Gradequick – Arrrrgghhhhh!

Posted on by Patrick Cauley

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Image by Phaitoon: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=2588 Photoshopped by Patrick Cauley

I am a frustrated educator. I mean, I am really, really frustrated. If you could see me right now . . . well you would see me typing, but pretend I am wringing a towel out of utter frustration. I’ve never been a big fan of GradeQuick but have been forced to use it. If you want to find out why this program has angered me read on past the break and if you’re a GradeQuick user yourself please read on and leave your own opinion below.

Before I get to the straw that broke the camel’s back, let me tell you where this all started. Back in 2003 I was using GradeQuick (made for Windows 3.1 mind you) on my laptop that was running Windows ME. It took one floppy disk to install this program that set me back around $75 if I remember correctly. It worked well enough, it was pretty stable and ran fine on my machine. It did what I expected it to do with little problems.

Now fast forward to 2009 when I start using GradeQuick (the latest incarnation might I add) because it is tied into my whole school. It is a big disappointment when I open up GradeQuick and it looks the SAME as my Windows 3.1 version. Not only does this latest incarnation look the same (which isn’t all that attractive) it actually performs the same. So let me sum this up. I used a version made for a 1998 computer and over a decade later I get more or less the same ugly version.

The interface itself works, but it could be improved upon sooo easily that it is painful. For example, when you are looking through the student information the parent’s email address is there but you can’t just click on it and have your email client open. Oh no, that makes sense. You can’t even hit ctrl + c to copy it and paste it in an email. That is also too much for GradeQuick. Instead you have to right click and chose Copy to get it. Also, to get to the email address, you have to click and scroll, scroll, scroll. Communication between teachers and parents is a huge determiner of a student’s success. Wouldn’t it make sense to make it a click away? It makes the process of emailing parents very slow, cumbersome, and basically lousy.

Here is another thing I wish they would have clued in on. Emailing parents reports would be a great way to send some information. Now to their defense they do have an online companion called Edline (which we use), where we can publish these reports, but sometimes there is just one or two students that you are concerned about and sending it to Edline doesn’t guarantee that the parents will see it. It would just be better to send that report straight to their inbox and get the discussion going instead of just publishing it on a website.

My school uses Windows but I like to use my Mac (personal preference), so my school let me install the Mac version of GradeQuick. All I can say is wow. First it had to launch a plug-in (which does not work on Lion-more coming on that) and then it would launch GradeQuick. This process was not quick (despite its clever name) at all. It took a few minutes for it to open and then it would crash around 10% of the time. Not to mention how ugly and using the program itself was nowhere near as refined as the Windows version. It was actually pretty painful to use as it did not have all the features the Windows version had and the features it did have were often in different places and not as easy (if you can believe that) to access. After a month and a half I abandoned it and used a PC in my lab to do my grades.

Many of these changes could have been made, I mean it is been the same system for about a decade, you can’t tell me that no one in this company that serves thousands of schools around the world thought about updating their software and making it a little friendlier and more enjoyable to use. So, when Mac released Lion, I was hoping that Edline (the company that makes GradeQuick) would have updated the software. The reason I thought this would happen was because the plug-in that needed to launch GradeQuick is not supported in any way in Lion, but GradeQuick let me down again. They sent emails to Mac users and instead of quoting, I’ll just put the last paragraph below so you don’t think I’m making this up:

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Are you kidding me? Limited time? Folks, Lion was seeded to developers in February 2011. That means the developers (like the peeps at Edline) had from February to the date of the release which was the end of July. That is five months. Also, the plug-in (which does not work with Lion) was something needed on Macs over five years ago. Since Apple switched to Intel processors there has been no need for them; Edline could have updated their software then!

Before you say “Patrick, cut them some slack,” let us keep in mind that Edline is not a person coding in their spare time and hasn’t had time or resources to update their software. This is a company whose full time job it is to make educational software for its clients! They have clearly dropped the ball. I have no idea why they cling to the past and refuse to acknowledge the present until it smashes down their front door but I am sick of it. What really got me was how they have the gaul to blame Apple for their shortcomings. Really? Just say that you haven’t developed it yet or are working on it, don’t blame Apple in a passive-aggressive tone for this change which just about everyone (even me and I’m not a programmer) saw coming.

