version.

[Michelle in MO]

I think I must have checked into HomeSchool Tracker Plus, because I was told by a representative of the company that it did do weighted grades.

 

Edu-Track is a very good program, and since I had all of my records already on Edu-Track, I didn't really want to switch. However, if you're just starting out, I would recommend looking into HomeSchool Tracker Plus. That's what I would have used, if I was starting over.

[Teresa in MO]

I have used Edu-Track for the last 8-9 years and I love it. It has saved me an enormous amount of time when making lesson plans and I also love how it automatically transfers grades to a transcript. The transcript is very professional looking. I would highly recommend this program and the company has wonderful customer service. If you are ever at a conference and they are a vendor there, they go out of their way to help with any problems you may encounter. I have a friend who had bought this for her small Christian school a couple of years ago. She was having problems with learning the program on her laptop. They told her to bring the laptop to the conference and they would help her with it during their slow times. They are a wonderful homeschooling family.