Assessment Management System Edusoft LAUSD title Training Guide Release: 3.7 LAUSD_06-2006
Copyright 2004-2006 The Riverside Publishing Company. All rights reserved. ProductCoreLong, Edusoft, and Riverside are registered trademarks of Houghton Mifflin Company. All other trademarks and tradenames are the property of their respective owners. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. School districts, names, and data used as examples in this document are fictitious unless otherwise noted. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording by any information or retrieval system, for any purpose, without prior written permission of The Riverside Publishing Company. Address inquiries to Permissions, Riverside Publishing, 208 Utah Street, Second Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103. If you have comments or suggestions about ProductCoreLong documentation, please send us an e-mail at doc.comments@hmco.com. Important contact information: Assessment Web site: assessment.lausd.net LAUSD Help Desk: 323-224-2277 (Option 0) Edusoft Help Desk: 866-433-8763 (Option 2) The Riverside Publishing Company 208 Utah Street, Second Floor San Francisco, CA 94103 Tel 1.866.4.EDUSOFT www.edusoft.com
contents Table of Contents Chapter 1 Welcome to Edusoft............................. 1 Chapter 2 Grading Assessments............................. 3 Viewing grading results......................... 4 Resolving scanning problems....................... 9 Chapter 3 Managing Assessments............................ 15 About the Benchmark Assessment Locker................. 16 Setting up and managing your Assessment Locker............. 17 Administering assessments........................ 22 Chapter 4 Creating Benchmark Reports......................... 33 About Benchmark reporting....................... 34 Creating a Performance Band report................... 40 Creating a Class List report........................ 42 Creating a Student Performance report.................. 44 Creating a School Comparison report set................. 45 Chapter 5 Analyzing Assessment Items.......................... 49 About Item Analysis reports....................... 50 Selecting items for analysis........................ 51 Viewing and interpreting Item Analysis reports.............. 53 About Item Response reports....................... 57 Creating an Item Response report..................... 58 Chapter 6 Defining Intervention Groups......................... 61 About intervention groups........................ 62 Defining an intervention group...................... 62 Refining membership in an intervention group............... 66 Creating a custom group from an intervention group............ 66 assessment.lausd.net Contents iii
Edusoft LAUSD Chapter 7 Generating Instructional Worksheets..................... 69 About creating instructional worksheets.................. 70 Instructional Tool has a new look..................... 71 Creating instructional worksheets..................... 72 Chapter 8 Managing Edusoft Settings.......................... 81 Managing your account and password information............. 82 Creating administrator accounts..................... 83 Managing users, passwords, and schools.................. 84 Looking up a user............................ 86 Changing your user name........................ 87 Setting underperforming thresholds................... 88 Chapter 9 Creating Custom Groups........................... 89 About custom groups.......................... 90 Creating a custom group......................... 91 Editing a custom group......................... 92 Index...................................... 95 iv Contents LAUSD Help Desk: 323-224-2277
chapter 1 Welcome to Edusoft The ProductCoreLong (Edusoft) is an easy-to-use student assessment platform that helps you make decisions about student instruction based on real performance data at the district level and all the way through to the classroom. With better access to data, you can answer questions like these: Where can I focus my instructional resources most effectively? How can I pull together scores from high-stakes exams, interim benchmarks, and classroom-based quizzes to look at the big picture? How can I tell if my after-school programs are paying off? Where do I place each student? Who goes into the gifted and talented program? Who might go there next year with a little extra attention now? What am I going to teach tomorrow based on the test results from today? How do I give each of my students the homework assignments that will help them the most? Who is going to summer school? Who might be able to avoid summer school with just a little more work in a specific area? How do I target the students who need intervention and make sure that they are getting the help they need? Edusoft helps you answer all these questions and more, with confidence and the data to back it up. Edusoft helps you administer large-scale assessment programs easily, efficiently, and economically and get immediate results. You can print answer sheets on plain paper, score them with an inexpensive home scanner, and start viewing the results online within minutes. With easy-to-use tools for analyzing your performance data, Edusoft helps you to keep classroom instruction aligned to your state standards and the needs of your students. assessment.lausd.net Welcome to Edusoft 1
Edusoft LAUSD A modular approach Modular in design and in approach, Edusoft gives teachers and administrators an array of tools right at their fingertips. All you need is an Internet connection and a browser. Benchmark Exams Throughout the year, you administer benchmark exams designed to determine how well students are developing the skills they need at each grade level. The Edusoft Benchmark Exams module helps you develop and administer school-wide or districtwide assessment programs with equal ease. Within hours of completing a large-scale assessment, you can start analyzing the results and deciding what actions to take. State Analysis Step-by-step support State-administered assessments contain a wealth of information about how well students are doing in a variety of subject areas if one could only pry that information loose. The Edusoft State Analysis module provides the tools you need to analyze state assessment results across populations and over time and take action on them. The Edusoft paper-to-web solution supports teachers at each step as they teach, test, analyze, and reteach. Customized instructional materials let you pinpoint specific areas where students are struggling. Automatic scoring of plain paper tests lets you continue to use familiar testing methods and existing test materials. Almost instant online access to results, and tools to interpret them, let you identify students who are at risk and provide immediate feedback. Real-world instructional tools and access to customizable resources let you target instruction where it is needed most. 2 Welcome to Edusoft LAUSD Help Desk: 323-224-2277
