Analyzing Grades Over Time

Understanding the DP Overview Dashboard: Analyzing Grades Over Time

Learn how to interpret and explore the Grades Over Time graph in SpotLight to identify trends in student performance across academic years.

The Grades Over Time chart in the DP Overview Dashboard provides a clear visual of how student performance evolves across academic years. Each colored segment represents a grade distribution (from 1 to 7) for that year, helping educators easily identify performance patterns and changes over time.

This article explains how to read the chart, apply filters, and switch between views for deeper analysis.

Example: Grades Over Time chart on the DP Overview dashboard.

1. Understanding the Chart

The chart displays student grade distributions across academic years, allowing you to see trends and shifts in performance at a glance.

• Horizontal Bars: Each bar represents a single academic year.
• Color Segments: Each color corresponds to a DP grade level (1 to 7).
• Segment Length: Indicates the percentage of students who achieved that grade in the selected year.

Together, these elements show how the overall grade distribution has evolved over time.

Each bar represents one academic year with grade levels 1-7 shown by color. In this image, we compare results for scores of 5 and 6 only.

2. Applying Filters

Filters in the left-hand panel allow you to focus the chart on specific subjects, diploma levels, or academic years. As you adjust filters, the graph dynamically updates to reflect only the relevant student data.

• By Subject: Use "Only" on a subject such as English to see grade distribution trends specific to that discipline.
• By Academic Year: Choose a particular academic year (e.g., August 2024 - June 2025) to view the detailed breakdown for that year only.

These filters provide targeted insights, helping you identify improvement patterns or areas for focus within a specific subject or time frame.

Filters on the left panel control which data is displayed on the chart.

3. Switching Between Views

The DP Overview dashboard offers two visualization modes for analyzing student grades:

• Time View: Compare performance trends across multiple academic years.
• Distribution View: Focus on grade breakdowns within a single academic year or term.

Switching between these modes helps you shift perspective - from long-term trends to detailed, term-level insights.

Switch between time-based and distribution-based visualizations for flexible analysis.

4. Video Walkthrough

In Summary

• Grades Over Time visualizes student performance across years using color-coded grade distributions.
• Filters refine your view to focus on specific subjects, levels, or academic years.
• View Modes allow flexible comparison across time or within a single cohort.

Use this dashboard to uncover trends, celebrate progress, and guide academic planning within SpotLight.