Training & Professional Development
Comprehensive training resources to help you effectively implement and use Digital EMA@School
Training Overview
Effective implementation of Digital EMA@School requires proper training for administrators, teachers, and support staff. Our training programs are designed to ensure you have the knowledge and skills needed to use the assessment effectively, from understanding the research-informed design to interpreting rich, item-level reports that drive better outcomes for students.
Advantages of Digital Administration
The digital format of EMA@School provides meaningful advantages over traditional paper-based screeners. Training sessions help educators understand these benefits and how to leverage them for better student outcomes.
🎯 Standardized Presentation
Items are presented one at a time in a controlled sequence, ensuring every student encounters the same problems in the same order. This creates a fairer, more consistent assessment experience compared to paper formats where students may skip ahead or self-select items.
📊 Rich Data Capture
The platform automatically captures item-level response data, timing information, and skip patterns, providing a depth of diagnostic insight that would be impossible with paper-based administration.
⚡ Instant Scoring
Results are available immediately after administration, with automated scoring and report generation that eliminates manual scoring errors and frees up educator time for what matters most: teaching.
🧮 Thoughtful Input Design
For computational algorithm items (e.g., vertical addition and subtraction), purpose-built input boxes emphasize place value positions, preventing common digital entry errors such as reversed digit ordering that can occur in standard text boxes.
Understanding Norms & Benchmarking
A key part of training is understanding how student performance is contextualized. Digital EMA@School uses a carefully designed norming and tiering system to help educators identify students who may benefit from additional support.
Digital vs. Paper Norms
It is important to understand that norms differ between digital and paper-based administration. On paper, students can see all items simultaneously, which affects response patterns. The digital format provides a more controlled and standardized experience, meaning cut-off points are established specifically for digital administration using representative samples of digital test-takers.
Three-Tier System
Student performance is categorized into three tiers aligned with Response to Intervention (RTI) frameworks:
- 🟢 Tier 1: Above the 25th percentile: on track
- 🟡 Tier 2: 10th–25th percentile: may benefit from targeted support
- 🔴 Tier 3: Below the 10th percentile: likely needs intensive intervention
Norms Across Administration Windows
Digital EMA@School supports three administration periods throughout the year: Fall, Winter, and Spring. Because student abilities grow over the course of a year, norms are recomputed for each period to ensure that tier classifications accurately reflect student performance relative to their peers at that point in time.
Score Scaling & Interpretation
Training covers how scores are computed and what they mean, empowering educators to confidently interpret results and communicate findings.
How Scores Are Computed
Item-level response data is grouped by domain and converted into a combined overall score using carefully calibrated scaling factors. The scoring system was developed collaboratively with Carleton University researchers and documented in Understanding Score Scaling and Weight Distribution of the EMA Tasks.
Scaling Factor = (1 / Maximum Domain Score) × Domain Weight
Each domain is assigned a weight reflecting its theoretical importance to mathematical development. Weights total 100% for each grade level and remain consistent across all three administration windows.
Why Weighted Scoring?
The weights assigned to each domain reflect a balance between two important factors: legibility (ensuring calculations remain clean and interpretable, using intervals of 5%) and theoretical importance (driven experimentally by the relative importance of different cognitive mechanisms to a student's mathematical development). If all tasks had equivalent salience, the weights would simply be 1/n, but research shows that some foundational skills are more predictive of future success than others.
Item-Level Data & Reporting
One of the most powerful features of Digital EMA@School is the rich, item-level data it provides. Training helps educators unlock the full potential of this information.
School-Level Reports
High-level overview of school performance with graphical reports available directly in the platform.
Class-Level Reports
Detailed class performance breakdowns, helping teachers see patterns and plan group instruction.
Student-Level Detail
Item-by-item performance including correct/incorrect responses, skip patterns, and timing data.
What Teachers Can See
- ✓ Which specific questions within each task were attempted, skipped, correct, or incorrect
- ✓ How many questions within each task were answered correctly (e.g., 3/39 vs. 25/39 provides very different instructional signals)
- ✓ Which specific questions were answered correctly, enabling strategic, developmental targeting of instruction
- ✓ Timing data that helps distinguish between avoidance patterns and genuine knowledge gaps
- ✓ Domain-level performance with tier categorization for quick identification of students needing support
Practice vs. Scored Items
Each domain includes purpose-built practice questions designed to familiarize students with the task format before scored items begin. The platform clearly distinguishes between practice and assessment items in all data exports and reports, ensuring that only scored items contribute to performance metrics.
Supporting Students During Assessment
Digital EMA@School is carefully designed by experts in numeracy development to balance our goal of measuring student knowledge efficiently without creating unnecessary frustration. Training equips educators with the right messaging and strategies to support students.
💪 Encouraging Best Effort
Students should be encouraged to try their best on every problem. This includes making sure they pay close attention to instructions, read every problem carefully, and understand what they are being asked to do, so they can demonstrate the knowledge and skills they have.