chapter 2 Grading Assessments After you scan and upload a batch of answer sheets you can view the results on the Edusoft Web site. Depending on the number of answer sheets you are uploading, there may be a small delay before your scanning results are available. During large assessment waves, results might not be available immediately. Edusoft can display the results of scanning sessions for the past hour, for today, for the last week, the last month, or the last two months. You can view sessions based on whether you scanned the answer sheets yourself, or by the type of answer sheets scanned. You can also view answer sheets for all schools you have access to or just for one school. Other options allow you to target the specific scanning sessions for custom groups or just those that contain unresolved answer sheets. For each scanning session, you see the number of students successfully graded, as well as the failed scans. From there, you can identify and resolve scanning errors. You can also view results for multiple scanning sessions for the same test. This allows you to see how many scores you have and determine if some scores are missing. These are the topics in this chapter: Viewing grading results on page 4 Resolving scanning problems on page 9 assessment.lausd.net Grading Assessments 3
Edusoft LAUSD Viewing grading results The Grading Status page gives you access to information about scanning sessions. Edusoft automatically displays today s scanning sessions listed in chronological order. You can also view the results for a single test, even though answer sheets might have been scanned during more than one session. See Viewing results for a test on page 7 for more information. If the session you re interested in isn t listed in the Grading Status page, you can display other scanning sessions. See Choosing a scanning session on page 6. Once you ve located the session you want to view, you can attempt to resolve some types of scanning errors. See Resolving scanning problems on page 9. To view grading results: 1 Click the Admin tab. Click the Grading link or icon. These are today s scanning sessions. Click a scanning session to see its details. Tip: If there are no sessions for the today, the Grading Status: Session Summary page displays a message: No data meet these criteria. To view a different time period, see Choosing a scanning session on page 6. 4 Grading Assessments LAUSD Help Desk: 323-224-2277
Training Guide 2 To view the results for a specific session, click the session s date/time link. Click a scanning session to see its details. The Grading Status: Session Detail page shows which answer sheets were scanned successfully and which were not. You can treat this page as a check list of actions to take in resolving scanning errors. See Resolving scanning problems on page 9 for more information. Click the link for a test to list all scanning sessions for that test. Answer sheets were scanned for this exam. If there is more than one test in a batch of answer sheets, the successes and failures are listed by exam name. These answer sheets were scanned successfully. This section shows information about the scanning session. Students in red have partial scores. This column indicates This column how many indicates of a student s how total answer sheets many were of a scanned: student s All, total Some, or None. Some means answer a sheets teacher were score sheet or additional student scanned: answer All, sheets Some, have or not been scanned. None. These answer sheets failed. Click to resolve the failure. assessment.lausd.net Viewing grading results 5
Edusoft LAUSD Choosing a scanning session Edusoft automatically lists today s scanning sessions in the Grading Status page. However, you can display other scanning sessions based on the time period, the type of answer sheet that was scanned, and the location of the scanner. For some types of answer sheets, you can display scanning session by school or by custom group. You can also display only the sessions that contain unresolved scanning problems. To choose a scanning session: 1 Use the options at the top of the Grading Status: Summary page to select different sessions. To show sessions For answer sheets that you scanned Do this Choose Answer sheets that I scanned in the Show Sessions By list. With period-specific or school-wide generic answer sheets With custom group answer sheets For a different time period For a specific scanner 1 Choose the type of answer sheet in the Show Sessions By list. 2 Choose a school in the School(s) list. 1 Choose Custom group answer sheets in the Show Sessions By list. 2 Choose a custom group in the Custom Groups(s) list. Choose the time period in the Time Period list. Choose the scanner location in the Site(s) list. With unresolved scanning problems Click the View unresolved only check box. 2 Click View. 6 Grading Assessments LAUSD Help Desk: 323-224-2277
