Active Pulse is a better way to look at student scores as trends, as opposed to individual scores.
Let's Go Learn assessments are generally more thorough and designed to test specific skills and concepts to drive instruction. As a result, false high scores are a rarity. Our scores go up based on a set of items, so single random guesses are less likely to falsely push scores up. In general, it is more common to see false low scores. This is because there are many reasons why students may end up with scores that are less than ideal: fatigue, distractions, being rushed, too much sugar, being hungry, etc. Also, at-risk students are often struggling, so doing their best on an assessment may not be their highest priority.
As a result, the practice has been to look at a student's latest test scores and also at previous scores. The teacher then comes up with a quick interpretation of these scores to judge the student's true abilities.
Active Pulse takes this on-the-fly interpretation out of the way for the teacher. It takes a student's scores, and then as new scores come in--whether via a full diagnostic (comprehensive diagnostic), sub-test diagnostic (i.e. phonics, multiplication), or skills/concept quizzes--it merges the scores into the current Active Pulse score set. In essence, Active Pulse shows the latest high scores for each student during any particular school year.
The reasons for using these rolled-up school-year "highest" scores are as follows:
- Indicates a student's more accurate instructional point
- Provides teachers with better data for creating small groups daily or weekly
- Provides the most up-to-date data for our LGL Edge courses
- Prevents a student's bombing of a mid-year test from generating the creation of an inaccurate LGL Edge course
- Makes discussions with parents easier, as the teacher doesn't have to explain variance in testing and how students end up with false low scores
- Provides automated progress monitoring that looks at gains from point to point, rather than fluctuations mixed with gains
Now, if teachers want to see the raw scores, they can do so by clicking on the Test Log icon by each student.
- Test Log
- The Test Log is used to view previous student assessment results. For more information - Click Here.
The next step is to use the Progress Monitoring button to graph individual student gains. But the teacher can also graph gains by individual tests as well. We provide both options!
- Progress Monitor
- The Progress Monitor page is used to view individual student gains. For more information - Click Here.
Video showing the Progress Monitoring graphing tool in action.