How Compacted Scores Work

A compacted math course covers more than one year of math in a single year. TKG Analytics flags those scores as Compacted and handles their prior score, growth, and lowest 25% differently from on-grade math. This page explains where each compacted student's prior comes from, what the tracker shows when there is none, what the note about compacted 8th graders means, and which compacted students can be in a teacher's lowest 25%.

Which Students Are Compacted

A compacted 8th grader's Algebra I score is also a banked score: it is held and counted two years later.

Where the Prior Comes From

A 7th grader's prior is their previous-year SLAIF score, the same as any 7th grader. In some districts, a student in grades 3 through 9 with no SLAIF result takes their previous-year state score instead.

An 8th grader in Math Compacted 8 is moving from grade 8 math into Algebra I, so their Algebra I score is measured against their Math 8 score from the same assessment, and only that score. TKG Analytics never uses the SLAIF or a previous-year state score in its place. A student with no Math 8 score on the assessment has no prior.

What each row shows on the tracker:

What the two labels mean:

• No Math 8 Scale Score: the student has a Math 8 score on this assessment, but the assessment has no scale scores (see Assessments With Scale Scores). The Math 8 performance level is still the prior, so the student still has growth.
• No Math 8 Score: the 8th grader has no Math 8 score on this assessment, so they have no prior. They count toward proficiency only.
• No SLAIF Score: a 7th grader for whom TKG Analytics found no SLAIF score, and no previous-year state score in districts that use one.

The CSV export leaves both labels blank in the prior_scale_score column.

The Prior Columns on a Teacher's Compacted Tracker

On a teacher's tracker with Compacted selected, the prior columns are named Prior Scale Score and Prior PL rather than Prior MAAP Scale Score and Prior MAAP PL. A compacted 8th grader's prior there is a Math 8 score from the same assessment, not a previous-year MAAP score, so "MAAP" would be wrong for part of the table.

The Prior Scale Score column only appears when at least one student in your filtered results has a prior scale score. On a midterm, no compacted 8th grader's Math 8 score has a scale score, so a table of 8th graders has no Prior Scale Score column at all. The Prior PL column still shows, and a note above the table explains why.

School and district trackers keep the Prior MAAP names, because their tables mix compacted students with everyone else. For a compacted 8th grader, the column still holds the prior described above.

The Compacted 8th Graders Note

A teacher's tracker with Compacted selected, and the teacher's Compacted impact, show a short note above the table when either of these is true. The tracker PDF and the impact PDF print the same note.

• "<n> compacted 8th graders have no Math 8 score on this assessment, so they count toward proficiency only." Their prior is their Math 8 score, so without one they have no prior, no growth, and are not in the lowest 25%. If you expected Math 8 scores for these students, ask your district whether the Math 8 file for this assessment has been uploaded.
• "<n> compacted 8th graders have no Math 8 scale score on this assessment, so they are not in the lowest 25%." They have a Math 8 score, and their growth still uses its performance level. The lowest 25% is ranked by prior scale score, so without one these students cannot be ranked.

Each line counts only students who meet full academic year, because they are the students the impact counts. On the tracker, that is the full academic year students in your filtered results.

Growth

Growth compares the student's performance level on this assessment with their prior performance level:

• A 7th grader grows from their SLAIF performance level.
• An 8th grader with a Math 8 score on the assessment grows from their Math 8 performance level, whether or not that Math 8 score has a scale score.
• A student with no prior, including an 8th grader with no Math 8 score, has no growth.

The Lowest 25% on a Teacher's Compacted Impact

A teacher's lowest 25% is drawn from students' prior scale scores (see The Lowest 25% Group). On a teacher's Compacted impact, each compacted student is grouped with the students whose prior falls in the same range, and each group has its own lowest 25%:

A compacted 8th grader whose Math 8 score has no scale score is not in the lowest 25% on that assessment, because there is no scale score to rank. On an assessment with scale scores, the same student can be.

The Lowest 25% Group view lists the Math 8 range as Grade 8 (Math 8 prior), separate from Grade 8.

School and district lowest 25% groups do not include compacted 8th graders in grade 8. Their Algebra I scores are banked, and count when the student reaches 10th grade.

Assessments With Scale Scores

Whether a Math 8 score has a scale score depends on the assessment:

An assessment without scale scores stores no scale score for any student, and the tracker's Scale Score column reads n/a on its rows. If your benchmark tracker reads n/a in that column, your benchmarks have no scale scores, and a compacted 8th grader's Math 8 prior on them reads No Math 8 Scale Score.

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