State Releases 2013 MCAS School and District Results

Today the state released the official 2013 MCAS School and District Results. Information is available in a multitude of places:

• Today's Press Release
• The ESE Accountability Web Page now includes an Excel file with commendation school information as well as level/PPI information for all districts and schools by region. This page also contains a variety of support documents around school and district accountability, including some short informative videos about the accountability system, PPI, and percentiles.
• School and District Profiles have also been updated to include 2013 MCAS information under the "Assessment" and "Accountability" tabs for a school, district, or the state.
• Edwin Analytics reports in the Security Portal have also been updated with the 2013 official data.

2012 MCAS Data Now in the EDW Cube

The Education Data Warehouse "cubes" were updated this week to include 2012 data. (Cubes are predefined data tables in the EDW that make on-the-fly data manipulation possible.)

The cubes can be accessed from either the District tab or the School tab in the EDW, near the bottom on the left side of the page, under the header Data Analysis Cube. Clicking the link ESE Cubes will open a folder with both the cubes and supporting documentation (a handbook and an up-to-date FAQ). The MCAS Default View cube allows users to start from scratch to analyze data for a particular school or district. The folder Starting Points (Cube Views) provides cube starting points that have already been manipulated and saved to present the data in a particular way. The currently available cube views include:

• MCAS % Correct by Strand and Topic Trend
• MCAS CPI Trends by Grade Level
• MCAS Demographic Trends
• MCAS Performance by Grade Level
• MCAS Performance by Year
• MCAS Performance by Gender by Subject
• MCAS Special Education Performance Gap Trends
• MCAS Subject, Strand, Topic, Question Type, % Correct compared to State by Subgroup (SPED)
• MCAS Weighting by Strand and Topic Level

The State MCAS Default View cube is available for training purposes and contains only state-level data.

To save a cube view, click the Save As icon in the lower right corner and save it to the My Folders tab or your District Folder. (Don't worry, you can't accidentally overwrite the public cube views.) This is similar to saving Report Views. To convert the cube view to PDF for printing/saving outside of the EDW, click the File button in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen (looks like a page) and choose Export PDF. The File button will also allow you to export the data into Excel.

I will offer a regional workshop on using the Data Warehouse cubes if there is enough interest - please email me at laura.tilton@dsacma.org if you're interested in a workshop.

Putting EDW Information into PowerPoint

I often get asked about the best way to get information (such as the graph from PE405) from the Education Data Warehouse into PowerPoint or another document. Folks often want to share the data or graphs from reports in a presentation for district or school staff, school committees, and others (after the data becomes public and the embargo is lifted!)

There are several ways to go about this and it mostly depends on the technology you have available to you. I apologize that these are not the most formal "how-to" directions (they will vary slightly depending on your system) but I hope one of these options will work for you.

1) Screen Capture Software (puts the display in as an image)

If you have a screen capture software such as SnagIt or the Windows Snipping Tool, you can select/copy the part of your screen that you'd like to include, and then paste it into your document. However, SnagIt is not free (though there may be similar software that is free), and the Windows Snipping Tool is only included in Windows 7, 8, or Vista (look under "Accessories.") So these may not be options for many school users.

2) Screen Shot / Cropping Option (puts the display in as an image):

• Take a screen shot of the report by pressing the "Print Screen" button on your keyboard. This copies the screen image. (Alt-Print Screen will copy the active window only.)
• Then open your PowerPoint slide and choose Paste (Ctrl-V).
• Double-click the screen image you just pasted, look for a "Crop" option in the toolbar, and choose it.
• Use the "handles" that appear around the image to crop the image appropriately; hit the ESC key when you are done.
• To resize the image, click it and drag the corners (not the sides) to re-size.

3) Excel Option (puts the display in as an Excel object):

• At the top of the report page, look for the icon that looks like a little page with the globe on it (same place you go to convert to PDF)
• Click the icon and choose "View in Excel Options" and then "View in Excel 2007 Format"
• You will get a prompt asking if you want to open or save the file. Choose "Open."
• The report will open in Excel and you can copy and paste the graph, or any tables, from Excel to PowerPoint
• Note that this may not be straightforward on all computers. If it doesn't work for you the first time you try it, try choosing "Save" instead of "Open." Or choose Excel 2002 Format  instead of 2007. And if it still doesn't work, try holding down the Control key while opening/saving the report. Sometimes pop-up blockers get in the way.

I hope one of these options will work for you. If you have come up with a simpler/easier way to get information from EDW reports into PowerPoint, please let me know!

October 2011 DART Headlines

The DART (District Analysis and Review Tool) is an Excel-based data tool from ESE which provides snapshots of district performance, allowing users to easily track select data elements over time, and make comparisons to the state or to "comparable" districts. The data elements include a broad range of district and school interests including demographic, assessment, student support, educator, financial, and achievement gap data.

