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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. This dashboard displays students’ performance for schools and districts across grades and assessments, instead of for a single assessment as in other dashboards. Unlike other assessment dashboards in WISEdash for Districts, this dashboard uses static data; in this dashboard, student records stay the same and will not adjust depending on enrollment changes (unlike in Topics dashboards where data are updated daily). Additionally, in this dashboard, users can drill down to view data for individual students in a given performance level. For example, determining the full academic year (FAY) students who were in the Advanced performance level at a given school in the district during a particular school year.

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 (2020-21 and 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))

Data is available in this dashboard for the most recent 3 years of assessments.

Use for Accountability Comparisons

 

This dashboard allows school districts to explore assessment performance information that is used in state and federal accountability systems (state 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 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).

When comparing with accountability reports (report cards and ESSA), be sure to limit to students who are FAY. Accountability reports may not match this dashboard exactly for a given school year; for example, the English Learner counts in this dashboard may be lower than what you see in the accountability reports (see #1 under the Cautions section for additional information).

The report cards use all of the assessments listed above in calculating achievement scores. Comparison can be made to the report cards’ “Performance Levels by Year” and “Student Group Performance Levels by Year” sections.

ESSA accountability does not use the results of the ELA and Mathematics assessments in grades 9 and 10 (ACT Aspire/PreACT Secure/DLM) in calculating achievement scores. When using these dashboards to understand ESSA accountability, filter out grades 9 and 10. The “ELA Performance Level Detail (%)” and “Math Performance Level Detail (%)” sections of the ESSA accountability reports correspond to the information shown in this dashboard.

Cautions

 
  1. 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. 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 priority area pages of the report cards and ESSA accountability indicators may be higher than counts found in this Assessment Analysis WISEdash dashboard.

    2. Virtual Charter Schools: District report cards exclude students at virtual charter schools if the majority of students attend as part of the open enrollment program. This dashboard, however, will include those students.

  2. 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.
  3. 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

  • Accountability 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 for students with disability (if a student had an active individualized education program (IEP) between December and June of the assessment year) and students without disability and Disability for student disability type identified); English Learners (EL); economically disadvantaged students (Econ); and homeless students.
  • 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, 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 (2020-21 and 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).

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

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.

 

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