Look in our Frequently Asked Questions or click a topic below.
Overview
Using DataMentor — Instructional
Using DataMentor — Technical
State Assessment Charts
Trend Summary Charts
Resources
About DataMentor [page top]
DataMentor has been designed to provide an effective way of viewing your assessment data to make informed instuctional decisions. Easy to read charts, strategies, videos and recommended lesson plans make it simple to identify areas of strength and weakness to improve student learning.
Participating in DataMentor [page top]
Please check the list of Participating School Districts to determine if your district currently participates.
Where the Data Comes From [page top]
There is a connection between the DataMentor website and a specifically designated DataMentor table in each Reginal Information Center's (RIC) Data Warehouse. The data you see in DataMentor charts is coming from these warehouses and is not stored on DataMentor.
Look for the name of the RIC Warehouse at the bottom of the Item Response Charts ("Data provided by the _____ Data Warehouse"). If the data connection is down, you may see a message "No assessments are available" instead of your usual list of assessments. Please contact us to verify the problem.
Assessments are available in DataMentor when:
- A District subscribes to the RIC Test Scoring Service AND
- SED has released the data AND
- District data has been processed AND
- Data has been sent to Level 1 Warehouse
Below is a diagram explaining how assessment score data becomes displayed in DataMentor.
Security in DataMentor [page top]
Two levels of security are available to participating districts:
R = approval or the access request is Required for viewing charts.
A = viewing charts is Allowed as soon as a user makes an access request
User Verification
Due to the need for security in regards to Data Mentor student assessment data, your email is verified in order to assure necessary people have access to sensitive data. Your email address is used as your account login.
How is your email address verified?
When an account is created, the system sends a message to the email address you specified. By clicking on the link in the message, your email address is validated and verified with DataMentor.
Please configure any spam blocker software to allow email from help@accelerateu.org and/or check your spam folders if you haven't received your verification email.
Create an Account [page top]
Users create accounts for DataMentor by using the "Create Account" link on DataMentor's Home page.
We recommend using school email addresses to allow Administrators easier identification of district staff. Valid, verified email addresses are required in order to see your district's data.
Request Access to Data [page top]
To ensure the security of school and district data, all new accounts are required to submit a request to the District and/or Region's DataMentor Administrator for access to view data charts.
After verification of your email address, please use the "Request Access" link to search for a particular school district and submit an access request to your DataMentor Administrator. When your request has been processed you will receive an email notifying you of the action.
Using Sample Data [page top]
At times, there are districts new to using DataMentor and they may not yet have particular assessments loaded into DataMentor. For those cases, we have constructed a way for them to review sample data.
The data in the Sample Charts is fictional and was created for the sake of demonstration. You can use Sample Charts to examine what regional to district data would look like or how a building-to-building comparison would appear. To use Sample Charts it is necessary that you are NOT logged in.
Once you are comfortable with the options, at that point, you may decide to request that your data be added into the system and then you can use the technology to review the information. This would be done by contacting your RIC staff.
If you would like to use real data and the data has been loaded, your district can authorize you to see the district data and its comparison to regional data.
Instructional Analysis [page top]
DataMentor is equipped to provide you with a set of instructional analysis tools. Gap analysis is just one of the potential resources that would be valuable to you immediately.
Looking at charts and numbers alone is not enough to establish strong instructional wellness. Gap Analysis is just one of the powerful instructional analysis tools that can help you get a read on the pulse of curriculum and instruction.
Here are a few tips to guide you to a starting point:
- Administrators may want to look at data on a programmatic-level, with the goal of identifying gaps in curriculum.
- Teachers may want to look at class performance as a way to analyze results of teaching strategies.
- Schools using local assessment tools may want to examine individual student performance in particular areas.
Using Assessment Data [page top]
Coming soon!
Examining Curriculum [page top]
The New York State Standards and Performance Indicators are provided for you within the realm of DataMentor. The multiple standards booklets have been combined into a useful tool. All the learning standards information you need right at the moment you need it.
DataMentor puts the Standards, the Performance Indicators, explanations, examples, and Core Curricula within easy reach. You won't have to look for old paper copies or search all over the web for the documents you need. This way, not only do you have the assessment data, you know what it means in terms of instruction.
