Quick Start User Guide

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The Ed-Fi Dashboards were designed for teachers by teachers, and are provided as a free starter kit as part of the Ed-Fi Technical Suite. The Dashboards connect the data from start to finish by transforming data into insights that make it easier for teachers to teach, for students to learn, and for schools to succeed. 

This guide outlines the most popular and useful features of the dashboard, as determined by educators currently using Ed-Fi Dashboards in their daily work with students.

Visit Our Online Demo

This Quick Start guide is designed as a companion to the Ed-Fi Dashboards demo site, which is populated with fictional data and is available at https://dashboards.ed-fi.org/v3/App. If you want to use this guide interactively, you can use the following logins:

The Ed-Fi Dashboards are generally tested for and compatible with the recent versions of common browsers, including Chrome, Internet Explorer, Edge, Safari, and Firefox. Reasonably equivalent experiences are provided on each.

Student Information Highlights

Student Information Page

The Student Information page is a compilation of data that includes student program participation, accommodations, parent contact information, and a current student photo. This introductory page connects information which is often difficult to access without a dashboard because it is often located in different physical locations and online systems. With Ed-Fi Dashboards, educators can see student designations such as Special Education or Gifted & Talented, and can readily identify how to best contact parents or guardians.

Academic Dashboard Overview

The Academic Dashboard Overview page enables educators to identify high-level student needs quickly, and to navigate, with one click, to a more detailed analysis of student performance.

The dashboard shows educators a summary view of student performance grouped into meaningful categories that include: Attendance and Discipline, State Assessments, Local Assessments, Grades and Credits, Advanced Academics, and College and Career Readiness.

For each category, users see a performance summary (e.g., "5 of 8 goal metrics have been met") as well as red or green status indicators representing the current status of underlying metrics. Users point the mouse at any status button to reveal the associated metric name (e.g., “Credits”), definition (e.g., “Student Progression”) and student outcome (e.g., “Credit Accumulation = 8.5”). Clicking on the status indicator takes the user to a more detailed metric view. 

Class Period Attendance

Traditional calculations of average student attendance can mask class-period-level attendance problems. An Ed-Fi-powered dashboard displays student attendance by class period for the week and for the prior nine weeks. The color-coded blocks (red for absent, yellow for tardy) show patterns in student absences, tardies or early dismissals by class. The calendar view also shows the reason for missing or arriving late to the class.

Assessment Performance Outcomes at the Learning Objective Level

Having detailed assessment performance information enables educators to quickly prioritize where to spend time, both for individual students as well as for their entire class. The dashboard features a view of performance on both state and local assessments that allows educators to see student outcomes over time and at the detailed objective or learning standard level. For each student, educators can see test scores and overall performance levels for each subject as well as the student’s performance on each learning standard for state and local assessments. 

Advanced Academics

The dashboard can help identify students who are ready for a higher-level of academic challenge. A set of Advanced Course Potential metrics identify students who achieved advanced performance levels on recent state assessments in core subjects, and checks that these students are currently enrolled in the advanced course option for that subject.

College and Career Readiness

The data found in the College and Career Readiness section is designed for educators who do not currently have access to this data electronically or in a centralized, easy-to-access location. School-level users can see the graduation status, degree plan, and college entrance exam participation for all students on their campus. At the student level, educators can view participation in and scores on college entrance exams.

Transcripts

The Transcript page helps educators understand the history of academic trends, and prepare for academic discussions, such as parent/teacher conferences; interventions; Admissions, Reviews, and Dismissals (ARD); and other relevant sessions. Educators can see a comprehensive schedule of a student’s current courses, as well as a historical view of student performance.

Users can view the class title, subject area, teacher, and grades for all classes in which a student is enrolled for the current academic year. Educators can also get a historical view of a student’s grades and credits earned by subject and year, as well as historical assessment performance.

Classroom Overview Pages

General, Subject-Specific, and Prior Year Overview

The General Overview page is the default landing page for teachers. The General Overview allows a teacher to view metrics for the current year across all students assigned to the teacher's classes, for students in a specific class section, or for teacher-created watch lists. This view can be customized to include most metrics on the student dashboard pages. Each metric column can be sorted in ascending or descending order and uses the red and green color coding to make it easy for teachers to identify which students are meeting campus goals and which are not. Icons are displayed next to the name of students with specific designations such as Special Education or Limited English Proficiency.

Teachers often use General Overview to identify groups for small-group instruction, tutoring, or out-of-class intervention. The Customize View option allows teachers to select students to add to a watch list, which can be used to monitor the outcomes for a group of students over time. The dynamic watch list feature allows teachers to filter their class list based on metric values (e.g., score below standard on the state assessment in math) and create a watch list of all students who meet the filter criteria. A watch list can also be created manually by checking the box next to the student's name.

The Subject Specific Overview and Prior Year Overview pages look and function exactly like the General Overview page. The metrics displayed by default in the Subject Specific Overview are those most relevant to the teacher's subject area. For example, rather than defaulting to show the number of Grades Below Proficiency across all classes in which the student is enrolled, the Class Grade in the teacher's class is displayed for the student. The Prior Year Overview default view contains the same metrics as the General Overview, but shows the metric values for the prior year rather than the current year. 

Select Features and Functionality

Ed-Fi Dashboards were extensively tested with classroom teachers to be intuitive and easy to use with a minimal need for manuals or training sessions. This section lists a few of the most useful features and functions educators have highlighted in using and customizing the dashboard.

Move Seamlessly Between Summary and Detail Views

Color-coded summary views can help an educator quickly identify problem areas. These views can highlight challenges for one student or an entire campus, and the trend areas and color coding can help educators to prioritize their efforts.

Additionally, educators can quickly access additional detail by clicking from an overview page to a specific metric. Anywhere a “More” button exists, users can click to access historical information or further visual detail as available.

Customize the Desktop View

Within the Classroom dashboard, teachers can use dropdown menus to toggle between student lists and data views, including general, subject-specific, historical, and assessment data. Educators can customize this view by adding metrics that are most relevant to their role or by deleting data elements that are less pertinent. The “Customize View” button allows a teacher to select metrics for display and to enlarge (or restore) the student grid as needed. This functionality is available in most areas where lists of students are provided.

Create Custom Student Watch Lists

Educators can also use Ed-Fi Dashboards to create custom student groups based on a range of common factors. For example, educators can:

• Identify new students at the beginning of school year who may need additional monitoring based on academic and/or attendance issues (e.g., a “Freshman Watch List”).
• Create and follow groups of students based on similar situations/needs (e.g., lagging in certain standards, over a certain number of disciplinary actions, categorized as at-risk).
• Identify areas for whole-group re-teaching, or smaller groups for targeted instruction (e.g., students who are all facing challenges with a similar mathematics objective or students who are all reading above grade level).

Additional Information

This Quick Start Guide outlines key features and functions of the Ed-Fi Dashboards. More information about the Ed-Fi Alliance and testimonials from educators can be found at ed-fi.org. More detail and technical information about the dashboards can be found within the Ed-Fi Dashboards v3.0.1 documentation.