Training Guide The Grading Status: Session Summary page displays all sessions for the options you selected. The summary now shows all session with periodspecific answer sheets for one school. Scanning occurred from a specific scanner during the last week, and the sessions contain unresolved answer sheets. Click to view the details for a specific session. Viewing results for a test The Grading Status: Test Detail View lets you track the results for a specific test, regardless of how many scanning sessions are involved. Edusoft provides two ways to display this page: from your Assessment Locker or from a Grading Status: Session Detail page. From the Grading Status: Test Detail View page, you can drill down to see the teachers and periods or classes for which you have scores, and which students are missing scores. To view results for a test: 1 Open the Grading Status: Test Detail View page. From the Assessment Locker, view the test details page for an exam, and click the View Grading Status link. Click this link to view grading status for this test. From the Grading Status: Session Summary page, click the link for a grading session that includes the test. In the Session Detail page, click the link for the exam. Click this link to view grading status for this test. assessment.lausd.net Viewing grading results 7
Edusoft LAUSD The Grading Status: Test Detail View page displays a list of teachers and periods for which answer sheets have been graded. This teacher has answer sheets scanned for this test. This period has unresolved answer sheets. Click a teacher link to view scanning results for a specific teacher and test. 2 Click the link for a teacher or custom group to see the scanning status. The Grading Status: Teacher Test Detail page shows how many students were graded, the number of unresolved scanning failures, the names of students who were graded, and the names of those who are missing scores. Click this link to return to the Test Detail View page. This is information about the test and when it was administered. This is the number of unresolved scanning failures. These are the numbers of students with All, Some, or No scores. These are the details of the grading status for each student. These are the failed scans for this test. Click the View Image link to resolve failures. 8 Grading Assessments LAUSD Help Desk: 323-224-2277
Training Guide 3 Click the test name link to retrace your steps. Resolving scanning problems There are a number of reasons that could cause a scanning failure, but they all boil down to recognition problems: can Edusoft identify both the student and the exam? Student recognition failures occur when the student fails to bubble his or her name clearly or bubbles more than one name. Another source of student recognition errors is students who have enrolled since the last time your Student Information System was updated at Edusoft. You can generally resolve this type of failure without much difficulty. You can think of these as the good failures they are relatively easy to fix. Failure to recognize the exam is a more serious problem. If you can identify the student and exam based on the answer sheet, you can print a new answer sheet, transfer the student s answers, and scan in the replacement. If you can t identify the student or the exam, the failure remains unresolved. These are the bad failures they are more difficult to fix. Anyone who scans answer sheets both teachers and administrators can resolve scanning failures. However, a teacher cannot resolve scanning errors for answer sheets scanned by another teacher, even if the students are in the first teacher s class. assessment.lausd.net Resolving scanning problems 9
Edusoft LAUSD Edusoft lists scanning failures in two categories, student recognition failures and exam recognition failures. These are student recognition failures. These are test recognition failures. Edusoft can identify the exam for these scanning failures. If you resolve them all, this section of the page goes away. Resolving student recognition problems When you resolve scanning failures, you start by looking at an image of the answer sheet. The action you take depends on the type of problem. If the student name is not bubbled, for example, but you can see whose answer sheet it is, you can assign the answer sheet to the student and regrade it. The same may be true if the student has bubbled two names. Tip: You can set the Grading Status: Session Summary page to show only the sessions that have unresolved answer sheets. Then, you can click the # of Unresolved link for each session to see the answer sheets that are still unresolved. You can also resolve answer sheets from the Grading Status: Session Detail page. 10 Grading Assessments LAUSD Help Desk: 323-224-2277
Training Guide To resolve student recognition problems: 1 From the Grading Status: Session Detail page, click the View Image link for a failed scan. Click to select the student and regrade the answer sheet. Because the student s name has been written in, you can resolve this failure by assigning it to the correct student and regrading it. 2 Check to see the reason for the failure. 3 In the Instructions area, click the Click here link to look up the correct student. Select the student. If the student is not listed, you can search for the student by name or student ID. Click to continue resolving the failure. 4 If the student name is listed, click the bubble beside it and click Continue. assessment.lausd.net Resolving scanning problems 11
Edusoft LAUSD Click to return to the Grading Status page. Edusoft assigns the answer she to the student you selected. 5 Click the Back link to return to the list Grading Status: Session Detail page. This student now has a score. 6 Continue to examine and resolve student recognition failures. When you resolve all student recognition failures, that section of the Grading Status page goes away. Resolving test recognition failures Test recognition failures cannot be resolved as easily as student recognition failures. If the answer sheet is not defaced or damaged, you may be able to resolve the failure by rescanning and uploading the answer sheet. Or, if the only problem is stray marks on the block code or registration marks, you may be able to resolve the failure with a replacement answer sheet. Likewise, if the answer sheet is skewed or otherwise unreadable, the only solution is to replace it. 12 Grading Assessments LAUSD Help Desk: 323-224-2277
