Imagine MyPath offers flexible options for placing students into individualized learning paths. While districts and schools can use the built-in MyPath Assessment or integrate with NWEA MAP Growth or Renaissance Star assessments for automated placement, they may also wish to place students based on the results of other external assessments.
In these cases, the district or school determines a grade-level placement for each student based on the external assessment results and manually assigns the placements within Imagine MyPath. This article outlines key considerations for this process.
Considerations for using external assessment data
When placing students based on external assessment data, it's essential to understand the type of data provided by the assessment and how this data might be interpreted to determine appropriate grade-level placement.
Here are two common scenarios:
Scenario 1: The external assessment provides a grade-level equivalent score.
- If the assessment provides a grade-level equivalent score for each student, we recommend using this data to identify the appropriate grade placement in Imagine MyPath.
- Students can only be placed at the beginning of a grade level in MyPath. Therefore, we recommend rounding a student's grade-level equivalent down to the nearest whole number.
Scenario 2: The external assessment data does NOT provide a grade-level equivalent score.
- If the assessment does not provide a grade-level equivalent score, the district or school must decide how to determin each student's grade-level placement in MyPath based on the data available from the assessment.
- For example, a district or school might choose to determine grade placements based on percentile rank, if that is a data point reported by the external assessment. In this case, the district or school might determine that students who score between the 1st and 24th percentile will be placed at one grade level below their rostered grade, students who score between the 25th and 75 percentile will be placed at their rostered grade, and students who score between the 76th and 99th percentile will be placed at one grade above their rostered grade. This is just one example; a district or school might choose any other approach to placement that is appropriate based on the data reported by the external assessment.
- The Imagine Learning Assessment Team is available to help you make decisions on approaches to student grade-level placements. Please contact your Customer Success Manager for assistance.
Additional Resources
For districts using NWEA MAP Growth or Renaissance Star assessments, refer to the following resources:
- Placing students in MyPath based on NWEA scores
- Placing students in MyPath based on Renaissance scores
- Using Imagine MyPath with NWEA
- Using Imagine MyPath with Renaissance
By following these guidelines, districts and schools can effectively use external assessment data to place students accurately in Imagine MyPath.