Create at-risk indicators

After you create an at-risk definition, you create the indicators that are associated with it.

Indicators are in the following categories: Attendance, Assessments, Conduct, Demographics, GPA, and Grades.

You can also combine indicators in indicator groups. Indicator groups let you specify relationships between indicators.

To create an at-risk indicator:

  1. Log on to the District (Root Organization), Intermediate Organization, or School view.
  2. Click the Tools tab.
  3. Click the At Risk side-tab.
  4. Select the checkbox next to the at-risk definition you want to create an indicator for.
  5. On the side-tab, click Indicators.
  6. Note: To view a list of indicators that are in the indicator group, click . To return to the list of individual indicators and indicator groups, click ROOT in the breadcrumbs just above the list.

  1. On the Options menu, click Add. The New At Risk Indicator page appears:
  1. Use the following table to enter information in the fields:
  2. Field Description

    Type

    Select Indicator from the drop-down.

    Name

    Type a name for this at-risk indicator.

    Category

    Click the drop-down to indicate the category associated with this indicator: Attendance, Assessments, Conduct, Demographics, GPA, or Grades. Your selection here determines the other fields that appear on this page.

    Points

    Type a number of points that this indicator is worth.

    Description

    Type a description for this indicator.

    If Category is Attendance:

    Note: The Attendance category relates to daily attendance.

    Function

    Select Count or Percent from the drop-down. lf Count is selected, Aspen totals the Portion Absent field of the student attendance record. If Percent is selected, Aspen calculates it as (Portion absent sum/#days in session) * 100.

    This field works with the Date range you specify. If the Date range is This school year, the number of days in session equals the number of session days from the start of the school year to the date the job is run. If the Date Range is Last school year, the number of days in session is the number of session days for the previous school year. If the Date Range is Rolling date, the number of days in session is the number of session days entered in the Number of days field.

    To compute the number of days in a session, Aspen uses the calendar associated with the view you are using (District, Intermediate Organization, or School). For instance, if you are in the School view, Aspen uses your school’s standard calendar to compute the number of days in session.

    Criteria

    Code

    Select Absences, Tardies, Dismissals, or any other code from the drop-down. Other codes are derived from the Other Code code type in the Student Daily Attendance Codes reference table.

    Reason

    Select the reason from the drop-down, or select All for all reasons.

    Operator

    Select an operator. For example, to flag students who were tardy five or more times, select Greater than or equal to here, and 5 at Count.

    Count / Percent

    Count or Percent appears here, depending on your selection at Function. Enter the number or percentage of absences you want to flag. This field works in conjunction with the Operator you selected.

    Exclude excused

    Select this checkbox to exclude any excused absences.

    Date range

    From the drop-down, select This school year, Last school year, or Rolling date.

    Number of days

    This field only appears if you selected Rolling date at Date range. Enter a number to indicate how many days Aspen should look back from, including today. Aspen evaluates all student attendance records within the number of school session days through today. For example, if you enter 2 at Number of days, and today and yesterday are in-session days, Aspen evaluates attendance records from today and yesterday.

    Note: Number of days cannot exceed 365. Aspen uses the calendar associated with the view you are using (District, Intermediate Organization, or School). For instance, if you are in the School view, Aspen uses your school’s standard calendar to compute the number of days in session.

    If Category is Conduct:

    Criteria

    Type

    From the drop-down, select Incident, Action, Number of assigned suspension days, Number of assigned detention days, Number of served suspension days, or Number of served detention days.

    Code

    If Incident or Action is the Type, select an incident/action code from the drop-down, or select All for all codes.

    Operator

    Select an operator.

    Count

    Enter the number of incidents, actions, or suspension/detention days you want to flag. This number works in conjunction with the Operator field.

    Date range

    From the drop-down, select This school year, Last school year, or Rolling date.

    Number of days

    This field only appears if you selected Rolling date at Date range. Enter a number to indicate how many days Aspen should look back from, including today. Aspen evaluates all student conduct records within the number of school session days through today. For example, if you enter 2 at Number of days, and today and yesterday are in session days, Aspen evaluates conduct records from today and yesterday.

    NoteNumber of days cannot exceed 365. Aspen uses the calendar associated with the view you are using (District, Intermediate Organization, or School). For instance, if you are in the School view, Aspen uses your school’s standard calendar to compute the number of days in session.

    If Category is Grades:

    Type

    Select Grade field or Total earned credits from the drop-down. If you choose Total earned credits, Aspen uses the cumulative number of credits a student has earned.

    Transcript Definition

    This field appears if the Type is Grade field. Click Search icon. to select a transcript definition from the Transcript Definition pick list.

    Department

    This field appears if the Type is Grade field. Click Search icon. to select one or more departments if you want Aspen to compare the criteria to only those student transcripts with matching department(s). Leave this field blank to include all departments.

    Criteria

    Field

    This field appears if the Type is Grade field. From the drop-down, select one of the columns of the transcript definition. Columns with a column type of Comment or Date are excluded.

    Operator

    Select an operator.

    Value

    Enter a value for Aspen to use in conjunction with the Operator field. If the selected Field is linked to a grade scale, the Value field might be populated with grade scale codes (such as letter grades) or grade scale values (such as numerical grades). For example, if the Field is linked to a grade scale with numerical grade ranges mapped to letter grades and the Operator is In, this field might contain a list of letter grades, separated by semi-colons. The indicator is met if the student’s corresponding transcript grade maps to a letter grade that is in the list of values specified.

    Count Operator

    This field appears if the Type is Grade field. From the drop-down, choose an operator for the number of records (the count) required to meet this criteria.

    Count

    This field appears if the Type is Grade field. Enter a number to work in conjunction with the Count Operator for the number of records required to meet this criteria.

    Date range

    This field appears if the Type is Grade field. Choose from Last school year, This school year, or All records.

    If Category is GPA:

    GPA definition

    Click Search icon. to select a GPA definition from the GPA Definition pick list. The pick list contains GPA definitions that are linked to GPA fields on the student record.

    Criteria

    Field

    The GPA field on the student record that is associated with the selected GPA definition appears. You might want to run the Grade Point Averages report with the Update Student Fields option selected prior to running an at-risk definition that uses GPA criteria to obtain results based off the students' current GPA.

    Operator

    Select an operator.

    Value

    Enter a GPA value for Aspen to use in conjunction with the Operator field.

    If Category is Demographics:

    Criteria

    Click Define to specify the student demographic criteria. The pop-up is similar to a query. Select the table, field, operator, and value to define the criteria.

    If Category is Assessments:

    Assessment Definition

    Click Search icon. to select an assessment definition from the Assessment Definition pick list.

    Criteria

    Field

     

    Select an assessment definition field/column from the drop-down.

    Operator

    Select an operator.

    Value

    Enter a value for Aspen to use in conjunction with the Operator field. For example, if the Operator is In, this field would contain a list of values, separated by semi-colons. The indicator is met if the student record’s field value is in the list of values specified.

    Count Operator

    From the drop-down, choose an operator for the number of records (the count) required to meet this criteria.

    Count

    Enter a number to work in conjunction with the Count Operator for the number of records required to meet this criteria.

    Date range

    From the drop-down, select Last school year, This school year or All records.

  1. Click Save.