Tables report - Monitoring Targets using Progress Columns

This guide will show you how to compare assessments to targets to check whether or not pupils are on track to meet them.

In a previous help guide, we demonstrated how to use progress columns in tables to calculate the difference (or change) between two assessments; we also have a guide on how to monitor targets using progress overviews.

Here we'll combine these concepts to show you how to use progress columns in tables to monitor pupils' progress towards targets.

To complete this task you will need some recent assessment data and targets stored in Insight.

This is a fairly straightforward process with a few simple steps:

1) Create a new table report

Click Reports > Tables

2) Add assessment columns

Click Add Column > Assessment Column to add the assessment data you want to compare. Here, we have added two columns: the first contains the latest main assessments in reading for Year 5, and the second contains imported end of Year 6 FFT benchmarks for the same cohort (i.e. targets they might be expected to reach next year).

Schools that set their own targets, rather than use FFT, will most likely store them under the assessment name 'Target'. Choose the relevant option when adding the assessment column.
To select the future target for this year 5 cohort, note that 'Year 6' is selected in the Year dropdown.

3) Add a progress column

Now click Add Column > Progress Column to add a column that will compare the assessments inserted in step 2.

Here, there is an important but perhaps confusing difference to how you might usually set up a progress column in a table. As outlined in the help guide on using progress overviews to monitor targets, you need to select the target first and the recent assessment second in the dropdowns in the left-hand panel (see screenshot above). This will then subtract the target from the assessment rather than the other way round. For example, a pupil that is targeted to be GDS at the end of Y6 but is currently EXS will have a score of -1 in the progress column (i.e. they are one band below target). If we reversed the setup, choosing the assessment first and the target second - which might seem more logical because the assessments are in chronological order - the score would be +1 (i.e. one band above target).

When using a progress overview or a progress column in a table to compare assessments to targets, always select the target first.

4) Summarise and group the data

This is optional but you might want to do this to report to governors for example.

Click Settings and give your table a name in the Table title box. Then click the 'Show summary rows, but hide pupil rows' button. This will reduce your table to a single row.

Now choose a grouping option by clicking on the Group Pupils button at the top of the screen. Here we have selected the Key Groups option:

This groups the data by your selected Key Groups and shows averages for each.

The scores in the progress column are the average differences between assessments and targets for each group.
You can change your Key Groups by going to Admin > Change School Settings > Key Groups.

We hope this help guide has been useful. Please get in touch if you need any further help.


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