Something like Engrade: A grade-reporting tool for a co-op

[Sweet Home Alabama]

I work at our local homeschool co-op, and for several years now, we have been using Engrade to keep grades and attendance records for our students.  We can also email through Engrade and keep a record of correspondence between teachers, parents, and students. 

Engrade is part of McGraw Hill, and they are not offering this service anymore beginning next year, so my co-op has to find something to take its place. So far, all that has been researched is proving to be very expensive compared to Engrade.  Parents only pay $7/student currently, but all the record-keeping programs our director has research runs into the thousands of dollars- way over our budget.  I believe that we are trying to target around $300/month overall, but truly, cost is very much a factor.  We need to keep the cost as low as possible. 

I thought I would ask all of you very wonderful, knowledgeable ladies if you could make any recommendations.  I know we've checked Blackboard, but I don't remember any other names.  We are trying to get something lined up to begin using for the next school year (2019-2020).

Thanks for any help!

PS... Cross-posting on the other boards.

 

[Clemsondana]

We use Canvas.

[LJPPKGFGSC]

I too like Canvas.  It is very easy to use!  I use the free version "free to teachers", so I do not know how it would work for a group of teachers

[lmrich]

Has anyone used Google Classroom? 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

Thanks, ladies. I'll take a look. 

What do you like about Canvas? How do you use it?

Does anyone use Google Classroom?

[LJPPKGFGSC]

I teach at an in-person coop.  I post all my answer keys on Canvas so that students or parents can check the homework. I also post the handouts, for kids who are absent. I also use it as a gradebook.  I enter all the grades from the quizzes done in class.  This year, I have started giving tests from Canvas.  It does take a long time to prepare the tests - longer than writing a test on paper.  But then the test is automatically graded.  So I hope that it will be a time saver over the years.  All the quiz and test grades are on Canvas, and parents can see the semester grade.  You can easily sign up for a teacher account to Canvas and play around with it.  I am sure that I have just scratched the surface with what it can do.

I am fairly certain that the coop used Engrade previously, until it stopped being free.

My daughter attends another coop which uses MindWave.  I am not impressed.  It is not as easy for me to understand how the grade is calculated.  But I am not sure if that is the software, or the settings that the teacher has chosen.  She has a separate website for handouts and links.  And this course never has quizzes online. So maybe the gradebook is all that they wanted.  But it is not easy to read.

[Sweet Home Alabama]

Thank you so much for replying, LJPPKGFGSC. 

I will pass on all of the suggestions, and hopefully we'll find something to use next year.

Thanks, all!