Class settings: Retention assessment

What is the retention assessment and why should I enable it?

The retention assessment is the last of the three student growth measures available on Checkology. When you choose to enable the retention assessment, you are helping NLP conduct a first-of-its-kind study researching the long-term learning gains of a news literacy education!

At the end of the school year, NLP will have access to student growth measure results as anonymous aggregate data (meaning NLP does not collect student personal identifying information). NLP contracts with independent analysts who match student pre-assessment, post-assessment and retention assessment results to measure whether students maintain their learning gains over time. Reports on this data are made public in the fall after each school year. This data helps NLP better understand student learning patterns and improve the platform. It also helps us demonstrate to our funders and supporters that our resources actually work so we can keep Checkology free!

Where can I preview the student growth questions?

To preview the 14 student growth questions, click the "Resources" tab in your teacher account. Then, using the navigation menu on the left, filter by the "Getting started with Checkology" category. Scroll until you see "Student growth measure questions and answers." Click "Download" to view.

  Related article: Tracking student learning gains

Retention assessment basics:

Just like the pre-assessment measure, this assessment asks students 14 news literacy questions and can take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete. The retention assessment measure is off by default when you create a new class, so it must be enabled in the Class Settings area (see instructions below). Because this assessment measures long-term gains, please enable it after students have completed their entire assigned Checkology course.

Once enabled, students must to return to Checkology to complete the retention assessment. Checkology will give you some easy options for contacting students to take the retention assessment once you’ve enabled it (see instructions below). When students login, they will find the retention assessment in the same location where the pre-assessment once appeared (at the start of the assigned course). All students need to do is click "Begin survey" and answer the 14 student growth questions. Once they click "Submit and back to Dashboard" at the end, their responses will be recorded for NLP's summer independent analysis.

 Please note: Students may need to click back to the beginning of their course in order to see the retention assessment.

         

  Teacher Tip:

Set a calendar reminder to enable the retention assessment and ask your students to complete it anytime after they’ve finished their Checkology course. Ideally, students will complete the retention assessment towards the end of their time in your class — or even towards the end of the school year — so that NLP can measure retention over a longer period of time. But enabling the retention assessment for students even immediately after they complete their course still provides incredibly helpful impact data for NLP.

Watch a short video of the student experience.

 Please note: The answers selected in the demo video are not necessarily correct.

Enabling the retention assessment

Ready to help NLP make the case that news literacy works? Use the tabs below to see instructions on enabling the retention assessment based on your preferred starting place.

From your Dashboard From the email you received

If starting the enabling process from your Dashboard on your Checkology educator account, follow these four steps.

1. From your Dashboard, click "Edit" next to "Class settings" on a class tile.

    Please note: If enabling multiple classes to complete the retention assessment, you will need to repeat these four steps for each class tile.

   

2. Click "Open advanced settings."

   

3. Toggle on (green) the "Retention Assessment" option and press "Save." 

            

4. Click "Copy URL: Student-facing instructions" and share with students.

   Once clicked, you will see a shareable Google Doc with student-facing instructions on how to easily access the retention survey. Either send students the link to this document, or simply ask them to log in to their Checkology accounts again to complete the retention assessment. 

            

If starting the enabling process from the email you received about the retention assessment, follow these four steps.

1. From your email, click "Yes, I'll ask my students to take the retention survey!"

   The link will take you to your Checkology account. Please login to your account before moving on to step two.

   

2. On the popup that appears, click "Enable" to enable the retention assessment right away.

   Please note: You can also click "Remind me" to see the popup again in three weeks.

   

3. On your list of active and archived classes that appears, toggle the switch on (green) for classes you'd like to take the retention assessment and click "Next."

   

4. Invite your students to return to their Checkology accounts to take the retention assessment.

   Once enabled, the retention assessment will appear on the students' account Dashboards. The popup offers two options to help you bring students back to the platform to take the assessment.

   

   If you choose to send an email to students:

   The "Email" option opens your default email client and auto-populates a message with the email addresses for students in the enabled classes. You can then edit the email before sending it to students.

   

   If you choose to share a link with students:

   The "Copy URL" option copies a direct link to the student Dashboard. When a student clicks the link, they are taken straight to Checkology and prompted to log in. Then, they'll see the retention assessment on their Dashboard. Under "Copy URL," you have the option to download a .CSV that contains student email addresses for students in the enabled classes. You may email them and include a copy of the student-facing instructions, if you wish.

   

Retention assessment FAQs:

Can I enable the retention survey if students did not take the pre-/post-assessment?

While you can enable the retention survey for any class, NLP will only analyze responses from students who took the Checkology pre-/post-assessment. The pre-/post-assessment is turned on for all classes by default. Check out the pre-/post-assessment tab in your teacher account to see how many of your students and classes have taken the pre-/post-assessment and analyze their data.

  Related article: Class settings: Pre-/post-assessment

What if my students didn't sign up for Checkology with their email addresses?

If you added your Checkology students one-by-one without adding an email address, they can still  take the retention assessment! You'll just need to enable the retention assessment and instruct them to log in to Checkology again. You can send them the student-facing instructions for the retention assessment.

How long will the retention assessment take for students?

Just like the pre-assessment measure, this assessment asks students all 14 news literacy questions and can take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete.

How do I know which students have taken the assessment?

Unfortunately, there's no easy way to track which students have taken the retention assessment. In the future, NLP plans to make it possible for teachers to track retention assessment results. If you are assigning the retention assessment as extra credit, we recommend having your students take a screenshot of the final assessment submission page as proof of their participation.