Dashboard Metrics
Advanced Course Potential
Background
District Dashboard Metrics
Because of the importance of rigorous coursework to postsecondary success and to support district efforts to increase advanced course completion, several districts, including Charlotte and Dallas, are beginning to incorporate into their internal performance management dashboards metrics to monitor advanced course enrollment among eligible students. In focus group discussions conducted with over 2,600 educators throughout Texas, the Advanced Course Potential metric was considered useful by 92% of respondents when reported at the campus level, but by only 85% of respondents when reported at the student level. The implication is that this metric, though still valuable to teachers in targeting their individual students for advanced coursework, may be even more useful to district leaders and counselors in developing strategic, district-wide approaches to increasing enrollment and success in advanced courses.
Primary Metric
- Advanced Course Potential - Current Year: for the current year only, whether or not a student has demonstrated potential for advanced coursework based on state assessments (the student's STAAR EOC is Level III) and whether or not they are enrolled in advanced courses (AP, IB or DE courses) in the four core subject areas.
User Interface
Dashboard Example
Figure 1 shows the Advanced Course Potential metric as seen on the district dashboard.
Figure 1 TSDS Advanced Course Potential Metric
Status Definition
The Status column is the percentage of students that demonstrate advanced course potential that are not currently enrolled in an advanced course. Advanced courses include AP courses, IB courses, other advanced courses identified locally in the course characteristic, and dual enrollment (also known as dual credit courses).
"Demonstrated advanced course potential" is based on a student's attainment of STAAR Level III. STAAR Level III is determined by whether a student meets the state-defined performance level that classify students as Level III. The results are determined by a specific STAAR flag indicating the student achieved an “Advanced” score (equivalent in concept to the TAKS commended score).
Table 2 defines the Status indicators. The actual percentage is displayed with the indicator.
Metric Status Indicator | |||
Metric Name | Sub-metric Name | Metric Status Indicator | Campus Attainment |
Advanced Course Potential | ELA/Reading | Red (Percentage) = if percentage of students is greater than or equal to district goal Green (Percentage) = if percentage of students is less than district goal | The number of campuses meeting their campus goal over the number of campuses with data for the metric |
Mathematics | Red (Percentage) = if percentage of students is greater than or equal to district goal Green (Percentage) =if percentage of students is less than district goal | The number of campuses meeting their campus goal over the number of campuses with data for the metric | |
Science | Red (Percentage) = if percentage of students is greater than or equal to district goal Green (Percentage) = if percentage of students is less than district goal | The number of campuses meeting their campus goal over the number of campuses with data for the metric | |
Social Studies | Red (Percentage) = if percentage of students is greater than or equal to campus goal Green (Percentage) = if percentage of students is less than campus goal | The number of campuses meeting their campus goal over the number of campuses with data for the metric | |
Trends
The dashboards do not currently support trends for this metric. The UI supports the trends, but the ETL packages have not been developed.
Delta Definition
The delta appears only in the campus list and displays the individual campus goals rather than the district goal.
Delta Indicators: Objective is to indicate Advanced Course Potential | |||
Metric Name | Sub-metric Name | District Goal | Delta |
Advanced Course Potential | ELA/Reading | Set district goal | Red (Delta Percentage) = if the calculated percentage of students is greater than or equal to the district goal Black (Delta Percentage) = if the calculated percentage of students is less than the disrict goal |
Mathematics | Set district goal | Red (Delta Percentage) = if the calculated percentage of students is greater than or equal to the district goal Black (Delta Percentage) = if the calculated percentage of students is less than the district goal | |
Science | Set district goal | Red (Delta Percentage) = if the calculated percentage of students is greater than or equal to the district goal Black (Delta Percentage) = if the calculated percentage of students is less than the district goal | |
Social Studies | Set district goal | Red (Delta Percentage) = if the calculated percentage of students is greater than or equal to the district goal Black (Delta Percentage) = if the calculated percentage of students is less than the district goal | |
Periodicity
Best practice is to load data for this metric as soon as new STAAR files are available.