The DART was recently updated to include 2011 data, and a DART Detail tool focused on data about English Language Learners is expected to be released in November. For additional details and the latest tools, please visit the DART page on the ESE Web site.

Public 2011 MCAS Data Available

The 2011 MCAS data for all Massachusetts public schools/districts is now available in several places:

The Education Data Warehouse (in the Security Portal; https://www4.doemass.org/)

School and District Profiles (http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/)

• From the right hand side of the main Profiles page, you can access a variety of statewide reports which can be exported into Excel for further analysis and investigation.
• The easiest way to find school/district information in Profiles: use the Search box to locate a school or district's profile. The "Assessment" tab in a school or district's Profile will allow you to access a variety of reports, including annual comparisons, growth, and subgroup information.

Adequate Yearly Progress Information (http://www.doe.mass.edu/sda/ayp/2011/default.html)

• Under "Lists and Analyses" there is a document entitled, "2011 Lists of Massachusetts Schools and Districts by NCLB Accountability Status and Accountability and Assistance Level." This document provides a summary of 2011 accountability data, including lists of districts and schools by Accountability and Assistance Level and schools commended for narrowing proficiency gaps, high growth, and/or exiting NCLB Accountability Status from 2010.

I'm always interested in knowing different ways in which people are using - or would like to use - this data! If you have ideas for data displays or different ways this data could be analyzed, please don't hesitate to contact me with your ideas. I may be able to help you out with an Excel tool that could be used by others as well.

Creating Customized Student Roster Reports, September 2011

I know there are many folks who would like to create customized MCAS student roster reports "by classroom" or a variety of other groups - intervention group, performance level, subgroup, etc. This type of reporting is not currently available in the Data Warehouse. However, there are a few different options you can look into if you'd like to run reports this way.

The first option is to use the R-616 report (only available at this time in EDW 2.6, not EDW 3.0) to create a custom report either using filters or by choosing students from a list. This can be a bit tedious if you're creating reports by classroom but it's probably the quickest option at this time.

The second option is to start with the roster spreadsheet report from the Dropbox, and use Excel to add in a column for teacher or intervention group. The Filter option in Excel can then be used to create lists based on various criteria AND then Excel could be used to calculate group statistics such as median SGP (>20 students). However, entering the information into the teacher/group column could take a while.

For more advanced Excel users only: There is a function in Excel called VLOOKUP which would allow the automation of the addition of teacher/group data to a column in the roster spreadsheet. In order to do this, you'd need your Dropbox roster spreadsheet PLUS a spreadsheet that lists students (by SASID) by teacher/group. The SASID field will serve as a common data point between the two spreadsheets and allow you to bring data from one spreadsheet into another. Someday I'll write a tutorial for this, but for now, here's a link to a great VLOOKUP tutorial online for anyone would like a reference.

Using Excel for Dynamic Inquiry

At the end of June, the Southeast DSAC Literacy Specialist and I had the good fortune to work with a group of teachers who were part of a district "Literacy Intervention Team." Their immediate goal was to explore the growth and performance of their 6th grade students who had participated in the previous year's targeted literacy intervention efforts.

I assisted the group in developing a large Excel spreadsheet which contained all the relevant student data, and we spent time exploring this data dynamically, asking questions such as:

• How did our intervention students perform on this year's MCAS test? What type of growth did we see in these students? How did they perform on local assessments (SRI, DRA-2, etc.)
  


• Were there students who were not included in our intervention efforts who scored Warning/Failing on the MCAS? Who were they and why were they not included in intervention efforts last year?
  


• What about the performance of students whose were initially identified last summer for intervention, but did not participate? (parents "opted out" of literacy intervention or other reasons)

The team's extremely rich conversations that day were able to move to the next level because of the ability to explore the data in a dynamic way, digging deeper as the conversation progressed.

As a result of this work (and previous work/conversations in districts), I would like to offer a workshop entitled "Using Excel for Dynamic Inquiry" so that districts/schools may develop their own dynamic tools for looking at data.

Please take a few minutes to participate in a short survey to indicate your interest in such a workshop, and feel free to forward the survey to others in your district who may be interested. Thank you for your feedback!

SURVEY LINK:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFRpWjR4UjJqcl9QOXMzai1ZaTZoR0E6MQ

A Question from the Field...and a Little Excel Lesson

A district administrator recently asked me, "How can I find out how many middle schools in Massachusetts didn't make AYP for Mathematics?"

One source for this information is an Excel document on the ESE AYP page entitled, 2010 Lists of Massachusetts Schools and Districts by NCLB Accountability Status and Accountability and Assistance Level. You can use the filter feature of Excel to answer this (and other) questions.

