Finding My Feet

[Zenden]

Hello All,

 

I am and have been an ICT Network Manager in various schools for about 6 years and am now having my role take over a big portion of the data manager bit by bit. Mostly I am taking to it fine. I am having problems with the previous Data managers structure not really showing any consistency - ie Aspect Naming formats etc . This finally has me a little stumped.

 

I have set up a number of Progress Tracking Grids to analyse student progress from KS2 against their predicted end of KS4 GCSE Grades and these have been great. So popular in fact that the Headteacher wants the same grids to now be used to analyse the actual results from this summer. This is my problem. I cannot find where the previous Data Manager had imported this data to! I can see the results under Tools - Examinations --> Edit PI Data . However I have no clue about the procedure necessary to get these grades into some usable aspects for the tracking grids. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

Please forgive my ignorance!

 

Any help would be hugely appreciated,

James

[hschram]

Hi There,

 

I might be wrong but let me try to put you on the right track

 

Assuming that you use Sims and Examination manager this is what you could do. Every examination results is linked to a code that represents that exam along with the examination board etc.

 

You can see these codes in student examination fields and you can double check them in your basedata in examinations manager. Now here is the beauty - these aspects are already in Sims and all you have to do is to link to the correct ones. Please note that that there is one aspect per exam.

 

I hope this helps you some what.

 

Best

hschram

 

p.s. please shoot me down if I am incorrect

[Zenden]

Hi Hschram!

 

Firstly, thanks for getting back to me, that is really useful. Can you clarify a little more specifically how I decode the names of these aspects from the unique name/number for the exam results?

 

I can see a lot of Aspects with the naming format such as:

- Act: GCSE Maths

 

Which my brain wants me to believe means "Actual GCSE Maths Grade" but I have found that the tracking grid brings up nothing with that, obviously that would just be too easy!

 

Thanks,

James

[Zenden]

I can see within the Examinations PI DAta screen that each subject seems to have a "QAN" number which is an 8 digit and a "Code" number which is a 4 digit. I am trying to find aspects containing these at the moment....

[Zenden]

and I can see the codes in the Exams Module basedata too in the format AQA-1234 , how do these relate to aspect names?

 

Again, any help hugely appreciated.

[CAM]

You should have an exam cash-in code such as H034. Then you would look for the relevant aspect (example, if it was Edexcel board it would be something along the lines of EDEXL/GCSE H034 Result Grade A).

 

It is best to liase with your exams officer as they will have a massive book of codes for each exam and what season they are in. Oh, and each exam board has a different naming scheme just to add to the complexity.

[Zenden]

Hi CAM,

 

Thank you so much, I have found them now in the aspect browser via their codes under CES Examination Services --> Board--> AQA/Whatever

 

I have tested this with biology and it is working so hurrah!

 

Follow up questions, the Bio code is "AQA 4401 Result Grade F", will this be the same each year or will it change? also, what does the "F" stand for in this description?

 

Thanks,

James

[hschram]

Thanks Cam.

 

Zenden

 

F - Foundation

H - Higher

 

hschram

[gazskeltz]

Hi,

 

CAM is right - the way the aspects are named is a nightmare. If you think the old Data Manager had inconsistencies...

 

Best thing to do is to have a look at the results broadsheet from Examinations and then, one by one, try and find the aspects for the results in SIMS. Add these bit by bit to a master marksheet template and then cross check to see if the grades are what you thought thy were. You can then change the column description to something meaningful...

[Zenden]

Thanks again Hschram and CAM,

 

I am getting to grips with this now. My intention is to output a report from sims each year after results day and put the data into the Transition matrices supplied at https://dataeducator.wordpress.com/tools-for-schools/ (which I believe is supplied by someone here - so thank you so much!!). What does everyone else do in this regard? I am outputting a report on year 11 with the following details:

 

Data Fields: Assessment Results - filtered to Aspect Name is "KS2 Average Sub Level"

Assesment Results - filtered to Aspect name is one of - Contains "WJEC/GCSE" and "Result Grade" or "OCR" and "Result Grade" or "AQA" and "Result Grade" or "EDEXL/GCSE" and "Result Grade".

 

This does output the data I want but it requires some fiddling afterwards:

 

1 - some students do not have a KS2 Sub Level apparently - Currently debating with SLT whether to estimate this individually or supply a stock average

2 - It is outputting some Aspects with Cash In Codes which represent individual pieces of qualifications eg English Speaking and Listening module which is odd.

 

Thats my progress so far anyway, what does everyone else do? any tips?

 

Thanks

James

[CAM]

Get KS2 Sub Levels from previous schools or from Fischer Family Trust (or whatever you use). They are important as everything is about progress, progress, progress now. At least until the government realize they have scrapped them and can't measure anymore...

 

You also gave me an idea for exporting data in a report. If I put a unique tag in the aspect name and a specific Result Set I can export data programmatically via a Report even if it isn't an exam result. Hmmmm...you may have solved a long standing issue of mine there.

[Zenden]

glad to know i have given something back, since i am stealing everyone elses knowledge!

[Zenden]

Hey CAM,

 

Your post got me thinking. Could I export this report, format the data as a like and reimport back into some nicely named Aspects eg "Maths GCSE Result Grade" etc? is there a process in sims to do this?

 

Forgive my ignorance,

James

[NormalDistribution]

Hi - thanks! - DataEducator.

[CAM]

Assessment Manager doesn't care for formatting. It's all plain text. You can set up a sheet with the exam aspects and your destination aspects and copy from one column to another. Either manually by right clicking headings or using a EQUALS formula to do it automatically (but CHECK THE FORMULAE DESTINATIONS!).