Achievement Data Blocks – Schoolzilla Pro

Our achievement data block allows you to report on student performance for normed assessments, formative assessments, benchmarks, etc.

a star schema graph of a test score data block

*Staff and course dimensions are only available when a test score is directly associated with a teacher or course in the assessment source.

What does one “unit” of data look like for each table?

Test Scores: One “unit” of data is one assessment event per student.

an example of a list of assessment events with the student name, date, test, and score

To use, the fact table (dw.dw_factTestScores) should be joined to:

Test (dw.DW_dimTest using TestKEY)
Test Period (dw.DW_dimTestPeriod using TestPeriodKEY)
Student (dw.DW_dimStudent using StudentKEY),
School (dw.DW_dimSchool using SchoolKEY),
Test Proficiency Level (dw.DW_dimTestProficiencyLevel using TestProficiencyLevelKEY) *may not be populated for all assessments
Test Framework (dw.DW_dimTestFramework using TestFrameworkKEY) *may not be populated for all assessments

Optionally, you can add student Enrollments (dw.DW_dimEnrollment) using the EnrollmentKEY and Program Enrollments (dw.DW_dimProgramCombination and dw.DW_dimProgramEnrollment) using the ProgramCombinationKEY and ProgramEnrollmentKEY if you are interested in disaggregating assessment performance by grade level or program enrollments status at the time the assessment was taken.

We support a number of score fields that are populated based on the available data for the assessments. These include TestScore, RawScore, ScaledScore, PercentScore, PercentileScore, and ProficiencyLevelScore. The TestScore field is meant to represent the most common way of reflecting performance on each assessment. If supported by the assessment, we also populate GradeLevelEquivalency, DistanceFromMet, GrowthPercentile, and MetGrowthTarget.

Please note that the EnrollmentKEY links a student's specific test record to their enrollment record based on date of test and site of administration.

Test Responses: One "unit" of data is one question response per student. *This table is only available if the connector supports item-level data.

an example of a list of test responses with each including the student name, date, test, question number, and question score

Which types of connectors feed each data source?

All student achievement data sources will feed the TestScores data source. Only achievement connectors with item-level analysis will feed the TestResponses data source.

Schoolzilla Starter Tableau Data Sources

What Tableau data sources are available for the achievement data block?

Student Achievement – (TestScores): summary scores
Student Achievement – (TestResponses): item-level scores *if available

When/how should I use the different data sources?

The data blocks are used to build different types of reports.

The TestScores data source is best for summative reports about student achievement on a given exam or set of exams (CST, NWEA etc.). This table includes one row per student per assessment (Test Type, Test SubType, TestSubject and Testname) event (FullDate) and score type (TestScoreType) and will give you the best report performance.
The TestResponses data source includes rows of data for each question on a given assessment. If you are not including item-level analysis in your report you should not use this data source; the additional rows of data make reports based on this data render less quickly. Please note, if you have the illuminate_test connector that is compatible with the Schoolzilla dashboards, this data source will not be available.

Each data block is designed to serve the purpose outlined above.

Frequently Asked Questions

What grade level field should I use?

It depends on what question you’re trying to answer. Here’s an overview of different grade-level fields and their uses cases.

Field	Description	Use Cases
Enrollment_GradeLevel	Student's grade level the day they took the assessment	When you want to view students’ performance on assessments in previous years relative to their grade level at the time. Ex: View last year’s scores for current 6th graders by filtering this field for 5th graders.
Enrollment_GradeLevel Numeric	An integer version of Enrollment_GradeLevel, where 11th is converted to 11.	Using this field provides a small performance boost because Tableau can filter across numbers faster than strings.
GradeLevel	Student’s current grade level according to your Student Information System (SIS).	Any report where you want to be able to accurately match current GradeLevels in Schoolzilla with current GradeLevels in your SIS. Ex: When this field is included with assessment data across years, you can observe how your current 6th graders did on their state assessment each of the last three years.
Gradelevel_Numeric	An integer version of GradeLevel, where 11th is converted to 11.	Using this field provides a small performance boost because Tableau can filter across numbers faster than strings.
TestGradeLevel	Assessments differ across grade levels, this field captures the grade level assigned to an assessment by the publisher.	There may be 3rd grade students who took a 4th grade assessment. You would be able to precisely see this, by using TestGradeLevel and Enrollment_GradeLevel.

What school year field should I use?

SchoolCalendar --> SchoolYear4Digit	The school year on the date the assessment was taken. An integer version of the SchoolYear field. We use Tableau value aliasing to mask values integer values as strings, e.g. 2019 as 2018-19.	Use this field anytime you would want to filter for a specific School Year’s assessments.
TestPeriod --> SchoolYear4Digit	The school year associated with the test period of a given assessment.	Use in association with TestPeriod to be able to accurately parse multiple assessments across the school year.

What score goes into the field TestScore?

This field differs based on the assessment. It is meant to show the most common way of reflecting on the results for the assessment (e.g., for state assessments, this is the student’s proficiency level). For some assessments, this field reflects the points correct, for others the proficiency level, and for others the scale score. The additional score fields in this data block like RawScore, ScaledScore, PercentileScore, and ProficiencyLevelScore can help you break apart the score types if an assessment provides more than one.

Why is PercentileScore missing for some assessments?

Our data sources are built with hundreds of potential assessments in mind. For some assessments, PercentileScore may not apply. PercentileScore should be populated for any assessment where it is applicable and/or provided in the test file, for example norm-referenced assessments like NWEA MAP. If you believe an assessment should have PercentileScore populated and they are not available, please contact support.

How can I show/compare results across multiple assessments?

Within the Achievement Data Block, the primary record is the student’s test event. This includes dimensions like the TestSubject, TestName, SourceSystem, and FullDate of the test, and measures like the TestScore and ScaleScore. Scores can be compared across assessments by utilizing meta-data about the student’s test events.

For example, if you wanted to review math performance on PSAT and SAT assessments, I could create a filter for SourceSystem of test_collegeboard_psat and test_collegeboard_sat and then apply a filter for TestSubject of Math Test. This would allow me to look at performance across my students for these assessments combined.

Depending on your goals for the comparison, please consider different areas of test meta-data that would need to be aligned in order to allow you to accurately filter for multiple test events at the same time. You may need to create new calculated fields or groups in order to create consistency across meta-data fields.

Can I create a report showing subscores?

Absolutely! Within the Student Achievement (Test Scores) data source, we will find Overall Scores and Subscores, where applicable. The field TestScoreType will allow you to select between SubScores and Test Scores. We would then leverage TestSubType and TestName to identify the subscores which we are seeking to leverage in our report.

For example, NWEA MAP provides overall subject scores for Reading, Language Usage and Mathematics. The TestName associated with the overall subject score would be named ‘NWEA MAP - Language Usage 1st’, which includes the Test Type - Subject - TestGradeLevel. The TestName for a Subscore would look like ‘NWEA MAP - Language Usage 1st Goal 1’, notice that now the TestName is appended with ‘Goal 1’ which corresponds with a NWEA Goal Area.

If you are interested in item-level responses, you’ll need to use Test Responses data source, not Test Scores.

Student Achievement – (Test Scores)
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Student Achievement – (Test Responses)
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