Getting AMP'd

Summative assessments? ACT benchmarks? Schoology tests? Data driven decisions?...WOO!  It's electric in the air!

Getting AMP'd

As was stated at the beginning of the school year, we are the first private school in the country to be utilizing the new Schoology AMP (Assessment Management Platform) feature. This new tool will allow us to collect data at a micro level, helping to guide curricular and instructional decisions. This tool comes at a useful time for us as we continue to build data that we have available to us.  In doing so, I believe we can also be honest with ourselves and admit that few things are more exciting to read about then summative assessments and data driven decisions!

Many faculty members have met with me to discuss the new tool and receive training on building question banks.  If either you and/or your department have not yet done so and are interested, please contact me with dates and times that would be best and we will schedule an opportunity to meet.  Once the tests are generated, I will push them to the required courses.  Located below are the steps necessary to administer the AMP assessment.  If you would prefer to watch a tutorial video demonstrating how to administer an AMP assessment, please click here or scroll to the bottom of the blog.

1. Once I or an administrator pushes an AMP assessment, you will find the test located in the "Materials" tab of the specific courses that will be administering the test.  The assessment will be unpublished, which means that students cannot see it.  To publish the test, click the gear icon located on the right side of the assessment and select "Edit".

2. Once you have clicked on "Edit", please click the circle icon located under the "Options" category. Clicking the circle will turn it green. Once we have hit "save", your test will be published. That being said, before hitting save, let's make a couple more quick adjustments under the "Edit" pop up box.

3. Take this opportunity to fill in the "Due Date" section, "Total Points" section and change the grading scale to the Resurrection Grading Scale.  You do not need to make any adjustments under the "Category" section.  After making these adjustment, please click "Save".

4. Our test is now setup the way that we need it.  When you are ready for your students to actually be able to have access to the assessment and begin taking it, you will need to enable it.  To do this, click on the test itself (not the gear icon).  From this point, select "Manage Assessment" located just under the test name.

5. Click the drop down arrow under "Attempts" and select "Allow Attempts".  You will not have the access rights to adjust any of the other settings listed (i.e. Attempt Limit, Time Limit, etc.)  so after allowing attempts, simply click on "Save Changes".

6. When your students have finished taking the exam, you will go back into the test (by clicking on it), reactivating the drop down menu located under "Attempts" and selecting "Disable Attempts".

Well, that's it!  You are now prepared to assess your students, gather standards based data and then create action plans and/or data driven decisions.  If I may, a piece of advice for any teachers currently working on building an assessment.  If possible, please try to have a particular standard addressed more than once to aid in getting a clearer picture of a particular student's actual mastery of a standard.  If a standard is only touched on once, it is possible the student has some understanding of the standard but simply messed up on one question.  This may not be possible for every standard that you plan on having assessed but it would be preferable if most were covered this way.  As always, if you have any follow up questions or would like to schedule a training session please feel free to email me!

Administering AMP Assessment Via Schoology Tutorial Video