⏭️ Understanding the Skip Option
The skip option is an intentional design choice that serves important diagnostic purposes:
- • A skipped response provides different information about a student's ability compared to an incorrect answer
- • Combined with timing data, skips help distinguish between rapid avoidance and thoughtful engagement
- • For fluency items, skipping does not negatively impact the student more than an incorrect answer
- • Students who cannot answer can move on to questions they can answer, reducing frustration
- • Skipping behaviour is recorded and available in item-level reports for diagnostic use
🧩 One Question at a Time
Displaying one item at a time is a strength of the digital format. It ensures that students are tested on the same problems in the same order, creating a fair and standardized comparison. Unlike paper-based formats where students might "cherry pick" easier items, the digital format guides every student through an identical assessment experience.
Understanding Skip Data
Skip patterns are a valuable source of diagnostic information. Training helps educators interpret skip data constructively and use it to improve instruction.
What Skip Data Reveals
- ✓ Students who skip tend to perform lower overall, which validates the assessment's ability to capture meaningful signals
- ✓ Total number of skips is correlated with scores in almost every grade and domain
- ✓ Skip rates across digital implementations are generally consistent, indicating reliable assessment behaviour
- ✓ Skip data can be aggregated by school, domain, or individual student for targeted analysis
Using Skip Data Instructionally
- ✓ Identify domains where students are most uncertain
- ✓ Distinguish between avoidance and genuine knowledge gaps using timing
- ✓ Track changes in skip behaviour across Fall, Winter, and Spring, a reduction in skips can signal growing confidence
- ✓ Combine with correct/incorrect data for a complete picture of each student
💡 Key Insight
Any assessment can only measure what students respond to. Skip data, combined with timing information, gives educators a richer picture than correct/incorrect alone, turning what might seem like "missing data" into actionable diagnostic insight.
Administrator Training
Training for those who will administer the assessment to students and manage implementation at the school or district level.
Assessment Administration
- • Proper administration procedures and protocols
- • Creating appropriate testing environments
- • Managing time and logistics across classes
- • Preparing students with clear, encouraging messaging
- • Understanding the three administration windows
Platform & Data Management
- • Setting up accounts and managing access
- • Navigating reports at school and class levels
- • Extracting and interpreting data exports
- • Understanding the data codebook and assets
- • Quality assurance and data validation
Teacher Training
Training for classroom teachers who will use Digital EMA@School results to understand each student's numeracy development and plan responsive instruction.
Understanding Results
- • Reading the three-tier classification system
- • Interpreting domain-level performance scores
- • Using item-level data to pinpoint specific skills
- • Understanding how scores change across windows
- • Distinguishing between different error types
Using Data for Instruction
- • Planning targeted interventions based on tier
- • Targeting specific fact sets strategically
- • Conducting error analysis from response data
- • Monitoring growth from Fall → Winter → Spring
- • Making data-driven grouping decisions
🎥 Student Test Walkthrough Video
Teachers can preview the complete student assessment experience through the Digital EMA@School Student Test Walkthrough Video, accessible through the platform's help page. This helps teachers understand exactly what students will see and experience during each domain.
Training Formats
In-Person Workshops
Hands-on training sessions conducted at your school or district. Interactive and comprehensive.
- • Full-day or half-day options
- • Hands-on practice with the platform
- • Live Q&A with assessment experts
- • Customized to your context
Online Training
Self-paced or live online training modules. Accessible from anywhere, at your convenience.
- • Self-paced learning modules
- • Live webinars and discussion series
- • Recorded sessions for review
- • Interactive exercises
Resource Materials
Comprehensive guides, videos, and documentation to support independent learning.
- • Interpretation cheat sheets
- • Video walkthroughs
- • Scoring & scaling guides
- • FAQ documents
Core Training Topics
Assessment Fundamentals
- ✓ Research foundation and theoretical basis
- ✓ Assessment structure by grade level
- ✓ Subdomain understanding (Number Knowledge, Number Relations, Number Operations)
- ✓ Purpose of practice questions in each domain
Administration Skills
- ✓ Protocol adherence and consistency
- ✓ Environment setup and technology readiness
- ✓ Student preparation and positive messaging
- ✓ Managing three administration windows
Result Interpretation
- ✓ Understanding tier classifications
- ✓ Domain-level performance analysis
- ✓ Item-level data interpretation
- ✓ Score scaling and weight distribution
Instructional Planning
- ✓ Intervention strategies by tier
- ✓ Targeted fact-set instruction
- ✓ Progress monitoring across windows
- ✓ Data-driven decisions and error analysis
Ongoing Support
Training doesn't end after initial implementation. We provide ongoing support including regular touchpoints, discussion series, and collaborative problem-solving to help you continue using Digital EMA@School effectively.
- • Regular check-ins and implementation touchpoints
- • Discussion and meeting series for educators using the platform
- • Access to updated resources, interpretation guides, and cheat sheets
- • Collaborative Q&A sessions with the research and implementation team
- • Data analysis support and custom report generation
- • Benchmarking and norm-setting consultations
- • Updates on best practices and emerging research
Get Started with Training
Contact us to schedule training for your school or district, or to access online training resources.
Support: ema-support@vretta.com
AIM Collective: aimcollective.ca
Platform Support: Contact Vretta for technical support and platform training
Help & User Guides: ema.vretta.com - User Guides