Credit Accumulation

Background

Campus Dashboard Metrics

In order to monitor progress toward completion of graduation requirements, many school districts across the nation, including Chicago, Dallas and New York, have incorporated metrics on credit accumulation into their internal performance management dashboards. During focus groups conducted with over 2,600 educators throughout Texas, the Credit Accumulation metric, as presented in screen shots of the campus dashboard, was considered useful by 94% of those surveyed.

Primary Metric

  • Credit Accumulation: percent of students in the 10th, 11th and 12th grades earning the required number of credits under the Texas Recommended or Foundation with Endorsements graduation plans (26 total credits before graduation) as of the end of the most recent grading period.

User Interface

Dashboard Example

Figure 1 shows the Credit Accumulation metric as seen on the campus dashboard. Please note that the figure below shows an earlier example. The caption has been updated to read, "% of students meeting required # of credits for Recommended or Foundation with Endorsements Graduation Plan (26 credits) as of the end of the prior school year."

Figure 1 TSDS Credit Accumulation

Status Definition

The Status column is the percentage of students meeting the required number of credits for graduation at each grade level starting with 10th grade. The number of credits required for graduation are set by the state. For example,  in Texas, the Recommended graduation plan requires 26 credits. The default mechanism to track credits by grade uses a linear path for the four years of high school (grades 9-12) which assumes accumulating 6.5 credit hours each year. The credit thresholds to graduate and for each year can be adjusted to a specific district's or state's criteria.

The Status indicator is determined by campus-specific thresholds (campus goals) which are set at the district level. The TSDS default thresholds are 80%, 80%, and 90%.

Table 2 defines the Status indicators. The actual percentage is displayed with the indicator.

Table 2 Metric Status Indicator for TSDS Campus Credit Accumulation Metric

Metric Status Indicator

Comparisons

Metric Name

Sub-metric Name

Metric Status  Indicator
(a)

Trend

Campus Goal  (Delta)

Credit Accumulation

10th Grade

Red (Percentage) = if percentage of students meeting the required number of credits is less than campus goal

Green (Percentage) = if percentage of students meeting the required number of credits is greater than or equal to the campus goal

Current year to prior year

Campus Goal and the calculated percentage of students meeting the required number of credits

11th Grade

Red (Percentage) = if percentage of students meeting the required number of credits is less than the campus goal

Green (Percentage) = if percentage of students meeting the required number of credits is greater than or equal to the campus goal

Current year to prior year

Campus Goal and the calculated percentage of students meeting the required number of credits

12th Grade

Red (Percentage) = if percentage of students meeting the required number of credits is less than the campus goal

Green (Percentage) = if percentage of students meeting the required number of credits is greater than or equal to campus goal

Current year to prior year

Campus Goal and the calculated percentage of students meeting the required number of credits

(a) The Value column displays the total number of students meeting the required number of credits out of the total number of students in each grade level's cohort.

Trend Definition

Table 3 lists the trend indicators for the Credit Accumulation metric.

Table 3 Trend Indicators for TSDS Credit Accumulation Rate Metric

Trend Indicators: Objective is to indicate Credit Accumulation

Up green

If the value for the current time frame is more than 5 percentage points higher than the prior time frame, then display a gray arrow trending upward.

Unchanged

If the value for the current time frame 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, then display two gray arrows pointing outward indicating no direction.

Down red

If the value for the current time frame is more than 5 percentage points lower than the prior time frame, then display a gray arrow trending downward.

The trend does not show for the first occurrence of a time frame since data is not available.

Delta Definition

The Delta column is the absolute value of the difference between the campus percentage (Status column) and the campus goal percentage (Campus Goal column).

Table 4 Delta Indicator for TSDS Credit Accumulation Metric

Delta Indicators: Objective is to indicate Credit Accumulation

Metric NameSub-metric NameCampus GoalDelta

Credit Accumulation

10th Grade

Set campus goal

Red (Delta Percentage) = if the percentage of students meeting the required number of credits is less than the campus goal

Black (Delta Percentage) = if the percentage of students meeting the required number of credits is greater than the campus goal

11th Grade

Set campus goal

Red (Delta Percentage) = if the percentage of students meeting the required number of credits is less than the campus goal

Black (Delta Percentage) = if the percentage of students meeting the required number of credits is greater than the campus goal

12th Grade

Set campus goal

Red (Delta Percentage) = if the percentage of students meeting the required number of credits is less than the campus goal

Black (Delta Percentage) = if the percentage of students meeting the required number of credits is greater than the campus goal

Periodicity

Best practice is to load this data as soon as a semester grading period has ended and transcript information is updated. At minimum, load this information prior to the beginning of a school year to assess any scheduling and/or targeted intervention required. Other events may necessitate loading the data, such as when state credit requirements change and/or when large numbers of students transfer in or out of a campus.

