Assessment Definitions

Overview

An Assessment Definition tells TKG Analytics what a given assessment is, when it was given, and how it fits your accountability picture. Every score that comes into the platform is matched to one, so the definition is what turns a pile of imported rows into "the Second Nine Weeks benchmark" or "the state summative."

Each definition has a type:

• Benchmark: an interim assessment your district gives during the year.
• District: a district-built assessment that lives outside the benchmark sequence. In practice this is a midterm (see District Midterms below).
• State: the state summative for the year.

Definitions are scoped to a single school year, so each year carries its own set.

Assessment Types and Per-Year Limits

Every assessment a district configures fits one of three types, and TKG Analytics accepts a fixed number of each per school year. This 4 / 4 / 1 shape is the full set of layouts the platform accepts.

So in a single year a district can define at most four Benchmark, four District, and one State assessment. Because definitions are year-scoped, each year carries its own 4 / 4 / 1 set, and a change to one year never affects another.

District assessments are the one type that must use your custom cut scores - see District assessments require custom cut scores.

District Midterms

A District definition is how your district adds a midterm to TKG Analytics: your own assessment, given outside the benchmark sequence. A midterm is scored differently from a benchmark or the state test:

• It carries only percent-correct data, with no vendor performance level or scale score.
• It is scored against your account's Midterm Ranges rather than your usual calculation method. See Midterm Ranges and Custom Cut Scores.
• Because of that, your Midterm Ranges must be set before the midterm is imported. Without them, every row derives a blank performance level and is dropped.

Where It Lives

• The Assessment Definitions tile on your district page links to the full list for the current year.
• The list opens in nine-week-period order, but you set the order yourself by dragging definitions. Your arrangement sticks, and it is the order used everywhere assessments are listed.
• Selecting a definition opens its tracker, where you can see the impacts and scores that rolled up under it.
• A CSV and PDF export of the list are available from the index.

How To Use It

District admins can manage definitions:

1. Open the Assessment Definitions list from your district page.
2. Add a definition for each assessment your district gives that year, choosing its type and the nine-week period it belongs to.
3. Reorder the definitions into the sequence your year runs (see Reordering definitions below).
4. Edit a definition to correct its name, period, or type.

Reordering definitions

The list is arranged by hand, not auto-sorted, so you set it to match how your year runs.

1. Open the Assessment Definitions list. Each row has a drag handle, the up-and-down arrow (↕), at its left edge.
2. Click and hold the handle, drag the row to its spot in the sequence, and release.
3. The new order saves on its own. There is no Save button to press.

Only district admins can reorder, and only within the year shown on the page. Other roles see the list in the saved order but do not get a drag handle.

A definition can only be deleted while it is a District type and has no scores or impacts attached to it. Once data has rolled up under a definition, it is locked in place so reporting stays consistent.

What Data Feeds It

You do not import Assessment Definitions. You create them, and then your uploaded scores attach to them:

• When you upload an assessment file, the file is tied to the definition you selected at upload time.
• As scores process, each one is linked to its definition, which is how the tracker and impacts know which period they belong to.

This is why the definition has to exist before the matching scores are processed.

How State (MAAP) Scores Attach to Multiple Definitions

Most scores attach to the single definition you chose at upload. State (MAAP) scores work differently. A MAAP result is a prior - it feeds more than one assessment - so when MAAP scores import, TKG Analytics attaches each one automatically to every definition it counts for:

• Its tested home. The score is marked as the tested result on that year's State definition.
• The rest of the current year. For districts on a semester schedule, a mid-year MAAP is attached as a prior to the benchmark and midterm definitions for the periods still to come - the later-quarter definitions that have not been scored yet.
• Future years (banking). A banked high school MAAP - grade-9 Algebra I, Biology I, or English II, or compacted grade-8 Algebra I - is attached as a prior to the benchmark and midterm definitions in the year it banks forward to: next year for grade 9, two years out for grade 8. See Banked Scores.

Each link records whether the score is the tested result or a prior, and whether it counts toward the district and teacher calculations - so one MAAP score can be a teacher's current-year result and a district prior for a later benchmark at the same time.

A few rules keep this dependable:

• Missing targets are created. MAAP files often arrive before the year they feed is set up. If a State or benchmark definition the score should attach to does not exist yet, TKG Analytics creates it on the spot so the prior is never lost - a banked score will stand up next year's (and, for compacted grade 8, the following year's) benchmark definitions. District (midterm) definitions are not auto-created; a MAAP prior attaches to them only when you have already added them.
• Re-importing is safe. The attachment is idempotent - re-processing MAAP files updates the existing links rather than duplicating them.
• It runs no matter how MAAP arrives. Whether MAAP comes in through the state file or a per-definition upload, the same attachment happens.

Common Questions

• Why can't I delete a definition? Only District-type definitions with no scores or impacts can be removed. If data has already rolled up under it, the definition stays.
• Why did next year's benchmark definitions appear on their own? A banked MAAP score (grade-9, or compacted grade-8) attaches forward to the year it counts in, and TKG Analytics creates that year's benchmark definitions if they do not exist yet so the score has somewhere to land. See How State (MAAP) Scores Attach to Multiple Definitions.
• Why is the order important? The order you set here is reused everywhere assessments are listed: the upload picker, the Score Tracker, Item Analysis, and Impact Goals. Keeping it in the sequence your year runs means every list reads top to bottom the same way.
• Why isn't my new order showing up where I expected? Reordering is saved per year, so first confirm you are viewing the same year you reordered - a 2025 change does not affect 2024. The new sequence saves on its own; refresh the page if a list still shows the old order. Only district admins can change the order, so other roles always see the saved sequence with no drag handle.
• Why don't I see a New button, just an "Add district midterms" card? Creating district midterms is a separate feature. Open a Helpdesk Ticket to enable it for your district.

Support

• Helpdesk Ticket: Helpdesk Ticket
• Website: https://tkganalytics.org