How to Navigate Reports
This section explains how to navigate your reports.
How to Understand Which Students Appear in Your Reports
Teachers can access data for all students in their rosters who have completed assessments.
Campus-level users can access data for all students in their campuses who have completed assessments.
District-level users can access data for all students in their districts who have completed assessments.
How to Use the Dashboard Generator Page
When you log in to the Reporting System, the Dashboard Generator page appears (Figure 1). The controls on the left let you select from the groups of tests that have been processed for the school year. Typically, you may choose test types, subjects within the test types, and grades within the subjects.
Test types may include Texas Field Authoring, which comprises tests created in the Texas Formative Assessment Resource (TFAR) platform. TFAR allows Texas educators to create their own TEKS-based formative assessment items. Texas Field Authoring does not list subjects or grades as subcategories.
To the right of the Dashboard generation controls are some other useful features. The Looking for a specific student? Section allows you to use a student TSDS ID to access all that student’s test results in the Student Portfolio Report. The Features & Tools menu appears on the right side of this page and offers multiple features that are described elsewhere in this guide.
If the Dashboard Generator shows a message saying there is no data, that means no assessment opportunities have been reported for this school year.
Optional: To limit or change the reporting time period, select Change Reporting Time Period and enter the date range or previous school year
Optional: To save your selections, select the checkbox Make these my default selections. These selections will be set in the Dashboard Generator whenever you log in. You can change the defaults at any time.
Click Go to Dashboard. The Dashboard appears, displaying any data available for your selections.
How to Use the Dashboard to View Aggregate Test Results
All users see the Dashboard (Figure 2). It displays an aggregation card for each program. A typical program comprises a single test type, a single subject, and all grades (for example, the first card shown in Figure 2 is for TFAR).
Each aggregation card displays the program name, a list of grades included, the number of students in the group who took tests, and the date the last test was taken. It also includes a performance distribution bar displaying both percentages and student counts below it. You may sometimes see the message, “Data cannot be aggregated together for this group of tests” instead of the performance distribution bar for tests that do not report performance distribution, or that use different sets of performance levels. Program cards are sorted by date last taken.
Clicking the More Information button beside the Performance Distribution/Predicted STAAR Performance (Interim) bar displays a legend with more information about performance levels (refer to Icons).
By default, the dashboard is filtered to display only summative assessments, unless no summative tests are available, in which case all assessments are displayed. You can change the programs and test reasons that appear using the Filters panel on the left. For more information on filtering, see How to Set Up Your Reports So They Make Sense.
If a message appears saying “There are no assessments to display,” there may be no assessments taken in your current reporting time period, or you may have filtered out all data. You can change the reporting time period. If you are a teacher, you may also be able to access more students’ data by managing your classes (rosters) as described in Class (Roster) Management.
To change the test groups and test reasons that appear, use the Filters panel on the left as explained in How to Set Up Your Reports So They Make Sense. You can also backtrack to the Dashboard Generator using the link in the path at the upper-left corner and change your test group selections there.
How to View More Detailed Data on a Particular Program
To access more detailed data on a particular assessment program, click the name of the group. The Performance on Tests report appears. It is filtered to display only the program you selected.
In the Performance on Tests report, teachers see two tables, as in Figure 3:
The My Assessments table lists all the assessments in the filtered program or programs.
The My Students table lists all your students who took the assessments.
For each test, the assessments table (refer to Figure 4) shows the program, grade, test administration (a category assigned to an assessment), number of students who took the test, average score, and date the test was last taken.
You can use the filters to view a different set of assessments. For more information on filtering, see How to Set Up Your Reports So They Make Sense.
If a message appears saying, “There are no assessments to display” or “There are no students to display,” there may be no assessments taken in your current reporting time period, or you may have applied filters that exclude all data.
For each test, the assessments table shows the test group, grade, test reason (the name of the test window of a summative assessment, or a category assigned to an interim assessment), number of students who took the test, average score, performance distribution, and date the test was last taken.
You can use the filters to access a different set of assessments. For more information on filtering, see How to Set Up Reports for Summatives and Interims to Suit Your Needs and How to Set Up Interim Reports to Suit Your Needs.