Understanding Midterms
A midterm is a mid-year assessment that reaches Equity Analytics as raw percent-correct scores, which the platform then scores and folds into your accountability results just like any other score. This page explains what a midterm is, how it differs from a benchmark, and what a district turns on to use one. For the cut-score setup, see Midterm Ranges.
Availability
Midterms are an opt-in feature. If your district would like them enabled, open a Helpdesk Ticket.
What Is a Midterm?
A midterm is a mid-year assessment that arrives as raw percent-correct data - with no performance level or scale score attached. It can come from an assessment vendor or be built by the district; what makes it a midterm is the percent-correct data, not where it came from.
Because a midterm arrives as percent correct, Equity Analytics scores it against a dedicated set of cut scores - your Midterm Ranges - rather than the performance-level logic used for the rest of your assessments. Each student's percent correct is matched to the band it falls in for that grade and subject, and that band becomes the student's performance level.
How a Midterm Differs from a Benchmark
The difference is in how Equity Analytics scores it. Each assessment type is handled differently:
| Assessment | How it is scored |
|---|---|
| Benchmark (standard) | The scale score or performance levels your assessment vendor provides |
| Benchmark (custom-cut-score districts) | Your district's custom benchmark cut scores |
| State assessment (MAAP) | The scale score provided |
| Midterm | Your district's custom cut scores - a dedicated midterm range set |
A midterm is scored the same way as a custom-cut-score benchmark - against cut scores your district defines - except it always works from raw percent correct and uses its own midterm range set rather than your benchmark ranges.
Everything after scoring is the same: once a midterm has a performance level, it feeds the same impacts, projections, and reports as a benchmark.
When You Would Use One
Use a midterm when your district administers a mid-year assessment that comes as percent correct - from an assessment vendor or built in-house - and wants it scored and folded into accountability alongside your benchmarks.
What You Configure to Enable It
- Turn on the feature. Midterms are off by default. Open a Helpdesk Ticket to have them enabled for your district - the Midterm Ranges tile only appears once they are on.
- Set your midterm ranges. In the Midterm Ranges tile, seed the percent-correct bands (from your benchmark ranges or the standard defaults) and adjust as needed.
Once both are in place, uploaded midterms are scored automatically.
How Midterms Feed Accountability
A midterm's performance level behaves like any other score once it is set:
- It rolls into the same Impacts for teachers, schools, and the district.
- It can serve as a prior for later periods, the same way a Spring MAAP or benchmark does - see Banked Scores for how prior scores carry forward.
Because a midterm's performance level is stored when it is processed, changing your midterm ranges afterward does not re-score an already-processed midterm; see Changing the Cut Scores.
Need Help?
- Helpdesk Ticket: Helpdesk Ticket
- Website: https://equityanalyticsms.com