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WISEdash for Districts Assessment Analysis Dashboard

About the Data | Use | Cautions | Definitions | Data Changes | FAQ | Resources

About the Data

 

This dashboard shows how many students are in each Wisconsin Student Assessment System (WSAS) performance level for a given school year. Unlike other assessment dashboards in WISEdash for Districts, this dashboard:

  • displays students’ performance across all assessments, rather than by each unique assessment; and
  • uses static data; this dashboard will not update as districts make changes to the data they submit from their SIS.

Assessments included in this dashboard are:

  1. English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics in grades 3-8 (Forward assessment)
  2. ELA and Mathematics in grades 9 and 10 (ACT Aspire (2021-22) or PreACT Secure (2022-23 and forward))
  3. ELA and Mathematics in grade 11 (ACT with writing)
  4. ELA and Mathematics in grades 3-11 for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities (Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM))

ELA and mathematics Assessment Performance Trends charts appear at the top of the dashboard and show up to five years of data. Be aware, because of the assessment standards changes, if you choose a school year that is part of the old standard (pre 2023-204) you will see performance levels for the prior 4 years. If you choose, a year under the new standard (presently only 2023-2024), you will see performance levels for 2023-2024 and future years (when they become available).

This dashboard also includes Assessment Analysis data tables for the most recent 3 years of assessments, mirroring the number of years used in accountability reports. In the data tables, users can drill down to view data for individual students in a given group (e.g. a particular performance level).

Use for Accountability Comparisons

 

This dashboard allows school districts to explore assessment performance information that is used in school and district report cards (“report cards”) and federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) accountability. Report cards and ESSA accountability both calculate achievement scores based on students’ performance levels on statewide assessments in ELA and Mathematics.

Achievement scores in report cards use all of the WSAS assessments. Achievement scores in ESSA accountability, however, do not use the results for students in grades 9 and 10.

Mirroring accountability report achievement results

 

In the Assessment Performance Trends charts

The ELA and mathematics Assessment Performance Trends charts include “No Test” results. Report cards, on the other hand, exclude students who did not test from achievement scoring.

To exclude “No Test” results from the charts, click on the “No Test” label at the bottom of the chart. The chart will then recalculate the percentage of students in each performance level, excluding non-tested observations. Note that the percentages displayed still may not match the Performance Levels by Year chart in the report card due to additional report card business rules (see Cautions section for additional information).

The Assessment Performance Trend charts cannot be filtered by grade and therefore cannot be adjusted to mirror achievement results in ESSA accountability reports.

In the Assessment Analysis data tables

The data tables are arranged by Accountable Schools (Rows) and FAY School (Columns) by default.

To mirror school level report card results:

  • Filter FAY School to “Yes”.
  • Using the Test Result tab, exclude “9-No Test”.
  • You can also filter to a single school using the blue Filter Data button at the top of the page or the “Acctbl School” tab in the data table.

To mirror ESSA accountability results, in addition to the above, also exclude grades 9 and 10 using the “Grade” tab.

To mirror district level report card results:

  • Substitute FAY District for FAY School and then filter to “Yes”.
  • Using the Test Result tab, exclude “9-No Test”.

Caution: these tables may not exactly match report card and ESSA accountability achievement results due to additional accountability business rules (see Cautions section for additional information).

Cautions

 

Additional Accountability Business Rules

While this dashboard is useful for viewing which students are included in accountability achievement score calculations, it will not always produce a perfect match to those accountability reports because of business rule differences between this dashboard and those reports. For more information about accountability business rules, see the report card resources and ESSA accountability resources. Some examples where there is not a perfect match between this dashboard and accountability reports include:

  1. First Year in County Students: Students for whom this was their first year in the country are excluded from achievement calculations. To adjust the Assessment Analysis dashboard accordingly, from Available data, move “First Year in Country (EL)” under Columns; then filter to only select “No”.

  2. Former English Learners: On the Achievement pages of the report card and the ESSA indicators, the English learner (EL) student group includes former English learners who exited services in the last four years. This is done to reflect the work that schools and districts have done with these students to help them reach English proficiency. Therefore, EL counts in the Achievement pages of the report cards and ESSA accountability reports may be higher than counts found in this Assessment Analysis WISEdash dashboard.

  3. Virtual Charter Schools and Detention Facilities: District report cards exclude students at virtual charter schools and detention facilities under the following circumstances:

    • if the majority of students attend the virtual charter as part of the open enrollment program,

    • if the majority of students were not present at the detention facility for the entire school term.

To mirror district report card numbers, you can filter out the affected schools using the “Acctbl School” data tab.