Recommended Load Characteristics | |
| Calendar | School year |
| Frequency of data load | When new course enrollments occur |
| Latency | 6-9 months |
| Interchange schema | Interchange-StudentAssessment.xsd |
Tooltips
The standard tooltips for the metric definition, column headers, and help functions display for this metric.
- Green metric status: OK
- Red metric status: LOW
- 'More' indicates drill down views for this metric
- See STAAR End of Course for date of refresh
Business Rules
The Advanced Course Potential metric is the percentage of middle and high school students who show potential for advanced courses in specific subjects (as measured by Level III performance on subject-related STAAR or STAAR EOC exams) but are not currently enrolled in advanced courses in the following subjects in grade levels 6 – 12.
- English Language Arts (ELA)/Reading
- Mathematics
- Science
- Social Studies
Data Assumptions
- Advanced courses are those defined by the course characteristic:
- AP courses
- PreAP courses(middle school)
- IB courses
- PreIB courses (middle school)
- Other advanced courses identified by the course characteristic
- The state-defined threshold of “Level III Advanced” is indicated in the STAAR/STAAR EOC results file.
- If STAAR/STAAR EOC exams are taken multiple times, the most recent results are considered by the metric.
- Student STAAR scores by subject are available for the grade level (ELA/reading, mathematics, science, social studies and writing).
Computed Values
The cohort is the set of currently enrolled students that have Level III performance on STAAR or STAAR EOC.
Table 6 defines how values for each sub-metric are calculated. These percentages display in the Status column.
Metric Values | |
% with ELA/Reading STAAR score of Level III, but not enrolled | (Total of all current students whose STAAR EOC for subject (any English test) is Level III and are not currently enrolled in an advanced course in ELA) * 100 / (Total of all students whose STAAR EOC for subject (any English test) is Level III) |
% with Mathematics STAAR score of Level III, but not enrolled | (Total of all current students whose STAAR EOC is Level III (any Math test) and are not currently enrolled in an advanced course in math) * 100 / (Total of all students whose STAAR EOC for subject (any Math test) is Level III) |
% with Science TAKS Commended score, but not enrolled | (Total of all current students whose prior year TAKS Science score is Commended and are not currently enrolled in an advanced course in science) * 100 / (Total of all current students whose prior year TAKS is Commended) |
% with Social Studies TAKS Commeded score, but not enrolled | (Total of all current students whose prior year TAKS Social Studies is Commended and are not currently enrolled in an advanced course in social studies) * 100 / (Total of all current students whose prior year TAKS is Commended) |
Data Anomalies
Date of Refresh
Best practice is for tooltip that reads, "See STAAR End of Course for date of refresh."
Data Anomalies
- Records for transfer students may not include STAAR scores from tests completed in another district
- Data from the most recent administration until made available to the district and loaded into the district
- Campuses will only be included in the campus list if students on that campus participated in a STAAR or STAAR End of Course exam in that specific subject.
Implementation Considerations
Advanced Course Definition
Best practice is for developers to ensure that the definition of the exact courses that qualify as “advanced” include AP and IB courses as well as those defined as advanced by both the state and locally defined by the district. This mapping looks at the course characteristic type as coded locally. In the case of courses that are both AP and another type such as GT, the course should have the characteristic type of AP. If the other characteristic is recorded, the course will not appear as 'advanced.'
Campus Goals
Best practice is to set the goals for each campus at the district level. A secure mechanism is required to allow the district to set and maintain those goals.
Transfer Students (Late Enrollments)
Transfer students may not have complete transcripts from which to identify prior exam scores. For the TSDS dashboard tools, late enrollees are not included in the metric definition.
Reporting Retakes of the Same STAAR Exam
Currently the metric reports only the most recent result for a given STAAR exam by type, grade level/course, and subject.
Drill Downs
Drill Down Views
The dashboards include the option to see more detail that is associated with a metric. Table 7 lists drill down views that are recommended for this metric.
| Campus List | List of campuses and whether or not they meet the threshold for this metric for the specified period. |