Table of Contents
What Is the Skills Report?
The Skills Report helps you effectively target instruction by tracking student skill growth over time with a dynamic Momentum Score and actionable Smart Groups. It can look at a student's entire history on Quill, including work from previous years and other classes, to give you a complete picture of their learning journey.
How do I access the Skills Report?
The Skills Report is a Premium feature. Access depends on your subscription type:
Teacher Premium: Provides the Class Practice view, showing only work completed in your class.
School & District Premium: Unlocks the All Practice view, which displays a student’s full Quill history, including work from previous years and other classes.
Tip 💡
Verification is required for the All Practice view to protect student data. If you’re not verified yet, you can read this article to learn how.
To open the Skills Report:
Please navigate to View Reports → Premium Reports → Skills Report.
How Skills Are Organized
To help you see both the big picture and the fine details, the report organizes skills into two levels.
Skill Categories – Broad categories of writing and grammar instruction (e.g., Capitalization).
Skill Sub-Categories – Specific foundational skills within those categories (e.g., Superlative Adjectives or Single Adjectives).
Navigating the Skills Report
The Skills Report is organized into two main sections, each offering a unique way to analyze student data. Within each section, you can choose to view data “By Skill” or “By Student.” This dual perspective lets you analyze class-wide trends and individual student progress.
Smart Groups
Smart Groups automatically organizes students or skills into actionable groups, such as:
Needs Support – students or skills that require extra attention.
Approaching Goal – students close to meeting proficiency targets.
Meeting Goal – students or skills that meet or exceed expectations.
This section gives you a quick visual snapshot of where to focus instruction.
By Skill
Shows which skills, on average, fall into each group across the class.
Quickly identifies class-wide strengths and areas for improvement.
Helpful for deciding which skills need more whole-class instruction or review.
By Student
Shows each student’s performance across all skills, grouped by Smart Group category.
Lets you see which students need extra support or are ready for more advanced practice.
Useful for planning targeted interventions, small groups, or one-on-one support.
Performance Breakdown
Performance Breakdown provides a sortable table of detailed metrics, including scores, skill exposure, trends, and engagement. This section is ideal for drilling down into specific student or skill performance.
By Skill
Shows class-level averages for each skill, with metrics like Momentum Score, exposure, and trends.
Helps teachers spot patterns across the class and identify skills where students are excelling or struggling.
Can be paired with Smart Groups to prioritize instruction on skills most in need.
By Student
Shows every student’s performance for a single skill, including Momentum Score, exposure, trend, and replay rate.
Enables detailed comparison between students on a particular concept.
Supports personalized instruction and helps teachers track progress over time for each student.
Filtering Your Data
These filters are available in both the Smart Groups and Performance Breakdown sections, allowing you to adjust which data you see based on your instructional needs.
Class Practice (Default): Limits the view to only activities completed in the current class.
All Practice (School/District Premium): Displays a student’s full Quill history, including work from previous teachers and classes.
ELL Skills Filter: Highlights skills most relevant to English Language Learners, while keeping universal skills visible.
Understanding the Report’s Metrics
The Skills Report provides multiple metrics to help teachers monitor student learning, identify patterns, and plan targeted instruction. Each metric offers a different perspective on student progress.
Momentum Score
The Momentum Score is a teacher-facing metric that reflects not only what students know, but how their skills are growing.
What it shows: A student’s overall progress and learning momentum over time. Students do not see this score on their dashboard; they continue to see traditional activity-level scores (percentages).
Why: The Momentum Score is designed as an instructional tool, helping teachers interpret progress rather than simply measure correctness.
How it works: It rewards early accuracy, gives more weight to recent work, and provides a dynamic picture of learning momentum over time.
Tip 💡
You can choose to share insights from the Momentum Score with students manually to help them reflect on their growth.
How is the Momentum Score Different from Activity-Level Scores?
Activity-Level Score | Momentum Score |
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Skill Exposure
Skill Exposure measures how much practice a student has completed for a given skill. This helps you interpret how reliable a Momentum Score is.
