DataZone Knowledge Base

1 Why Generic Assessments?
2 Steps
3 Necessary Data Fields

Why Generic Assessments?

Note: This is currently in development and data will not be available immediately as dashboards are being built.

We make an effort to integrate common assessments used across districts in our consortium. To be able to accurately match students and their performance during each benchmark period and year over year, these assessments need to be standardized and provide some crucial data elements such as student IDs, testing windows, performance bands, school year, etc.

For assessments that do not fit the criteria for a full integration with DataZone where all necessary data columns are provided in standard exports, Generic Assessments allow districts a way to provide a standard data set. Once all crucial data columns are provided, they can be processed to show assessment results in DataZone Analytics and SMART measures.

Steps

District Leads can utilize Generic Assessment Dashboards by following the steps below:

Make a copy of the Generic Assessments template and fill out all required fields on Sheet 1. Download the file as a CSV when completed.
Follow the instructions to upload the CSV into the FM app and select “Other - Miscellaneous“ for File Type.
Create a support ticket to alert our support team that you have submitted the file in the FM app and are requesting it be displayed as a Generic Assessment. They will review your files, follow up with any questions, and let you know once the assessment results are available in DataZone for viewing.

Necessary Data Fields

These data fields are included in the spreadsheet template linked in Step 1 under Steps.

FIELD	Required / Optional	Definition	Source
DISTRICT_CODE	Required	CDS CODE for the Institution we are working with. (As shown on the CDE website)	CDS Profile Page
DISTRICT_SCHOOL_ID	Required	School Identifier that uniquely identifies the School within the school district	Student Information System
DISTRICT_STUDENT_ID	Required	Student Identifier that uniquely identifies the student within the school district YOY.	Student Information System
STATE_STUDENT_ID	Optional	A student identifier assigned by the state which uniquely identifies a student state-wide.	Student Information System
STUDENT_FIRST_NAME	Required	The students' legal first names: James, Andrew, Sue, Sanjay, Alicia, etc.	Student Information System
STUDENT_LAST_NAME	Required	Legal Surname of the student. Gonzales, Pfefferle, Johnson, etc.	Student Information System
STUDENT_GRADE	Required	Student Grade of Enrollment when the test was administered.	Student Information System
TEST_SUBJECT	Required	ELA, Math, Science, etc	Assessment Platform
TEST_NAME	Required	ESGI, Reading Assessment - Stays the same between School Years, Schools,	Assessment Platform
TEST_STRAND	Required	A lower-level grouping of the tests - Overall, domains, strands, and items, etc. Keep the naming convention the same (Including special characters, spaces etc).	Assessment Platform
SCHOOL_YEAR	Required	Academic Year this data belongs to. Format 2025-2026, 2024-2025	Assessment Platform
TEST_DATE	Required	The date of Completion/testing	Assessment Platform
TEST_ADMIN_PERIOD	Required	An assessment-specific testing window. Some examples include Fall, Winter, Spring, BOY, MOY, EOY, Tri, Tri2, Tri3, etc. Conformed between School years, across all schools within the district.	Assessment Platform
TEST_PERFORMANCE_BAND	Required	Standard Met, Not Met, Exceeded, Above Grade Level, At Grade Level, below Grade Level, etc. Consistent between administrations, schools, and school years. Will be used in data Visualizations.	Assessment Platform
TEST_SCORE_VALUE	Optional	Alpha or Numeric scores corresponding to the Primary Result	Assessment Platform

Notes:

Upload as CSV file into FM app with the File Type “Other - Miscellaneous“. It will need to be manually processed. Please notify the team the file is there by creating a support ticket.
Assumes only one test score by Test Admin Period
Assumes only one test per date (if the test was taken outside of the test admin window)
Provide at least one ID consistently year over year
Incremental Uploads - File can include current administration only or can be YTD data set
Test Date - This date is NOT used to identify the school year.