Edline, please get it together-you can be much better than this. I thought your software was very good in the late 90’s, but now over ten years later it needs to be redesigned with your users in mind. Your software works OK. Now please try to make it work great!

Glad I got that off my chest.

Published by Patrick Cauley

I teach middle school technology and love to play around with tech and teach students and colleagues alike. You can read my blog at www.itbabble.com

64 thoughts on “Gradequick – Arrrrgghhhhh!”

  1. I’ve been using GradeQuick for about 15 years now (on a Mac) and it has worked fine. I’ve dealt with the fact that the copy/paste feature didn’t work on a mac YET (promised it was working on it but really wasn’t). I only used it as a simple grade book and that was fine with me. Now I get the latest version and many of the simple features that the previous version had are missing. Are you kidding me? I still can’t copy or paste. I can’t drop low scores anymore. I can’t even sort tests or students. The report choices suck! This program sucks! I work at a college that uses Blackboard and that program is way superior.

    1. John,

      Good news (sort of) for you. Edline (who owns Gradequick) and Blackboard merged about two years ago so there may (emphasis on the may) be a new Gradequick coming down the poipeline that talks with Blackboard.

  2. How can it be that 5 years later and this is still a problem? I have a similar story. I paid $85 for the computer and Palm Pilot version of Easy Grade Pro, which I loved. LOVED I say… But, then Edline took over and killed it. You have to be online, download the program to run the online version and there is NO iPad or Android version. Why did they have Palm but not other apps?

  5. We use Edline and Gradequick in our school district as well. I HATE it! First of all, it was sprung on us with NO training other than playing around with it. No one seems to know how to use it effectively. That was bad enough but then I tried to access it on my MacBook at home and was stunned to see that the version for Mac is almost useless! Even the limited shortcuts that could be used on my PC at school were not available on the Mac version. Also the reports are extremely difficult to use. I wish I could say that our school district will be changing but I don’t see it happening. It is so frustrating!

    1. Oh Den, you feel my pain. We have finally gotten rid of it this year, but have replaced with a brand new product. We are still working out those kinks.

      Best of luck and keep making noise. It is borderline criminal that they charge schools for that Mac version. Excel would be better in my opinion.

  6. I am required to use Edline/ Gradequick.. I just want to say, so the whole world knows, I HATE EDLINE & GRADEQUICK!!! It is the most illogical online gradebook that I have encountered. I have had instances where my student’s grades have just disappeared. Poof, they vanished! I use Mac and Ipad. It doesn’t play well with them. I am told that next year we will use something else. I pray we do or I might have no vocal cords left because I have been screaming my frustrations out because Edline/Gradequick is just so darn stupid!!!!

    1. I hear you Elizabeth and even though our teachers use Macs here, we do not allow them to use the Mac version of GradeQuick Web. We have virtualized the Windows version and while they are at school they can access that and input their grades. What kind of a company can guarantee the data of their client. They aren’t being hacked and data is being destroyed is simply their lousy system. I’ve been told that they are one of the cheapest games in town which is why they are so wide spread.

      Our school is also looking at alternatives. Hopefully something will come up. Either way, Edline has had it’s chance. I hope BlackBoard can do something better with this archaic system.

  7. I agree. Gradequick/edline is the worst grading program ever. If your school is thinking of converting please convince them not to. How ridiculous that they can’t develop an app for iPhone and iPad!

    I HATE EDLINE!

  8. GradeQuick has designated “superusers” at our schools. If you have questions as a teacher, they try to direct you to your “superuser” to get help from. These people are NOT employees of edline and they’re not paid to help others. How cheesy is that!

    I guess the one good feature about gradequick is that I can easily transfer grades when I use graderjoe to grade my multiple choice tests.

