Analysis tools
Please note that the Cornerstones tests are currently referenced to the subjects of the national curriculum for England, rather than the new Curriculum for Wales. However, we are aware that some schools in Wales find these helpful and so have made them available within Cwricwlwm Maestro.
You can keep track of your children’s progress by using our range of analysis tools. The tools allow you to monitor how your children perform in relation to age-related expectations. They're easy to use and creates an instant picture of the individual, group and whole class attainment.
The Attainment and Gap Analysis Tool
The attainment and gap analysis tool enables you to monitor the strengths and weaknesses of your class/group in detail.
For every child, you can note the number of marks achieved per question, and the spreadsheet will highlight question types using the RAG rating below:
- Red: questions that may need revisiting, require a different teaching approach or has not been taught yet.
- Orange: question types that may need further consolidation work.
- Green: question types where knowledge and understanding is secure enough to move forward.
Every question will show the percentage of children achieving full marks for that question, it will also group the total scores for each type of question, for example in reading, it will give the total score for retrieval, sequencing, inference etc.
Test Data Conversion Tool
We create a termly Test Data Conversion Tool for each test which enables you to convert a child’s raw test score into an age-related expectation. The age-related expectation will tell you how that child has attained in the test. This will enable you to report test results consistently across the school, use them to inform teacher assessments and indicate to stakeholders whether children are working at, below or above national expectations. The full list of our ARE bandings are on the Test Data Conversion Tool.
The Test Data Conversion Tool will also show the average score of your class/cohort in that test and then show a comparison to the average score from all schools that returned the test data to us. This provides you with a national comparison. All staff have to do is enter the names and raw scores into the Test Data Conversion Tool and graphs will auto-populate.
There is a headline summary of how the class/cohort has performed to show the percentage of children who attained working at/below national expectations. For a more complete picture, there is a more detailed breakdown to show the percentages of children within each of our ARE bandings. For additional information on specific groups of children such as SEND, EAL, gender, pupil premium status, enter a 'Y' in the appropriate cells on the conversion tool and this will then populate the pie charts down the right-hand side.
Our Test Data Conversion Tool will be available to download from Curriculum Maestro at the end of each term.
Standardised score converter
We create a termly Standardised Scores Converter for each test which enables you to convert a child’s raw test score into an estimated standardised score. Simply enter the children’s names and raw score and the converter will work out a child’s standardised score and whether the child is working at/below/above expectations.
Our Standardised score converter will be available to download from Curriculum Maestro at the end of each term.
How we analyse test data that is returned to us (methodology)
When we analyse the returned school data, we always use a minimum of 1,000 pupils per year group for every test. This ensures that the data is statistically viable. We don't use the number of schools as a factor for our analysis as the number of schools varies depending on the year group and the type of test.
The results are entered into a bell curve where the mean score is calculated. We then use the standard deviation to work out the key boundaries which allows us to create the ARE bandings and standardised scores.
We then create two conversion spreadsheets for every test each term based on the test data that is returned to us by schools for that term.
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