Can you align standards across multiple units?

Is there a way to align outcomes across more than one unit? For example, if I create a character outcome for Unit A, and I also want to assess that outcome in Unit B, is there a way to align them so that I can see growth on that outcome across both units?

Thanks!

-Rebecca

Rebecca,

Great question, and one that gets at the heart of mastery-based grading. The short answer is that there definitely is a way to do this, but that it has some interesting/possibly-undesirable effects on some reports. There are two ways to do this, and each is a bit different. Since this is an advanced feature of JumpRope, I'd recommend first becoming familiar with the finer points of mastery-based grading (if you haven't already) by taking a look at these articles:

http://support.jumpro.pe/entries/421643-how-are-mastery-averages-calculated-in-jumprope
http://support.jumpro.pe/entries/20121258-using-the-mastery-explorer

Please keep in mind that some of the language may differ in our help documents (for example, Outcomes may be called Standards, Targets or Objectives), as many of these are school-based settings.

The core issue here is to consider what a Unit actually represents. In our view, a unit is a logical grouping of similar outcomes. Many people similarly (but distinctly) consider units to be groups of assessments grouped by time. In a standards-based gradebook like JumpRope, this distinction is important. The easiest solution to your question may in fact be neither of the solutions proposed below, but rather to simply continue to assess the outcomes in the unit they belong by creating new assessments over time, and allowing units to overlap one another over time. That said, there are two other approaches.

The first option is as follows... begin by first creating and saving two units, both of which have one or more outcomes. Let's call those Unit A and Unit B. Then, in the planning tool, proceed to step three (Design Assessments) for the unit that contains the assessment you plan to administer. That is Unit A. On the left, you will see the list of outcomes for Unit A which you created in step one of the planning tool. Above this, there is a drop-down labeled "Other Units" from which you can select a different unit. Select Unit B. You can then align any assessment in Unit A with any outcome in Unit B in addition to any outcomes in the current unit. On the reports, any scores on that particular outcome will show up as part of Unit B (assuming that your chosen report format groups scores by unit), meaning that the assessment will be averaged into more than one unit (remember, we're in an outcomes-based grading system, not an assessment-based grading system!).

The second option is simpler, but behaves differently. You can simply copy/paste the objectives into each unit. As long as they are identical (spelling, capitalization, etc.), the system will align them for any reports that do not consider unit-level grouping (read about grouping schemes here: http://support.jumpro.pe/entries/20068268-grouping-scheme-in-the-mastery-explorer). However, each score will belong to the unit affiliated with the ASSESSMENT (instead of the unit affiliated with the OUTCOME, as in the first option), meaning that unit-level averages will include the scores as intuitively expected by folks used to the concept of time-based units.

I know that this is a lengthy response to a simple question - I made the assumption that by asking it you were likely seeking an in-depth understanding of the issue from a pedagogical/system-wide perspective... so there you have it! Let me know if this helps or if you have any followup questions,

Jesse

-------
Jesse
JumpRope
www.jumpro.pe