  10. I am new to a school in NH that uses Edline. I’ve heard so much over the years about Edline I expected much better. It’s the simple things in life that make life worthwhile…
    I would like to view my classes in the order I teach them A, C, D, E, F, G, I, J
    Instead they are in some weird order relative to class # in the system and we can’t change that!
    I used Aspen at my last job & it was so sophisticated I feel like I’ve gone back in time.
    And I don’t have access to my tools in Grade Quick for the Mac [which I use at home, too].
    Very disappointing as a teacher of 21st century technology to use 19th century programming. 😦

  11. Sad, but true, I am using Labor Day weekend to set up my Edline pages for my classes. Also sad is that I will be using my daughter’s abandoned PC to do so. It cannot be done from my Mac, even though I am still running Snow Leopard. And alas, my favorite tool the iPad is also out of the running. I have some unique problems with gradequik. At present I have 12 classes, but probably by next week I will have 20 or so. This is because some students will see me once instead of twice in a six day cycle. They will each have an individual class, because otherwise the student schedules come out wrong. When the semester change over comes it will take a few weeks to get my new classes posted because gradequik doesn’t believe how many classes I have. Being an art teacher I often have to post pictures which I always have to run through Photoshop to make them the smallest size possible. Just sharing the joy.
    Agusta

    1. Agusta, thanks for sharing your pain and hopefully you don’t feel like you’re alone out there. I have been informed this is our last year with Edline and Gradequick (hooray for me!) That sounds ridiculous with all those different classes. It sounds like your admin needs to get a better student management system or figure out how to use it properly.

  13. Our Middle School has been using GQ and now GQ Web for many years. Many teachers have been asking for a way to copy assignments and tests from one gradebook to another since they teach the same subject all day to different students. So they enter all the assignments/tests/quizzes, etc in a gradebook for their 1st period class. The rest of their classes all have identical or nearly identical assignments. It would seem blatantly obvious that they should only have to do this for one class, then copy it to others. Despite requests for this feature, it can’t be done.
    Better yet…we implemented GQ Web at our elementary school. The good folks at GQ sais it was easy to do skills based report cads. Of course, they did not mention that a grade scale would need to be created by every teacher for every skill…they were so pleased to hear that.
    They use √+, √, and √- for a lot of skill grades…..this is too much fun
    When we called GQ support to modify a report card template (which we were told was part of the deal) it took well over an hour for the tech to make some very simple changes to the existing template. Also, getting the “√” symbol to show up on the report card grading scale was very difficult, to the point where the tech told me we should have been required to pay for a customized report card. Really? A “√” is not a standard grade for elementary school skills?
    And of course, when teachers have a PC at home and a Mac at work, the “√” can get scrambled into an unrecognizable character. One tech told me so, it was a known issue. I should get me to a PC and fix those, and oh yeah, use a PC, log in as the GQ admin and send all the grades to the office, since sending them form a Mac may cause conflicts. Another tech told us, “huh? That’s nothing I’ve heard of.”

    This is not a well written nor well-maintained app.

  14. I am a high school teacher in Illinois. A few years back, my school district adopted Edline and Gradequick, requiring everyone to learn and use them. I’ll say that it is fairly easy to post assignments, PowerPoints, links, etc. on my class web sites. But I have really, really had it with Gradequick. I use the online Gradequick on PC, so my frustration comes without the added joy of Ediine’s answer to Mac users.

    Everthing takes longer with Gradequick. This should be Edline’s slogan. Intuitive user interface it is not. In fact, today, after another cumbersome session of entering scores and updating my grades on Gradequick, I googled, “gradequick is a lousy program.” Patrick Cauley’s article/rant came up first, and I have enjoyed reading it and the comments below. I’ll probably post it on Facebook.

    Thank you, Patrick, and thank you to the people who posted their comments.

    1. No problem Ben thanks for the comment. When I wrote the rant it was out of frustration but then when a bunch of people started chiming in, it became clear that I was not alone. I don’t know if the good people at Edline will ever read it, but hopefully some decision makers at some other schools will and try to ditch Edline. Hopefully.

  15. Does anybody out there have experience with eSchoolPlus by Sungard? The state of Arkansas Department of Education has told school districts that we will be required to move to this in the next couple of years. It can’t be worse than GradeQuick and Edline can it?

