I am the testing coordinator for my high school and as such I receive many different test scores for my students as they progress through high school. These test scores come in hard copy reports that I file away in my filing cabinet. Often, I am asked by counselors for a particular student’s test score(s). I then have to dig through several different files to find that score report. Obviously, my job would be much easier if I had all of thse scores on an easily searchable computer database. Any suggestions on what might be the best, user-friendly option to look at? Thanks in advance.
A database may be overkill. You might consider using a spreadsheet program like Excel.
Microsoft Access if you have PCs.
For Mac, Filemaker Pro
Either should do what you need and be user friendly. Tons of support and walkthroughs all over the web, you should be able to create quite sophisticated data storage/retrival systems.
Actually, FileMaker Pro is available for Windows as well, and therefore is an ideal choice if you anticipate ever needing to deploy for both platforms simultaneously. And it scales up better than Access. (The flip side is that for a lot of functionality that Access “just has”, FileMaker gives you the lumber and you get to build your own. The flip side of that, in turn, is that in Access, if and when you do desire a functionality that’s not provided in one of the templates or wizards, the dev environment is far more user-hostile and has a much steeper learning curve, especially if you’ve never touched Visual Basic in other contexts)
If the only thing you’re looking for is scores (with a few additional identifying items), I’d go with Excel (or Lotus 1-2-3 or something similar).
The old Excel permitted more than 16,000 rows/entries which would be more than adequate for a high school, (although not for a major university) and the newer Excel boosts that above 65,000, which is still not adequate for a big university, but might be good for decades in a high school.
Spreadsheets have the advantage that they are extremely easy to port and most administrative users will have experience with them, already, unlike databases. (Set it up on a server and tell them to enter their own data–or capture it from the school’s existing recording system.) They would also have built-in functions easily applied to GPAs by individual, grade, or class and have both search and filter features to assist in finding individual data elements.
There is nothing wrong with using a database, but it sounds a bit like overkill, to me.