About Gap Analysis [page top]
A Gap or trend analysis is a tool which helps you look at what you want or expect (a desired state) and what is actually taking place (the current state). In DataMentor, you will be determining the distance between what your curriculum calls for and what actually gets taught. Be aware that you might discover that parts of the curriculum receive various degrees of attention.
What are Cut Points? [page top]
Cut point comparators can be found on the State Assessment chart for Math and ELA.
Click beneath "compared to" at the top of the chart to see a list of available comparators.
A Cut point score is a question's average score, or item difficulty, for the group of students who scored at a precise Scaled Score. The Scaled Score usually corresponds to the lowest score within a performance level. Cut point scores in DataMentor are calculated from an extensive sample of districts across New York State.
Cut point scores are useful in benchmarking the question performance of students who just barely reached Proficient (Level 3 for state exams, 65% for regents) or Advanced (Level 4 for state exams, 85% for Regents).
By comparing the performance of your students against a Cut point score, you can benchmark your students' performance against that of passing or distinction students.
By comparing against Cut point scores, you can easily determine areas on which to focus your instruction. For instance, for the ELA 4 2003 exam, students must have attained a scaled score between 645 and 691.
To obtain the Level 3 Cut point score for that exam, we average the item difficulty on each question for every student who scored exactly 645.
For instance, there were 5,000 students who scored exactly 645, and 4,000 of those students answered Question 1 correctly (a multiple choice question), the Level 3 Cut point score for question 1 would be 80% (or .80).
If the students in your district scored at 70% for that question, your students would have a 10% gap to proficiency.
Cut point scores are often calculated for students who:
- Just barely scored at Level 3 (Level 3 Cut point) or
- Scored exactly midway between the lowest score on level 3 and the highest score on Level 3 (Level 3 High Cut point)
- Just barely scored at Level 4 (Level 4 Cut point)
- Scored exactly midway between the lowest score on level 4 and the highest score on Level 4 (Level 4 High Cut point)
Regents assessments and Cut point data
For Regents analysis instead of using a HL2 (High Level 2) Cut point at scale score 60, we use a HL4 (High Level 4) - (92 or 93).
The Regents scale scores are significantly higher than the scaled scores students receive on the 3-8 assessment.
Few students receive scores below 65 on the Regents and the resulting building means are generally around a 75.
Hence the HL2 Cut point has very little relevance. The choice of high 4 Cut point is relevant to many of the high schools because many have a building mean of 85 and above.
How To Use Cut points [page top]
Cut point scores are a useful comparison in benchmarking the performance of your students.
Level 3 Cut point scores are useful in understanding the performance of students who just barely scored at the "Proficient" level on the exam. By comparing your students' performance against that of the Level 3 Cut points, you can gauge whether your students performed above or below a proficient level for a question.
Areas on which to focus are where your students performed below the Cut point scores.
Cut point scores indicate performance on a single assessment by question. When you review a Cut point chart, the center, or "zero line," indicates the Level 3 Cut point score for each respective question.
Red bars to the left of the center line indicate the percentage points that your students performed below the Level 3 Cut point for the question.
Green bars to the right of the center line indicate the percentage points your students performed above the Level 3 Cut point for the question.
After looking at this chart, you may want to focus on the red bars.
Training Materials [page top]
Following are materials you may have seen at a training on using DataMentor. Please feel free to print these out for sharing among other DataMentor users.
- DataMentor Info Card (PDF file)
Chart Types Explained [page top]
Our present chart selection includes charts for district to region comparison, a variety of cut points, and multi-year trends.
Use District to Region if you are interested in your district compared to the BOCES region. School buildings in the city are compared with city-wide scores.
Cut point charts display exam scores that move students to the next higher performance level.
Trend summary charts show district scores over a series of years to examine patterns of performance.
No matter which chart you choose as a starting point, all data is linked to activities and strategies targeted to improve student success. Once you find weaker areas, it is critical that you understand the concepts, questions and learning components that lay beneath the surface.