      1. Yes, it is awful!!! In my school both faculty and support staff alike have had added stress to their job now that we have been forced to use it. EVerything we do on it takes way longer than before. There are so many things that require so many clicks and by that time, most of us forget what we were even trying to do. What can we do about it?!! I am so frustrated and no one will talk about it.

  16. Please let me know if there is anywhere we can actually post reviews of gradequick that can be read by a larger audience. I really H A T E having to use this program. They are NON responsive to the needs of their users. I use a Mac and they are even WORSE about Macs. Please let me know where I can post a product review and, perhaps, save another school making the same mistake we made.

    They have run about two system upgrades behind Apple. It is the ONE program that is holding our technology advances BACK. GradeQuick and Edline – a marriage made in H—L L.

    1. Mark I feel your pain, but I doubt that the good people at Edline are even paying attention. In October of 2011 they merged with Blackboard (the learning management system) and now at edline.com it is difficult to find any information about Gradequick or Easy Grade Pro. I have a feeling that they are going to merge the two systems and start pushing them onto their current client base.

      Hopefully with emerging technologies (schoology, edmodo, edu 2.0) that offer free alternatives to edline’s service, the good people at edline will pay attention or go out of business. Either way we will benefit in the long run.

  18. Forgive my language but Gradequick is the worst piece of shit “solution” I have ever worked with in my life. The people running this business (“running” is a stretch… more like “receiving income from”) clearly have no interest in serving their customers. I and the teachers in our organization will dance in the streets when we move to another solution during the next school year. For now we are married to this garbage and it is the utter bane of our existences.

    If any educators or administrators are reading this, I beg of you, do not channel any resources toward this horrible non-solution. Please, do the world a favor, and evaluate the emerging alternate solutions that are on the table, so that the market can speak and GradeQuick/Edline will die the death it deserves. Does the district nearby use GradeQuick? GREAT. DO NOT CHASE THEM OFF THAT CLIFF. Find a solution that will actually HELP your teachers and admins and SAVE time rather than create more messes. Do anything and everything possible in your power to avoid GradeQuick. Paper-based documentation is better than this. It has caused tremendous pain to students, teachers, administrators, and parents. We have wasted AT LEAST 200 man hours on trying to use this piece of garbage. We are having to define processes in our school based entirely around its inflexibility and nonsense.

    I back up the blog author’s words 100%. This application looks, feels, and performs as though it was written by outsourced Romanian Windows 95 devs in 1994, after which point GradeQuick stopped investing any money into developments and improvements. It is utterly inflexible. The reports pushed out to parents would look natural on a dot-matrix printer. I feel bad for the customer support folks who are always super nice and well-versed and must have to deal with an endless stream of chumps like me who got sold on this thing and are ready to poke our eyes out with forks out of the resulting frustrations.

    What is even more stunning is that you wrote this post in August. Fast forward to 6 months later and THEY STILL DON’T HAVE A SOLUTION FOR LION!!! Oh wait they do, it’s in beta… I wrote to them in November to request access to it. NOPE! NO RESPONSE! So I called last week to get it from them. Turns out their beta is read only! Yep that’s right – an application for inputting grades into gradebooks… THAT IS READ-ONLY. Oh but don’t worry, the customer service rep assured me that the Lion plugin was under development and will be released in “a couple of months”.

    Wake up, GradeQuick management. You are living in a world where iOS exists (not that you would have any idea of what that is). In 2012, that is your benchmark. You are in the business of selling telegraphs to a semi-captive audience whilst the rest of the world is now using cell phones. Do you reinvest your shareholders’ equity back into R&D? OH HELL NO! Of course not! That would actually ensure that your business remains sustainable for longer than the next couple of years!

    If I was on the Edline board of directors, and I took a look at GradeQuick for more than 5 minutes, I would have all of upper management laid off immediately for gross incompetence, and if I would initiate a lawsuit against the CTO.

    1. Dear Lord and I thought I hated Edline and Gradequick. Your loathing of this company definitely takes it to new heights. Hopefully the people at Edline stumble upon this blog (though I doubt it). Whenever I review just about any other service people from that company almost always stop by and leave a comment. This post is quickly my most commented on and when you Google Gradequick it’s pretty close to the top, but since they don’t even listen to their paying customers directly, I guess it is too much to expect a response from anyone there to respond to a blog.

