Creating a New Graph

When you use SAIS to create a new graph, you follow a process to define the graph before generating the graph from the data. This procedure explains the complete graph definition and generation process using the following steps:

·	choosing a graph type;

·	selecting reporting periods;

·	choosing students;

·	choosing groups;

·	selecting learning areas;

·	setting graph styles and options; and,

·	building the new graph.

Choosing a Graph Type

To choose a graph type:

1.	On the SAIS Main Menu, select Create a New Graph.

The Create a Graph screen is displayed.

2.	If not already selected, click on the Graph Type tab.

The Graph Type options are displayed. This tab enables you to choose a graph type from a list of graph templates, your favourites or shared favourites.

For information about using favourites, refer to Managing Your Favourites.

3.	If not already selected, click on the Select a graph template option button.

4.	Select a graph template using the Select a graph template drop-down list.

The list of graph templates is sorted into two groups: Year 1-10 templates and Senior School templates.

Each time you select a template from this list, an image preview and information about the graph type is displayed in the area below the drop-down list.

This enables you to select graph types in turn until you find one the most closely matches your needs.

Once you have selected the graph type that you want to work with you can continue by selecting reporting periods.

Selecting Reporting Periods

To select a reporting period, or periods:

1.	Click on the Reporting Periods tab.

The Reporting Period options are displayed. This tab enables you to choose a single period (a semester), a reporting period range (from semester A to semester B), or multiple reporting periods (semester A, semester B, semester C).

The resulting graph will only include data from the selected periods.

i	The options that appear on this tab vary depending on the graph type selected. The options shown on the image above are for a Senior School graph type.

2.	Use the option buttons to select one of the following options:

·	a single reporting period;

·	a reporting period range; or,

·	multiple reporting periods.

3.	Use the drop-down lists or check boxes to identify the reporting period or periods for the graph.

Once you have selected the reporting period you can continue by choosing students or groups.

Choosing Students

To choose a student, or students:

1.	Click on the Students tab.

The Students options are displayed. This tab enables you to choose a student, or multiple students. The resulting graph will only include data for the selected students.

2.	Use the Select the student drop-down list to choose how you want to select the student. You can select students by:

·

name;

·	form class;

·	SIS defined group;

·	reporting group; or,

·	teaching set.

A number of additional drop-down lists are displayed based on your initial selection.

3.	Use the additional drop-down lists (such as School, Year, Year Group, etc.) to further narrow down the student selection list. You must make a selection from each of the drop-down lists.

When you have made selections from each of the drop-down lists, the screen is refreshed and a list of students appears in the lower part of the tab area.

i	If you have chosen to select students by Name, you will also have to click on a letter from the Surname Initial generated alphabet to display students sorted by surname.

4.	Select one or more students by clicking the checkbox adjacent to the student's name.

i	If you select multiple students, a separate graph will be created for each selected student.

Once you have selected the student, you can continue by choosing learning areas.

Choosing Groups

When you select the group level for your graph you are defining the parameters that will determine which student results appear on your graph. You can also refine the graph parameters further using the available filters.

About Grade, Mark and Result Type Definitions

If you are generating a senior school graph type that involves group grade or mark analysis, you are required to select the type of grade or mark to be used. A result type is used to refer to the selection of a grade or a mark.

The following tables (Grade Type Definition, Mark Type Definition and Lower Secondary Result Type Definition) list the options available and provide a description of each.

Senior Secondary Result Type Definitions

Grade Type Definitions

Grade Type	Description
School Default Grade	This distribution displays the grades submitted to the Curriculum Council for a subject or course unit OR, if no Curriculum Council grade is recorded for a subject or course for the selected reporting period, it will display the progress grade (see below).
Progress Grade	This distribution displays the semester (or progress) grades for subjects or course units. Typically, this is the mark entered at the school for the purpose of Semester One reporting to parents.
Curriculum Council Grade	The grades submitted by the school to the Curriculum Council at the completion of a D or E code subject or a course unit.