What is filtering in Excel, you ask? Well, it's a way of displaying ONLY data in a list that fit certain criteria. I encourage you to follow along and try this out, if you're not familiar with the filter feature in Excel, and you'll see just how handy it is!

After you've opened the Excel document above, click the tab at the bottom for Table 5, which will give you a list of all the schools in the state. You can use the filter feature of Excel to narrow down the data to answer this question - just click on the little arrow on the top of the column to use the filter. First, filter in the "Grade Level" column (Column F) to display only the Middle Schools. A number will appear in the lower left corner, telling you how many schools meet that criteria (289 of 1737 schools).

Then, scroll over to Column O (2010 Math AYP Aggregate) and use the filter feature to display only the schools that did not make AYP. Again, look in the lower left corner for the number (136 schools.) You can repeat this process for other criteria, such as subgroups and/or ELA (just make sure you remove the filter in the other column before choosing another column.)

Note that the filter feature works a little differently depending on what version of Excel you have. Here's a simple overview of the filter feature in Excel for those using Excel 2007 or earlier. I find the filter feature to be one of the most useful aspects of exploring and analyzing data with Excel!

2010 Analysis Cube Now Available!

The Data Warehouse now has an updated "cube" containing 2010 data. "Yippee! An early Christmas gift!" I can hear some of you say, while others are scratching their heads, "What's a cube?"

"Cubes" in the Education Data Warehouse (also known as Cognos PowerPlay) are predefined data tables that make on-the-fly data manipulation possible. The cube's crosstab display (a data table) allows for dragging and dropping of various data elements in order to create new tabular displays of data. These tables can then be displayed in chart form, or exported to Excel for further analysis.

Chapter 3 in the EDW User's Guide gives more information about use of the cubes, for those who are new to its use. The ESE also provides materials for a half-day course on the cubes, which can be found linked to the EDW Welcome screen under "Training Materials." [I do offer regional cube workshops from time to time, so please contact me if you're looking for training.]

If you've played around with the cubes before, but need a bit of a refresher, I've created a "how-to" sheet which illustrates the use of the cube to explore trends in performance by standard and strand over time. There is no pre-defined report in the Education Data Warehouse that provides this information, but it can be pulled from the cube using these instructions. Your feedback on this document is welcome!

Finally, I would love to know how schools and districts are using the cube. Please contact me and let me know your cube uses...I will share what I find out in a future blog post. Also, the ESE folks will be producing and sharing a set of cube views in the EDW which can serve as starting points for for targeted inquiries. Stay tuned!

What Reports Do You Need?

The Data Specialists group will be meeting next month to discuss common needs for the development of new reports for the Data Warehouse. So now is your chance...what kinds of reports does the DW not currently provide that you would find useful? Please share your ideas so that I can bring them to the discussion.

On a similar note, if you have ideas for tools/reports that could be developed using Excel for data analysis and visualization, please share those too! You may recall the performance distribution comparison tool I posted last month ... one assistant principal's inquiry became a tool that everyone can use!

So, are there ways you'd like to visualize or analyze your data that aren't easy to do right now? Please email me (laura.tilton@dsacma.org) with any suggestions, requests, or ideas.

...and Happy Thanksgiving!

Performance Distribution Comparison Graphs Update

Several days ago I posted an entry containing a link to an Excel file which allowed for the creation of performance distribution comparison graphs (school/district/state) using the data in the Profiles area. I have updated that Excel file based on feedback (a special thank you to Tom Lamey, data specialist in the Central region!) and the link is now updated here.

Performance Distribution Comparison Graphs

I heard from an assistant principal in the region who was looking for visual graphs which compared the performance distributions for a school, the district, and the state. While this info is available in the R-403 School Performance Distribution report, it only provides a graphic visualization for the school-specific data.

The data is easily accessible through the Profiles area, but not in a visually pleasing way. So I created an Excel tool that anyone can use to produce these graphs quickly by just copying and pasting your school's data from the Profiles area. You can then print the resulting graphs or paste them into PowerPoint.

Just click this link (updated 10/20/10) to save the Excel file to your desktop, and then follow the instructions provided on the "Data Source" tab. If you have ideas for other Excel display tools like this, I'll take requests! Please let me know if you find this tool useful. (laura.tilton@dsacma.org)

District Analysis and Review Tool (DART)

Last week, a new state tool known as "DART" (District Analysis and Review Tool) was introduced to the folks who attended a regional rollout session that was held at READS Collaborative. For those of you who were not able to attend the hands-on session, I'm happy to report that the Excel-based DART tool is now available online for everyone to access on the DESE site at: http://www.doe.mass.edu/sda/dart/

The DART offers a snapshot of district performance, allowing users to easily track select data elements over time, and make comparisons to the state or to "comparable" districts. The data elements include a broad range of district and school interests including demographic, assessment, student support, educator, financial, and achievement gap data. The tool will be updated online as new information becomes available.