Homeroom Dashboards - Creating User-Defined Assessments

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

OVERVIEW - PLANNING YOUR USER-DEFINED ASSESSMENT

1. What type of assessment are you entering into the Homeroom? For example, is it a benchmark, progress monitoring, chapter test, etc.?
2. How to name your assessment? Does your district have its standards for naming conventions?
3. How is the test scored? (Numeric or letter score; Pass/Fail, Met/Not Met) 
4. If it is a scored assessment:
   • What is the minimum/maximum score?
   • Does the assessment have performance levels/cut score ranges?
   • If yes to either, you must have a minimum passing score (threshold) and cut scores for one or many levels.
5. Does the assessment have strands?  
   • For example:  If you give a weekly diagnostic assessment (a progress monitoring assessment), you may want to see each week’s/month’s scores side by side.  The weekly/monthly scores could be added as strands.  
   • OR you may be administering a math assessment tied to specific standards.  The standard scores could be added as strands.

      

QUICK LINKS

CREATING AN ASSESSMENT (QUICK LINKS)

Login to Homeroom Dashboards in the left navigation menu and select My Creations.  Expand the menu to access My Assessments and click Create New Assessment.​​  A detailed screen will appear.

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DETAILS (QUICK LINKS)

Enter a unique Test Name and Label.  The label may be a shorter version of the Test Name or kept the same.  In Homeroom, the assessment test label is displayed in the assessment test selector in the assessments container.

It is a good practice to have the Assessment Test Names contain the following elements in order:

1. 1. Test Name.          Examples: EasyCBM Read Winter Gr 2 
   2. Subject.                                  RBA 3 Read EOY Gr 5 
   3. Administration                       Valley Elem Science Nov Gr 4
   4. Grade Level                           CBA Algebra I S2 Final HS

 If the test is created will be a stranded or subtest and the primary or overall test is already made, choose a Parent Assessment by clicking on  Select, then choose a checkmark to the left. Click Apply when finished; otherwise, leave Parent Assessment unselected or empty.

Check the box for Is Met/Not Met. If it is a scored assessment, skip it.

Check the box for Progress Monitoring. If students aren’t to be tested multiple times on this test, skip it. NOTE: For Progress Monitoring to work, the scores must be uploaded with a date tested on the upload template. 

Enter the Chronological Ordinal number. This helps to order the assessment in a display with others. Example: 6100 is Grade 6 on the 100th day. 

SCORING (QUICK LINKS)

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

*** If assessments were previously created, begin here for uploading scores. ***

METADATA (QUICK LINKS)

Choose a Subject Area by clicking Select, then choose a checkmark to the left. Click Apply when finished.

Choose a Scope by clicking Select, then choose a checkmark to the left. Click Apply when finished.

• This is crucial in creating a user-defined assessment to determine where it is seen and who can access it to upload scores. 
• The scope option is determined by the user’s role in which scopes can be used. 
• It’s important to note that any person who has permission to view a student's record will be able to view the results of a user-defined assessment, no matter the scope.

Choose a Family; if a relevant one is listed, click Select, then check a box. It is optional but helpful for filtering in other areas. Example: if this assessment is used to monitor HiCap Students, the Family might be HiCap. Or if it is a Progress Monitoring score from Dibels: Family would be Dibels.

Skip 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 the following on the Upload Assessment Scores page:

• When the assessment is visible from the select list, download the template for scoring.
• When the assessment accepts uploaded scores from the template,

Enter Performance Level Name, Min. Score, Max Score and choose a Color from the drop-down menu. These determine what color a student’s score is going to display. (Non-passing, Passing, Non-Level Grade)  Click the “+” to create multiple levels. For more details on each field used in user-defined assessment creation, visit this Build a Foundational Assessment Test Structure (FATS)  

Click Save.

OTHER TOOLS RELATED TO USER-DEFINED ASSESSMENTS (QUICK LINKS)

Editing:  If you made an error or need to adjust anything after you’ve saved, you can edit the assessment. 

Select My Creations, then My Assessments, and click Edit My Assessments.

Locate the assessment in the list, and click on the assessment. Once you’ve made your edits to the Assessment, click Save.

Cloning:  You may administer some of your assessments more than once per year, for example, a reading benchmark that you administer in the fall, winter, and spring.

Instead of repeating each, click Clone (copy) to the right of the assessment to save time.

Notice the Assessment will automatically clone. After cloning, update your Test Name, Label, and Chronological Ordinal to match your new administration.

DOWNLOADING THE SCORES TEMPLATE (QUICK LINKS)

Navigate to Upload Assessment Scores located under the My Creations section of the left navigation menu.

On the left side, under the 1. Download area, do the following:

Assessment Tests - Select one or more assessments from the list by clicking the checkmark to the left. If strands are part of the assessment, they will automatically be selected.

Student Group - Select one or more groups to include by selecting the “+” and then click Add Students Groups.

Student Identifiers, by default SSID & Homeroom Student ID, are chosen.

Click Download.

A spreadsheet is downloaded to your computer with a generic file name. 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.

ENTERING AND UPLOADING STUDENTS’ SCORES (QUICK LINKS)

Open the scores spreadsheet generated above.  Student Names and IDs do not have to be entered because they are already populated. 

OPTIONAL, add test administration or test date for reference. Test Date is used in Progress Monitoring and Test Administration to create multiple displays of the same assessment that might be administered more than once.  

Manually enter students’ 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.

Save the file. 

Navigate back to Homeroom Dashboards, and on the left-hand side, choose My Creations, click My Assessments, and then click Upload Assessment Scores. On the right side, under 2. Upload, click Browse. 

Locate your saved file on your computer.

Click Upload.

VIEWING THE RESULTS (QUICK LINKS)

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.

On the left-hand side, click My Creations, My Assessments, and View Uploaded Scores.

Click the Row Action for your newly uploaded assessment to View Scores.

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