Process Assessments
The Process Assessments feature is used to update students' pass dates and codes based on Test History records loaded. Specifically, Process Assessments is used to process FSA/FST ELA tests, and enter pass dates and course assessment statuses for EOC exams. After test scores have either been imported into Focus or manually entered into a student's Test History, the Process Assessments feature can be used to update the pass date fields; for EOC assessments, Process Assessments will assign students an exam score that is based upon their test results. In addition, pulled grades can be used to compute EOC FY grades.
In order for a concordant score to be considered, a student must have either an existing attempt at the EOC in their Test History within the window specified when running the process or a course history grade for the EOC.
The FSA/FST ELA tab pulls FSA/FST tests for English and Language Arts (ELA) and updates the Pass Date and Concordant Score student fields accordingly.
1. In the Florida Reports menu, click Process Assessments.
2. Click the FSA/FST ELA tab.
3. Select the student's Cohort year, i.e., the year the student entered ninth grade, from the pull-down.
Students must be assigned a cohort year; if a cohort year has not been assigned to the student, the student's record will not be updated. To update a student's record, from the Students menu, select Student Info, locate the student, select the Graduation tab (or equivalent) and select the Year Entered Ninth Grade from the provided pull-down.
4. Select or enter the Effective Date (Used for ESOL Graduation Pathway) to take ESOL Graduation Pathways into consideration when updating pass dates. The Effective Date (Used for ESOL Graduation Pathway) is used to determine if the student's "ELL Entry Date" is less than or equal to two years from the effective date you choose to set.
The Effective Date (Used for ESOL Graduation Pathway) field will only display if the district option "Process Assessments - Default Effective Date (Used for ESOL Graduation Pathway & Students With An ESE Test Waiver)" is set to “No Default Effective Date (Displays Date Picker in Interface)" in Florida Reports > Florida Reports Setup > District Options. If another option is selected for this district option, the field will be hidden.
The ELL Entry Date is set via Students > Student Info.
5. Click Update FSA ELA Pass Dates.
6. Clicking the Update FSA ELA Pass Dates button will update the Graduation and Course History information in the students' records. At the top of the screen, a confirmation message will display to indicate the number of updated pass dates.
7. This process updates the FSA/FST pass dates and concordant scores as well as the ELA assessment field in the Graduation tab of the student's record.
a. This process also updates the student's Course History screen.
The code makes the following checks for Read Passed Dates:
- If the student does not have a passing FSA_ELA score, but is in grade level 11, 12, 30, or 31 and has a passing ACT READ or SAT READ score, the passing date of either test will populate.
- If the student does not have a passing ACT READ score, then the system will use the date for the passing SAT READ score.
- Please reference this Graduation Requirements link from FLDOE here for specific cohort and score information.
- Focus will first determine the student's cohort year (year entered 9th grade) and then proceed to check the following by looking at a given student's test history and aligned subject codes for each subtest:
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ACT:
- Cohort 2010-2011 & beyond: Uses the average of the English & Reading subtests to determine passing score (this average of subtests can span across different test administration dates).
- Cohort prior to 2019-2020: Checks the student's ACT Reading subtest score.
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SAT:
- Cohort 2010-2011 & beyond: Uses the combined score of the Reading & Writing subtests to determine passing score (must come from the same test administration, and passing score for this cohort is 480).
- Cohort prior to 2019-2020: Uses the combined score of the Reading & Writing subtests to determine passing score (must come from the same test administration, and passing score for this cohort is 430).
- Cohort prior to 2019-2020: Uses the Critical Reading subtest score if administered prior to March 2016.
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ACT:
This setup requires actions on the Process Assessment screen, the Grade Posting Averaging screen (under Setup), and the Courses and Sections screen (under Scheduling). The Process Assessment setup for EOCs should be completed before final grades are pulled for the semester so exam scores will be accurately weighed with Marking Period grades.
Steps 1-9 can be completed on the Scale Score Setup tab of the Process Assessments screen.
Step 10 can be completed on the Grade Posting Averaging screen.
Steps 11-12 can be completed on the Courses and Sections screen.
1. Before EOC Assessments can be processed, the setup for the score scales needs to be completed on the Scale Score Setup tab of the Process Assessments screen. Click the Scale Score Setup tab. When assigning letter grades for exam scores, Focus will use the letter grades on this tab for each exam score.
2. Select the EOC test from the pull-down located at the top of the screen.
3. To add a new set of scores for the EOC test, select New Set in the Scale Set pull-down.
The Scale Set function allows multiple sets of scores to be set up, with different score information or course numbers.