Training Guide Test recognition failures appear in their own section of the Grading Status page. Unlike the student recognition failures, test failures remain on the list even after you resolve them. This is because you must resolve them manually by scanning a new answer sheet, and Edusoft has no way to connect the new answer sheet with the old scanning failure. important! You don t resolve a test recognition error until after you have successfully scanned and uploaded a replacement answer sheet. You resolve this failure by creating and scanning in a new answer sheet. The failure remains in the Grading Status list as a to do list until you resolve it. The student has played connect-the-dots with the block code, making it impossible for Edusoft to grade the answer sheet. To resolve test recognition failures: 1 From the Grading Status: Session Detail page, click the View Image link for a failed scan. Click this link after you ve taken the appropriate steps to resolve the scanning failure. 2 Read the reason for failure and follow the instructions on your screen for resolving it. assessment.lausd.net Resolving scanning problems 13
Edusoft LAUSD 3 After you have scanned in a replacement answer sheet, click the Mark as Resolved link. Edusoft marks the failure as resolved. When you return to the Grading Status page, your name is listed as the person who resolved the failure. 14 Grading Assessments LAUSD Help Desk: 323-224-2277
chapter 3 Managing Assessments Edusoft benchmark assessments are school-wide or district-wide standards-based assessments that help teachers and administrators evaluate student progress toward overall and per-standard proficiency. Any assessment, whether created by your district or purchased, can be aligned to standards and administered using Edusoft. Using Edusoft, you can organize and store benchmark assessments in your Benchmark Assessment Locker. From here, you can add or remove the folders used to organize assessments, move assessments between folders, and archive assessments that are no longer in use. After an assessment is administered, you can evaluate the performance of individual students, classrooms, grades, schools, or any group that you select. You can also view and define performance bands for each assessment to further help you analyze student performance. These are the topics in this chapter: About the Benchmark Assessment Locker on page 16 Setting up and managing your Assessment Locker on page 17 Administering assessments on page 22 assessment.lausd.net Managing Assessments 15
Edusoft LAUSD About the Benchmark Assessment Locker The Benchmark Assessment Locker is a hierarchy of folders used to organize assessments. Assessments can be tests you ve created in Edusoft, or existing tests that you ve aligned in Edusoft. You can think of the contents of your Assessment Locker as folders in a file drawer. Each folder can contain assessments and other folders. Folders appear on the left and assessments appear on the right. You can create as many nested folders as it takes to organize your alignments in a useful way. Top level and subfolders appear in alphabetical order. The assessments in each folder also appear in alphabetical order. This is a top level folder. These are subfolders inside the top level folder. Each of these subfolders contains assessments. Click a folder to open it and see its contents. A + on the folder means it contains other folders. The number next to the folder indicates the number of assessments it contains. The highlight indicates this is the currently selected folder. This is the current folder. The aligned assessments in each folder appear in alphabetical order. Private assessments are red, and are marked private. Click to view or edit the details of the selected assessment. The assessments in your locker can be either public or private. Public means that all Edusoft users in your district teachers and administrators can see the assessment. Private means that only other administrators can see the assessment and its scores. The names of private assessments appear in red. You can print answer sheets for any assessment that appears in your Assessment Locker. Edusoft lists top level folders in your Assessment Locker in alphabetical order. All nested folders also appear in alphabetical order. Therefore, it s important to plan your folder hierarchy before you start adding folders. The easiest way to do this is to sketch the plan first on paper to make sure that you have included all the folders you need and the hierarchy is easy for teachers and administrator to use. Although you can create and remove folders as you like, the folders always appear in alphabetical order. 16 Managing Assessments LAUSD Help Desk: 323-224-2277
Training Guide Setting up and managing your Assessment Locker The first step in organizing your Assessment Locker is to plan how it will be organized. Next, you add test folders and subfolders to flesh out the structure you planned. If you decide to change the structure, you can rename, move, or delete folders. At the end of an assessment cycle or at the end of the school year, you can archive assessments that will no longer be in use. For example, if you organize your folders by testing cycle, you can archive the first quarter s assessments before adding assessments for the second quarter. important! Some important points to remember: If you delete a test that has been scored, you will also delete the scores associated with it. If you delete a folder that contains one or more tests, you also delete the tests (and their scores). Creating a test folder These are the topics in this section: Creating a test folder on page 17 Managing test folders on page 18 Archiving a folder on page 19 Restoring an archived folder on page 20 Copying an assessment on page 20 Moving an assessment to a different folder on page 21 Deleting an assessment on page 22 Changing the security for an assessment on page 22 You use folders to organize the contents of your Assessment Locker. You can place folders within other folders to create a hierarchy. When you create a folder, you specify the folder name and whether it is a top-level folder or a subfolder. Note: Once you ve named a folder, you can easily rename it at any time. In the Assessment Locker, select the folder and click Rename. assessment.lausd.net Setting up and managing your Assessment Locker 17
