Failing Subject Area Course Grades

Background

Campus Dashboard Metrics

Because of the need to closely monitor subject area performance, many school districts across the nation, including Chicago, Dallas and New York, have incorporated metrics on subject area performance into their internal performance management dashboards. In addition, during focus groups conducted with over 2,600 educators throughout Texas, the Failing Subject Area Grades metric, as presented in screen shots of the campus dashboard, was considered useful by the majority of respondents. 

Primary Metric

  • Failing Subject Area Grades: percentage of students with failing grades in one of the four core subject areas in the previous grading period.

User Interface

Dashboard Example

Figure 1 shows the Failing Subject Area Grades metric as seen on the campus dashboard.

Figure 1 TSDS Failing Subject Area Grades Metric

Status Definition on the Dashboard

Table 2: Metric Status Indicator for TSDS Failing Subject Area Grades

Metric Indicator 

Comparisons

Metric Title

Metric Sub-metric

Metric Status Indicator
 

Trend

Delta

Failing Subject Area GradesELA/Reading

Red = (Percentage) = if percentage of students failing one or more ELA/Reading courses is greater than or equal to the goal (default is 5%).

Green = (Percentage) = if percentages of students failing one or more ELA/Reading courses is less than the goal (default is 5%).

N/AThe difference between the Campus Goal and the calculated percentage of students failing the subject area course.

Mathematics

Red = (Percentage) = if percentage of students failing one or more Mathematics courses is greater than or equal to the goal (default is 5%).

Green = (Percentage) = if percentages of students failing one or more Mathematics courses is less than the goal (default is 5%).

N/A

The difference between the Campus Goal and the calculated percentage of students failing the subject area course.


 

Science

Red = (Percentage) = if percentage of students failing one or more Science courses is greater than or equal to the goal (default is 5%).

Green = (Percentage) = if percentages of students failing one or more Science courses is less than the goal (default is 5%).

N/A

The difference between the Campus Goal and the calculated percentage of students failing the subject area course.

 
Social Studies

Red = (Percentage) = if percentage of students failing one or more Social Studies courses is greater than or equal to the goal (default is 5%).

Green = (Percentage) = if percentages of students failing one or more Social Studies courses is less than the goal (default is 5%).		N/AThe difference between the Campus Goal and the calculated percentage of students failing the subject area course.

Trend Definition

In the full DCD implementation, the system will want to show prior year and final grades for each subject if the first grading period isn't complete. Furthermore, once the first grading period is complete, the trend shows the difference between first grading period and final year grade from the prior year.

Table 3 Trend Indicators for Failing Subject Area Course Grades

Trend Indicators: Objective is to indicate Course Grades

Up green

 

If there is an increase in the number of failing grades, falling grades or courses repeated, then display a gray arrow trending upward

Unchanged

If there is no change in the number of failing grades, falling grades or courses repeated from the prior grading period, then display two gray arrows pointing outward  indicating no change.

Down red

If there is a decrease in the number of failing grades, falling grades or courses repeated from the prior grading period, then display a gray arrow trending downward.

The trend does not show if the student is in the first grading period as data is not available. Trends are not reflected if data is not available for two or more grading periods.

Periodicity

The data is most actionable when loaded at the end of each grading period after grades are posted. Grading periods vary by state and district. In Texas, grading periods are typically six or nine weeks.

Table 4 Recommended Load Characteristics

Recommended Load Characteristics

Calendar

Throughout the school year

Frequency of data load

Grading Period

Latency

Grading Period

Interchange schema

Interchange-StudentGrade.xsd

Tooltips

The standard tool tips for the failing subject area grades metric definition, column headers, and help functions display for this metric.

The following are tooltips specific to the  metric:

  • Green metric status: OK
  • Red metric status: LOW
  • 'More' indicates drill down views for this metric
  • is ‘No change from the prior period'
  • is ‘Getting worse from the prior period’
  • is 'Getting better from the prior period' 

Business Rules

Data Assumptions

  • Student grade information is available for multiple grading periods for the current year. If the grade information is unavailable, the value is blank.
  • Student grade information is available through the grade.
  • Grades for each student are based on the latest grading period.
  • Course grades are numeric or letter-based.
  • District sets the value that drives the student thresholds (numeric and/or letter grade).

Data Anomalies

Anomalies

Best practice is to use footnotes to address these anomalies:

  • Loading of data from each grading period
  • Late enrollees may not have previous grading period grades from another school
  • Missing transcripts for transfer students

Footnotes

Footnotes are used to provide addition data information concerning the metric. Footnotes are sequential for the entire page. Therefore, a metric's footnote may not begin with the number 1.

The following footnotes appear below the metric:

  • Late enrollee students that have not been present for a full grading period should be noted by a designated icon
  • Missing transcripts for transfer students

Date of Refresh

Best practice is for the date of last data refresh to appear next the metric in the following format:

  • (Through Third Grading Period)

Implementation Considerations

Numeric or Letter Grading System

Best practice is for the metric to support both numeric and letter grading systems.

Late Enrollments

For late enrollment students, consider whether or not there is previous grading period data to compare to the latest grading period.

Frequency of Uploading Data

The metric computation implementation may vary depending on the periodicity of loading the data.

Current Grading Period

Data for the current grading period must exist for the Course Grades metric to exist.

Drill Downs

Drill Down Views

The dashboards include the option to see more detail that is associated with a specific metric. Table 7 lists the drill down views that are recommended for this metric.

Table 7 TSDS Failing Subject Area Course Grades Metric Drill Down Views
Student ListList of students who do not meet the threshold for this metric for the specified period.

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