School Districts
Harness Multiple Measures of Assessment
Combine assessment data from multiple measures and sources in one interface to gain a comprehensive view of your learners’ progress.
Analyzing Multiple Measures of Assessment Is No Simple Task
We assess students in many ways throughout a given school year, so that they can demonstrate what they know at different points in time. There are frequent formative methods, interim and benchmark measures, and summative assessments that are often delivered on different platforms, and then scored and reported upon separately too. This siloed, standalone assessment data – especially scores and outcomes data – makes it nearly impossible to understand how students are progressing in a holistic way.
standardized tests between pre-K and 12th grade
A study of the largest urban districts in the U.S. found that students take an average of eight standardized tests per school year.
of teachers believe in the value of formative and interim assessments
Three-quarters of teachers agree that these assessments help them focus on the content that students need to learn and provide data about individual student growth and achievement.
of parents want an accurate measure
A survey found that 82% of public school parents believe it’s important to have an accurate measure of what their child knows.
Ed-Fi Connects Data From Multiple Assessment Systems
Ed-Fi Community members came together to define an essential question: are my students improving in a content area over time? The data that answers that question comprises many types of assessments across different applications. The Ed-Fi Data Standard and Technology Suite allows school districts to weave together those multiple measures and sources. Then, educators and administrators can view all assessment data comprehensively to understand student progress and make instructional decisions that attain desired learning outcomes. Ed-Fi can get you started doing just that.
Dr. Happy Miller
Rio Rancho Public Schools, NM • Executive Director, RADA (Research, Assessment, Data, and Accountability)
"Staff members often need to see how students are doing on multiple measures, especially to make determinations about progress, interventions, and student support. It’s also compelling to use multiple measures of data for day-to-day instructional decisions, like what to teach next or what may need reteaching or extending. What makes Ed-Fi special is the ease of looking at multiple measures of sourced data in one place to support the best judgment calls and instructional decisions for learners."
Common Questions Before You Get Started
- How much will this cost?
All Ed-Fi technology and resources are available at no cost.
- How much time will this take?
We recommend starting with the demonstration site which only takes a minute to load and explore. You can follow up with a complete prototype pre-built in a virtual machine with test data. This will allow you to have a clickable solution with sample data, so you can visualize the tool and see how it would work in your own district. This prototype only takes a couple hours to stand up. Finally, you can try out the assessment use case locally with your students’ data. This may take longer depending on your IT and security processes.
- What district systems will be involved?
The source systems you’ll need are your Student Information Systems (SIS), your assessment system(s), and any data files you might get from assessment providers (such as a CSV from your college readiness provider).
- Who (and what roles) should be involved?
We recommend forming a core team of champions to solve this multiple measures of assessment challenge with data:
• Program and Data Leads – Central office departments like Assessment, Accountability, or Learning & Teaching
• Campus Leads: Principals
• IT Leads: System administrators and SIS administrators
- What district technology will I need?
To get started with the Multiple Measures of Assessment sample application, you’ll need to be able to spin up a virtual machine (VM) on Amazon Web Services (AWS). You can request access to a temporary environment provided by Ed-Fi if needed to help you get started. To build out your test environment for your district and connect your own source system data to it, you’ll need your own computing infrastructure (on-premises or cloud-based) to deploy a database server and a web server. Detailed installation requirements are provided in the starter kit reference guide.
Get Started with Ed-Fi: Harness Multiple Measures of Assessment
Use our step-by-step implementation guide to connect the assessment data in your district. Our goal is to make implementing Ed-Fi as simple and straightforward as possible, so you can start seeing results and improving student outcomes right off the bat.Option 1
Do It Yourself
Our Assessment Starter Kit provides a step-by-step guide for both technical and non-technical district leaders to use together. With the starter kit, you and your team can learn how to implement Ed-Fi specifically to harness multiple measures of assessment. The guide follows seven steps, summarized below, and includes an on-demand demonstration site that may be a good place to start.
1234567Step 1
Try The Demo
Create an account and access the Assessment demonstration site. Use the walkthrough information provided to take a tour of the tool through the eyes of a campus principal, a classroom teacher, or a district superintendent.
Step 2
Setup the Virtual Machine
For the Quick Start Guide, download and set up a prepackaged virtual machine that contains the Assessment sample application and sample data. (If you can’t run a virtual machine in Amazon Web Services (AWS), Ed-Fi can help.)
Step 3
Explore the Starter Kit
Here you’ll follow the steps to explore and learn about the virtual machine you installed that hosts your Ed-Fi tools and your Assessment sample application with sample data.
Step 4
Install the Ed-Fi Solution
Using the Set Up Guide, install all of the components of the Ed-Fi solution needed to create a test environment for your district in which to build your own assessment data solution.
Step 5
Load Test Data
In this step, you will configure your operational data store (ODS/API) with the Admin App tool you installed in the previous step, and then you will load your district’s data from your Student Information System (SIS) and from your Assessment system(s). You will also use the Data Import tool to load assessment data that you may have received in an export file from your assessment provider.
Step 6
Install And Test Your Dashboard
Install, configure, and run the data visualizations included in the Assessment data dashboard, populated by your district’s data sourced from the ODS/API you deployed in your test environment.
Step 7
Publish The Dashboard & Plan Your Rollout
Now that you have created a functioning test environment for your district’s assessment data solution, you will publish the dashboard in a release targeted to your internal test users, to have them login, view, use, and test the data visualizations. You will then be in a position to:
- Verify functionality and support from key systems
- Understand what resources and technical skills you need to support it
- Test this solution with your key audience in a pilot
- Plan and conduct a production rollout of your solution
Option 2
Working With Tech Vendors
1234Step 1
Education Technology Vendors
Vendors are an important part to bring the benefits of interoperability to your district. It is always a best practice to communicate early and often with all of your vendors that provide you with systems, like SIS and assessment vendors. Make sure these vendor-types are part of your planning process.
Step 2
System Integrators
While each school district is different and has varying in-house resources and timelines, some districts have had success by working with a system integrator that is familiar with Ed-Fi. In any instance, you will need to have a working understanding of the milestones and pre-work necessary for a successful implementation but a system integrator can help you along the way.
Contact us for a list of Systems Integrators that may be available to help you.
Step 3
Managed Hosting Providers
There are several vendors that now offer differentiated Ed-Fi software as a service (Saas) or Platform as a service (PaaS) offerings. These offerings range from implementing and onboarding your district, providing you with a platform experience with Ed-Fi native tools and value added tools they provide, technical support, analytics and data visualization capabilities, etc. Providers that have badged their solution offerings are published on the Ed-Fi Tech Docs site. Once you get an account you’ll have full access to this list.
Step 4
Cloud Providers
You may have the technical capability in-house to stand up your Ed-Fi implementation with the help of a cloud provider. All of the major cloud hosting platforms have templatized deployment options for deploying Ed-Fi technology tools that can help you get started fairly quickly.
- Amazon Web Services
- Google Cloud Platform
- Microsoft Azure
- Inteport via Azure Marketplace
Option 3
Share with a Colleague
Want to start your Ed-Fi journey but need to get other teammates involved? Send them an email with a link to this page to share this important information with them and start building your data team.
Not Sure Where to Begin?
We’re here to help. Reach out anytime.
- How much time will this take?
