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.

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