Edusoft LAUSD To create a test folder: 1 Click the Benchmarks Exam tab. Click the link or icon for Assessments. Click to create a new folder. This is a top level folder. This is a subfolder within a top level folder. This is an aligned assessment. 2 On the Assessments page, click Create New Folder. 3 Type a name for the folder in the New Folder Name area. Tip: When naming folders by grade, use a zero before single-digit grades so that they can be sorted in the correct order. For example, Grade 09, Grade 10, Grade 11. 4 Click an existing folder to choose a location for the new folder. To place the folder at the top level, choose At the Top Level. To place the folder within another folder, select the folder where you want to place it. 5 Click OK. Managing test folders After you create folders, you can rename them, delete them, or move them to different locations. In each case, you begin by selecting the folder you want to manage. Then you select the appropriate folder option: move, rename, or delete. important! If you remove a folder that contains assessments that have been administered and scored, you will lose the scores. To retain the scores, you must move all assessments with scores associated with them to another folder before removing the original folder. See Moving an assessment to a different folder on page 21. 18 Managing Assessments LAUSD Help Desk: 323-224-2277
Training Guide Archiving a folder To manage test folders: 1 Click the Benchmarks Exam tab. Click the link or icon for Assessments. 2 On the Assessments page, select the folder you want to move, rename, or delete. 3 Click the appropriate folder options button. To move a folder, click Move and choose where to move the folder. Click OK. To rename a folder, click Rename and type the new name. Click OK. To delete a folder, click Delete and click Yes to confirm that you want to delete it. Your Assessment Locker is divided into two major sections Current and Archives each of which can contain folders, subfolders, and assessments. The Current section is designed to house the assessments that are live in your district right now. The Archives section is where you store assessments that have already been administered and scored, and should not be administered again. This is the Current section of your Assessment Locker. This is the Archive section of your Assessment Locker. Archiving is a shortcut for moving entire folders with their subfolders and assessments from the Current section of your Assessment Locker to the Archives section. It s important to remember that archiving is not the same as deleting folders. Instead, archiving simply moves the folders and their contents out of the current section. You can continue to generate reports on scores for archived assessments, but you can no longer print answer sheets for them. Tip: To archive individual assessments, simply move them to a folder that has been archived. assessment.lausd.net Setting up and managing your Assessment Locker 19
Edusoft LAUSD Note: If you had folders in your Assessment Locker prior to August 1, 2004, Edusoft duplicated your Current folder structure in the Archived section as part of our migration to version 2.7. We did this to prevent the loss of archived assessments or folders. Now that the migration is complete, you may want to look at your Archives section and remove any folders you no longer need. To archive a folder: 1 Click the Benchmarks Exam tab. Click the link or icon for Assessments. 2 On the Assessments page, select the folder you want to archive and click Archive. 3 Choose where in the Archives section to move the folder. Click OK. Restoring an archived folder Whenever you wish, you can move a folder from the Archives section to the Current section and print answer sheets for the restored assessments. You choose the location for the folder when you restore it. There s no need to move it back to its previous location. To restore a folder: 1 Click the Benchmarks Exam tab. Click the link or icon for Assessments. 2 On the Assessments page, choose Archives from the Show list. 3 Select a folder and click Restore. 4 Select a location for the restored folder and click OK. You can place the restored folder wherever you like. Copying an assessment Edusoft can store only one set of scores for each benchmark assessment. This means that if you were to administer the same assessment for a second time, the scores from the second administration would over-write the previous scores for the same students. If you want to administer an assessment for a second (or subsequent) time, you can make an exact copy of the assessment. Edusoft recognizes the copy as a separate assessment and scores it accordingly. This way, you can administer the assessment twice without losing the scores from the first administration. 20 Managing Assessments LAUSD Help Desk: 323-224-2277
Training Guide The assessment copy is an exact duplicate of the original, including any uploaded test files. The copy has the same number of sections, the same questions per section, and the same answer key for multiple choice questions. Questions are aligned to the same standards. However, you can place the copy in a different folder, give it a new name, and change the administration date. important! Although the copy is an exact duplicate of the original assessment, you must print new answer sheets that are identified with the copy, rather than with the original. If you were to use old answer sheets, Edusoft would assume that you were re-administering the original assessment and not the copy. To copy an assessment: 1 Click the Benchmark Exams tab, and then click the link or icon for Assessments. 2 In the Assessment Locker, select the assessment and click View Details. 3 Click Copy to create a duplicate of the assessment. 4 Give the assessment a name, and enter the new administration date. Choose whether to allow the new assessment to be copied. 5 Select a folder for the assessment. 6 Click OK. If the original assessment had a test attached to it, the copy has the same test file attached. Moving an assessment to a different folder When you add an assessment to your Assessment Locker, you select the test folder where the assessment will be located. If you change your mind, you can move assessments to a different folder. Note: Depending on how your district has been set up, you might not have the permissions to move a folder. To move an assessment to a different folder: 1 Click the Benchmark Exams tab, and then click the link or icon for Assessments. 2 Select the assessment you want to move and click Move in the Test options area. 3 Select a location for the assessment and click OK. assessment.lausd.net Setting up and managing your Assessment Locker 21
