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Download District Assessment Analysis Workbooks Here!
2011 In Review
In the 15 1/2 years I've been working with assessments I
can say without a doubt this has been my busiest. The
primary reason for this was because of the decision to
assume as much of the assessment data handling duties as
possible for participating member districts.
Configuring Infinite Campus to accommodate our
standardized tests without having to redefine tests
every year was among the first of several projects to
reduce time invested in storing and reporting assessment
results. Each of your databases was cleaned up of
partially completed and otherwise errant records.
New import routines were defined and refined.
Several new state tests were defined. New import
tracking and import reporting methods were also
developed. New SQL validation reports were
designed and deployed, as well as new ad hoc queries.
Careful attention was given to what is now being
reported on student transcripts for assessments.
Parent Portal access to all state tests has now been
realized. A new secure web page designed for
downloading your annual analysis workbooks so you won't
need to store CDs anymore.
By November, all Infinite Campus member districts
realized a 100% population of MN Standardized tests
since MDE adopted a uniform record layout in 2006.
ACT, SAT and other National tests were redefined to ease
record creation and improve accuracy.
Recently, a survey was circulated that inquired about
your interest in storing NWEA MAP tests in Infinite
Campus. Of the 19 districts polled, 14 indicated a
high degree of interest in having these test results
available in Infinite Campus.
I want to use this forum to say a special 'THANK YOU' to
all of you for your patience and cooperation during all
the turmoil. I couldn't have imagined a better
group of folks to work with. Many of you have
expressed gratitude for what has been done and that's
very much appreciated but the real reason for this
effort lies in my hope that taking the focus off most of
the testing data handling will allow you more time for
other important functions that are expected of you, by
your districts.
July 2011
New SQL
Report -
Assessment Check For Duplicates.
This
report builds a list of Minnesota standardized tests
that have duplicated dates. Use it to look up
students and remove the extra record(s). Below,
are instructions for setting up user permissions and
running the report.
Setting Up Tool Rights For Group Users
Open
System Administration>User Security>User Groups
Select a Group for which you want to grant tool rights
then click on the Tool Rights tab.
***System Admins! Be sure to set yourselves up for Tool
Rights FIRST!
Place
a checkmark in the ‘R’ (leftmost column) for any/all
items that you want to grant Tool Rights for this group
of users.
(A
checkmark in the parent folder will grant rights to all
child items.)
You’ll find the report in the Campus Outline under
System Administration>Assessment (it’s the last item in
the list)
Upon
running it you should be asked for your SQL Login.
Just
select the test(s) you want to be checked for duplicates
then click on the ‘View Report’ button.
Worth
Mentioning:
SQL
Reports are MICROSOFT animals and run best under their
native Internet Explorer!
Running SQL Reports with Firefox works but you’ll get a
goofy looking display (see below).
This
is because Firefox isn’t fully compatible with Internet
Explorer.
Best
Practice for Firefox
After
running the report, select an Excel or ‘pdf’ format and
export the contents where they can be printed.
Best
Practice for Internet Explorer
ONLY
use the printer icon on the report dashboard.
Do
NOT
click on menu ‘File’ and select ‘Print’ – that will
produce unformatted output.
June - 2011
Recordkeeping
Trust me on this - it's quicker and easier to do it
right than it is to do it over. During a recent
audit of GRAD Retest data I came across a couple of
disturbing observations...
GRAD Retest Dates
If you're one of the districts that are manually
entering retests please make sure that you
use the ACTUAL
test date. Accurate recordkeeping is
important and this is especially true with
graduation-sensitive data - if you enter a test
date other than the actual test date there is a
likelihood that you may enter the 'same' record again
with a different date. There is no good excuse for
entering anything other than the actual test date.
This information is available to you both on Pearson's
paper copy and in the source files on MDEs Educator
Portal Test Downloads page.
Grad Retest Scores
I noticed that some of you are omitting scores when
creating GRAD retest records. My advice to you about
this is simply
"Don't omit scores". Just because GRAD
scores are no longer included on student transcripts
does not imply that these numbers have no other value -
they can be, and are used for internal analysis.
A lot of work went into restructuring your Test
Definitions and cleaning up errant data over the past
year. Let's not see all of that work derail into a
regional train wreck. Only 2 districts out of 19
contacted me about helping out with GRAD Retests.
Of 19 districts audited, 4 did not require corrective
intervention.
I know that you appreciate help because of the nice
replies you've sent whenever I've done work for you.
