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Power Standards

Overview

A power standard is a standard your district treats as a priority. On every Item Analysis report, power standards are shaded, so the standards that matter most to your district stand out while you read a class or grade item by item.

Out of the box, the shaded standards are the ones named in MDE's assessment blueprint. The Power Standards page lets your district keep that blueprint or set its own list.

Where It Lives

Open the user menu in the top right and choose Power Standards.

Only your district's point of contact can open or change this page. The choice changes what every teacher in the district sees shaded on their reports, so it sits with the one named contact rather than with every district admin. If your point of contact has changed, a team admin can reassign it, and the new point of contact gets the page.

How To Use It

  1. Choose a subject: English, Math, Science or History.
  2. Choose a grade or course within that subject. English and Math run from kindergarten through grade 8 and then the end-of-course assessment. Science has grade 5, grade 8 and Biology. History has US History.
  3. Tick a standard to make it a power standard, or untick one to stop it being one.
  4. There is no save button. Each box saves the moment you tick it.

The page opens on the first grade or course that has any power standards in it, so you land somewhere worth reading rather than on an empty list.

If a box cannot be saved, it goes back to the way it was and the page says which standard it was. Nothing is half-saved: a box either shows what your district holds or tells you it did not save.

Each row tells you two things. The Power box is your district's choice. The In MDE blueprint column says whether MDE's blueprint names that standard. Where your choice differs from the blueprint, the row is labelled Added by your district or Removed by your district, so you can always see where you have departed from the state's list.

Following The Blueprint, Or Holding Your Own

The banner at the top of the page says which of these your district is doing.

  • Following MDE's assessment blueprint. Your district has not changed anything, or has changed something back. You hold no list of your own, so when MDE revises its blueprint your reports follow it.
  • Holding your own set. Your district has ticked or unticked at least one standard. Your list is now yours, and a later revision of MDE's blueprint will not change your reports.

Going back is always possible. Undo your last difference, so your ticks match the blueprint exactly again, and your district goes back to following the blueprint rather than keeping a frozen copy of it.

One Choice Per School Year

Your district chooses once, not every year.

  • A choice is recorded against the school year you make it in.
  • Later school years follow that choice until you change it.
  • Earlier school years never change. A choice you make now does not re-shade a report from a year that has already closed, so last year's reports keep reading the way they read at the time.

What This Does Not Change

Power standards are about what is highlighted, and nothing else. Shading a standard does not change a score, a performance level, a projection, a growth calculation or anything on an impact. No report is rebuilt and nothing is re-imported. The change shows up the next time someone opens an item analysis.

Common Questions

  • Why are there no power standards for kindergarten or grade 1? MDE's assessment blueprint names none there. You can still tick standards at those grades if your district wants them highlighted.
  • Why can I not open the page? It is limited to the district's point of contact. Ask a team admin to confirm who holds that role for your district.
  • I changed a standard. Why does last year's report look the same? It should. A choice applies to the school year you made it in and to later years, never to a year already behind you.
  • Will MDE's next revision reach us? Only if your district is following the blueprint. If you hold your own set, you keep exactly the standards you chose until you change them.
  • A standard I expected is not listed. Check the subject and the grade or course. US History standards are numbered by unit rather than by grade, and the end-of-course standards sit under English II, Algebra I and Biology rather than under a grade.

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