4. If needed, select or deselect courses in the Set Courses pull-down.
5. Click Save Set.
The set will be added to the Scale Set pull-down. It will be given the next incremental number, e.g. Set 2.
6. To add score information to a set, select the set in the Scale Set pull-down.
7. To enter a new line of score information, type the information directly into the text boxes located in the top row of the table. Press Enter to add the row.
Information already set up can be edited at any time, which is indicated by the blue underline. Click the text box to edit the information. You can also delete a line of data by clicking the minus sign, and then clicking OK in the confirmation message.
8. After adding, editing, or deleting score information, click the Save Scales button.
9. To delete a set, select the set in the Scale Set pull-down and click Delete Set.
10. On the Grade Posting Averaging screen (Setup > Grade Posting Averaging), a posting scheme will need to be set up for EOC courses so Focus can interpret the EOC scores at the end of the year. For an EOC course with a 30% exam weight, a full-year Grade Posting Scheme can be used.
If the EOC score needs to be weighed as a Semester Two Exam, the Semester Grade Calculation can be set to reflect this score.
If you are planning to pull grades for EOC courses instead of having teachers post final grades, you can select the Hide check boxes for the terms or exams that need to be hidden from teachers. When this box is checked, teachers cannot post grades for the hidden term, as the Pull Grades feature must be used to post grades.
11. Once the Grade Posting scheme has been set up, EOC course sections can be configured. This is done from the Florida tab at the Section level of the Courses & Sections module via Scheduling > Courses & Sections > Florida tab > EOC Exam Term. Select the desired term from the EOC Exam Term pull-down to specify when the EOC needs to be used as an exam grade for each section; options include: Full Year Exam, Semester 1 Exam, and Semester 2 Exam.
12. Click the Save button to update any modifications made to the Course & Sections module. Be sure that each of the EOC sections have the correct EOC Exam Term selected. The Master Schedule Report (Scheduling > Master Schedule Report) can be utilized to mass update the EOC Exam Term for EOC sections.
Before completing the steps in this section, be sure to have completed all of the steps in the previous section, Setting Up Score Scales for EOC Assessments.
The EOC - Course Weight 30% procedure should be completed before teachers begin to post final grades for the semester. That way, exam scores are already in place for the purpose of averaging them with marking period grades. If the scores come in after the school year has ended, you can utilize the Pull Grades feature for Full Year posting after the exam scores are processed.
1. From the Florida Reports menu, click Process Assessments.
2. From the Process Assessments screen, click the EOC Course Weight 30% tab.
3. Select the EOC to be processed from the corresponding pull-down.
4. Use the provided pull-downs or click the calendar icon to set a Schedule Effective Date. The selected Schedule Effective Date determines the schedule records reviewed.
5. Use the provided pull-downs or click the calendar icons to set an Administration Date Range - Start date and an Administration Date Range - End date for the exam records. The date specified tells the system what date to look for in Test History in order to create exam records.
6. From the Score Type pull-down, select the Scale Score (or score type set up by the district) that will be used as the assessments are processed.
7. Click Create Exam Records. During this process, Focus looks into the students' Test History for their EOC assessment scores and creates an exam record. The exam scores can then be used to average into the students' Full Year or Semester grades, based upon the section set up.
At the top of the Process Assessments screen, a confirmation message displays to indicate the number of updated exam records.
9. The exam score will appear in the student's exam grade and can be used as part of the average to calculate Full Year or Semester grades, depending on the specifications made at the section level. To create the Semester 2 or Full Year grades (if teachers will not be posting final grades or if EOC scores come in after the posting window has closed), see Pull Grades for Report Cards.
Following the completion of the school year and the posting of final grades, the second half of Processing Assessments for EOC courses can be done. Course Assessment Status is populated in the students' Course History for district use and for scholar/merit tracking.
1. From the Florida Reports menu, click Process Assessments.
2. From the Process Assessments screen, click the EOC Course Assessment Status tab to update course assessment statuses. From this screen, student fields are updated to reflect the passed EOC assessment and the course assessment status in Course History.
3. Select the EOC test that needs to be processed from the corresponding pull-down.
4. Use the provided pull-downs or click the calendar icons to set an Administration Date Range - Start date and an Administration Date Range - End date for the exam records. The date specified tells the system what date to look for in Test History in order to create exam records.
5. Click Update Course Assessment Status. During this process, the system sets the pass dates in the Graduation tab and the Course History screen in the student record. The course assessment status flag is also set in the students' Course History.
