What is JumpRope? 

In September, 2015, ADL transitioned to a standards-based reporting program. Parents and guardians are now able to check on a middle-school student’s progress in classes by logging in to the JumpRope portal.    

Need to know:

• The portal is available to use from a desktop via our website, or using our school's URL from your own home computer, or mobile phone. JumpRope's system is explained in detail on the JumpRope website. An iTunes download is available here.

• Reports are developed in December, late March and in June for the end of each trimester.  

• An email will notify you when reports are available. You may view them digitally or choose to download and print them.  

• Each trimester report will illustrate where your student is performing in identified content standards for that time in the school year.

While EWSD has licensed the use of this product, we do not provide technical support on JumpRope, and will refer any questions to the software company.

How to use JumpRope 

WELCOME SCREEN:  Once you have logged in you will see a screen that welcomes you.  Please note that at this time we are not using the attendance feature.  If you click on that button nothing will happen.  However, if you click on the “Grade Alerts” button or tab at the top of the screen you will see a list of any work that has not been turned into your student’s teachers.

CURRENT GRADES:  When you click the button that says “Current Grades” or select the “Current Grades” tab at the top of the screen, you will arrive at a screen that looks like the one below.  This screen gives you a quick look at how your student is progressing toward proficiency in each class.

COURSE SCORE: It is an average of the scores of each Essential Learning Target/Standard in the course. The score for each Essential Learning Target/Standard is a calculation of the scores on tasks and activities measuring students’ developing content knowledge and skills.

Teachers score tasks and activities on a 1-4 scale.

The 1 (Beginning) means starting the learning process towards achievement of the standard for this time of the year,

2 (Developing) means approaching achievement of the standard for this time of the year,

3 (Secure) means achieves the standard for this time of the year, and

4 (Expanding) means exceeds the standard for this time of the year.  (See section “Understanding Scores” below for details on how scores for Essential Learning Targets/Standards are calculated.)

By clicking the small, gray triangle to the left of a Foundational Topic folder, you are able to get a list of the Essential Learning Targets/Standards worked on at this point for that Foundational Topic.

Essential Learning Target scores are not an average of the scores on tasks and activities. Instead, JumpRope has been set to calculate scores using a mathematical function called the Power Law.  This calculation type is based on research on how students learn. It is a time-based calculation that takes into account the trend in student scores. In this way, it more closely represents true student learning progress than a typical average score.  In other words, the score you see for each learning target is what your students is most likely to score on the next activity based on his or her performance to date.  This calculation does not include Habits of Work scores. 

TASKS AND ACTIVITIES: Teachers design tasks and activities of varying forms that are intended to help students acquire specific knowledge and skills. Teachers provide students feedback on how they are progressing on an individual target by scoring these tasks and activities.  To see how your child is doing on individual tasks and activities you can click on the small, gray triangle to the left of an Essential Learning Target/Standard.  

When you click the triangle, the folder opens up to an indented list of tasks and activities given to your child to gauge where she or he is in learning that target/standard.  These are tasks or activities that your child has completed and the teacher has scored.

FORMATIVE AND SUMMATIVE:  The score for each Essential Learning Target/Standard is a calculation of the scores on tasks and activities measuring students’ developing content knowledge and skills. Teachers score tasks and activities on a 1-4 scale where a 1 means starting the learning process towards achievement of the standard for this time of the year, 2 means approaching achievement of the standard for this time of the year, 3 means achieves the standard for this time of the year, and 4 means exceeds the standard for this time of the year.  

Looking below, there have been 5 formative tasks or activities scored for Number & Quantity Essential Learning Target “Understands the relationship among fractions, decimals and percents.)

Formative means that this was a task or assignment that students were given to help them form their understanding or to practice a skill. This is information that tells the teacher and students what still needs to be worked on.  In this example, both tasks were to develop understanding.  One was a test that was given to see how well students were doing in putting all the pieces of their learning together.  It was an “in progress” of learning test and not one that “counts.”  

NOTE:  Generally formative tasks are not designed to allow students to show an understanding that exceeds the target.  Formative tasks are the checkpoints on the intermediate steps students progress through to reach the higher levels of learning.  These tasks are measuring what students need to have as far as knowledge and skills to be able to become proficient on the Essential Learning Targets/Standards.  Thinking about the the rungs on a ladder may be helpful.  It is also similar to needing to practice fielding skills in baseball repeatedly before being tested in a game situation.  Practice ensures progress towards proficiency.

Summative means that this was a piece of work completed that was meant to show the teacher exactly what the student has learned and is able to demonstrate for full rigor of the target.  Essential Learning Target/Standard scores are calculated primarily on only summative scores since summative tasks have a full weight of 1.0 and formative tasks have a negligible weight of .01.  This allows students in the process of learning to not have their overall scores impact them detrimentally until they are ready to take a summative assessment.   

NOTE: Until a summative score is entered, formative scores are used to calculate the overall score for an Essential Learning Target/Standard.  This allows parents/guardians and students to get a sense of how learning is progressing.  Once the student has engaged in a summative activity or task to show what he or she knows or can do at the full level of understanding and skill required of the target, the overall score for the Essential Learning Target/Standard will reflect only the summative scores.

In the example below, the Geometry Essential Learning Target “Is skilled at score is reflective of the trend on the summative tasks shown:  1 up to a 3.  The trend predicts that the next likely score the student will receive will be a 2.3.

Although not mathematically accurate, it may be helpful to think of the trend calculation as similar to a “line of best fit.”

TASK & ACTIVITY TITLES:  Tasks and activities are titled in the following format.  Type of task or activity, the content of the task or activity, the source of the materials used for the task or activity.

Example:

• HW  Factor & Multiples  Handout

• CW  Comprehending plot pp 182-187 ques., 1-3  Book

• Type codes:

  • HW (homework)

  • CW (class work … exit slip, bell work, etc.)

  • Pres (presentation)

  • Proj (project)

  • Quiz (quiz)

  • Test (test)

  • Conf (conference)

  • Obs (observation)

  • Lab (lab)

  • Essay (essay)

  • Other (for things not listed here)

  • FW  (field work)

  • CR (constructed response; shorting writing tasks)

  • GW (group work)

STANDARDS SCORE KEY:

• means starting the learning process towards achievement of the standard for this time of the year

• means approaching achievement of the standard for this time of the year

• means achieves the standard for this time of the year

• means exceeds the standard for this time of the year