There is no need for you to have reservations about
asking for help. I enjoy helping out and working
with you all. Again, it's quicker and easier to do
it right than to do it over.
May - 2011
Is your GRAD retest data up-to date?
If you're feeling overwhelmed by everything that needs
to be done to prepare for the end of the school year and
would like assistance with loading GRAD retest data
please contact me for help.
April - 2011
Improved Test Definitions
Great news! Life is just about to become a little
simpler for you! I’m sure that you remember all
those yearly folders that we used to have for test
definitions…
They presented a HUGE pop-up list on the student detail
screen for assessments that looked like this…
Here’s what the test definitions now look like in System
Administration>Assessments>Tests…
…and here’s what the revised pop-up list now looks like
on the student detail screen for assessments…
It’s now much easier to select the proper test
definition when loading or manually creating testing
records!
But that’s not all –
Something Nice To Be Looking For:
Infinite Campus is working on a suggestion I made to
allow ‘Best Score’ preferences to be applied to
INDIVIDUAL test types, rather than all at once.
When implemented that change will allow you to for
example, select ‘Display Best Score Only’ on our state
assessments and ‘Display All Scores’ for ACTs or SATs on
transcripts.
March - 2011
Test Definitions & GRAD Retests
“We over-test our students”.
I could retire right now if I had a nickel for
each time I’ve heard that said.
Questions are coming in from districts about what
folder certain retests should be stored to.
This used to be an easy decision to make but the
waters have muddied to the point where something needs
to be done about our definitions for the Minnesota
Standardized Tests.
We’ve been making fresh test definitions every year and
storing them in ‘annualized folders’ under System
Administration>Tests.
That
used to work pretty well, but now that we’re doing all
this retesting it’s getting confusing to know under
which definition a test will be stored.
Here’s
why: When
you get retest results back most of you open the student
detail tab for assessments and create a new test entry.
When you select ‘New’, a data entry block appears
and you have to select one of those many test
definitions that works for the particular test you want
to create.
But which one is the right one?
Suppose that a student took the Spring census
test for reading in April, 2010 (the 09-10 school
year) and did not pass.
The student is subsequently scheduled for retests
and doesn’t pass them either.
Time passes and now the 10-11 school year starts.
The student retests in December of 2010.
Should you create the test using the 2010
definition (the 09-10 school year) or the 2011
definition (the 10-11 school year)?
There isn’t a good answer to that question anymore
because school years have become confused with calendar
years.
You’ll find that data stored under the 10-11 school year
at MDEs Educator Portal (which is correct), but the
student is being retested on a subject inside the same
calendar year, so you should use the test definition for
the 09-10 school year (which is also correct)…
The short story – Infinite Campus doesn’t ‘see’ the
retest as being ‘the same’ as the original test because
of definitions living in individual folders so it can’t
figure out which was the best attempt of all attempts.
It can only find the best attempt within any
given folder.
Then it goes to the next folder and finds the
best attempt there, and so on.
We are currently in discussion about overhauling the
Minnesota test definitions and merging historical data
under single definitions for Math, Reading and Writing.
There appear to be many advantages to defining
tests this way, but we’re also looking for pitfalls.
We’ll keep you posted.
February - 2011
Nested Test Definitions
Nearly all of you are offering the ACT test to students.
Creating a 'new' test for each subtest is really
time-consuming and cumbersome. There is a better
way! - The suggested 'best practice' for defining these
tests is to nest each subtest within a parent
folder...(see below)
Advantages to this style of test definition are:
Tests only need to be defined once! (not each year)
Single selection to create all subtests for the student
instead of once for each subtest
Time savings
Improved data entry accuracy
Organized viewing
All elements are now stored as data rather than random
comments
January - 2011
Why Are Standardized Test Definitions
Important?
We have made new test definitions each year for many
years. Since MDE standardized the record layouts
in 2007, things have been more consistent from their
end. But I looked at 'our' end, meaning how we've
been creating new test definitions in Infinite Campus
and noticed that there's a need to do some cleanup.
It's important that we maintain consistent definitions -
For example, the canned report 'Test Results', found
under Student General>Reports is a good example.
If tests have different result values defined, it
becomes nearly impossible to associate them with all
those tests.
I started auditing data last month and I'll be working
with each district to straighten out testing data and
definitions for as long as it takes to get everyone in
sync again. I'm planning to make a data audit an
annual event. This is a good idea because our
statute changes frequently and I know that you have a
lot of other things to deal with on a daily basis.
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