Edusoft LAUSD Deleting an assessment You can delete assessments you no longer need from your Assessment Locker. important! If the assessment has been administered and graded in Edusoft, deleting the assessment also deletes any scores associated with the assessment. If the scores are deleted, you can no longer run reports that include this assessment. To delete an assessment: 1 Click the Benchmark Exams tab, and then click the link or icon for Assessments. 2 Select the assessment you want to delete and click Delete in the Test Options area. 3 Click Yes to confirm that you want to delete the assessment. Click OK to confirm again. Changing the security for an assessment When you align a Benchmark assessment, Edusoft assumes that you want to keep the assessment private until you are ready to share it with teachers users in your district. Therefore, all newly aligned assessments are private available only to other administrators in your district. When you are ready to share the assessment with the rest of the district, you change its security setting to Public. To change the security for an assessment: 1 Click the Benchmark Exams tab, and then click the link for Assessments. 2 In the Assessment Locker, select the assessment and click View Details. 3 To make an assessment public, click the Make Public link. 4 To make an assessment private, click the Make Private link. The assessment still appears in the Assessment Locker of administrator users, but teachers can no longer print answer sheets or view the results of this assessment. Administering assessments Edusoft makes it easy to administer benchmark exams. Preparation includes: Printing the answer sheets for the assessment. See Viewing and printing answer sheets on page 24. Printing the corresponding questions. If the test document is attached to the assessment, you can download and print it from Edusoft as well. See Downloading exam questions on page 26. 22 Managing Assessments LAUSD Help Desk: 323-224-2277
Training Guide After you administer the assessment, you collect the test materials from the students, and scan and upload the answer sheets to Edusoft. See the Edusoft Scanning and Grader Guide (click the Library link from any Edusoft page) for information about scanning answer sheets, resolving scanning problems, and viewing results. Once the answer sheets have been successfully uploaded, you can run reports that include the data from this assessment. Viewing assessment details Each Benchmark assessment in your Assessment Locker has a details page that includes information about the assessment, as well as links that allow you to: Edit the assessment (see Editing an aligned assessment on page 62) Copy the assessment (see Copying an assessment on page 20) Attach a file or view an attached file (see Uploading a test file on page 61 and Downloading exam questions on page 26) View questions and standards View grading status Print exam labels that show students how they performed on an assessment (see Printing exam labels on page 27) View or create performance bands Change the security setting for the exam (see Changing the security for an assessment on page 22) Print answer sheets (see Viewing and printing answer sheets, next) The details page also shows the number of answer sheets that have been graded for this assessment. (For more information, see Chapter 4, Grading Exams with Edusoft in the Edusoft Scanning and Grader Guide.) After grading an assessment, a link appears on the details page that you can click to view the grading status. To view assessment details: 1 Click the Benchmark Exams tab, and then click the link or icon for Assessments. assessment.lausd.net Administering assessments 23
Edusoft LAUSD 2 In the Assessment Locker, select a folder, and then select an assessment. Click View Details to view its details page. This is the number of answer sheets that have been graded for this assessment. Click to view questions and standards. Click to view the definition for a specific standard. Click to view the current performance bands. Click to view test questions. Click to replace the file containing test questions. If the test was created in Edusoft, you see View Test Document here. 3 To view information about questions and the standards they are aligned to, click the View Question Details link. The Question Details page shows the number and types of questions, the point value for each question, the correct answers for multiple choice questions, and the standards each question is aligned to. 4 To view the definition of a standard, click the standard link. Click the Back link to return to the Question Details page. Tip: You can also hold the mouse pointer over a standard to view the definition in a pop-up box. Viewing and printing answer sheets Before you administer an exam, you print the answer sheets that students will use to bubble their answers. If the exam has short or long answer questions, teachers need to grade those answers before the answer sheets can be scanned and scored by Edusoft. Long answer exam sections can also optionally use teacher score sheets. Teachers use these to score questions for all students on one sheet instead of on each student s answer sheet. Edusoft creates answer sheets in PDF files that you can view and print using Adobe Reader. You must have Adobe Reader installed on your computer before you can view and print an answer sheet. If you don t already have Adobe Reader installed, you can download it at no cost from the Adobe Web site: www.adobe.com. 24 Managing Assessments LAUSD Help Desk: 323-224-2277
