The Ed-Fi “Classic Dashboards” are no longer supported through the Ed-Fi Alliance. You can still receive support and maintenance through the Ed-Fi vendor community. Please look at any of the vendors’ dashboard solutions on the Registry of Ed-Fi Badges or the Ed-Fi Starter Kits if you are looking for a visualization solution to use with the Ed-Fi ODS. This documentation will remain available to assist existing Classic Dashboard implementers.

Overview of Metric Documentation

Owned by Itzel Torres
Dec 10, 2018
2 min read

The metrics documentation published by the Ed-Fi Alliance spans high-level conceptual material like the research base that indicates the metrics actually work, down to the technical business rules and data fields used by developers to lovingly hand-code the metric calculations. This section briefly describes the sections and expectations for each.

This information may be of general interest – but organizations and developers wishing to contribute metric calculations back to the Ed-Fi Core should read this because some documentation mentioned herein is required to accompany metric code contributions.

Metric Category Overview

This is the highest-level categorization of metric, such as "Attendance" or "College Readiness." This type of documentation:

  • Contains conceptual material
  • Discusses research or studies supporting the use of the metric

See the Attendance section of this documentation for an example. Contributors to the Ed-Fi Core are generally not expected to submit this level of documentation (though additional studies or local findings are welcome).

Metric Class Overview

This is a particular, relatively specific class of metric, such as "Daily Attendance Rate" or "Grades Below Proficiency." This type of documentation:

  • Contains conceptual material
  • Contains a high-level description of the metric calculation
  • Discusses who might look at the metric
  • Discusses what action may be indicated

See the Daily Attendance Rate section of this documentation for an example. Contributors to the Ed-Fi Core are generally not expected to submit this level of documentation unless the metric represents a wholly new class of metric.

Metric Instance

This is a specific instance of an actual metric calculation, such as "Student - Daily Attendance Rate" – which has a technical definition distinct from "School - Daily Attendance Rate" even though the same data underpins both instances. This type of documentation:

  • Contains a general description of the metric
  • Usually contains a screen capture of a UI displaying the metric
  • List any derivative metrics (e.g., the Student - Daily Attendance Rate - Last X Days is a derivative of the Student - Daily Attendance Rate metric)
  • Lists the business rules and calculation details for the metric

It's worth noting that derivative metrics are themselves metric instances and contain much of the same documentation as their integral/parent metrics. 

See the Student - Daily Attendance Rate metric documentation for an example. Contributors to the Ed-Fi Core are expected to submit this level of documentation with any contributions.

Metric Instance Technical Detail

This is a specific business rule or element that makes up the metric instance calculation, such as a definition of "Active Students." This type of documentation:

  • Is often technical in nature. The Ed-Fi Alliance often lists these as JIRA tickets, each with their own status, tests, etc.

See the Conflicting Attendance Events definition documentation for an example of a technical detail supporting several attendance metrics. Contributors to the Ed-Fi Core are expected to submit this level of documentation with any contributions.