๐ฏ Purpose
Consistent data starts with a solid foundation. This workflow is designed to guide District Leaders and Administrators through the end-to-end process of a centralized assessment strategy. By laying the proper groundwork, from specific administrative account setup to folder-based distribution, you ensure that every student is evaluated against the same criteria, resulting in "clean," actionable data for district-wide analysis.
๐ก Why This Task Matters
Data Integrity: Aggregate results from hundreds of classrooms into a single, unified view without manual merging or "cleaning" data.
Curriculum Alignment: Guarantee that every teacher is using the most current, standards-aligned version of an assessment.
Security & Control: Prevent accidental edits to high-stakes evaluation content at the classroom level.
Operational Efficiency: Save teachers hours of prep time by delivering ready-to-assign assessments directly to their accounts.
๐ Key Otus Features to Use
Main Admin Control Center: The primary hub, accessible only to the lead administrator, used to manage critical district-wide settings and create administrative accounts.
Assessment Folders (with Locked Sharing): The essential vehicle for distribution. Assessments are placed in folders, and the "Locked" functionality is enabled during the sharing process to prevent editing and ensure data aggregation.
District Teacher Groups: Preset lists of educators, created within the District Module, that allow you to target specific groups (by grade, subject, or building) for instant distribution.
Analytics (Query & Historical): Powerful tools to visualize the resulting data, allowing you to filter by school, teacher, or specific student demographics.
๐ How to Complete This Task
1. Lay the Groundwork (The Planning Phase)
Before building a single question, the leadership team must prepare the environment:
Identify Creators: Decide if assessments will be built by a District Curriculum Team, within a single master Assessment Admin account, or whatever aligns with your current process.
Create Administrator Accounts: From the Main Admin account, use the Control Center to create accounts for your designated assessment team.
Determine Distribution Groups: Navigate to the District module to create or update your Teacher Groups. This ensures you can target the right educators (e.g., "All 8th Grade Math Teachers") instantly.
Establish Customization Rules: Define the boundaries for assessment modification before the first draft is created.
Accommodations: Designate who is responsible for creating modified versions (e.g., simplified language or reduced answer choices) for students with IEPs or 504 plans.
Cloning Permissions: Clearly outline if and when teachers are permitted to clone district assessments.
Data Integrity: Provide strict guidelines for cloning to ensure that student results remain aggregated under the correct district headers rather than splintering into isolated classroom reports.
2. Build and Organize
Once the plan is set, create the content in a centralized space:
Create the Assessment: Build your assessments in an Administrator account to keep the "Master Copy" secure. We recommend starting here to understand the different assessment types available to you.
๐กPro Tip: We recommend establishing a very clear naming convention for your assessments. This will help establish clarity and ease of use for all involved.
Group into Folders: Place your assessments into Assessment Folders organized by grade level or testing window. Establishing a similar naming convention will make organizing and finding your assessments much easier.
Important: Using folders is a prerequisite for the bulk-sharing and locking capabilities required for district scaling.
3. Distribute to Teachers
Move the content from the district level to the classroom:
Share and Lock: Navigate to your folder, select Share, and choose your Teacher Groups. During this step, you must toggle the Locked option. This ensures that when teachers receive the folder, they cannot change questions, forcing all results to flow back into one central report.
4. Teacher Execution
The burden on the teacher is minimized:
Assign & Grade: Teachers find the shared folder in their account, assign the assessment to their classes, and grade any open-ended items. Because the assessment is locked, the scoring settings remain consistent across every building.
5. View and Act on Data
The final step is turning results into a plan:
Analyze Results: Use Assessment Analytics to see a live view of district performance.
Query for Insights: Use the Query Report to find specific cohorts of students who may need additional support based on their performance.
๐ค Level Up!
Utilize Otus Insight, our AI assistant, to help you:
Analyze student data
Identify trends and patterns
Automatically group students based on data
Locate relevant resources
Generate evidence-based next steps for instruction
And much more!
Learn here: Gradebook | Assessment Analytics | Standards Analytics
๐ What Success Looks Like
By the end of this pathway, your district infrastructure will be ready for reliable data collection:
โ Administrative Infrastructure: All curriculum creators have been assigned their specific administrator accounts via the main Control Center.
โ Standardized Content: Assessment Master Copies are housed in a centralized account to ensure version control.
โ Validated Groups: Teacher Groups have been populated in the District Module to reflect current rosters and grade levels.
โ Organized Distribution: Assessments are grouped into labeled Folders and shared using the Locked setting.
โ Reporting Readiness: A Query Report or Historical Analytics view is prepared to monitor performance across buildings.
๐ Next Steps
Before you distribute, we recommend reviewing the Benchmark Assessment Checklist to ensure your testing window and grading scales are aligned. Once ready, navigate to your Assessments module and select the ellipsis next to your folder to Share.