      I’d love to see you as a member of the board to implement some real change, but then again, you would probably be surrounded by a lot of people who think that things are going fine and change is not all that necessary. Your language is A-OK and I’m surprised you were able to only limit yourself to one instance of profanity.

      Thanks for stopping by and keep striving for something better (which is probably nearly anything at this point).

      Patrick

  19. HI Guys,
    After sooooo many complaints about edline and gradequick from teacher and parents, we are changing this year. Has anyone used Jupiter grades, or school loop. Any suggestions?. We used Aeries a few years ago, but I think there maybe another program that is easier for the students to see homework. Thanks

  20. […] Back in August I wrote a rant about Gradequick the grading program that our school (and tens of thousands of others) use. The rant basically stemmed from Edline (the company behind Gradequick) not having any support for Mac OSX 10.7 – more commonly known as Lion. They claimed that they did not have time (a hardly believable statement in my opinion) to develop it. They also said that they would have something in place in Decemeber. So, I placed them in my crosshairs and went to town and have been waiting ever since. You can read the rant in its entirety here. […]

  21. Great and accurate article. Companies that don’t react to their customer satisfaction concerns, need to be avoided. Hopefully, a lot of school administrators and IT folks looking for Edline/GradeQuick-like products will stumble upon your site.

    An aside note: Online I’ve been seeing GradeQuick customers dating back to 2009, increasingly ask for Ipad support. I asked GQ Support when tablets would be supported and got this response back – “We are aware of the interest in GradeQuick for iPads and Android tablets. We do not currently have these products available, and are unable to give you a date for availability of these products.”

  23. I absolutely HATE GradeQuick. There are so many programs that are so much better. I used Easy Grade Pro until I was forced to change to GradeQuick by my school district. The program is soooo NOT user friendly and unwieldy. I am a Mac user–one of few in my school district and probably the only one using GradeQuick for Mac. Last time the upgrade to Snow Leopard took a year for them to finally get a plug-in to work. So it doesn’t surprise me that there is no plug-in for Lion. Needless to say, I’ll have to wait to update my teacher mac at school so I can still do grades without having to use bootcamp or something else to get to windows. I just hope it will be fixed by next summer when I am scheduled to get a new Mac lab installed. They will all have Lion!

    1. Jacki,

      Here’s to hoping. I also am not a fan of it (as you can tell). How was Easy Grade Pro? I’ve seen some comments here that say it is not bad at all. If you want to ditch Bootcamp you could probably check out Virtual Box form Oracel. It’s free and should let you set up a virtual machine on your Mac that way they can run side by side. http://www.virtualbox.org.

      1. I used Easy Grade Pro for at least 10 years before anybody in my school even thought about using a grade book program. It was a real backward move for me. I loved EGP! I have VM ware on my computer but I try to avoid it whenever possible.

  24. I would give a prize to someone who could come up with a simple xcel template for this. Gradequick/edline are the worst. I’m really surprised no developer out there has done it better. Seems like it would be easy. I ‘upgraded’ (loosely used) to GQ 11 and it looks exactly the same interface as the 2005 version. I’d love to keep using it but for some reason it defaults to the 1911 calendar when I enter dates. Fairly easy fix, I thought. “Yes, we’re aware of that. You really should upgrade.” AAArgh indeed.

    1. Well said! Excel would be wonderful. The problem at our school is that we our administration runs Admin Plus (made by edline) that keeps all the students confidential records. It looks truly awful. I also know what you’re talking about the interface not being updated. I had a version that was built for Windows 3.1 and it looks the same as our current version. Just exasperated about this situation and this lousy program that should be so much better.

  25. I just got off of the phone with Customer Support. I talked to three different people and no one could even answer the question, “when does the plug-in update for Lion come out?” No one knew. They just passed me around from person to person (I got the same person twice). I can’t call their customer support without becoming irate. So, if anyone wanted to yell at Edline, don’t worry. I just did that for you.

