Assessment Checklist

Before we process a round of assessment data, there are a handful of things that have to be right on your side. Get them wrong and the numbers come out wrong, usually without anything looking broken.

Most of this list we can check for you. When we email you the checklist, or when you see it while uploading, it arrives already filled in: the items you still owe are named, and the ones that are fine are confirmed. This page explains every item, so you can read the detail behind any line.

What we check for you

Nightly syncs

Your student information system sends us five files every night. If one never arrives or arrives empty, we cannot match uploaded scores to your roster, and those scores do not import.

A feed that is merely late, or where one file arrived separately from the rest, is worth a look but is not usually urgent.

SIS Files shows the state of each file.

User access

Two kinds of access matter before a season opens.

District Admins have district-wide access and can act on everything else in this list. You may have up to five, and at least one is required.

School Users are scoped to their own school. A district with none is not broken, but nobody outside the District Admins can see their own school's data, which is often not what a district intends.

Users Overview explains the roles.

Custom teachers

Gifted and inclusion teachers are attributed differently from ordinary classroom teachers. If your district teaches either and they are not set up, those scores are counted as ordinary enrollments and the attribution is wrong.

If your district teaches neither, there is nothing to do here. We mention it because districts sometimes do not know the feature exists.

Custom Teachers explains the setup.

EL subgroups

An English Learner subgroup is reported once there are ten or more active EL students on your roster. Below ten, the subgroup is too small to be reported and there is nothing to do.

Where it is large enough, it also has to be switched on for the year. If you have the students but the subgroup is off, your EL scores will not be reported as a subgroup. If it is already on, there is nothing to do.

EL Subgroups has the detail.

Custom cut scores

Which cut scores apply depends on the assessment, so this item reads differently for each one.

Your benchmarks are leveled against your own cut scores only if your district is set up that way rather than taking the vendor's levels. Where it is, those ranges have to exist: without them, every benchmark score drops with no performance level.

Your district assessments are always leveled against your own midterm cut scores, whichever way your benchmarks are set up. Without them a midterm cannot be processed at all.

State scores are leveled against the state's own cut scores, so nothing of yours applies to them and this item will say so.

In every case, where the ranges are still the defaults we seeded and nobody has reviewed them, that is worth checking before your scores are leveled against them.

Custom Cut Scores, K-1 District Defined where only kindergarten and grade 1 are affected, and Midterm Ranges for your district assessments.

Mismatched enrollments

A teacher whose every enrollment is at a school other than the one they are listed at will have their scores attributed to the wrong school.

This reads last night's roster, so a fix made today shows tomorrow.

Mismatched Enrollments explains how it happens and how to correct it.

Graduation, acceleration, assessment and achievement rates

These four rates feed the college and career readiness components. They carry forward from last year automatically, so they are always present. Usually they are still right; the only question is whether you have more recent figures.

Readiness Standards is where they are edited.

What you do on your side

These are the same for every district, so we cannot fill them in for you.

IT allowlist

Ask your IT team to allowlist our domains, so the platform, this documentation and our email reach you through your firewall and your email filter.

IT Allowlist has the exact domains to share with them.

MAAP-A students

Students taking the alternate assessment have to be marked as such, or their scores are reported against the general assessment or counted as missing.

MAAP-A Impact explains the setup.

Assessment data

Download your assessment data from your vendor and upload it here.

ELS Upload or MasteryConnect Upload, depending on your vendor.

Score exclusions

Score exclusions take a retester's score out of participation, growth or proficiency where the state does not count it. They are optional, and whether you use them is your call.

Score Exclusions explains what they do.

Where you will see this

By email. We send the checklist before a round of data is processed, to your district's point of contact and superintendent. It leads with what your district still owes, then names each item we checked and found no problem with, so you can tell what we looked at from what we could not look at. The items in the second half of this page are always included, because they are the same for every district.

While uploading. The File Uploader shows the same list on its own step, so you see it at the moment it matters. It never stops you uploading: we record what you were shown and let you through.

Anything on the list marked as needing fixing will affect your data. Anything marked as worth checking may be fine, but is worth a look.

If you have any questions, please open a Helpdesk Ticket.