How We Calculate Your Scores
Transparent methodology for fair and actionable assessments
Two Metrics, One Clear Picture
We believe in separating two fundamentally different questions:
Performance Score
“How well are you doing in areas we can assess?”
Measures the quality of your documented practices. Only includes indicators where we found relevant documentation.
Documentation Coverage
“How complete is your documentation?”
Shows what percentage of quality indicators have supporting documentation in your uploaded materials.
Why Two Separate Metrics?
A single score can hide important distinctions. Consider two schools:
School A
Score: 60% on assessed areas
Coverage: 95% of indicators documented
→ Comprehensive docs, room to improve practices
School B
Score: 90% on assessed areas
Coverage: 40% of indicators documented
→ Strong where documented, but gaps in documentation
Both schools need different action plans. Our dual-metric approach makes this clear.
How Indicators Are Categorized
Each quality indicator falls into one of three states:
Evaluated
We found relevant documents and assessed them. This indicator has a score and contributes to your Performance Score.
Insufficient Evidence
We found some documents, but relevance was too low for confident assessment. Does not affect your Performance Score, but counts against Coverage.
Not Documented
No relevant documents found for this indicator. Does not affect your Performance Score, but counts against Coverage.
Performance Score Calculation
Formula
Performance Score = Average of all Evaluated Indicator Scores
For example, if you have 50 indicators and 42 are evaluated:
- Only those 42 evaluated indicators contribute to your score
- Each evaluated indicator has equal weight
- The 8 non-evaluated indicators don't lower your Performance Score (but do affect Coverage)
This ensures you're not penalized for missing documentation—instead, we tell you clearly what's missing via the Coverage metric.
Documentation Coverage Calculation
Formula
Coverage = Evaluated Indicators ÷ Total Active Indicators × 100
Using the same example:
- 42 evaluated indicators out of 50 total
- Coverage = 42 ÷ 50 × 100 = 84%
- Your report will list the 8 indicators without documentation so you know exactly what's missing
Equal Weighting
All quality indicators carry equal weight in our scoring system. This approach is:
- Simple — Easy to understand how your score is calculated
- Transparent — No hidden prioritization of certain areas
- Fair — Every aspect of school quality matters
Evidence Threshold
To ensure assessment quality, we require a minimum relevance threshold:
Threshold
30% Relevance Score
Documents must have at least 30% relevance to an indicator to be considered sufficient evidence. Below this threshold, we mark the indicator as “Insufficient Evidence” rather than making a potentially inaccurate assessment.
Three Assessment Domains
Quality indicators are organized into three domains, each capturing a different dimension of school performance:
Academic
Curriculum, instruction, assessment practices, student support services, professional development, and data-driven decision making.
Organizational
Governance, leadership, school culture, family engagement, staff retention, and compliance with policies and regulations.
Financial
Budget management, revenue sustainability, expenditure efficiency, and financial health ratios calculated from school-provided financial data.
How Documents Are Processed
When you upload documents, our system processes them through a multi-step pipeline:
Text Extraction
Documents (PDFs, Word files, etc.) are processed to extract text content, including from scanned documents using AI-powered vision.
Semantic Chunking
Extracted text is split into meaningful sections so each piece of evidence can be assessed independently against relevant indicators.
Indicator Assessment
Each document section is assessed against every quality indicator by AI, producing a relevance score and extracting specific evidence.
Score Aggregation
Individual assessments are aggregated per indicator across all your documents, producing a final score backed by the strongest evidence found.
Financial Indicators
Financial indicators use a different assessment approach than academic and organizational indicators:
Document-Based
Like academic and organizational indicators, some financial indicators are assessed by analyzing uploaded documents for evidence of financial practices, policies, and oversight.
Formula-Based
Other financial indicators are calculated using specific formulas applied to financial data you provide (e.g., total margin, debt-to-asset ratio, cash-on-hand days). These produce precise, quantitative scores.
Formula-based indicators use established financial health benchmarks from charter school authorizer frameworks to determine whether your school meets, partially meets, or does not meet each standard.
Evidence Transparency
Every score is backed by specific evidence extracted from your documents. We believe assessments should be verifiable, not opaque.
- Each indicator score includes direct quotes from your source documents
- You can see exactly which documents contributed to each assessment
- Strengths and areas for improvement are grounded in your own evidence, not generic recommendations
- The number of evidence items and documents analyzed is reported for each indicator
What This Means For You
High Performance, Low Coverage? Your documented practices are strong, but there are gaps. Focus on documenting more areas.
Low Performance, High Coverage? You have comprehensive documentation, but practices need improvement. Use the detailed indicator breakdowns to prioritize.
Both High? Excellent! Your school demonstrates strong practices with thorough documentation.
Both Low? Start by uploading more documents to get a complete picture, then address the areas needing improvement.
Ready to see how your school measures up?
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