State Assessment ChartsState Assessment Charts are curriculum-focused with the initial view being sorted by Key Ideas. Additional views are available by sorting by assessment question number, or by MidRange gaps.
State Assessment Cut point Charts
Cut point data is available on Math and ELA charts for elementary, intermediate and some high school years. Please refer to additional help topics for cut point details.
Trend Summary Charts
Trend Summary Charts present a display of both --
- general assessment composition, meaning the number/percentage of questions relating to each Key Idea, and
- the district's performance and comparison to MidRange over a 4-5 year period of time.
If "No District Data" is seen in the row of MidRange scores this could be due to your district data having not been reported OR having been reported late and thus not being included in the warehouse data that is reported to DataMentor. You would need to contact your Data Warehouse for information.
The Trend Summary Chart was designed to provide a way to easily compare multiple years of evidence. There is much more validity in reviewing trends over time. The Trend Summary Chart shows performance on multiple assessments, with questions grouped by Standard Item.
Highlighted questions indicate where the district was outperformed by the region or state. The assessment years are listed across the top of the chart. The questions and performance indicators are linked in the chart so you can see examples of strength or weakness over multiple years.
As an elementary / middle school teacher, you may be familiar with the item maps for both Math and ELA.
Math is more black and white with a direct path from the standard to the key idea, performance indicator and the related question(s).
In ELA a different item map was constructed. In this instance, the chart varies:
The direct connection to the performance indicator is not made. Therefore, in Data Mentor it was necessary to have master teachers make the connection to the performance indicator.
Again, note that highlighted questions are not limited to questions that fall within the midrange.
High School Trend Summary Charts [page top]
NEW Feature -- The High School Trend Summary Charts display the general assessment composition, meaning the number/percentage of questions relating to each Key Idea whether or not a District has loaded assessment score data.
Analyzing Trend Chart Content [page top]
Once you have reviewed your trend data chart, you are probably asking yourself, Now what?
This data is useful to identify areas of weakness as exhibited by student responses and to identify gaps in curriculum maps.
Once gaps and weaknesses are identified, parallel tasks can be written to address those skills students seem to find difficult.
Step 1: Identify those areas that seem to be problematic for your students according to the Trend Data Summary Chart.
For the multiple choice section identify those questions within the midrange where the region outperformed the district.
Analyze the questions. For each one ask yourself the following questions:
- What skills are needed for success?
- Why do you think students were not successful on this question? (N.B. You are making educated guesses at this point.)
- What are some strategies you might use to help students on items similar to this on
For the extended response items, again identify the area(s) where the region outperformed the district.
- Review student responses identifying those skills which students need to be successful.
- Why is this area problematic for your students?
- What are some strategies you might use to help students be more successful
Step 2: Develop an action plan based on your analysis of the questions in Step 1.
Step 3: Design parallel tasks addressing those skills you identified as concerns.
Step 4: Analyze your curriculum maps for consistency in teaching these skills.
What is Midrange? [page top]
The mid-range narrows the range of assessment scores to provide a more reasonable and manageable focus.
Each assessment is designed to include questions at various degrees of difficulty to determine student performance levels. Questions that few students are expected to answer correctly would be considered high difficulty questions; these are reflected on the chart by the bars that extend to the far left. Questions that most students are expected to answer correctly would be considered low difficulty; these questions are reflected on the chart by the bars that extend to the far right. You are looking for areas in the mid-range where your district and your region have differences. If there is a gap within the mid-range, such as the region outperformed your district, then you can narrow your focus. This will assist in making meaningful decisions to effectively address instructional and curricular changes.
Gaps will be indicated by red areas on the chart. To examine the instructional concepts addressed by the assessment, click the curriculum item to the left of the bar.
How To Calculate Midrange of Item Difficulty:
- Determine the range of scores by subtracting the lowest regional P Value from the highest on an assessment
- Multiply that difference by 20%
- Add this product to the lowest score
- Subtract this product from the highest score
If the range of scores is between .90 (the highest score) and .50 (the lowest score), then
.90 - .50 = .40
40 X .20 = .08
.50 + .08 = .58
.90 - .08 = .82
Midrange is .58 to .82 on the P Value graph
When does a question get highlighted as in "Midrange"? [page top]
The highlighted scores # in the Score Gap column will match the highlighted scores # in the Trend chart.
