Summer 2019 Exact Path Enhancements Are Here! 

Months before the final school bell rings to start summer vacation, the Edmentum team gets to work planning updates, collecting and reflecting on feedback, and building program enhancements that will be the most impactful for the next school year. This summer was no different.

I’m pleased to share all of the exciting enhancements designed to support personalized instruction and targeted intervention for K–12 students that are now available for the 2019–20 school year. This year, we’ve focused our work in three primary areas: reimagining diagnostic assessment reporting, adding teacher customization and flexibility, and improving the learning experience for our students. So, let’s dig in.

Adaptive Diagnostic Reporting Revamp

This summer, we've unpacked the details of our reports, meticulously reviewed every data visualization, and made tough decisions. We know that you're using your Exact Path data to guide high-stakes instructional decisions, and we take that work seriously. Our updates are not only guided by the latest standards in educational assessment research but also, most importantly, guided by your honest feedback leveraging them in real classrooms.

Revamp of Student Summary Report Diagnostic Details

Introduction of Student Categorization by National Percentile Rank: These new categorizations of assessment scores offer four categories representing where a student’s score falls relative to Exact Path national norms. Percentile rank information is available for K–8 students using Exact Path.

Assessment Summary View: We've introduced a new layer of student data that combines all diagnostics for all subjects tested into a single view. Find all assessment scale scores, growth measures, and national percentile ranks plotted along an easy-to-read graph for a clean picture of student performance. This level of diagnostic detail for all three subjects is also available to educators in an aggregated view.

New Diagnostic Test Administration View: So, you want to know more about the actual adaptive testing experience? The student summary report now includes a visual representation of the diagnostic test administration where you'll gain visibility into whether items were answered correctly or incorrectly, view exactly how many questions students were asked, and determine the amount of time spent.

Revised Domain Details: For each subject domain, the skills assessed and the number of questions answered right and wrong for each skill are listed. While the goal of an adaptive test is for students to answer approximately 50% questions correctly, this level of visibility provides a quick glance at individual student strengths and weaknesses by skill and grade level.

Class Results Reporting Improvements

Visibility into Where Students Start Learning: Sometimes you just want to know—approximately at what grade level are my students ready to start learning? We've answered that question with a new metric we're calling the Learning Path Entry Grade (LPEG). You will now find the grade-level designation aligned to the lowest level skill your students will start working on when they enter their learning path in an aggregated view for the educator.

New Domain Level Details: Performance within the domains that students are assessed in often provides the first indication of student strengths and weaknesses. Not only is this information available in the Student Summary Report, but within the Class Results report you can see each student's learning path entry grade by domain.

Aggregated Results Updates

The changes we’ve made across student- and class-level reports also roll up into the aggregated view available for administrators. We know you have questions about comparability—so this updated report allows you to easily determine how students in your school or district are performing against students across the nation.

Refresh of Exportable Diagnostic Reports

When it comes to exportable reports, sometimes having too many choices isn’t a good thing. So, we’ve cleaned house so that the reports you run can help you take stock of your students' performance in real and meaningful ways. The National Percentile Rank Distribution (previously called the Performance Growth Trends) and Diagnostic Results Export reports will evolve to reflect our latest approach to assessment data, while Domain Score Trends, School Comparison by Domain, and Assessment Skills reports will all be retired.

Updated Student Settings Page

Your ability to customize student settings to accommodate learning needs has increased a LOT! As a result, we've redesigned this page and added more flexibility into the mix.

• A new diagnostic setting now included on this page offers the ability for educators to turn on or off text-to-speech functionality (also adjustable where diagnostics are scheduled).
• Educators can override the assessment starting grade for a more efficient testing experience. If you know your 9th grader is on a 4th grade reading level, there's no need for the assessment to ask him or her a string of higher-level questions until it figures that out. Start that student on 4th grade reading questions, and let the adaptive assessment go to work from there.
• A series of learning path settings offer educators the ability to adjust the content style students see for a more nuanced approach to serving up age-appropriate content. Additionally, there are two new options here! Educators can choose to include all skills for 7–12 grade remediation, or by default, the program will deliver key skills. Educators also have the ability to hide the new Desmos calculators (released this April) from student view.

Create Assignments from Groups Page

One of our favorite features (and yours too) is the ability to create custom assignments for your students. This summer, we’ve added this option to the Groups page as well, ensuring that you can build assignments from wherever you are in the program, exactly when it's top of mind.

One-Click Archive Assignments Option

This April, we made it easier for you to keep track of past and present assignments with a new category called “Past Assignments” for any assignment with a lapsed due date. Now, we've made it easier to archive, or deactivate, assignments when you no longer want them to appear for students with a one-click archive option. Not to worry, though, as we'll still preserve the data from your students' past work for you to review, and you can just as easily restore any archived assignment if you so choose.

Auto-Save Added to ALL Student Activities

Did a student accidentally log out too soon? Did the bell ring while your class was in the middle of working? This auto-save option, also known as a digital bookmark, ensures that students can easily return to what they were working on without fear of lost work. The automatic digital bookmark feature will be available in EVERY activity in Exact Path following rolling releases that starting in the spring and carry through to the fall.

Need step-by-step help and guidance learning the new features? Check out the Help Center inside your Exact Path account, and register for our What’s New webinar on August 29th at 11:30 AM Central for a live demonstration.

This blog post was originally published on May 9, 2019.