With Forefront, proficiency can be configured to give greater weight to the most recent evidence of student learning. However, there are situations where it may make sense to exclude an assessment from proficiency calculations at the class or course level. For example, districts may choose to exclude assessments that are used for benchmarking, are primarily formative, or introduce brand-new content shortly before report cards are shared. In these cases, excluding the assessment can help ensure that reported proficiency reflects the evidence the district intends to use for grading and reporting.
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What Does Excluding Proficiency Do?
When you exclude an assessment from proficiency, its scores no longer count toward any proficiency Forefront calculates. That includes:
● Standards proficiency
● The student proficiency wheel
● Reports
The scores are not deleted, but they no longer show up in the places teachers and families usually look at proficiency.
When in doubt, don't take it out!
In most cases, it's best to include all assessment data in proficiency. Excluding data usually has little impact because of how Forefront weights recent data, and keeping more data in builds a stronger body of evidence for each student.
Why Excluding Usually Isn't Necessary
Forefront weights the most recent data most heavily
Forefront uses a recency formula, so the most recent evidence for a standard counts the most. Older assessments automatically count less, and their weight keeps shrinking as new data comes in. Learn more about how standards proficiency is calculated in Forefront.
Helpful tip: Open a student's data to see how much each assessment counts toward a particular standard's proficiency calculation. The weight is shown next to each assessment.
Older data helps tell the growth story
Keeping earlier attempts in gives you a fuller picture of a student's progress. In a family conference, for example, you can show where the student started, what you've worked on together, and the growth they made when you reassessed.
Reassess Instead of Excluding
If a student had a tough first attempt, the best option is usually to reassess and add the new data, rather than excluding the original. Learn more about reassessment in Forefront.
After that data has been captured, you will see both attempts for the student. The newer attempt carries the most weight in proficiency. Learn more in Reassessment in a Standards-Based Grading System and How to Enter Data in Forefront.
How to Exclude Proficiency
If you do need to exclude an assessment, you can do it at three levels.
For one student
Step 1: Navigate to the student's Assessment History, select the carrot next to the assessment you wish to exclude, and click the three-dot menu next to the assessment.
Step 2: Toggle on the proficiency exclusion.
The assessment no longer feeds into the student's proficiency wheel. Its weight changes to 0%.
For a whole class
Step 1: Open the assessment from the classroom gradebook view.
Step 2: Toggle on the proficiency exclusion.
None of the class's data for that assessment will feed into student wheels or reports.
For a course (district leaders)
District leaders with the district management permission set can exclude an assessment from proficiency at the course level. Keep in mind that this hides the assessment's data from proficiency for every class using the course.
The above screenshot displays where district leaders can exclude assessments from proficiency calculations at the course level. Learn more about course configuration.
Please note: We generally do not recommend excluding assessments for a whole class or course.
When We Do Recommend Excluding
One scenario where excluding results may be helpful is when an assessment is intended to be purely formative and should not contribute to grading or family reporting. This can be especially useful when formative data is collected shortly before report cards, parent-teacher conferences, or another reporting period.
In these cases, teachers may choose to temporarily exclude the assessment from proficiency calculations and then include it again after report cards or conferences have been completed.
Need more support?
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