Your curriculum is the backbone of your academic year planning process. Having a system you can rely on to organise your classes — particularly if you offer multiple curricula — is essential. This can be even more challenging when you're offering a curriculum that isn't the local standard.
You also need to be able to trust that your solution can work seamlessly with your other key school systems, particularly your school management system or your LMS.
So, what key factors do you need to consider when searching for curriculum management software? How do you ensure your systems are best supporting both your staff and your students?
- Cloud-based solutions
- Ease of integration
- Full school management
- Knowledge of multiple curriculums
- Dedicated systems for International school needs
- Recognise your goals and software requirements
- iSAMS school management solutions
Cloud-based solutions
Cloud-based architecture is considered a standard in many areas of software today. This is particularly true in fields where data security and accuracy are critical. Schools need to be able to rely on their data across all their systems to protect sensitive information.
Your base school system, whether your LMS or your school management system, needs to be built with cloud technology as the foundation. This enables your systems to grow and evolve as your curriculum requirements change.
With one source of the truth, connected by the cloud, you can have trust in the knowledge that your systems all reflect the most accurate and timely data. This can be easily shared with students, parents, teachers, and your other key members of staff. Ensure that your important curriculum planning is shared with all relevant parties, maintaining structured and consistent lesson planning.
Ease of integration
Cloud-based architecture offers a good level of flexibility. But a system that’s built with an understanding of integration at its very heart ensures maximum efficiency and the ability to build a system that works entirely according to your needs.
Your curriculum management software needs to be able to communicate easily with your wider school systems. Disparate software results in inaccuracy and increases repetitive admin.
By working with a supplier that understands the benefits of flexible integration, you can work to build a system that supports all school departments – including your curriculum planning and management. No one school system is the perfect all in one solution. That’s why the best suppliers are those that recognise the need to share data and build a secure integration or connection with other parties, including with LMS’ and SIS’.
Full school management
As mentioned, disparate systems can present more challenges than they solve. When considering a curriculum management software, it’s important to look beyond the one singular solution. The best providers will be able to prove their expertise across a wide range of school processes and data management.
Integrating third party systems can be beneficial when building a tech stack that suits a range of departments. But curriculum management software works best when powered by a wider full school management system.
Your school information system should power all areas of school life, including finance, admissions, teaching, and curriculum planning. When entering discussions with providers, consider taking a look at their additional offerings to get the most value out of your school software.
Knowledge of multiple curriculums
No one supplier can solve every challenge your school faces. Some solutions are more comprehensive than others, but there are some non-negotiable benefits of working with the right curriculum management software providers.
Discuss their existing client base and request case studies or testimonials from schools that operate using your curriculum. The best providers will be able to give multiple examples of their software’s success, across a variety of curriculums – including IB, UK, US, and more.
When managing multiple curricula within one school, you need a dedicated system that offers that capability. When managing multiple curricula within one school, you need a dedicated system that offers that capability. In schools that require GPA reporting, you need to track all student performance against GPAs regardless of curriculum.
With iSAMS Curriculum Manager, you can allocate grading schema and ensure consistency across curricula — so that IB 1-7 and Common Core/AP A-F grading are comparable and calculated within one system. Weighted GPA, unweighted GPA, and mixed-curriculum GPA for students studying both IB and US programmes are all supported natively.
Critically, the best curriculum management systems also preserve historical data. iSAMS Curriculum Manager introduces academic archiving — so classes, enrolments, and grades from previous years are retained rather than deleted at rollover. This makes year-on-year performance analysis possible for the first time, and provides the evidence base schools need for inspection, accreditation, and board reporting.
This expertise should serve you as their systems continue to develop, and opens the door to collaboration as your school’s requirements for curriculums evolve and grow. If their further customer base relies on swift development and adapting to changing demands in the education industry, then you can be reassured that the supplier can continue to meet your needs in the future.
Reporting student performance
Alongside clear curriculum management and grade calculations, it’s just as important to be able to share that performance with your school community. This includes educators and parents or guardians. This is why a full management system is key to getting the most out of your curriculum functionality.
At iSAMS, our Parent Portal integrates with the wider iSAMS management system. Sharing reports with your parent community is quick and easy, enabling them to keep track of their child's academic progress
Working in tandem with our School Reporting module, the iSAMS platform makes report generation straightforward during that busy time of year. For US and international curriculum schools, Curriculum Manager also supports transcript generation in US university format, updating in real time as grades are entered.Dedicated systems for International school needs
International schools differ from domestic schools in a variety of ways. They have a different set of requirements for their software. The best software suppliers will recognise this and be able to offer the flexibility and unique functionality that they need.
Schools that manage multiple curriculums require bespoke functionality to be as efficient as possible and keep their sets and classes in order, but they also need a range of other features in order to support the full school and its departments.
Conduct your search for a supplier with your full software needs in mind. This means working with providers that offer comprehensive and well-considered systems for all areas of school life – with dedicated solutions that are tailored to your needs.
Recognise your goals and software requirements
While it’s important to be aware of some key criteria for the best curriculum management software provider, it can be easy to make misguided decisions without a full understanding of your school, its requirements, and its goals.
Before implementing a new software, or even conducting a full software migration, make sure your chosen systems are meeting the expectations of your full school – including extended departments. A thorough understanding of your growth goals, and the specific targets for your new software, ensures you can be confident in your decision-making.
Generate a list of key functionality, strict requirements, and compromises. Attend any meeting fully armed with all the information your school needs to share. This is always the first step to considering any new software.
iSAMS school management solutions
The iSAMS school management system was built with the unique requirements of independent and international schools in mind. We understand that each school has different expectations from its software, and our goal is to continue providing the flexibility you need to evolve.
Our comprehensive management system fully supports international schools to manage multiple curricula, including UK, IB, and US. This is further supported by our Curriculum Manager module — available to all iSAMS schools — giving you full control over gradebook templates, set allocation, GPA calculation, transcript management, and historical academic archiving.
Learn more about Curriculum Manager: www.isams.com/platform/modules/curriculum-manager/
Watch a full school management system demo here: