Analyzing your Imagine Language & Literacy assessment data

After you export student data, you can analyze your raw assessment data to show student growth. When analyzing assessment data, Imagine Learning recommends that you:

• Read these guidelines for analyzing assessment data effectively.
• Isolate assessment data by individual teacher or school (only if your students are assigned to multiple teachers or schools).
• Compare test scores against score ranges for the Reading Level Assessment and Benchmark Tests.
• Analyze test scores data for student growth.

Guidelines for analyzing assessment data effectively

When you analyze assessment data, keep these recommendations in mind:

• Clean your data before analyzing it (e.g., remove any cases with missing or incomplete data).
• Compare data for each grade level individually. Analyze assessment data for each grade level separately from other grade levels.
• Compare test scores for the same testing periods. When analyzing test score growth, only compare student test scores for the same testing periods. For example, to compare Beginning-of-Year Benchmark Test Literacy scores to Middle-of-Year Benchmark Test Literacy scores, only include those students who have data in both the "BMK 1 Literacy Score (Beginning)" and "BMK 2 Literacy Score (Middle)" columns.
• Analyze data for student subgroups separately. Analyze assessment data for any students in subgroups (e.g., special education; English language learners) separately from other student data.
• Consider student usage time when interpreting student growth. Correlate student usage time with student test scores. For example, analyze student Benchmark Test scores when compared to students' usage time. Students who had limited access to Imagine Language & Literacy may not demonstrate the same level of growth as students who used Imagine Language & Literacy regularly.
• Consider students’ starting points when interpreting student growth. Students whose Beginning-of-Year Reading Level Assessment or Benchmark scores are significantly below grade level may show different growth patterns than students whose Beginning-of-Year Reading Level Assessment and Benchmark Test scores are at or above grade level.

Isolating assessment data by individual teacher or school

When you export student data, the export file includes all teachers or schools that a student is assigned to, with each teacher or school name separated by semi-colons in the Teacher Name(s) or School Name(s) column. To analyze assessment data by an individual teacher or school name, you'll need to separate the data by individual teacher or school in Microsoft Excel.

To isolate assessment data by individual teacher or school

1. Export student data for your organization.
2. After the Teacher Name(s) or School Name column, insert as many new columns as you need to accommodate the maximum number of teacher or school names associated with a student, with one teacher or school name per column. (For example, if the data in your Teacher Name(s) column is "Jones, Smith, Anderson", insert 3 new columns after the Teacher Name(s) column).
3. Select the Teacher Name(s) or School Name column.
4. Click the Data tab, then choose the Text to Columns icon.
5. In the dialog, choose Delimited, click Next.
6. Uncheck Tab and check Semicolon, then click Next.
7. Click Finish.

Comparing test scores against score ranges 

After you export student data, you can analyze student growth by comparing your student assessment scores against these grade-level or proficiency-level score ranges.

Reading Level Assessment score ranges

Benchmark Test Literacy score ranges

Benchmark Test Oral Vocabulary score ranges

Analyzing test scores for student growth

After you export student data, you may want to analyze your test scores to see student growth. Student growth can be analyzed when the same group of students has taken 2 or more instances of the same test, with an appropriate amount of elapsed time between tests to allow student performance to improve. The Imagine Language & Literacy Reading Level Assessment and Benchmark Tests can be enabled up to 3 times each school year with enough time between testing periods for student growth to be measured.

To analyze test scores for student growth

1. Export student data for your organization.
2. Isolate the data for all students who took 2 or more tests. For instance, if you want to measure growth from the beginning to the end of the school year, only include students with both Beginning-of-Year and End-of-Year test scores in your growth analysis.
3. Calculate a growth score for each student. You can calculate a growth score for each student in your analysis by subtracting Test Score 1 (such as the Beginning-of-Year Benchmark Test) from Test Score 2 (such as the Middle-of-Year Benchmark Test). After you've calculated a growth score for each student, average the individual growth scores for all students in your analysis.