Creating User Defined Assessments

This content is intended for teachers, specialists, and administrators to build assessment test structures and upload assessment scores.

Planning Your User-Defined Assessment 

• Type of Assessment: Determine the type of assessment (e.g., benchmark, progress monitoring, chapter test).
• Naming Conventions: Check if your district has specific standards for naming conventions. Typically, these include elements in this order: Test Name, Subject, Administration details, and Grade Level. (e.g., EasyCBM Read Winter Gr 2)
• Scoring: 
  • Decide the scoring method (numeric, letter score, pass/fail, met/not met).
  • Determine the minimum and maximum scores for the assessment.
  • Establish performance levels or cut score ranges, including a minimum passing score if applicable.
• Strands: Determine if the assessment has strands (e.g., weekly/monthly scores, specific standards in subject areas).

Creating An Assessment 

1. Start under My Creations in the left navigation menu, choose My Assessments, then Create New Assessment.

Details Section:

2. Enter a unique Test Name and Label.  The label may be a shorter version of the Test Name or kept the same. It is a good practice to have the naming conventions in order. (e.g., EasyCBM Read Winter Gr 2)
3. Click Select in the Parent Assessment field if the test being created will be a stranded or subtest and the primary or overall test is already made. Then, choose a checkmark to the left and click Apply.
4. Check the box for Is Met/Not Met or Progress Monitoring. 
5. Enter the Chronological Ordinal field numerically. 

Scoring Section:

6. Enter the Min Score, Threshold (passing score or benchmark), and Max Score for the Assessment.

Metadata Section

7. Click Select in the  Subject Area field, then click a checkmark to the left. When finished, click Apply.
8. Select a Scope and Family similarly. Choosing a scope is crucial to determining where the score is seen and who can access it to upload scores. 

Dates Section

9.  Skip selecting the Start Date or End Date unless you only want to allow you or others to upload to the assessment during that date range. Entering a date range establishes when the assessment is visible from the select list and when the assessment accepts uploaded scores from the template.

Performance Levels Section

10. Enter Performance Level Name, Min. Score, and Max Score.
11.  Choose a Color from the dropdown menu. This determines the color of a student’s score.  
12. Click the “+” icon under the Performance Level title to create multiple levels. 
13. Click the Trash icon to delete the Performance Level.
14. For more details on each field used in user-defined assessment creation, visit the Foundational Assessment Test Structure (FATS) Build article.    
15. Click Save when finished.

Other Tools Related To User-Defined Assessments

Editing / Cloning

1. Start under My Creations in the left navigation menu, choose My Assessments, then Edit My Assessments.

2. Locate the assessment in the list and click on it. 
3. Once you’ve made your edits to the assessment, click Save.
4. You may administer some of your assessments more than once per year. Instead of repeating each, click the Clone icon to the right of the assessment to save time.
5. Click the newly cloned assessment and update the Test Name, Label, and Chronological Ordinal.

Downloading/Uploading Scores Template  

1. Start under My Creations in the left navigation menu, choose My Assessments, and then Upload Assessment Scores.

2. On the left side, under the 1. Download (Use this form to generate templates), click Select, and choose one or more Assessment Tests by clicking the checkmark to the left and then click Add Assessment Tests in the top right. If strands are part of the assessment, they will automatically be selected.
3. Next, under Student Groups, click Select and choose one or more Student Groups by clicking the “+” icon to the right and then clicking Add Student Groups at the top right. Note: You can filter by using the options to the left for School Year, My Groups, and Shared Groups.
4. SSID & Homeroom Student ID are chosen as Student Identifiers by default. Click Select to edit.
5. When finished, click Download. A spreadsheet with a generic file name is downloaded to your computer. We recommend renaming the file to something that will help to identify it. Using the assessment name, student group name, and/or date are good options to include.

6. Open the scores spreadsheet generated and manually enter the student’s scores.  The spreadsheet has been programmed so that invalid scores cannot be entered. Do not edit ANY column names or other information provided in either format. Student Names and IDs do not have to be entered because they are already populated. Save the file. 
7. On the right side, under 2. Upload (Use this form to upload templates), click Browse, and locate your saved file.
8. If you choose to Toggle Blanks Delete Scores, all blank scores in the file you upload will delete existing scores for the student and test combination.
9. Click Upload.

10. You will receive an email telling you whether the upload was successful. If there are any errors you aren’t sure about, contact support@schooldata.net.
11. Click My Creations in the left navigation menu, choose My Assessments, then View Uploaded Scores.

12. Click the Row Action to the far right and select View Scores.

13. You will now be presented with a data table you just uploaded.