Data Wall Editor
This article will include the following information:
- How to access the Data Wall Editor
- How the Data Wall Editor is organized
- How to add Filters
- How to add, configure, edit, copy, delete and group Columns
- How to create, rename, organize and delete Sub folders
- How to create and store Color Bands (also known as Indicator Bands)
- How to enable and use other Advanced Features (points, descriptions, etc)
When working in the Data Wall Editor, it can be helpful to zoom in / zoom out as needed the entire workspace and columns. Click the "ellipsis menu" (three dot icon) at the top-right or top left corner of the window. Choose the zoom option and adjust as needed.
The Data Wall Editor allows users to configure data walls. There are three operations that will open the Data Wall Editor.
1. Once a data wall has been created and saved, the Data Wall Editor opens and defaults to the user's personal scope (My Data Walls).
When creating a data wall, the data wall must be named and saved before the editor will open.
2. If a data wall is copied, it will automatically open in the Data Wall Editor in the user's personal scope (My Data Walls).
To learn more, access Creating and Copying Data Walls and / or Naming and Choosing Scope.
3. If a data wall has already been created and edits are needed, click on the edit wheel and choose "Edit Data Wall." The Data Wall Editor will open in the scope it was built in (District, School, or My).
Only those with ion system administrator access will be able to edit data walls in the District or School scopes.
The data wall has a basic organization that uses 3 different columns.
1. The far left column provides the user with the following functions:
A - Save and View functions.
B - Name the data wall, Choose the Scope, Create/Choose Sub folders.
2. The middle column provides the user with the following functions:
D - Choose and add "Available Columns."
E - Configure / Edit wall columns in this workspace. Whatever the user is currently working on will populate here.
Available Columns hold customer data that has either been uploaded or synced to ion. More information is found in Importing Data.
If the column is available BUT (1) information does not populate OR (2) if the drop down menu does not populate
then, check with your district's ion system administrator.
- Information may not have been uploaded, mapped or synced
- Data may need configuration in the Assessment Dictionary
3. The far right column provides the user with a preview of existing columns in the order they will populate on the data wall. These columns can be added, configured, edited, duplicated, deleted and grouped:
Whenever the a column is added to a wall, it will appear in the far right "existing columns" section and will populate to the bottom of the list.
Filters limit the students who appear on a data wall.
For example, if I do not use a filter for a middle school data wall, then all students for that school can populate. If I use an 8th grade filter, only the 8th grade students will populate. If I use both an 8th grade and an ELL filter, then only 8th grade students in ELL will populate.
A user will never see more students than they are allowed to see based on their course rosters, teams, or security settings. To learn more, see "Security" under Naming and Choosing Scope.
There are many available fields for filters, such as the following (this list does not include all available filters):
- Grade
- Special Ed Status
- 504 Status
- ELL Status
- Course
- Team (Homeroom, House)
- Has Plan
- Intervention Program
- School
Access Filter Editing
Filters can be added, edited, and deleted.
1. Make sure the filter tab is open.
2. To add a filter, click the green + icon. See step 5 (the middle column will display to configure filter).
3. To delete a filter, click on the trash icon.
4. To edit a filter, click on the existing filter.
5. The middle column will now open to display the workspace for the filter editor.
Edit / Configure Filters
1. Filter - More than one filter can be used.
2. Operator- The "operator values drop down" will automatically adjust for each type. Choose the operator accordingly. Some operators will allow more than one choice.
A - For example, if creating a grade level wall for a single grade, then equals will work.
B - However, if filtering for grades 2-5, then choose "in" and click to add those grade levels in the filter value drop down. (See below).
3. Filter value - The filter value drop down will automatically adjust for each type.
C - For example, if filtering tags, the available options will populate. (See below).
Once your filter has been properly configured, click "OK" to save.
The School selected in the drop down on the upper right can provide a filtering effect. For example, if I have filtered for Has Plan and choose All Schools, the data wall will show all students who currently have a plan in the district.