    1. Thanks for stopping by Tampa Educator. I know how you feel. Luckily our IT director deals with Edline and for a while they refused to talk to him because he could not get straight answers and he was just giving them the “old what for.” The email they sent me (back in August) said that it would be this winter. I’m not holding my breath though.

  26. The bottom line is that Edline/Gradequick has monopoly on the cheap end of this kind of software. I have asked admin at my school why we continue to use software that doesn’t work as advertised and has TERRIBLE support. The answer is always the same… we can’t afford a better system. What edine/gradequick needs is a little competition. How hard could it be to compete with a company with such a brutal track record?

    1. Evan, thanks for bringing a little clarity to this discussion. Being a teacher I rarely have much insight on the business aspect at my school. This answer makes perfect sense and I long for the day (and I think it’s coming) where some competitors pop up and start beating Edline into some sort of shape. I just wish they would listen a little more to their customers and make some changes. I just find it disappointing.

  27. Thank you for your post! Finally an answer! The IT folks had no answer for why I couldn’t download the plugin and no one at the company was getting back to them. I just moved to an Italian school, and teachers pretty much provide their own computers, but we use Grade Quick. The computers at school run Windows 07 I think, they are in Italian, and only have European keyboards. So basically, I’m going to have to borrow one, once a week or so to enter grades. Awesome.

    I feel your pain. You would think if they want everyone to migrate to Easy Grade Pro or something they would just migrate the systems rather than just stop supporting Grade Quick. Presumably, we pay licensing fees every year anyway. ARGH. BTW- Easy Grade Pro is awesome, much, much easier and a much better interface.

    Thanks for your help!

    1. Heather,

      No worries and i’m glad it helped. It is a bit discouraging and hopefully they will produce a solution soon. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. We always love comments!

  28. Okay, so I don’t have Lion yet on my Mac. I’m still running Leopard so I can make the GradeQuick plugin work. However, it opens every class I teach every time I open it. The PC version opens one class at a time with a drop down box. The Mac version takes too much time to open everything. Anyone know why or how to change this.

    1. Thanks for another comment! To my knowledge and from the way I’ve experienced the Gradequick web, there is no way to change this. At least not at the teacher level and I don’t think my IT director could change it either. We are a PC school and it works pretty well. It’s Gradequick but online. I’ve seen many thread in the apple discussion forums about this from Snow Leopard (http://goo.gl/1n5jQ). I am not sure why it has not been addressed and I don’t think there is anything you can do about it at the time. Reading through the thread is quite enlightening to know that others are sharing your and my frustrations with this program.

  29. Hey Eric, thanks for stopping and a big thanks for the comment. I actually do have an email address where you can reach out and voice your concerns. Here it is:
    Edline GQ Support
    Don’t feel bad for updating your wife’s laptop. You guys did what millions of other Mac users have already done (myself included). You’re not at fault here, it is squarely on Edline here. Good luck this year.

    1. Well…here’s the response I got today, as copied from the email they sent me:
      “I apologize for the inconvenience, unfortunately Edline does not have any plans to make GradeQuick compatible with Lion. However, Easy Grade Pro is available for single-users and can be purchased over the phone for $48 + $10 shipping and handling. The single-user version is not web based but we do offer a web-based version for schools.”

      Um. Not exactly what I was hoping for…

      1. Holy Moley! No plans? That is definitely different than the email I received saying that support will come in December. I guess it’s OK. I mean who uses a Mac anyway? Those computers are terrible. Oh wait, no, those computers actually are pretty awesome and millions of people use them. Just when I thought they couldn’t disappoint me anymore, I guess they are good at something. 🙂

    2. Feel your pain. Edline “hopes” to have the Lion Gradequick plug-in ready in two weeks though (according to their IT last Friday). I’m not holding my breath. I honestly blame my school too for using such outdated software. Edline essentially said they were in no hurry to update Gradequick because it is out of date; then I got a 10 minute sales pitch on their new grade software. I tried to explain to them that I had not control over what the school forces me to use. Oh well… at least I still have an job in education…for now…

      1. If anyone does hear of a Lion-friendly plug in, please post here and or email me…I’ve stopped trying after I was told they weren’t planning to support Lion at all…Thanks for the update, though, Jess.