Table 5 Recommended Load Characteristics for Credits Accumulation Metric

Recommended Load Characteristic  s

Calendar

Throughout the school year

Frequency of data load

End of each grading period

Latency

Grading period

Interchange schema

Interchange-StudentGrade.xsd

Tooltips

The standard tool tips 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
  • is ‘No change from the prior period'
  • is ‘Getting worse from the prior period’
  • is 'Getting better from the prior period'

Business Rules

The Credit Accumulation metric indicates the percentage of students at or above a linear path for meeting the number of credits for graduation.

  • At the start of the school year, a student is "on track" if their total number of credits is at or above the targeted number of credits for the year. Table 6 lists the targeted number of credits for each year by grade level.
Table 6 Yearly Target of Credits for TSDS Credit Accumulation Metric

Student’s
Current Grade

Yearly Recommended Credits
(Start of School Year)

Percent of Target

9

not applicable

not applicable

10

6.5

25%

11

13

50%

12

19.5

75%

  • After mid-year first-semester grade data is loaded, a student is "on track" if their total number of credits is at or above the targeted number of credits for mid-year. Table 7 lists the targeted number of credits for mid-year by grade level.
Table 7 Mid-Year Target Credits for Credit Accumulation Metric

Student’s
Current Grade

Mid-Year Recommended Credits

Percent of Target

9

not applicable

not applicable

10

9.5

37%

11

16

62%

12

22.5

87%

On a straight linear basis the mid-year semester student needs to earn 3.25 credits. Because a student can only earn credits in 0.5 increments, the target is rounded down to 3 credits.

For students who fail a class, the credit is not earned or counted. If the student repeats the class and passes, the credit is earned and counted.

If a student is missing a transcript or has a partial transcript, that student is not included in the cohort. 

If the Middle School campuses send the transcripts for High School credits earned, these credits are considered in this metric.

Data Assumptions

  • This metric is not available for students currently in the 9th grade.
  • The student’s transcript must reflect the current credits earned. 
  • The credit targets are set based upon the State’s graduation requirements.
  • The metric tracks to a linear accumulation of credits.
  • Any course that is included in a student transcript is included in the calculation for credits earned.

Computed Values

The number of accumulated credits is taken directly from the student's academic records. 

Table 8 defines how values on the campus dashboard are calculated for each cohort grade level. The result of the calculation displays in the Status column on the dashboard. 

Table 8 Computed Values for TSDS Campus Credit Accumulation Metric

Metric

Calculation

For each grade level

(Number of current students in cohort where credit accumulation is equal to or greater than target credits) * 100 / (Total number of current students in cohort)

Calculation Notes

The cohorts are the students currently in 10th, 11th, and 12th grades, respectively. Transfer (late enrollment) students with an incomplete transcript that does not reflect an accurate number of accumulated credits are excluded from the cohort. A transcript is incomplete if it is missing a year’s worth of data in the student transcript.

The yearly targets for accumulated credits are:

  • 10th grade: 25% of the credits to graduate (26 credits)
  • 11th grade: 50% of the credits to graduate
  • 12th grade: 75% of the credits to graduate

The semester targets for accumulated credits are:

  • 10th grade: 37% of the credits to graduate (26 credits)
  • 11th grade: 62% of the credits to graduate
  • 12th grade: 87% of the credits to graduate

Data Anomalies

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 Spring Semester 2017)

Implementation Considerations

Incomplete Transcript

Students who transferred in may have an incomplete transcript pending when their student record is received by their current campus. Best practice is to exclude students from the cohort whose cumulative credits cannot be accurately obtained. This metric under represents students who are in the process of earning recovery credits or credits by exam – e.g., students transferring from alternative campuses or detention facilities, students who were previously home schooled. To aid administrators in identifying these students, a future enhancement to the TSDS dashboards will add the ability to provide a count and listing of students who do not have complete transcripts

Targets for Accumulated Credits

The targets for accumulated credits are based upon state-defined credit requirements for graduation. A future enhancement under consideration for this metric is to track not only cumulative credits, but also the composition of credits against a set of state-specific requirements and/or a student’s chosen graduation plan.   

Inclusion of Credits

TSDS assumes that any credit type included in a transcript (e.g., standard, recovery, credits by exam, on-line) is to be included in the metric calculation. If any exceptions are relevant, these need to be accounted for in the metric calculation and assumptions.

Campus Goals

Best practice to set campus goals at the district level. A secure mechanism is required to allow the district to set and maintain those goals.

Drill Downs

Drill Down Views

The dashboards include the option to drill down and see more detail that is associated with a metric. Table 9 lists the drill down views that are recommended for this metric.

Table 9 Drill Down Views for TSDS Campus Credit Accumulation Metric
HistoricalGraph of metric values across semesters and years.
Student ListList of students who do not meet the threshold for this metric for the specified period.

User Interface

Dashbaord Examples

Figure 2 shows the Historical Credit Accumulation as seen in the campus dashboards.

Figure 2 TSDS Historical Credit Accumulation

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