Benchmark Performance

Background

Campus 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 Student Benchmark Assessment metric as seen on the campus dashboard.

Figure 1 TSDS Benchmark Performance Metric

Status Definition

The Status Indicator is determined by campus-specific thresholds (campus goals) which are set at the district level. The TSDS default threshold for each core subject is 70%.

Table 2 Metric Indicators for Student Benchmark Performance Metric

Metric Indicator

Trend Comparisons

Metric Name

Sub-metric Name

Metric Status Indicator
(a)

Compares:
(b)

To:

Benchmark Performance

ELA/Reading

Red (Below) = if rolled up total grade level student assessment score percentage is less than campus goal

Green (Above) = if student assessment score percentage is greater than or equal to campus goal

Current assessment score

Previous Assessment score

Mathematics

Red (Below) = if student assessment score percentage is less than campus goal

Green (Above) = if student assessment score percentage is greater than or equal to campus goal

Current assessment scorePrevious assessment score
Science

Red (Below) = if student assessment score percentage is less than campus goal

Green (Above) = if student assessment score percentage is greater than or equal to campus goal

Current grading period 

Previous grading period

Social Studies

Red (Below) = if student assessment score percentage is less than campus goal

Green (Above) = if student assessment score percentage is greater than or equal to campus goal

Current assessment score

Previous assessment score

(a) The Value column displays the percentage of TEKS the student mastered out of the total number tested.

(b) The trends do not display if prior-year benchmark assessment data does not exist.

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.

Table 3 Trend Indicators for Benchmark Assessment Mastery

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

Table 4 Delta Indicators for TSDS Campus Benchmark Performance

Delta Indicators: Objective is to indicate Benchmark Performance

Metric Name

Sub-Metric Name

Campus Goal

Delta

Benchmark Performance

ELA/Reading

Set Campus 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 Campus 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

ScienceSet Campus 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 StudiesSet Campus 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 

Table 4 Recommended Load Characteristics for TSDS Benchmark Assessment Mastery Metric

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 Performance 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:

  • Elementary subjects: reading, writing, mathematics, science and social studies
  • Middle school subjects: reading, writing, mathematics, science and social studies plus high school subjects that are tested at middle level (e.g., Algebra I, English I)
  • High School subjects: Algebra I, Geometry

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.

Table 5 Computed Values for Benchmark Performance Metric
Metric

Calculation

Benchmark Performance

Percentage of students scoring 70% or better on the most recent benchmark administration in that subject area

Data Anomalies

Anomalies

  • Benchmark assessment administration is defined by at the campus and/or district level.  Districts/campuses may not test all students in all subjects.
  • Some subjects may be assessed more frequently than others, resulting in different dates of refresh for each subject. 
  • Benchmark assessment questions must be tied to specific TEKS identified in the assessment metadata in order to show objective-level performance/TEKS Mastery.
  • The scores for test administrations that are not tied to specific TEKS objectives will show in the benchmark mastery metric, but will not show in the objective mastery metric.
  • Late enrollees may have taken Benchmark Assessment tests at their previous school
  • Benchmark metrics include data from a number of a different administration dates

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 Different Versions of Benchmark Assessments

Students may, in any single grade, take different versions of a benchmark test for different subjects.  Teachers may distinguish the information based on assessment title and administration date.

Drill Downs

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 Benchmark Performance Metric Drill Down Views
Grade LevelGraph of percent of students meeting the student threshold for the metric by grade level
Student ListList of students who do not meet the threshold for this metric for the specified period.
HistoricalGraph of metric values across days, weeks, grading periods, semesters, and years

User Interface

Dashboard Example

Figure 2 shows the Grade Level Chart for the Benchmark Performance metric as seen on the campus dashboards.

Figure 2 TSDS Benchmark PerformanceGrade Level Chart

Figure 3 shows the Historical chart for the Benchmark Performance metric as seen on the campus dashboards.

Figure 3 TSDS Benchmark Performance Historical Chart

 

Business Rules

The Historical Graph allows the user to see historical data across multiple timeframes.  As time passes, there are many bars to be displayed; therefore, the slider on the bottom allows the user to adjust the number of bars displayed as well as the time period shown.  The timeframes for this metric were chosen based on educator feedback. 

Drill down Tooltips

Grade Level Chart:

  • The number of students who met the student goal out of the total number of students enrolled on the campus will display as you hover over the bars of the graph.
  • Green bar = met the campus goal
  • Red bar = did not meet the campus goal

Historical Chart:

  • The start and end dates and the percent value of the metric for that time period are shown as you hover over a bar of the graph.
  • The slider bar adjusts the number of time periods viewed in the graph.
  • Green bar = student did meet the student goal
  • Red bar = student did not meet the student goal

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