  30. Have been scratching my head for days over this, glad I found your post. I guess I shouldn’t have updated my wife’s laptop to Lion, huh? This is, indeed, a frustrating program, even when you are just a teacher’s tech-support guy…

    Is there anywhere (email or web form) I can go to make myself a nuisance to the EdLine/Gradquick people until they get a Lion-capable solution??

  31. Patrick,
    Thank you for your quick response. This morning we decided to go back to Gradelink until they get ALL of the kinks out of Gradequick for Macs, and until they update it overall. Not only are the teachers unhappy with Gradequick, the parents have started to complain about it when they go into their account on Edline! Your response really helped me in deciding what to present to the school principals. Good luck to you, and thanks again for your “Babble”! It was very helpful. Sincerely, Debra Fritsch

  32. Patrick, We are using Edline at our school, and are trying to implement Gradequick into the system like they advertise. The teachers hate the program and want to stay with Gradelink. Do you know if Gradelink can be integrated with Edline? We had installed Lion on all the teacher’s Macbooks and then found out that we had to take it back off for Gradequick to work. But it doesn’t work well for the teachers. The screen keeps freezing up, We’ve put a lot of work into pulling this all together. We use Schoolminder for billing which Edline also owns. We were hoping to be top notch in the education world, but we are struggling to make GQ work. Any advice as to what to do? Thanks, D.Fritz

    1. Debra, thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. I am sorry to say that Gradelink is not compatible with Edline. Sorry for that news. Edline has said that they will have GradeQuick up and running for Lion in December (which obviously does not help you).
      The teachers can still use Edline to post important information and assignments and use it as a portal to reach out to parents and students. In the meantime I would use Gradelink for the rest of the year. That way when Edline gets it together and has some support for Lion, your school can ease into GradeQuick.

      –Just my two cents. I’d be curious to hear what decision you guys make. Keep me informed. 🙂

  33. THANK YOU, THANK YOU , THANK YOU for tapping into my brain and blogging for me!! How did you do that?!?! LOL
    Seriously, I identify with every word 100%!! Same thing happened with Snow Leopard and today, I went to launch GQ since I upgrades to Lion and sure enough… *****Baaaaa****
    At the EdTech conference I just went to, they claim to be just about to release a “truly” web based GQ (GQ “web” is NOT web at all! It just stores info there and you’re running a local App!) but if it hasn’t happened for the beginning of the school year, I highly doubt it will happen any time soon… Especially since now they have to scramble to get it working with Lion!

    Again, great article, I hope they read it!

    2. Felix,
      Thanks for stopping by and I’m glad I’m not the only one out there who is more than frustrated with this product. I’m not sure how much our school pays for it, but I’m sure it’s expensive. It is just a matter of time (I hope) before a proper web-based grading system comes along. Until that day, hang in there mi amigo.

  34. GREAT REVIEW! I totally agree with pretty much all you said in your article, especially at the end of your article. Thank you, this info is very useful as always. Keep up the good work! You’ve got +1 more reader of your super blog:) Isabella S.

  35. Do you know anything about the relationship between easy grade Pro and Edline? Is that a way for Mac users to use Edline and bypass grade quick?

    1. I’ve never used Easy Grade Pro. All I know is that it is part of the Edline software family. Edline.net (the online companion) is a separate product from Gradequick and Easy Grade Pro. You will need to check with your school to see if you they have that ability.

      If yes, you can use Edline without the software since Edline is totally online. You will be able to give notifications about important events, homework assignments, and if parents sign up with Edline, you will be able to email them. However, the way our school has set it up (and it may different with yours), we have to manually send grade reports to Edline. For this we need GradeQuick. It doesn’t take too long, but if the software can’t work on your machine then you can’t upload those grades. Check with your school’s technology department to see if Edline is an option or if you guys are just using Easy Grade Pro.

    1. The sad thing is, they don’t have to be! Edline has had plenty of time to update, develop, and create new software but they just live in the past for some reason. I wish they were more like Edmodo and talk to the people that use their software. They claim that at least one school in every 50 states uses, so there are plenty of people to discuss it with. It’s just disappointing. 😦

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