Table 5: Grade Type Definitions

Mark Type Definitions

Mark Type	Description
School Default Mark	This distribution displays the marks submitted to the Curriculum Council for a subject or course unit OR, if no Curriculum Council mark is recorded for a subject or course for the selected reporting period, it will display the progress mark (see below).
Progress Mark	This distribution displays the semester (or progress) marks for subjects or course units. Typically, this is the mark entered at the school for the purpose of end of semester reporting to parents.
Exam Mark	This distribution displays exam scores entered at a school for the purpose of end of semester reporting to parents.
Curriculum Council Mark	The scores out of one hundred submitted by the school to the Curriculum Council at the completion of an E code subject or a course unit.
School Assessment	The score out of one hundred submitted to the Curriculum Council for the E code subject, or the average of the final two unit results for a course. Please note:  This distribution differs from the Curriculum Council Mark in that it omits the scores of students who did not sit the exam, were identified as anomalous performers, or had their raw exam scores adjusted due to approved sickness or misadventure claims.
Moderated School Score	The School Assessment score out of one hundred moderated by the raw exam score to account for the variation of the standard in the School Assessment between schools.
Standardised School Score	The Moderated School Score out of one hundred standardised ahead of averaging with the Standardised Exam Score. These scores are distributed around a state-wide mean of 66 for each subject/course.
Raw Exam Score	The score out of one hundred achieved by the student in the TEE/WACE Examination.
Standardised Exam Score	The Raw Exam Score out of one hundred standardised to account for the difficulty of the exam between years and to allow for longitudinal consistency. These scores are distributed around a state-wide mean of 66 for each subject/course.
Combined Score	The average out of one hundred of the Standardised School Score and the Standardised Exam Score ahead of scaling.
Final Scaled Score	The Combined Score out of one hundred scaled to account for the variance in the level of performance of TEE/WACE Examination candidates in relation to their performance in other subjects/courses. These scores are distributed around a state-wide mean of 58 across all subjects/courses.

Table 6: Mark Type Definitions

Lower Secondary Result Type Definitions

Result Type	Description
Grade	The A-E grade awarded for the semester for a particular outcome.
OSF	The gradation (e.g. Consistently level 3, Consistently level 3 sometimes level 4, More frequently Level 4 than level 3) awarded for the semester for a particular outcome.
MSE/NAPLAN Decile	MSE/NAPLAN scores divided into 10 categories where Decile 1 represents the top 10% of scores, Decile 2 the next 10% etc. Please note: Due to the limited number of possible score points in some of these assessments (e.g. MSE Writing), there is not always exactly 10% of scores in each decile.
MSE/NAPLAN Achievement Category	The achievement category used to report MSE scores for Reading and Numeracy (Excellent, Good, Satisfactory, Limited).

Table 7: Lower Secondary Result Type Definitions

About Applying Filters to Groups

To further refine group selection, you can also choose to apply filters to the selected group. You can filter by:

·

Gender;

·	Indigenous status;

·	LBOTE (Language Born Other Than English);

·	Include results from other schools.

·	This filter enables you to determine whether or not the graph will include students' grades or marks that where attributed to them while they were enrolled in other schools.

To choose a group, or groups:

1.	Click on the Groups tab.

The Groups options are displayed. This tab enables you to choose a student group and, optionally, one or more comparative groups. The resulting graph will only include data for the selected groups.

2.	Use the Select the group level drop-down list to choose the level of group for your graph. You can select groups by these levels:

·	DET (State);

·

District;

·

SEI Band;

·

School;

·

Cohort;

·	Form Class;

·	Group (Teaching Set);

·	Group (Reporting Group);

·	Group (SIS Defined Group).

A number of additional drop-down lists are displayed based on your initial selection.

3.	Use the additional drop-down lists (such as District, School, Year Group, etc.) to further identify the group. You must make a selection from each of the drop-down lists.

4.	If appropriate (for Senior School graph types), use the Grade Type or Mark Type drop-down list to select the type of grade data to be used for the graph. There are a number of different grade and mark type options.

5.	Click Apply Filters if you want to further refine the group selection by gender, indigenous status or LBOTE, or to include student results from other schools.

The filters row appears below the group information.

6.	Use the Gender, Indigenous Status, LBOTE, and Include Results drop-down lists to set your filters.

When you make a selection from the list, the group data for the graph will be limited by your selection. For example, if you choose Male from the Gender list, the resulting graph will only include data for male students in the group.

7.	Click Add a Comparative Group if you want to define an additional group for the graph. You would use this if you want to compare the achievements of one group (the Prime group) with another.

