Tricks with Traffic Lights
Tricks with Traffic Lights
Introduction
Creating traffic lights using SIMS Assessment Manager is well documented. But many users don”t know that traffic lights can tell you more than just who is above, below or on target - they can even show you how far above or below target the pupil is both visually (by using more than three colours) and by actually calculating how many points above or below target they are.
Example
For example, here’’s a marksheet that highlights pupils who two or more levels below their target in red, and pupils who are just one level below their target in yellow. Pupils who are on target are green, and pupils who are above target are blue:
To create this marksheet we first need to calculate the difference between the target column and the actual attainment column. A DIFFERENCE formula is used as follows:
You can hide this column once the marksheet is up and running. Then we create a ”nested if then else” formula like this:
If the difference is more than -2 points (i.e. -4 or -6 points or even lower), the column is coloured red and the points difference is displayed. If the difference is equal to -2 points, the column is coloured yellow and the points difference is displayed…and so on.
Further Uses
When using the final marksheet you can order the marksheet in order of ascending or descending points difference and see your highest achievers grouped together, followed by your middle achievers and lower achievers further down.
You can also amend the DIFFERENCE formula to calculate the difference between last terms assessment and this term’’s assessment if you want to highight term-on-term progress, or lack of.
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