Understanding missing scores

If you see an asterisk (*) in your reports, you should first check that a student has completed all modules, as an asterisk can indicate the student hasn't completed the module. To do this, check the status dashboard in the 'Assessments' section of the platform. Anything 'In progress' means the module hasn't been completed, and the student will need to access the assessment to complete that module.

What can cause a missing score?

Sometimes, despite the status for all modules showing as 'Completed' in the Assessments section of the platform, you might find a score has not generated and instead you are presented with an asterisk (*). There are a few reasons that can happen, and here we will cover the likely scenarios if a score is missing.

First, it's important to understand the distinction between modules and sections within the assessment. There are 5 modules, and each module (excluding spelling) has multiple sections making up the module. In our Core package, you have access only to module level scores, not section level scores. 

The most common reasons you will see an asterisk instead of a score:

• The Developed Ability module has Picture Vocabulary and Non-Verbal sections. The Non-Verbal section requires the student to successfully complete some example items in order to be given the actual assessment items. Failure to answer the example items will result in a missing Non-Verbal section score and hence a missing Developed Ability module score. That's because if they don't understand the activity, they will score 0 for the section, which will then skew their overall module results.

• The Arithmetic module orders its items by category: addition, then subtraction, multiplication and division. If the student is not getting many right, stopping rules may cause the assessment to exit without presenting any items in one or more of the later categories. An Arithmetic module score will be present in this case but later section scores will be missing.

• The Reading module requires the student to achieve an average age equivalent score of 4 or more on the first two sections (Word Recognition and Word Decoding) in order to be presented with the Comprehension section. Failure to achieve a high enough score will result in a missing Comprehension section score, although a Reading module score will still be generated.

What should you do about missing scores?

The action you take will depend on the scenario and the student.

• You can choose to simply use the scores you have available to support with your planning for that student (in most cases, a missing score indicates a lower ability in that area).
• You could have the student re-take the module where you have missing scores (especially where you don't feel the missing score is representative of their ability). You can find more information about re-takes in the coordinator guide, but you should know that re-takes will overwrite the current section scores for the entire module. Where the missing score is due to not progressing past the Non-Verbal example questions, we strongly recommend explaining the format of these questions to the student in advance of a re-take. You can find more information to support you here.