On Adaptive subjects, Albert measures proficiency skill by skill in two different ways. This article explains what each one measures, why the same skill can show a different level under each, and how to tell which one you're looking at in Reports.
Note: Both methods use the same Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced language.
Practice vs. Diagnostic Proficiency
| Practice proficiency | Diagnostic proficiency |
What it measures | The level a student reached while working through Adaptive practice | The level a student demonstrated on an Adaptive Diagnostic |
What level of support was available | Explanations after each question, and support when a student struggled | None. No explanations and no right-or-wrong feedback |
What a level tells you | What a student can do with support in front of them | What a student can do on their own |
When it updates | As students practice | When a student takes a diagnostic |
Practice proficiency shows a student working with support. Diagnostic proficiency shows the same student working without it. Neither one is more correct than the other. They answer different questions, and both are useful.
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Why the same skill can show two different levels
A student can reach Intermediate in practice because explanations and support helped them get there, then come back Beginner on a diagnostic where none of that was available.
It runs the other way too. A student who has barely practiced a skill may show a higher diagnostic level than their practice level, because a practice level reflects how far that student happened to get in practice, not the ceiling of what they know.
[Pro-tip] A gap between the two methods is information you can use. When a skill sits at Intermediate in practice and Beginner on a diagnostic, it's worth asking whether the student can follow the thinking when it's modeled but can't yet produce it alone.
How to switch which method a report shows
Adaptive reports open on practice proficiency:
Open the Reports tab.
Click View All Adaptive Practice or open all reports, and filter to an adaptive subject.
Click Edit Filters to open the Filters panel.
Choose Adaptive as your Content Filter.
Under Proficiency based on, select your desired proficiency measurement method, selecting Practice or Diagnostic proficiency.
Filtering a report to one specific diagnostic also switches it to the diagnostic method for you.
Note: If you don't see a method selector, the report probably isn't filtered to adaptive content yet. Proficiency applies only to adaptive subjects, so add an adaptive subject to your Report filters and the selector will appear.
A report shows one method at a time, never both
Every adaptive report displays exactly one measurement method, and it always states which one on the report itself. The two are never blended together into a single number.
The numbers always match the level shown
Accuracy, attempts, and time spent are scoped to whichever method is selected.
Choose diagnostic proficiency and those numbers describe only the student's diagnostic work. Choose practice proficiency and they describe only their adaptive practice work.
Note: Reports that aren't filtered to adaptive content have no proficiency method in play. In those, attempts, accuracy, and time spent combine a student's practice work and diagnostic work together.
Different between "Not started" and "Unranked"
"Not started" and "Unranked" are different results. These two look similar in a breakdown for a Diagnostic and mean different things:
Not started means no responses were recorded for that skill. There was nothing to measure.
Unranked means responses were recorded, but they don't support placing the student at Beginner or above.
Both are real results, and both appear in the breakdown, so every student you assigned a diagnostic to is accounted for. The two are worth acting on differently: a student who came back Unranked gave you evidence about that skill, while a student who came back Not started never reached it.
When a skill has been measured more than once
If you assigned the same diagnostic twice in a year, that skill has two dated measurements. A report covering both dates shows the higher of them, which is the rule adaptive reports already follow for repeated practice.
To look at one on its own, filter the report to that specific diagnostic.
Learn more about Assigning and Managing Adaptive Diagnostics.