6. At the top of the Process Assessments screen, a confirmation message displays to indicate the number of updated course statues. If any students are scheduled into the EOC course and do not have exam information in the Test History, the students will be listed on this screen. You can manually set the Course Assessment Status for each student by clicking the field and making modifications.
To export the listed data to an Excel spreadsheet, click on the Excel icon.
On the students' Course History screens, the Met EOC Requirement fields are populated with the dates on which the student passed the EOC exam.
The Course Assessment Status field populates to reflect whether the student passed or did not pass the exam.
On the Graduation tab of the students' records, the EOC Pass Date field populates with the date on which the student passed the EOC exam.
This document covers how Process Assessments currently handles the Provisional and Retrofitted scores released by FLDOE. The document will cover the difference between the Provisional and Retrofitted scores, and how the setup and import of those tests can impact Process Assessments. In the last section of this document you will find various helpful resources used that will also provide more information on this topic, as provided by FLDOE.
Please reach out to your Account Executive or put in a ticket to the State Reporting department if you have any further questions after reviewing the information provided below.
The Difference between Provisional and Retrofitted Scores
- Provisional Scores: These are cut score ranges that were used prior to the new cut scores that were adopted and released by FLDOE in the memorandum linked here.
- Retrofitted Scores: These are the scores that FLDOE released based on comparing the provisional test against the new approved cut score ranges that FLDOE adopted and released in the memorandum that was mentioned/linked above. This was done to see what the student would have scored if they used the new cut score ranges instead of the provisional score ranges.
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New Cut Scores: These are just the new approved cut scores that FLDOE adopted and released for use moving forward.
- Per FLDOE’s memorandum, “The approved cut scores will be used to report assessment results beginning with the second 2023-24 administration of FAST progress monitoring assessments (PM2) in December and January, and beginning with the winter administration of B.E.S.T. EOC assessments.”
- Although these scores will be used moving forward, FLDOE has been releasing comparison scores for past assessments (as mentioned above), showing what the student would have received if the new cut score scale was used; these again are referenced as the “retrofitted” scores.
How Setup Options Affect Process Assessments
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Option 1 - Utilizing the Test Administration Date and FST/BST Short Name(s):
- When utilizing this option, do the following:
- Leave the Standardized Test short_name(s) = ‘FST’ or ‘BST’ (for the applicable test) as outlined in 23-24 K12 Appendix L
- To utilize the provisional scores, import the test record as normal ensuring that the test administration date is on or before 10/23/2023.
- To utilize the retrofitted/new cut scores released by FLDOE, import the test record as normal; however, the test administration date will need to be changed to a date after 10/23/2023.
- When utilizing this option, do the following:
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Option 2 - Utilizing ‘FSTP’ & ‘BSTP’ Short Name(s):
- In Florida Reports [Revision 16765] (see next section), we added logic that will account for Standardized Tests that have short_name(s) = ‘FSTP’ and ‘BSTP’ for those districts whom do not want to rely on the Test Administration Date for the test.
- Important Note: The short_names listed (‘FSTP’ and ‘BSTP’) are not yet official in FLDOE’s 23-24 K12 Appendix L. We updated our logic anticipating an update from FLDOE that would allow districts ease of distinguishing the provisional versus the retrofitted/new cut scores. Any official FLDOE releases or changes to the anticipated short_name(s) that come out pertaining to this will be reviewed and updated accordingly.
- When utilizing this option, the test administration date mentioned in Option 1 above will not apply.
- When utilizing this option, do the following:
- Create a Standardized Test Setup that mocks your other FST/BST test setups, only now ensuring that the short_name(s) change to ‘FSTP’ and ‘BSTP’
- The ‘FSTP’ and ‘BSTP’ will both indicate the test administrations that are to use the provisional cut scores.
- The ‘FST’ and ‘BST’ will indicate the test administrations that are to use the retrofitted/new cut scores.
- Important Note: No matter the option you use above, in order Process Assessments to consider the Grade 10 ELA FAST assessment for the purpose of meeting graduation requirements, the ‘Form’ on the Test History Administration must = ‘PM3’ or ‘RTK’.
Florida Reports - [Revision 16765]
Released 12/15/2023
- Process Assessments: Added support for FSTP/BSTP tests (to be changed later on Appendix L update).
Helpful Resources:
- State Board of Education Approves Cut Scores for B.E.S.T. - aligned Assessments
- 23-24 K12 Appendix L: Test Subject Content Codes
- Graduation Requirements for Florida's Statewide Assessments
- Establishing the B.E.S.T. Scale Score for the FAST and B.E.S.T. EOC Assessments Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)