The process for defining a comparative group is identical to that given above for the prime group.

Once you have chosen the prime group and, optionally, any comparative groups, you can continue by choosing learning areas.

Selecting Learning Areas

The Learning Areas tab displays a tree control that enables you to explore and select either:

·	Learning areas, learning area outcomes and learning area contexts (for year 1-10 graph types); or,

i	SAIS only uses system context data to generate graphs, not contexts that have been created in SIS for individual schools.

·	Courses, course units and subjects (for Senior School graph types).

The trees display the hierarchical structure of learning areas, courses or subjects, as shown in the examples below.

Figure 8: 1-10 (Left) and Senior School (Right) Learning Area Trees

The tree controls work in the same way that Windows Explorer works - you expand branches by clicking the 'plus' sign next to the folder icon and collapse them by clicking the 'minus' sign.

To select items to be included in your graph, simply click the checkbox, adjacent to the folder icon, to select the item. When you select an item, all of the items that are hierarchically below the selected item (the child items) are automatically selected.

For example, in the tree shown below the learning area called The Arts was selected. All of the learning outcomes and contexts below The Arts were automatically selected.

Figure 9: Automatic Child Item Selection

Understanding Contextual Learning Area Trees

The structure of the learning area tree that is displayed varies because it is generated in context to your Graph Type and Student/Group selections.

This is most obvious in the structure differences between Year 1-10 graph types and Senior School graph types. For Year 1-10 the tree items include learning areas, outcomes and contexts, whereas for Senior School tree items include courses, course units and subjects (refer to Figure 8). However, the structure of the trees is also affected by more discrete graph type and student/group selections.

Year 1-10 graph types: some of these graph types are designed to provided student achievement information based on learning area outcomes. When you select one of these graph types, the learning area tree structure will include learning areas, outcomes and contexts. However, other Year 1-10 graph types are based on grade information, and for these types the learning area tree structure will only include learning areas and contexts.

Senior School graph types: the learning area tree for these graph types includes courses, course units and subjects, but the extent of these is determined by your assigned role in SAIS, and your student/group selections.

If you select one of the Senior School graph types designed to provide information for an individual student, the learning area tree is rebuilt after you select the student, and it will only include courses, course units and subjects that the selected student is taking.

If you select one of the Senior School graph types designed to provide information for a group of students, the learning area tree structure is based on your SAIS role and the group that you select.

i	The learning area tree is a complex control and may contain hundreds of courses and subjects, depending on your selections. As such, the tree may take up to a minute to generate.

To select learning areas:

1.	Click on the Learning Areas tab.

2.	The Learning Areas tree is displayed.

3.	Expand branches of the tree, as required by clicking the 'plus' signs next to the folder icons.

4.	Click the checkboxes adjacent to the folder icons to select the learning areas that you want to include in your graph.

Once you have chosen the learning areas you can continue by setting graph styles and options, or by building your graph.

Setting Graph Styles and Options

A number of graph styles and options are available to enable you to configure the appearance of your graph. The styles and options available will depend on your choice of graph type.

To select learning areas:

1.	Click on the Graph Style and Options tab.

The graph styles and options available for your selected graph type are displayed.

2.	Use the Size of graph options to determine how large the image of your graph will be on the screen. The options are:

·	Medium - 707w x 390h pixels.

·	Large - 950w x 450h pixels.

·	2 Column - 450wx 300h pixels. Selecting this option will display multiple, tiled graphs in two columns.

·	Custom - set your own width and height values (in pixels) using the text boxes provided.

3.	Set the other options for your graph using the controls provided.

The options that you see available are dependant on the graph type that you have chosen.

Once you have set the styles and options you can continue and build your graph.

Building the New Graph

To build a new graph:

1.	Ensure that you have selected a graph type and configured the options on the reporting period, students/groups, learning areas and styles tabs.

2.	Click Build the Graph.

Your graph is generated and displayed in the pane below to tabs.

You can adjust the graph's appearance or data by reselecting the tabs and changing your selections. Just click Build the Graph again to regenerate the graph.

Now that you've built the new graph, refer to the following information about how to work with your graph and use it in other applications:

·	Working with Your Graph

·	Managing Graph Snapshots

·	Managing Your Favourites

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