Training Guide There are three types of answer sheets: Per Period Period-specific answer sheets are identified by teacher and period, and include a list of the students in the period.you can print them for specific courses, teachers, and periods. The PDF file also includes a generic page for each period that is also identified by teacher and period. But instead of a list of student names, the periodgeneric answer sheet contains spaces where students can bubble their student IDs. School-wide Generic School-generic answer sheets are not associated with a teacher or period. They can be used by any student taking the assessment. If you have a choice, we recommend you use period-specific answer sheets. Custom Group Answer sheets for students in one or more custom groups. Student names for the custom group appeain addition,. Before you distribute answer sheets to students, make sure the answer sheets are good, crisp copies and are square on the page. Here are some tips that will make scanning easier after students complete the answer sheets: When you print answer sheets, be sure to use a high-quality laser printer to print the master answer sheet. Do not create answer sheets on an ink-jet or dot-matrix printer. When you copy answer sheets, be sure to use a high-quality copier to make copies. Do not use a high-capacity, low-quality duplication system such as risograph. When you copy answer sheets, make sure that the copies are the same size as the original (not reduced or enlarged) and are not distorted in any way. The Edusoft Grader relies on the four squares in the corners of the answer sheet (registration marks) for orientation. If they are in the wrong position or are distorted in any way, scanning may fail. Note: You should not use answer sheets printed more than a year in the past. If you try to scan answer sheets that more than a year old, Edusoft displays an error message. Then you will have to print new answer sheets and transfer all entries from the old answer sheets to the new ones before rescanning. To view and print answer sheets: 1 Click the Benchmark Exams tab, and then click the link or icon for Assessments. 2 In the Assessment Locker, select an assessment and click Print Answer Sheets. assessment.lausd.net Administering assessments 25
Edusoft LAUSD 3 Choose a school if necessary. Select the type of answer sheet and click Continue. To print Answer sheets for one or more periods School-wide generic answer sheets Answer sheets for custom groups Do this 1 Choose Per Period, and click Continue. 2 On the Select Courses page, click the check boxes for one or more courses and click Continue. 3 On the Select Periods page, click one or more check boxes to select teachers or periods. Click Continue. If you select a teacher, you get answers sheets for all the teacher s periods for the courses you selected. You can also select individual periods. Tip: Click the View link to see which students are in a period. Choose School-wide Generic, and click Continue. 1 Choose Custom Group, and click Continue. 2 Select one or more custom groups and click Continue. After a brief pause, Adobe Reader starts in your browser window and Edusoft displays the PDF file containing all the answer sheets you selected. 4 To print this document, click the Print icon and follow the instructions on your screen. The Print icon is part of the Adobe Reader toolbar toward to the top of the page. important! Tip: If you are working with a large number of answer sheets, you might want to save the PDF file to your computer before printing. To save this PDF file to your computer, click the Save a Copy icon. You can return to this file later to resume printing. Downloading exam questions Use the Print icon from the toolbar. Do not use Print from the File menu or the Ctrl-P shortcut. If the test was created in Edusoft, or the person who aligned the test attached a file containing the exam questions, you can open that file and print it out. Tip: Although you can attach any sort of file to an assessment, the most common contents of the file are the exam questions. It s a good idea to check the file in advance to make sure it contains the questions. For an aligned test, you can quickly tell if a file has been attached to an assessment by looking at the assessment details page. A Download Test button indicates there is a file attached. For a test created in Edusoft, a View Test Document button appears instead. 26 Managing Assessments LAUSD Help Desk: 323-224-2277
Training Guide Printing exam labels Note: In most cases, you must have the application that was used to create the file in order to open it. For a PDF file, you need Adobe Reader to open and print the file. To download exam questions: 1 Click the Benchmark Exams tab, and then click the link or icon for Assessments. 2 In the Assessment Locker, select an assessment and click View Details to view its details page. 3 Click Download Test or View Test Document to open the file or save it on your computer. To open the file, click Open. To save the file to your computer, click Save, select the location where you want the file to be stored, and click Save. 4 Click the Back link to return to the Assessment Locker. Edusoft makes it easy to print labels that show how each student performed on recent assessments. Labels show the student s name, the test score in raw numbers and percentages, a list of the questions missed, and a list of standards. You can print labels from the Assessment Locker or the Test Details page. Student s point/total possible points. Correct multiple choice answer. Question number. This is a short answer question, so there s no correct answer shown. Student s name. Raw score/total possible points (Percent score). Guide for students on how to read this label. Standards covered in the missed questions. Tip: You can print the labels on Avery 5164 label sheets and then affix them to each student s answer sheet or test. You can also print labels onto plain paper and staple them onto answer sheets. To print labels from the Assessment Locker or Test Details: 1 In the Assessment Locker, select an assessment, and click Print Labels. assessment.lausd.net Administering assessments 27