To learn more about filtering on a data wall, see our learning video on Filters
Available Columns are found in the middle section of the Data Wall Editor. There is not a limit to the number of columns that can be added. However, the more data that is on a wall, the longer it can take to retrieve and populate. See information on caching data walls to reduce load time.
Adding a column allows users to sort information, but filters reduce the amount of students on a data wall. For example, if I add a column for ELL, then I will see a "Y" in the ELL column for those with ELL designations. If I filter for ELL, only those with ELL are on the data wall.
To add columns:
1. Choose the column category from the Available Columns and drill down.
2. After the column is added to the wall, configuration options will appear in the center column of the editor.
Column types will have different configuration options. The wall builder will attempt to warn you if it detects potential issues in your column configuration.
Configuring columns allows the user to choose and/or edit the settings for each column. Options include Label, Display Field, Terms, Test Grade, Year Filter, Color Bands, Column Description and Points. See below for explanation and "how to's."
Label
The Label is the name of the column. Whatever is in the box underneath the Label will populate on the data wall. There are times the user may want to add to or edit the Label to be more descriptive for the wall viewer. In that case, type that information into the box.
1. Review the "Label identifier" and the text that has populated in the box below it.
2. Edit the text (if desired) in the box for clarification.
- Edit the assessment title to include name of assessment, Display Field (such as listing percentage or score)
- Use ion templates (if desired) such as {{term}} and {{grade}} to allow ion to automatically update term and grade selected in the Term and Test Grade fields
The Label Field contains a few templates that will come in handy when copying columns.
To insert the "Term" field into the label, type {{term}}.
To insert the "Grade" field into the label, type {{grade}}.
Using these double curly braces around these words allows ion to automatically update the term and grade selected on the column editor.
Groups can also be used to identify information on the data wall for viewers.
Display Field (Assessments Only)
Several different fields are available for assessments such as score, percentile, proficiency, SGP, etc. The availability of these fields is determined in the Assessment Dictionary Setup. Some assessments must be configured by the ion district administrators.
Click on the display field to view available options. Select the desired option.
Terms
When selecting certain columns, such as Assessments, Attendance, Behavior or Grades, the Terms drop down will populate. The options that populate are directly related to the assessment mapping and SIS import processes.
- Terms for Assessments are the testing windows configured by the ion district administrator in the Assessment Dictionary and will populate in the Data Wall Editor.
- Terms for Attendance, Behavior, and Grades will populate according to the SIS Import. For example, these terms could be Year, Q1, Q2, S1, etc. The availability of terms (and data) is related to the information imported /uploaded from the SIS.
1. If an assessment has Fall, Winter, and/or Spring data, and if these selections are created in the Assessment Dictionary, then the user will see those selections available in the data wall editor.
2. Most Recent Terms will bring up the most recent assessment data regardless of the testing window. The dates of the assessment will populate along with the data displayed on the wall. Here are some typical scenarios:
- If creating a single grade level wall, choose the corresponding grade.
- If creating a multi-grade wall, choose MR.
- If the information is intermittently available, MR might be a better choice. For example, some state assessments are not assessed yearly, so MR would pull the most recent data for that particular assessment.
3. Other term selections will populate according to the SIS import. For more information see information on the SIS Import.
Verify data after selecting specific terms and adjust as needed.
Test Grade
When selecting certain columns, such as Assessments, Attendance, Behavior or Grades, the Test Grade drop down will populate.
Test Grade allows the users to choose which grade level of information to display.
Choose the Test Grade for desired data display and Filters. Here are a couple of examples:
1. When creating a grade level wall, choose the corresponding Test Grade. For example, choose Grade 5 for a Fall, Winter, Spring assessment for a 5th grade wall. Choose 4th grade Spring to include a prior year's score for the current 5th grade students.
2. If creating a multi-grade wall, choose MR. See year filter to ensure that only the current year's scores will populate.
3. If the information is intermittently available, MR could be a better choice. For example, some state assessments are not assessed at every grade level, so MR would pull the most recent data for that particular assessment.
