Student Placement Reports: Tips and Troubleshooting

Placement Reports are generated based on each student’s Placement Test, which is the initial period of “show what you know” activities in each program. (Pre-K students are an exception: they do take a Placement Test but do not get a Placement Report.) There is nothing that Teachers or Students need to do to initiate the Placement Test—it will start automatically. Teachers should, however, let students know that they should do their best to demonstrate what they know during this session. 

The Placement Reports give teachers a snapshot of the skills that a student is able to demonstrate at the time of the test, and there is only one per school year. This can be used to help teachers differentiate instruction within the classroom and will inform our adaptive programs as to where each student should be placed. After that, students will progress at their own pace, and teachers can check back on the Progress Dashboard periodically to see what new skills each student has learned. This article will help you use our Placement Reports more effectively.

• Student Placement Progress at a Glance
• How You Know a Placement Report Is Available
• When You May Need to Wait
• Most Common Issues
• Other Issues
• Understanding Placement Reports
• Can You Reset a Student’s Placement Test?
• Will Placement Tests Be Reset for the New School Term?

Student Placement Progress at a Glance

To access Placement Reports and check the Placement status of your students, log in to your Educator Center, click Dashboards at the top of your screen, then Progress from the drop-down menu.

On the Skills Progress Status section of the Progress Dashboard, you’ll see the Placement Status column on the right side. In this column:

• 1. See Report: This link indicates the student has finished the Placement Test AND gone to the program hub where recommended lesson are presented to the student. Clicking the See Report link will take you directly to that student's Placement Report.
     
  2. Completed: Student has completed the Placement Test but the Placement Report has not yet been generated (reports are next day, up to 24 hours).
  3. In Progress: Student is working on the Placement Test or has not yet returned to the program hub after the test.
  4. Not Started: Student has not started the Placement Test.
     
     

• Note: The Progress Dashboard updates every night at midnight (PST), so you will not see any Placement Status changes on the same day students start and/or finish the test. Placement Report may take up to 24 hours to become available after a student completes the Placement Test and returns to the program hub to start one of the recommended activities.
  
  
• If the Reports menu isn’t visible in the top-right corner of the Educator Center, it means that none of your students have started the Placement process yet.

How You Know a Placement Report Is Available

• Click the See Report link on the Progress Dashboard. If the student’s name is listed in the All Students drop-down menu, the report is available.
  
  OR
  
  
• Click Reports in the top-right corner of the Educator Center and verify that the student’s name is in the All Students drop-down menu.
  
  

When You May Need to Wait

• As noted above, pre-K students do take a Placement Test for placement purposes only, but they do not get a Placement Report. 
  
  
• Your student(s) may not have completed all activities for the Placement Test. We have made the tests as brief as possible (they start shortest for pre-K and lengthen with each higher grade), while still giving our systems enough information about each students skills to accurately place them within the program. Some students need more than one session to complete the testing. 
  
  
• Placement Reports are generated each night, so you will not see a Placement Report on the same day that a student finished a Placement test. The report may not be available for up to 24 hours.
  
  
• If your student has completed the Placement Test but has not gone back to the program's activity hub and started a new activity after the test, you’ll have to wait for them to do that. The dashboard will continue to show the “In Progress” until the student starts another activity. Afterwards, there may be a wait time of up to 24 hours.
  
  
• If you click either the See Report link on the dashboard or the Reports menu in the top-right corner of the Educator Center and the student’s name is NOT yet listed in the drop-down menu, you’ll need to wait.
  
  

Most Common Issues

• "In Progress" Still Showing After Student Finishes Test: If you are sure that a student finished the Placement Test and 24 hours have passed, but the dashboard still displays In Progress, have the student go to the activity hub and start another activity. Following this, the status should change to Completed.
  
  
• Unable to Access Placement Report: If the dashboard displays the See Report status but the student’s name is not in the drop-down list, there may be a waiting period of up to 24 hours.