Edusoft LAUSD You can also select the assessment, click View Details, then click Print Labels on the Test Details page. 2 Select a School Group and School, and click Continue. 3 Select a period, and click Continue. 4 Choose whether to include correct answers on the labels, and click Continue. After a brief pause, Edusoft displays the first page of labels. The labels are in a PDF file that you can print or save to disk. About defining performance bands When you align an assessment, Edusoft automatically creates your district s default number of performance bands for overall scores, per standard, and per question group. You can use the default performance bands as is, or you can create new bands that may more accurately model the rubrics in use in your school or district. You can create performance bands for: Overall scores. See Defining overall performance bands on page 28. Each standard covered in the assessment. See Defining per standard performance bands on page 29. For a group of related questions that you define as a question group. See Defining performance bands for question groups on page 30. Defining overall performance bands Overall performance bands are a way of looking at results for an entire assessment. They give you a sense of how students are performing on the test as a whole rather than in specific areas. Depending on your settings, you can define each performance band by a percent range or by point values. For each band, you specify the low end of the range and Edusoft uses that number to calculate the top value for the prior range. When you view points and percents side by side, you can adjust either set of values to get the results you want. To define overall performance bands: 1 In the Benchmark Assessment Locker, select an assessment and click View Details to view its Test Details page. 2 Click the Create New Bands link in the Performance Bands area to define performance bands for this assessment. 3 Choose the type (Overall) and number of performance bands you want to create. Click Continue. 28 Managing Assessments LAUSD Help Desk: 323-224-2277
Training Guide To create performance bands for standards or for question groups, see Defining per category performance bands on page 29. You can create up to 30 bands. 4 If performance bands already exist, Edusoft asks you to confirm that you want to replace the existing performance bands with new ones. You only replace the performance bands of the type you selected. Click Continue to overwrite the existing performance bands. Bands are listed from lowest to highest and use your district s default band names. 5 Type a name for each performance band. Click Continue. For overall bands you must create new bands to change their names. 6 Type a point value or percent for the bottom of each performance band range. Tip: You might start with a percent and then adjust the points to a round number. 7 (Optional) Select an At Level band from the drop-down list. If you set an At Level band, you ll see the percent of students scoring at this level or above on the Performance Band Report. 8 Click Continue. Tip: To reset customized performance bands, click the Reset to Default link. 9 To create additional bands, click the Create link at the top of the page. Otherwise, click the Back link to return to the Test Details page. The assessment details page shows the number of overall, per standard, and question group performance bands. Defining per category performance bands In addition to overall performance bands, you can also define performances bands for each standard covered in the exam. You can also select a group of related questions and identify them as a question group, which you can use later in reports. Depending on your settings, you can define each performance band by a percent range or by point values. For each band, you specify the low end of the range and Edusoft uses that number to calculate the top value for the prior range. When you view points and percents side by side, you can adjust either set of values to get the results you want. See Defining per standard performance bands, next. See Defining performance bands for question groups on page 30 Defining per standard performance bands When you create performance bands per standard, you can set a single range that applies to all standards, or define a separate range for each standard. assessment.lausd.net Administering assessments 29
Edusoft LAUSD To create per standard performance bands: 1 In the Assessment Locker, select an assessment and click View Details to view its Test Details page. 2 Click the Create New Bands link in the Performance Bands area to define per standard performance bands for this assessment. 3 Click Per Standard to create bands for each standard. Choose the number of bands you want to create. Click Continue. Bands are listed from lowest to highest. 4 Type a name for each performance band. Choose whether to use the same performance bands for all standards. Click Continue. If you choose to use the same performance bands across the board, you start with your district s default values and enter percents that apply to all performance bands. You can then review and edit the ranges for each standard separately. If you set ranges separately, you can enter either percents or points for each standard in turn. 5 Type percents for the bottom of each performance band range. If necessary, choose whether you want to edit ranges for individual standards. Click Continue. Tip: You may want to adjust the ranges for a performance band based on the number of points available for a question group. 6 If you chose to edit ranges, adjust the points or percentages for each standard. Click Continue. After you complete the final standard, Edusoft displays the performance bands you created. 7 To create additional bands, click the Create link at the top of the page. Otherwise, click the Back link to return to the Test Details page. Defining performance bands for question groups The steps for creating performance bands per standard and for question groups are almost identical. If you re creating question groups there is an extra step where you enter a name for each question group and designate the questions in the group. To create performance bands and question groups: 1 In the Assessment Locker, select an assessment and click View Details to view its Test Details page. 2 Click the Create New Bands link in the Performance Bands area to define question groups with performance bands for this assessment. 3 Click Question Groups and select the number of question groups you intend to create. Choose the number of bands you want to create. Click Continue. 30 Managing Assessments LAUSD Help Desk: 323-224-2277