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.