Optimizing Student Mastery: Proficiency Calculations & The Power of Decaying Average
Mastery Connect allows educators to customize how student understanding is calculated across standards within a Mastery Tracker. Adjusting these settings ensures that the gradebook accurately reflects a student's current proficiency level rather than an outdated average.
How to Change Proficiency Settings in a Tracker
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Open Your Tracker: Navigate to your course in Canvas or Mastery Connect and select the desired Mastery Tracker.
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Access Tracker Settings: Click on the Tracker Options (gear icon or drop-down menu) in the top-right corner.
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Select Proficiency Calculations: Click Edit or Proficiency Settings.
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Choose Your Calculation Method: Select your preferred calculation formula (e.g., Decaying Average, Most Recent, or Mean) from the available options configured by your institution.
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Save Changes: Confirm and save to automatically recalculate student scores across all standards in the tracker.
The Value of the Decaying Average Setting
The Decaying Average calculation is one of the most growth-minded, student-centered evaluation tools available in standards-based grading. Instead of traditional averages—which permanently penalize students for early mistakes made during the learning process—decaying average applies a weighted formula that prioritizes recent performance while still accounting for historical data.
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How it Works: By default, the calculation weights a student's most recent score higher (typically 65%) and decays the weight of older scores (35%).
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Rewards Growth Over Time: If a student struggles on an initial attempt but demonstrates strong understanding by the end of a unit, their score shifts upward to reflect that mastery.
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Provides an Accurate Snapshot: It prevents early failures from dragging down an overall grade while ensuring that a single recent slip-up doesn't erase consistent past performance.
By using Decaying Average, educators shift the focus from when a student learned a standard to whether they learned it, turning the tracker into a true tool for measuring progress.
Another way to change the proficiency settings for individual standards is highlighted in the video below.