Skip to content

Assessment Definitions

Overview

An Assessment Definition tells Equity Analytics what a given assessment is, when it was given, and how it fits your accountability picture. Every score that comes into the platform is matched to one, so the definition is what turns a pile of imported rows into "the Second Nine Weeks benchmark" or "the state summative."

Each definition has a type:

  • Benchmark: an interim assessment your district gives during the year.
  • District: a district-built assessment that lives outside the benchmark sequence. In practice this is a midterm (see District Midterms below).
  • State: the state summative for the year.

Definitions are scoped to a single school year, so each year carries its own set.

District Midterms

A District definition is how your district adds a midterm to Equity Analytics: your own assessment, given outside the benchmark sequence. A midterm is scored differently from a benchmark or the state test:

  • It carries only percent-correct data, with no vendor performance level or scale score.
  • It is scored against your account's Midterm Ranges rather than your usual calculation method. See Midterm Ranges.
  • Because of that, your Midterm Ranges must be set before the midterm is imported. Without them, every row derives a blank performance level and is dropped.

Midterms are a separate feature

District midterms are an add-on. A district without midterms enabled does not see the New Assessment Definition button on the Assessment Definitions page; in its place is an "Add district midterms to your account" card. To turn midterms on, open a Helpdesk Ticket.

Where It Lives

  • The Assessment Definitions tile on your district page links to the full list for the current year.
  • The list opens in nine-week-period order, but you set the order yourself by dragging definitions. Your arrangement sticks, and it is the order used everywhere assessments are listed.
  • Selecting a definition opens its tracker, where you can see the impacts and scores that rolled up under it.
  • A CSV and PDF export of the list are available from the index.

How To Use It

District admins can manage definitions:

  1. Open the Assessment Definitions list from your district page.
  2. Add a definition for each assessment your district gives that year, choosing its type and the nine-week period it belongs to.
  3. Reorder the definitions into the sequence your year runs (see Reordering definitions below).
  4. Edit a definition to correct its name, period, or type.

Reordering definitions

The list is arranged by hand, not auto-sorted, so you set it to match how your year runs.

  1. Open the Assessment Definitions list. Each row has a drag handle, the up-and-down arrow (↕), at its left edge.
  2. Click and hold the handle, drag the row to its spot in the sequence, and release.
  3. The new order saves on its own. There is no Save button to press.

Only district admins can reorder, and only within the year shown on the page. Other roles see the list in the saved order but do not get a drag handle.

Your order is honored everywhere

The sequence you set here is the order assessments appear throughout Equity Analytics, not just on this page: the assessment picker when you upload benchmark and district files, the Score Tracker, Item Analysis, and Impact Goals. Reorder once and every list follows.

Assessment limits per year

Each school year, a district can define at most four Benchmark assessments, four District assessments, and one State assessment.

A definition can only be deleted while it is a District type and has no scores or impacts attached to it. Once data has rolled up under a definition, it is locked in place so reporting stays consistent.

What Data Feeds It

You do not import Assessment Definitions. You create them, and then your uploaded scores attach to them:

  • When you upload an assessment file, the file is tied to the definition you selected at upload time.
  • As scores process, each one is linked to its definition, which is how the tracker and impacts know which period they belong to.

This is why the definition has to exist before the matching scores are processed.

Common Questions

  • Why can't I delete a definition? Only District-type definitions with no scores or impacts can be removed. If data has already rolled up under it, the definition stays.
  • Why is the order important? The order you set here is reused everywhere assessments are listed: the upload picker, the Score Tracker, Item Analysis, and Impact Goals. Keeping it in the sequence your year runs means every list reads top to bottom the same way.
  • Why don't I see a New button, just an "Add district midterms" card? Creating district midterms is a separate feature. Open a Helpdesk Ticket to enable it for your district.

Support