Dashboard Metrics
SAT/ACT Taken
Background
Campus Dashboard Metrics
Because of the importance of entrance exams to college acceptance, many school districts across the nation, including Chicago, Charlotte, Dallas and New York, have incorporated metrics on SAT® and ACT® performance into their internal performance management dashboards. In addition, during focus groups conducted with over 2,600 educators throughout Texas, the College Readiness: Entrance Exams metric, as presented in screenshots of the campus dashboard, was considered useful by 95% of those surveyed.
Primary Metric
- SAT®/ACT® Taken: percentage of students who have taken either the SAT® or ACT® broken down by grade level.
User Interface
Dashboard Example
Figure 1 shows the College Entrance Exam SAT/ACT Taken metric as seen on the campus dashboard.
Figure 1 TSDS College Entrance Exam Metric SAT/ACT Taken
Status Definition
The Status indicator is determined by campus-specific thresholds (campus goals) which are set at the district level. The TSDS default thresholds are by grade, as follows:
- 9th Grade = None
- 10th Grade = 5%
- 11th Grade = 40%
- 12th Grade = 60%
Metric Indicators | Trend Comparisons | |||
Metric Name | Sub-metric Name | Metric Status Indicator | Compares: | To: |
College Entrance Exam | SAT/ACT Taken by each grade level (9-12th) | Red (Percentage) = if percent of students in that grade level completing exam is less than campus goal Green (Percentage) = if percent of students in that grade level completing exam is equal to or greater than campus goal | Current school year by grade level | Prior school year by grade level |
(a) The Value column displays the number of students in that grade level who completed the SAT or ACT out of the total number of students in that grade level.
Trends
The objective of trends is to increase the number of students taking college entrance exams.
Trend Indicators for SAT/ACT Taken | |||
| Up green | Percentage is higher compared to previous time frame; upward trend is favorable | |
| Unchanged | + 5 percentage points | |
| Down red | Percentage is lower compared to previous year; flag indicates unfavorable trend | |
Delta Definition
The Delta column is the absolute value of the difference between the campus metric value (Status column) and the campus goal (Campus Goal column).
Delta Indicators: Objective is to indicate SAT/ACT Taken | |||
Metric Name | Sub-Metric Name | Campus Goal | Delta |
SAT/ACT Taken | 9th through 12 grades | Set campus goal | Red (Perce ntage) = if the calculated percentage of students ta king t he test in that grade level is less than the campus goal Black (Percentage) = if the calculated percentage of the students taking the test in that grade level is greater than or equal to the campus goal |
Periodicity
At a minimum, load the data for this metric at least annually, prior to the beginning of the school year. Best practice is to load the data monthly to capture the various test administrations. (SAT and ACT exams are administered and received by districts several times throughout the year).
Recommended Load Characteristics | |
Calendar | Throughout the school year |
Frequency of data load | Monthly |
Latency | Yearly |
Interchange schema | Interchange-StudentAssessment.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 cohort for this metric is students currently enrolled in grades 9 through 12 at the campus at the time of the last data load. Excluded from the cohort are students who
- were previously enrolled, but left or transferred to another campus
- do not match student data due to SSID
- do not have complete transcripts
Data Source
- SAT and ACT data are made available to the districts periodically as they are administered throughout the year.
- Data for this metric is aggregated from the student data provided by the districts.
- Exclude students from the cohort who are transfer students (late enrollees) without complete transcripts.
- Exclude students from the cohort who do not match student data due to SSID.
SAT/ACT Taken
The percentage of 9th through 12th grade students who have taken the SAT or ACT is computed based upon the following rules:
- "Taken the exam" means that student was administered the exam and that the exam was scored.
- If a student has taken both the SAT and the ACT, only one exam is counted for the student.
SAT
This metric displays the percent of students who have taken the SAT with scores at/above state criterion.
ACT
This metric displays the percent of students who have taken the ACT with scores at/above state criterion.
Computed Values
Table 6 defines how values are calculated for each sub-metric. The result of the calculation displays in the Status column on the campus dashboard.
Metric Values | |
SAT/ACT Taken by grade level | (Number of current students in a specific grade level who have taken SAT or ACT) / (Number of currently enrolled students in cohort) |
Data Anomalies
Anomalies
Best practice is to footnote these anomalies:
- the date of the last test assessments in the database displays parenthetically in the title of the metric.
- late enrollees may have taken college readiness tests at their previous school.
- transfer students with an incomplete transcript.
- students that cannot be matched due to SSID.
Footnotes
Footnotes are used to provide additional 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 number of students not included in calculation due to transfer students with an incomplete transcript or students that cannot be matched due to SSID should be noted
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)
Implementation Considerations
Exam Apparent Non-Participation
The SAT and ACT exams are administered throughout the year. Students’ non-participation can be detected only to the extent that the district has received and loaded timely test result data from The College Board (SAT) and ACT. To make the Percentage Completing Exam indicator most effective, it is imperative that the scores be received and loaded in the timeliest manner.
Exam Participation Expectation
Students may take the College Preparatory exams anywhere from 9th through 12th grade and may take them multiple times. The PSAT is typically taken in 10th grade and the 11th grade for participation in the NMSQT. The SAT and ACT are typically taken in the 11th and 12th grade. Proper application of the metric requires that the district or campus establish clear expectations for when students should take the PSAT, SAT, and ACT, and if a student has not taken either assessment, at what point an intervention is in order.
This functionality includes displaying this metric by grade and/or limiting the metric cohort to those students in the 10th and 11th grade for PSAT and 11th and 12th grade for SAT and ACT.
Incomplete Transcripts and Missing Exam Scores
Transfer students may have incomplete transcripts that do not show prior PSAT, SAT or ACT participation. Timely acquisition of a transfer student’s transcript is imperative to apply this and other metrics.
Indicator and Metric Definitions
In researching best practices across leading districts, college readiness exams and measures were identified as a leading indicator of post-secondary acceptance and success. In addition to measuring the percentage of students who have taken the SAT or ACT exams, and the percentage of students at or above the state criterion, other ways districts measure this indicator include:
- SAT Performance: average SAT score for the campus.
- ACT Performance: average ACT score for the campus.
Drill Downs
Drill Down Views
The dashboards include the option to drill down and see more detail that is associated with a metric. Table 7 lists the drill down views that are recommended for this metric.
| Historical | Graph of metric values across multiple time periods. | |
| Student List | List of students who do not meet the threshold for this metric for the specified period. |
User Interface
Dashboard Examples
Figure 2 shows Historical SAT/ACT taken as seen on the campus dashboards.
Figure 2 TSDS Historical SAT/ACT Taken