Assessments Included in This Dashboard

This dashboard includes the ELA and Mathematics assessments that are part of WSAS. WSAS is a comprehensive statewide program designed to provide information about what students know in the core academic areas and whether they can apply what they know. The dashboard does not, however, include other assessments such as ACCESS for ELLs, assessments of reading readiness, local assessments (MAP, PALS, or STAR), or NAEP

This dashboard only contains student performance levels in ELA and Mathematics. For other subject areas or detailed information about student assessment scores, please refer to the specific assessment dashboards in the Topics > Assessments section:

  1. Forward

  2. ACT Aspire

  3. PreACT Secure

  4. ACT with writing

  5. DLM

Definitions

 

*Bold indicates data categories available in the dashboard

  • Accountable School: Refers to the school accountable for student outcomes within a given school district. This is usually the school that students attend, but students may be included who attend elsewhere but for whom responsibility for free and appropriate public education (FAPE) is based on where the students live. Additional information is available on the District/School Accountability data element.
  • Demographic and Student Group Data: This dashboard allows the user to more easily investigate assessment data by different demographic and student group categories including grade; race; gender; students with disabilities (SPED); disability type (Disability); English Learners (EL); economically disadvantaged students (Econ); and homeless students.
  • First Year in Country (EL): Students for whom this was their first year in the country are excluded from Achievement calculations in accountability reports.
  • FAY School and FAY District: Indicates students who have been enrolled in the same school or district, respectively, from the third Friday in September until time of testing for a given assessment year.
  • Non Test Reason: Test participation is important to ensure the academic performance of all students is being evaluated. This dashboard allows the user to more easily investigate non test reasons for students who do not participate.
  • Performance Levels: four performance levels used in the Wisconsin Student Assessment System (WSAS); the levels are Advanced, Meeting, Approaching, and Developing (before 2023-24, the levels are Advanced, Proficient, Basic, and Below Basic). These levels are based solely on scores obtained on the given WSAS assessment. For example, students tested on the Forward assessment receive a scale score for each subject. Each of the four levels in each subject and at each grade level is associated with a range of scores on the Forward assessment. In addition to the four performance levels, if a student did not take a given assessment, the performance level is listed as “No Test.”
  • Test Type: The assessment data included in this dashboard is from the following assessments:
  1. Forward for grades 3-8
  2. ACT Aspire (2021-22) and PreACT Secure (2022-23 and forward) for grades 9 & 10
  3. ACT with writing for grade 11
  4. Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM) for grades 3-11
  • Wisconsin Student Assessment System (WSAS): WSAS is a comprehensive statewide program designed to provide information about what students know in the core academic areas and whether they can apply what they know. The program includes the Forward assessment, ACT Aspire and PreACT Secure; ACT with writing; and Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM).

Data Changes Over Time

 
  1. The assessment for students in grades 9 and 10 transitioned from ACT Aspire (2014-15 through 2021-22) to PreACT Secure (2022-23 and forward).
  2. DPI updated terminology used to describe student performance levels on statewide standardized assessments. This updated terminology is used starting with 2023-24 assessment data. More information on this change can be found on this Asset-Based Performance Levels handout.
  3. In 2023-2024, standards were reset for ELA and mathematics. As a result, 2023-24 results are not comparable to previous years' results.

Frequently Asked Questions

 

1. Why is it important to distinguish between FAY students and students who were not FAY in a school or district?

Only assessment results for FAY students are factored into school and district report cards and ESSA accountability.

2. How is other data (student group, school) connected to assessment data?

Most student group associations (e.g. race/ethnicity etc.) are assigned based on the Spring Demographics Snapshot of student attributes taken in late May. District/school assignments are based on the district/school accountable for each student’s education.

Resources

State and Federal Accountability

Achievement scores contribute to report card ratings and school and student group identifications in ESSA accountability. For more information on how report card ratings are determined, please review the Report Card Technical Guide for the most recent year under Report Card Resources. For more information on how school and student group identifications are determined in ESSA accountability, please review ESSA Accountability Overview under Federal Accountability (ESSA). For additional state and federal accountability information:

Federal Accountability (ESSA) -This webpage provides detailed information about federal accountability under ESSA including how schools and student groups within a school are identified under ESSA as low performing.

School and district report cards (state accountability) - This webpage provides detailed information about the school and district report cards.

Assessments

Assessments in Wisconsin - This webpage provides detailed information about the different assessments in Wisconsin which measure student performance in core academic areas.

Related Dashboards

Forward Dashboard - This dashboard provides detailed, student-level information about the Forward assessment in all subjects tested.

ACT Aspire Dashboard - This dashboard provides detailed, student-level information about the ACT Aspire assessment in all subjects tested. ACT Aspire data is only through 2021-22. After that, PreACT Secure is the assessment given to students in grades 9 and 10.

PreACT Secure Dashboard - This dashboard provides detailed, student-level information about the PreACT Secure assessment in all subjects tested.   PreACT Secure is the assessment given to students in grades 9 and 10 starting in 2022-23.

ACT with writing Dashboard - This dashboard provides detailed, student-level information about the ACT assessment in all subjects tested.

DLM Dashboard - This dashboard provides detailed, student-level information about the Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM) assessment in all subjects tested.

Additional Information about Data Elements

District/School of Accountability- This webpage provides detailed information about how the district and school of accountability are determined for each student.