What it shows: The total number of questions a student has answered in that skill (or sub‑skill) category.
Why: If a student has only answered a few questions, their Momentum Score may not reflect a stable trend. High exposure means you can trust the score more.
How it's calculated:
Exposure Level | Questions Answered | Meaning |
Low Exposure | 1–5 | Minimal data. Momentum Score may be less reliable. A ⚠️ icon will appear. |
Medium Exposure | 6–14 | Moderate practice; shows developing progress. |
High Exposure | 15+ | Strong practice base; Momentum Score is highly reliable. |
Performance Trend
Performance trends show whether a student’s mastery of a skill is improving, declining, or staying steady over time.
What it shows: Directional trend (e.g., Trending Up or Trending Down) when there is a significant change in a student’s Momentum Score.
Why: This trend metric helps you move from reactive teaching (only responding to low scores) to proactive support. You can spot shifts in momentum early and adjust your instruction or reach out to students in a timely way.
How to interpret:
A high Momentum Score + “Trending Down” arrow may be a warning: the student could be starting to struggle, even if their score is still strong.
A low Momentum Score + “Trending Up” arrow is a powerful signal: the student is improving.
A consistently low score + steady or downward trend suggests a need for intervention.
Replay Rate
Replay rate indicates how often a student revisits and retries exercises.
What it shows: The percentage of answered questions that came from replays. It’s calculated by dividing the number of replayed questions by the total number of questions answered.
Why: By examining replay rate alongside Momentum Score and trends, you can better understand whether replays are helping a student learn or if they're being used in less productive ways.
How to interpret:
A high replay rate + improving performance: This often means a student is deliberately working to improve, showing persistence and effective use of replays.
A high replay rate + stagnant or declining performance: Might indicate the student is stuck despite repeated attempts. This may be a signal for more targeted support.
Excessive replaying for score inflation: The report can help you identify students who may be replaying the same questions to boost their score rather than genuinely mastering the skill.
Summary of the Skills Report
The Skills Report helps you move beyond static test results toward dynamic, ongoing insight into student growth.
Understand the why behind scores—not just the numbers.
Identify skill gaps and areas of strength quickly.
See patterns over time to inform small-group instruction, reteaching, or enrichment.
Tailor your support for ELL students and make data-driven instructional decisions.
FAQs
How do I become verified to unlock the “All Practice” view?
How do I become verified to unlock the “All Practice” view?
Teachers with a Teacher Premium subscription can access the Class Practice view. To unlock the All Practice view, which shows a student’s full Quill history across all classes and teachers, you must be a verified teacher with a School or District Premium Quill subscription.
Why can’t students see their Momentum Score? Can I share it with them?
Why can’t students see their Momentum Score? Can I share it with them?
The Momentum Score is designed as a teacher-only instructional tool to provide deeper insights into student learning. Students continue to see the simpler Activity-Level scores on their dashboard, which reflect their correctness on completed activities.
While students do not see their Momentum Score by default, you can share the insights manually if you choose. You can use it to guide conversations, celebrate growth, or set learning goals. This design allows teachers to use the score’s full instructional value while keeping the student's view clear and manageable.
How often is the Momentum Score updated?
How often is the Momentum Score updated?
The Momentum Score is updated in real time as students complete activities on Quill. Each new attempt, including replays, immediately influences the score, ensuring it reflects a student’s most current learning and progress.
How many questions does a student need before their score is reliable?
How many questions does a student need before their score is reliable?
The reliability of a student’s Momentum Score depends on Skill Exposure, which measures how much practice a student has completed for a skill.
Low Exposure (1–5 questions): Minimal practice, score may be less reliable ⚠
Medium Exposure (6–14 questions): Moderate practice, score is somewhat reliable
High Exposure (15+ questions): Significant practice, score is highly reliable
Checking Skill Exposure alongside the Momentum Score helps you gauge confidence in the accuracy of the score and make informed instructional decisions.
Have more questions?
Please feel free to send a message to the Quill team using the green message bubble on the bottom right corner of the screen or email us at support@quill.org.