SchoolTool: free gradebook, attendance, calendars and more.
What is SchoolTool?
SchoolTool is a suite of free administrative software for schools. Since it can be installed easily and used with no licensing fees, SchoolTool can be used by schools for a single purpose, by individual teachers or small teams within schools, or as a whole-school comprehensive student information system, encompassing demographics, gradebooks, attendance, calendars and reporting.
Teachers: Track Grades and Attendance
Jeff Elkner of the Arlington Career Center uses SchoolTool as his personal gradebook. Anyone using Ubuntu Linux on their desktop or laptop (or server in the "cloud") can easily install and use SchoolTool as their online gradebook and attendance journal. Schools can offer SchoolTool as a free alternative to teachers wishing to move their bookkeeping online.
Administrators: Collect Assessment Data
Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia uses SchoolTool to create regular interim reports on all students. SchoolTool's new report sheet feature facilitates collection of grades, test scores, comments or other custom data from teachers at regular intervals. Stop emailing spreadsheets!
Case Study: CanDo
CanDo is an open source competency tracking application built as a SchoolTool component by teachers and students at the Arlington Career Center, in collaboration with SchoolTool's development team. In the 2009-2010 school year, CanDo is being used in five counties across the state of Virginia at 38 schools, by over 300 teachers and 29,000 students.
For more information about CanDo, see the Virginia CTE Resource Center's website. Please direct questions or feedback to the CanDo page on Launchpad.
Technology Coordinators: Schedule Resources Online
The Paul Cuffee School in Providence, RI uses SchoolTool to coordinate the use of their computer labs and laptop carts. Technology coordinator Ben Harris says "We have been using SchoolTool for resource scheduling for more than a year. It was easy to install and configure and has allowed our teachers to easily schedule the resources that they need."
Put It All Together
Get SchoolTool installed and running on Ubuntu Linux in four simple steps. The standard installation includes:
- Customizable demographics;
- Student contact management;
- Calendars for the school, groups, and individuals;
- Resource booking;
- Teacher gradebooks;
- Class attendance;
- Report card generation.