4. When creating data walls that include assessment data that may be unavailable until summer, users can select the available prior year spring data by selecting the prior grade.
For more information about filters for single grade or multi-grade walls, see Filters.
Year Filter
The Year Filter has default and special use case options in order to allow users to view desired data.
- All Years is the default setting. ion will look for the most recent year for the Assessment, Field, Term and Test Grade. For example, single grade level walls will use All Years.
- CY (-1, -2, -3, -4) are designed for special use cases. For example, if the data wall has been created for several grade levels using "MR" for the test grade, then "CY" should be used so that the data wall contains data for the current test year.
Each column can be edited, copied, and deleted.
Editing
1. Click the edit icon.
2. The column that opens in the Data Wall Editor is highlighted on the right hand side. The user can now make adjustments to that assessment column such as the Display Field, Term, Test Grade, Year Filter, Color Bands (Indicator Bands), and Column Description.
3. Click "OK" when editing has finished to save the changes.
4. Click "View Wall" to view the changes.
Copying
- Click the duplicate icon to copy a column.
- It will populate in the right column at the bottom.
- The editing function will open in the middle column.
Deleting
Delete occurs immediately and will not pop up to ask "are you sure?"
- Delete a column - only that column will delete.
- Delete a group - the entire group and all the nested columns will delete.
Columns can be grouped on the data wall. Here are a few examples:
1. Groups can define the assessment columns when the column labels are missing the name of the assessment. In this example, the group name "KAP Scores" defines the assessment columns as the assessment columns themselves do not contain "KAP." (Columns can also be edited to include KAP - see Labels to learn more.)
2. Groups can differentiate between different assessments. In this example, KAP Scores and MAP Percentiles clearly delineate the two different assessments.
There are many examples, such as labeling/grouping columns for behavior, attendance, demographics, etc.
1. Select "Group" in the "Functions" section of "Available Columns."
2. Type the name of the group, select the color, click OK.
3. Navigate to the bottom of the right column.
4. Click and hold the hamburger button to drag and drop the group above the columns. Then, drag and drop the columns to nest them underneath the group.
The entire group can be moved using the same drag/drop process.
The scope is discussed in Main Navigation. Data Walls can be grouped together in Sub folders. Sub folders can also be renamed and deleted.
Creating Sub Folders
Sub folders are created in the data wall editor's left and middle columns.
1. Click on the folder icon in the left column.
2. The workspace opens in the middle. Click on "Add Folder" to create a new folder and follow the prompts. Click "Use This Folder" to accept the folder.
3. The tree will populate with the Scope and any Sub folders. In this example, My Walls is the Scope, and the Demo Folder is the Sub folder. The tree will populate in the workspace and in the left hand column.
4. Click OK when finished OR click Cancel to continue editing.
5. Users can change the folder location by clicking on the Scope in the middle workspace. The Sub folder becomes "Uncategorized" until the new folder location has been selected.
You can create any number of sub folders. For example, District Data Walls>>Screening>>Reading>>iReady>>4th grade.
Renaming Sub Folders
To rename a Sub folder
1. Click on the folder icon.
2. Type in the new name.
3. Click OK.
Deleting Folders
Users need ion district administrative permissions to delete folders in School or District Scope. Users can delete folders in My Scope.
1. To delete a folder, click the trash icon.
2. The folder will only delete when it is empty.
Color bands have two main purposes
1. Colors can be designated to indicate proficiency levels for a variety of data:
- Assessment Scores
- Grades
- Attendance
- Behavior
- Growth
2. Data walls using color bands can be used to create Dashboards
Dashboards are created using data walls. Only those columns that have been color banded will create the individual charts within a Dashboard.
Creating and Editing Color Bands (Indicator Bands)
All Columns have the option to create a color band.
1. Click the "+" icon to create.
2. Color, Range, and Order are required. Click Save when finished.
3. Order the colors in the way you wish to see them populate on the dashboard - 1 is the top, the largest number at the bottom.
