Scatterplots

Building a Scatterplot

When you select Scatterplots from the Reports menu, you will be prompted to choose:

• Test and subject
• Grade, if applicable
• Year of data or 3-Year Avg

When plotting assessments analyzed with the gain model, select Across Grades to see combined measures across all grades for each district and school you include on the graph.

Once you've made these selections, the scatterplot will automatically populate with the data that are attributed to those selections.

Choose the Axes

Growth Index: The growth index indicates how strong the evidence is that the group of students in the district, school, or teacher's class exceeded, met, or did not meet expected growth in the selected subject. The growth index is calculated by dividing the growth measure by its standard error. Because the growth index takes the standard error into account, it is a fair way to compare different members of the selected population.

Achievement: This value represents the achievement of all students linked to the district, school, or teacher in the currently selected year, subject, or course. For assessments analyzed with the gain model, the achievement is the average of the most recent prior year available and current year scores for students in the district, school, or teacher's class and is expressed in state NCEs. For assessments analyzed with the predictive model, the entering achievement is the average of the expected score for students in the district, school, or teacher's class, expressed in scale scores.

Demographic Options: The percentages represent the proportion of students tested in the selected grades who are identified as belonging to that demographic category.

Compare By Selector

By default, the Compare By Selector in the main panel is set to None. Selecting one of the comparison options available will add a Compare By bar above the graph with available comparators listed. For example, if you select Year, other years available for the particular Base Test and Subject will be made available. The Base Year chosen in the Scatterplot Configurations menu will display by default and will be highlighted with a cog icon. Clicking on another year will switch the data points on the graph to the data from that year.

Select Items to Display

Choosing Districts, Schools, and Teachers

This report defaults to plotting schools. To plot districts or teachers, choose from the Plot menu in the Select Items to Display tab. Next you'll need to choose the districts, schools, or teachers you'd like to plot on the graph.

Plot: Use this drop-down menu to choose districts, schools, or teachers. If you choose district, each district you select will appear as a data point on the graph above. If you choose schools, each school you select will appear as a data point on the graph. If you choose teachers, each teacher you select will appear as a data point on the graph.

• Plotting districts: Choose Districts from the Plot menu. To add only one or selected districts, select desired districts from the list. Click Add All to add all districts to the graph.
• Plotting schools: Choose Schools from the Plot menu. To add all schools in a district, select the desired district or districts from the list. To select schools within a district, expand the school list by clicking the plus (+) and select schools. Click Add All to add all schools to the graph.
• Plotting teachers: If you have access to teacher data, you'll see Teachers in the Plot menu. To add all teachers in a district, select the desired the district or districts from the list. To select all teachers within a school, expand the list of schools within a district by clicking the plus (+) and select schools. To select teachers within a school, expand the teacher list from the list of schools and select teachers. Click Add All to add all schools to the graph.

It is possible you will not see all the above options if you only have access to your district, school, or teacher report.

Roll the cursor over the name of a currently selected district, school, or teacher to locate it.

Filtering by Demographics

Once you have selected districts, schools, or teachers, you can limit which ones appear by applying demographic filters listed on the right side of the screen. To apply a filter, check the box next to it and enter a range of values. Then click Apply Filters. Only districts, schools, or teachers that fall within the range you defined for the selected demographic appear. For example, if you choose % Economically Disadvantaged and enter a range of 70% to 100%, only districts, schools, or teachers that have 70-100% of their students identified as economically disadvantaged are displayed.

You can apply any combination of filters you'd like. To remove a filter, uncheck the box. To remove all filters, click Clear Filters.

On This Graph

This tab lists the districts, schools, or teachers you have added to the scatterplot. The number of districts, schools, or teachers currently selected appears in parentheses after the tab's name. The list displays the values for each district, school, or teacher for the variables you've chosen to plot. To see the values for the schools currently plotted displayed, expand the list by selecting the district's name. To see the values for teachers displayed on your graph, expand the list by selecting a school's name. Roll the cursor over the name of a currently selected district, school, or teacher to locate it on the scatterplot.

To change the symbol for any district, school, or teacher, click the symbol in the Point column. You can change the symbol's size, color, or shape. Depending on whether you are viewing by district, school, or teacher, you can choose how to apply your changes: Apply to All Districts, Apply to District, Apply to School, or Apply to Teacher.

Settings

Font Size: Controls the size of the text on the axes and rollovers.

Animations: If you experience performance issues, it can be helpful to turn off the animations.

Rollovers: When enabled, the scatterplot displays the name of each district, school, or teacher when the cursor moves over the data points. If you do not want to see these rollovers, disable this feature.

Graph Line Depth: This setting controls whether the lines appear above or below the data points.

Graph Lines: The lines mark the origin for the data on each axis. To turn off a graph line, uncheck the box. To change the color of the line, click the dash next to the origin label. In the drop-down menu, select a color, and then click Apply.

Additional Graph Options

Just below the scatterplot, you'll see additional options for displaying the data and interacting with the graph.

Zoom: When this option is selected, you can click and drag the cursor over a portion of the graph or double-click on the graph to zoom in.

Move: Once you have zoomed in, you can click and drag to view sections outside the visible area.

Flip: Click this option to switch the x- and y-axis.

Fullscreen: Click this option to enlarge the graph to fill your browser window.

Restore: This button appears after you have chosen at least one of the graph options. Click Restore to return the graph to its default settings.