The district score is less than the region score and the region score is within the midrange lower and upper score limit.
Instructional Resources [page top]
DataMentor contains a variety of valuable resources for you that are linked to New York State Standards and Performance Indicators. Quality lesson plans, online courses, web links, and video clips are available at your fingertips. Recommended and reviewed by educators you can be assured that these resources will be well worth a look.
Technical Requirements [page top]
Minimum requirements:
Windows: Windows XP with Internet Explorer 7.0 (and above) or FireFox 2.0 (and above)
Macintosh: OS 10 with Safari, Camino, or Firefox 2.0 (and above)
Flash (9 and above) and Quicktime must be installed.
Screen resolution: 1024x768
All Browsers MUST be:
Set to Accept Cookies
Cache Settings "check for Newer versions of the page - Always"
JavaScript must be enabled.
Additionally, your Firewall or Spam Blockers need to "allow" both help@accelerateu.org email and the website http://www.datamentor.org
How To Update Your Account Information [page top]
To edit your Name, Primary/Secondary Email Addresses, Password or Hint Question/Answer:
- Log into DataMentor
- Use Edit Account Details Quick Link on the main page.
(Or from any page in DataMentor, click your name in the upper right corner.) - Click the item you wish to edit.
- Boxes display to allow you to enter different account information.
If you change your Primary email or Add a new secondary email address, it will be necessary to verify these. A new verification email will automatically be sent to you.
Additionally, if the cache becomes full it could result in many odd occurrences on web pages - you know, those times when you say "what in the world could be going on"!? For instance, graphics may not display. Therefore, you will need to "empty" out the cache by deleting the files that are located there.
Use the Tools, Internet Options or Preferences under the Edit menu. Click on the + sign in front of the word Advanced. Then click on Cache. Make sure the statement "Document in cache is compared to document on network" is set for Every Time.
If this has not corrected the problem, please contact your School District Technology Coordinator.
Districts often set up their web servers to "cache" sites (for faster Internet access) which will also impact your ability to your own personalized information. If your Technology staff need additional information, they may call the AccelerateU Support Center at 800-722-5797.
How To Create and use Favorites [page top]
After logging in and moving from DataMentor's main page you can now create links to "Favorite" pages in DataMentor.
1. Go to the desired page and click "Add Page To My Favorites" underneath "My Favorites" This list shows the first 5 items in your full favorites list.
2. When more than 5 favorites are in your list, a 'show more favorites...' link will appear beneath the 5th item.
3. To see a complete list or to edit the list, click the "more favorites" or the My Favorites link at the top of the site to see your favorites list.
Notes:
- Try to keep the favorite name short, if the name is too long, only part of the name will show followed by ...
- The first 5 favorites in your full list will always appear on the left.
- When you add a new favorite, it shows at the top of the list.
- Create as many favorites as you like.
On My Favorites page:
- Cllick the delete button next to the favorite name to delete the Favorite from your list.
- Cllick the edit button next to the favorite name to edit the Favorite's name
- Change the order of a favorite by using the arrows to the left of the Favorite's name
How To Create and use Favorites [page top]
- A favorite is a link that you create to a "favorite place or page" in Datamentor.
- Try to keep the favorite name short, if the name is too long, only part of the name will show followed by ...
- When you add a new favorite, it shows at the top of the list.
- Create as many favorites as you like.
- Use the My Favorites link at the top of the site to see your favorites list.
- To delete a favorite, click the My Favorites link at the top of the page, then click the delete button next to the favorite name
- To edit a favorite, click the My Favorites link at the top of the page, then click the edit button next to the favorite name
- Change the order of a favorite by clicking the My Favorites link at the top of the page, then using the arrows to the left of the name.
- The favorites list will show the last 5 favorites added.
- If more than 5 favorites are in your list, a 'show more favorites...' link will appear beneath the 5th item.
- To see a complete list or to edit the list, click the more favorites link.