- Color - this is the color that will populate on both data walls and dashboards. Choose the color that fits the proficiency level.
- Range - "Low" in the first box "High" in the second box. The range can be numerical or alphabetical.
- Order - this is the order that the colors will populate in the dashboard.
Cut scores are available from assessment vendors to determine ranges of proficiency.
If the information that is brought in uses decimal points, be sure to create a range that encompasses all possibilities.
3. Label, Icon, Type and Points are optional. Here are some descriptions and examples for each one.
-
Label - A label can be entered here by typing it in the box.
- Click the edit icon and the label will open up to edit.
- Click the Save icon.
- Click OK to complete the process.
-
Icon - Add an icon to a data point.
- Click the edit icon.
- Choose an icon from the drop down.
- Click the Save icon.
- Click OK to complete the process
- When viewing the data wall, the icon will populate next to the score.
-
Type - A type can be added to color bands.
- Click the edit icon.
- If Type has been added into the Point System, choices will populate in the drop down to choose from.
- Click the Save icon.
- Click OK to complete the process
Types can be viewed on the far right (end) of the data wall.
- Points - Enter a numeral for a particular assessment. If the Point System has been set up, then this will populate on the data wall
Creating a Color Band Library
Once the color bands have been created, they can be saved to a library for others to use. This maintains consistency within the district.
1. Click the Save icon above the Color Bands (Indicator Bands).
2. Follow the prompts to update the library. They are organized into the same Scope as Dashboards and Data Walls - My, School, and District.
Color band information is editable, except for the name. Consider using / following a naming convention for District bands.
3. Click the Library icon (suitcase) to view stored Color Bands.
Creating Global Templates
Clicking the blue arrow icon will allow the user to create a global template which allows ion to recognize a pattern for assessments using similar Display Fields, Terms and Test Grades. Users will then be prompted to use the Global Template for Color Bands.
1. Click the blue arrow.
2. Follow the prompts.
- If a default band is not specific to a grade level or a term, use *.
3. Users creating / editing a data wall will be prompted to use the color bands for that assessment Label if the Display Field, Term and Test Grade match the template.
Creating Master Color Bands
Master Color Bands are similar to the Global Template, but the information is stored in the Assessment Dictionary Color Band tab.
1. Create the Color Band.
2. Click the blue arrow icon and follow the prompt.
3. Turn Master Color Band "on."
4. Edit Color Bands in the "Color Band" Tab of the Assessment Dictionary for all data walls to be updated.
More information is found in the Assessment Dictionary.
Advanced Features are found on the left side of the Data Wall Editor and include options to Hide Student Names and to Cache Wall Data.
1. Hide Student Names
- Click "yes" to hide student names on a data wall. The data wall will display information, but not the individual student names.
2. Cache Wall Data - This feature was designed to reduce the load times for data walls in "All Schools."
- Click "yes" to cache wall data. It will calculate and build the data wall and store it, so when you run the data wall, the load time is greatly reduced.
Column Description
1. Add a description for any column in the this area.
2. Click OK.
3. To view description, hover over the "i" on the data wall column.
Point System
Points allow data walls to be sorted according to overall student performance. This example shows that students who have accrued many points have consistently scored below grade level,
Points and point types have to be added to color bands in order to work. See Adding the Point System to Color Bands.
Accessing the Point System
1. Click on the Points tab (next to the filters) tab on the far left side of the data wall editor.
2. The Point System does not need to be turned on because the default is "on." If desired, click to toggle it to off.
3. Point Bands can be set up similar to color bands. Click on the "+" icon to create the point band system.
4. After you create the point band system, the color bands will populate on the data wall.
Point Types can be created. For example, if a data wall holds assessments for behavior and reading, point types can be created by clicking on the "+" icon next to point types. Then, when the data wall populates, the amount of points accruing in these different areas will populate.
Adding the Point System to Color Bands
The only way the points will accrue is to add them to the color bands.
1. Click the edit icon to open the editor.
2. Click the dropdown to select the value.
3. Click the save icon.
4. Click OK when complete.
