How to Setup Cutpoints & Assessment Templates (For Administrators)
- Meaghen Spencer (Unlicensed)
- Paula Leggett
The District Assessment Administrator or a user who has been assigned to the DW-All-Access security group will have the ability to create cutpoints and develop assessment templates. Districts should identify assessment administrators whose responsibility it is for creating the assessment templates and setting the cutpoints for the assessments. These assessment administrators may be distinct staff or school staff depending on the district guidelines.
The following information is intended for district assessment administrators and provides information on how to set-up the assessment application for general teacher and staff use.
There are two steps in setting up an assessment in the application:
Creating the Cutpoints
Creating the Assessment scoring template
Creating the Cutpoints
Cutpoints are generated by the district assessment administrator. We recommend following the cutpoints or bands provided by a vendor - maintaining the integrity of the assessment and the scoring system. However, we understand that in some cases a district/school may need to make adjustments.
For more support - click here to view a brief video on “How to Set Cutpoint Values”
Click on +Add to create a new cutpoint for an assessment.
Cutpoint Creation
On a new page, you will create the cutpoint, which includes the performance level and assigning scores/values to those performance levels in addition to identifying Marking Periods or grading term that the cutpoints would be used in.
Cutpoint Name: Name your cutpoint based on the assessment or type. For example, for an overall Fountas & Pinnell score, you may want to call the cutpoint “F&P Overall”.
2. Grading Option: Numeric or Alphabetic. MinValue/Max Value: Provide the lowest possible value for a score to the highest possible value for a score on the assessment.
3. Grading Term: Select the periods of time that this cutpoint may be used. The options include those shown in the screenshot to the left. Once you select a Term, click Add. You must click +Add each time you want to add a new grading term.
4. Performance Level: Select the types of performance levels available for this cutpoint. Available selections are in the screenshot to the right. If a label is not currently available, email support@datazone.org to request its inclusion in the list.
5. In the Notes section, you can include notes or a description of the times in which this cut point might be used or with which assessments. This field is optional.
6. Click SAVE once you have finished the initial setup.
Assigning Values to the Cutpoint
Once you have created the Assessment Cutpoint, you will assign values to the cutpoint for each performance level by grade level.
Start by going to View under Cutpoints.
2 Click on calculator icon near the name of the cutpoint to “Enter Data for this Cutpoint”
3. Select the grade level from the dropdown menu.
You will create a cut point for each grade level.
4. Input the values for each assessment window and each proficiency band - using numeric or alphabetic values (as determined in the original cutpoint set-up).
Tip: FROM must be the lower/lesser value and TO the higher value.
For each performance level, indicate if the scores are Passing or Not Passing.
5. Click SAVE when done.
Creating the Assessment Template
It is advisable to create your assessment cutpoints before you create an assessment template.
From the main Local Assessment page, click Add.
Watch this video on how to create an assessment template
Create an assessment template
Name: Name your assessment. It is recommended that you include the grade level for this assessment in the name. For example, “Fountas & Pinnell - 1st Grade”
Product: Select the Product or vendor. The screenshot to the right shows the options. For a district or school created assessment, you may select Common Formative Assessment or Local Benchmark.
Subject: Select the subject/content type from the dropdown menu.
Grade: Select the grade level that administers this assessment. Here you will create only one assessment per grade level, but there is an easy copy function that allows you to create multiple assessments for grade levels.
Locked: You can lock an assessment to prevent student scores from being recorded (i.e., if someone tries to enter a score outside of the testing window) or unlock the assessment when you want to record scores (during the testing window). The ability to lock and unlock the assessment is at the discretion of the district. Important Note: In order for assessment data to be pulled into the DataZone analytics dashboards, the assessment MUST BE LOCKED.
Notes: You can add any descriptive notes about the assessment or its use here.
Click SAVE when done.
Once you click SAVE, the assessment template will be created, and you can proceed with identifying what the score columns and structure.
Assessment Score Types & Columns
In this step, you need to create the “columns” or spaces where staff will record the values. It is important to know which values you want to record and in what order.
Also, it is important to remember that you will create an assessment template for each grade level.
Column Name: Enter the Score Name. For example, if you want teachers to enter the overall F&P score, name this column Overall Fountas & Pinnell score.
Column Type: Select from the dropdown menu.
Component Scores are scores that would given for a combination of content (i.e., Unit Test that include Math and ELA - or a general overall score). You will not use this very often.
Composite Score is a score that is given to a specific content area. For example, F&P and DRA Overall score would be a Composite score for a reading assessment.
Strand Score is a score given to a specific part of a test. For example, in a reading assessment that would have a breakdown of scores by letter names, letter sounds, blends or things like fluency and accuracy. Each section would be called a strand.
Cutpoint: Select the cutpoint from the dropdown menu. Available cutpoints are determined by the Grade Level. For example, this Assessment is for 1st grade, therefore only cutpoints available for 1st grade will be shown in the dropdown.
**This is why it is important to create the cutpoints prior to creating the assessment template. You must attach the correct grade-level cutpoint to the assessment template.
Order: To assign columns an order, simply use a numerical value in the box. For example, Overall Score could be in the first column. If you had an additional score, such as Fluency, it could be assigned to the 2nd column.
Watch this video on How to Create an Assessment Template
Viewing the Assessment Template
To view the assessment template that you created, go back to the assessment list located in Assessments.
Click on the pie graph (when you hover over it, it will say “View Summary”)
