What is "schooltool"

SchoolTool is a GPL licensed, free student information system for schools around the world. The goals of the project are to create a simple turnkey student information system, including demographics, gradebook, attendance, calendaring and reporting for primary and secondary schools, as well as a framework for building customized applications and configurations for individual schools or states.

SchoolTool is built as a free software/ open source software stack, licensed under the GNU General Public License, Version 2, written in Python using the Zope 3 framework.

The sub-projects of School Tool are as follows:

• The SchoolTool Calendar and SchoolBell are calendar and resource management tools for schools available as part of the Edubuntu Linux distribution.
• A SchoolTool student information system is being developed and tested in collaboration with schools
• CanDo is a SchoolTool-based skills tracking program developed by Virginia students and teachers to track which skills students are acquiring in their classes and at what level of competency.

SchoolTool is configured by default to act as what is often called a student information system or SIS. The focus is on tracking information related to students: demographics, enrollment grades, attendance, reporting. It is a subset of a complete “management information system” or MIS for schools, which might also cover systems like accounting.

SchoolTool is not a learning management system, or LMS, such as Moodle, although they share some overlapping feature sets, such as a gradebook. SchoolTool does not contain curriculum or learning objects.