Benchmark Performance
Background
District Dashboard Metrics
Benchmark assessments are assessments administered periodically throughout the school year, at specified times during a curriculum sequence, to evaluate students’ knowledge and skills relative to an explicit set of longer-term learning goals. The design and choice of benchmark assessments is driven by the purpose, intended users, and uses of the instruments. Benchmark assessment can inform policy, instructional planning, and decision-making at the classroom, school and/or district levels.
Primary Metric
- Benchmark Performance: the percentage of students meeting a given threshold on a benchmark assessment.
User Interface
Dashboard Example
Figure 1 shows the Benchmark Assessment metric as seen on the district dashboard.
Figure 1 TSDS Benchmark Assessment Mastery Metric
Status Definition
The Status Indicator is determined by district goals. The TSDS default threshold for each core subject is 70%.
Metric Indicator | ||
Metric Name | Sub-metric Name | Metric Status Indicator |
Benchmark Assessment Mastery | ELA/Reading | Red (Below) = if rolled up total grade level student assessment score percentage is less than district goal Green (Above) = if student assessment score percentage is greater than or equal to district goal |
Mathematics | Red (Below) = if student assessment score percentage is less than district goal Green (Above) = if student assessment score percentage is greater than or equal to district goal | |
Science | Red (Below) = if student assessment score percentage is less than district goal Green (Above) = if student assessment score percentage is greater than or equal to district goal | |
Social Studies | Red (Below) = if student assessment score percentage is less than district goal Green (Above) = if student assessment score percentage is greater than or equal to district goal |
Trend Definition
Table 3 lists the trend indicators for the Benchmark Assessment Mastery metric.
The trend does not display if the student has not taken a previous benchmark assessment.
Trend Indicators: Objective is to indicate Benchmark Assessment Mastery | |||
Up green | If the value for the current period is more than 5 percentage points higher than the prior period | ||
Unchanged | If the value for the current period is less than or equal to 5 percentage points higher or less than or equal to 5 percentage points lower than the prior time frame | ||
Down red | If the value for the current period is more than 5 percentage points lower than the prior period |
Delta Definition
Delta Indicators: Objective is to indicate Benchmark Performance | |||
Metric Name | Sub-Metric Name | District Goal | Delta |
Benchmark Performance | ELA/Reading | Set District Goal | Red (Percentage) = if the calculated delta is less than the campus goal Black (Percentage) = if the calculated delta is equal to or greater than the campus goal |
Mathematics | Set District Goal | Red (Percentage) = if the calculated delta is less than the campus goal Black (Percentage) = if the calculated delta is equal to or greater than the campus goal | |
Science | Set District Goal | Red (Percentage) = if the calculated delta is less than the campus goal Black (Percentage) = if the calculated delta is equal to or greater than the campus goal | |
Social Studies | Set District goal | Red (Percentage) = if the calculated delta is less than the campus goal Black (Percentage) = if the calculated delta is equal to or greater than the campus goal |
Periodicity
Recommended Load Characteristics | |
Calendar | Throughout the school year |
Frequency of data load | Beginning and end of year |
Latency | 4 weeks |
Interchange schema | Interchange-StudentAssessment.xsd |
Tooltip
The standard tooltips for the metric definition, column headers, and help functions display for this metric.
The following tooltips are specific to the Benchmark metric:
- Green metric status: OK
- Red metric status: LOW
- 'More' indicates drill down views for the metric
- is ‘No change from the prior period'
- is ‘Getting worse from the prior period’
- is 'Getting better from the prior period'
Business Rules
All assessment data is displayed by the specific subject area:
- ELA/Reading
- Writing
- Mathematics
- Science
- Social Studies
Data will only appear for each subject if at least one student has taken an assessment in the subject area.
Data Source Requirements
- Benchmark assessments are loaded into the dashboards periodically as they are administered throughout the year.
- Transfer students (late enrollment) who do not have complete transcripts should be indicated.
- State criteria differs by state and by year. Developers have the option to adjust the thresholds to fit specific organizational criteria.
Calculated Values
Table 5 defines how values for each subject are calculated. The result of the calculation displays in the Value column.
Metric | Calculation |
Benchmark Performance | Percentage of students scoring 70% or better on the most recent benchmark administration in that subject area |
Data Anomalies
Anomalies
- Not all campuses in the district may administer benchmark exams or may not administer exams consistently throughout the year.
- Students from all grade levels or all students in a grade may not participate in benchmark assessments.
- Writing performance will only be available if campuses in the district administer Writing benchmarks designated as such and not designated ELA/Reading. Otherwise, results on assessments related to Writing performance will be included in ELA/Reading.
- Late enrollees may have taken Benchmark Assessment tests at their previous school
- Benchmark results include a number of administration dates.
- Student administrations may vary due to absences.
Footnotes
An icon appears next to any metric where students have been excluded. When the user hovers over the icon, count of students who have been excluded appear in a tooltip with the reason(s) for exclusion. By clicking on the icon, the data administrator will link to the data administrator’s page for more detail.
Best practice is to exclude and footnote students based on the following criteria:
- Missing data
Date of Refresh
Best practice is for the date of last data refresh to appear next the metric in the following format:
- (Through April 2010) –container level
(05/10) – granular level
Implementation Considerations
Reporting Retakes of the Same Benchmark Assessment Test
Currently the metric reports the most recent result for a given benchmark assessment test by type, grade level, and subject.
Drill Downs
Drill Down Views
The dashboards include the option to see more detail that is associated with a specific metric. Table 8 lists the drill down views that are recommended for this metric.
Campus List | List of all campuses and their metric values for the specified time period |