Other Issues

• Missing Grade Level: Every student must be assigned a core grade level (pre-K through 5th grade). If no grade is designated, you won’t be able to generate a Placement Report. Here’s how to verify a grade level has been assigned:
  • From the Educator Center, click Accounts > Manage > Students.
  • Click on any student name and check the Grade field in the top-right section of the Student Info page.
  • If needed, enter a grade level, scroll down, and click Save.
  • Note: If your school is rostered through Clever/ClassLink, you will have to contact your Clever/ClassLink admin to assign the missing grades.
    
    
• Missing Standards: All organizations must have standards assigned to them before these reports can generated. This issue is rare and should have been addressed during onboarding.
  
  
• Missing Skills: All organizations must have skills in each student’s grad. You can check by clicking the Resources menu on the Educator Center and then clicking Skills and Concepts. Check that the grade drop-down exists and that it has skills populated there.
  
  
  
  
• Missing Last Name: If you see NULL next to a student’s first name on the Placement Report it’s because a last name wasn’t entered. To add the last name:
  • From the Educator Center, click Accounts > Manage > Students.
  • Click on the student’s name and verify if the Last Name field in the top-left section of the Student Info page is empty.
  • If needed, add a Last Name, scroll down, and click Save.
  • Note: If you do not want to add a last name and would like us to manually remove NULL from the report, or if the last name is available but you are still seeing NULL on the report, please submit a ticket and we can help resolve the issue for you. 
    
    
• Missing Teacher: Though quite rare, if a teacher is not assigned to the class in the Educator Center, a report will not be generated.

Understanding Placement Reports

• Placement Reports Don’t Change: These reports function as snapshots of each student’s skill set at the time pretests are completed. For that reason, they will not and should not change as the student uses our products more and gains additional skills (unless the test has to be reset because there was a problem, see below). You will track student progress via the Progress Dashboard (click the Overall tab, then the Students tab), which includes the chart Student Progress towards Next Grade Readiness.
  
  
• Grade Readiness vs. Prior Skills: How Prior Skills Known factor into the Current Grade Readiness evaluation will vary depending on when the pretest was taken. For example, pre-K students with no skills before they start school in September are still considered grade-ready (no expectations!). The test will assume some appropriate, grade-level academic growth for those who take the test mid-year.

Can You Reset a Student’s Placement Test?

You will not be able to reset a student’s Placement Test on your own from the Educator Center, and in almost all cases, you should not attempt to reset a test. As noted in a related article, What is the student experience during Placement?

Placement is not the only time that My Math Academy or My Reading Academy assesses and adapts to student skills. In fact, our programs continue to adapt to the student’s level, in real time, whenever students are engaged in any learning activities, throughout their use of the My Math Academy or My Reading Academy.

If at any point an activity is too challenging, the program will provide scaffolding and feedback to support the student’s learning needs. If the student continues to struggle, the program will provide future learning activities at an easier level to ensure they are building the underlying, foundational skills they need to master the full curriculum.

If a more advanced student is frustrated that activities are too easy, teachers sometimes feel like there’s a problem and want to find a way to “fast track” the student, skipping activities or resetting the Placement Test so they can try again to move ahead. Students cannot be fast tracked and cannot skip activities. Within the adaptive system powering these programs, it is important for students to demonstrate mastery of all skills and concepts before moving forward to make sure they are not missing something that may prove problematic later if not fully mastered early on. As the more advanced students demonstrate sufficient levels of mastery of the curriculum, they will move ahead more rapidly and begin to feel more challenged by new activities.

That said, if there was a technical issue with the test or a problem administering the test (e.g., another student was logged into the program so the test results are not for the student in question, or someone helped the student complete the test), you can click the Chat icon in the bottom right to connect with our Customer Care team, or submit a support ticket requesting that we reset an invalid test.

We will need you to provide the school name, student name, the teacher’s email, and a specific reason for the reset request. Placement Tests can typically be reset on the same day they are requested or early the following business day. Our Customer Care team will send an email confirmation once the test has been reset for the student. 

Will Placement Tests Be Reset for the New School Term?

Yes. Your top-level Administrator is responsible for setting a new Academic Term date for each school year. On that date, all Dashboard and Placement data will  reset. Students will take new Placement Tests when they first start using our programs in the new school term and new Progress and Usage data will be generated.