The 'Early Exit' goal feature in Dash can be confusing, especially when compared to other goals like 'Boost: 2 Grade Levels'. This runbook explains the differences and how to interpret the lesson counts for each goal type.

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If you are not familiar with the concept of personalized goals (a.k.a. custom goals), please review How to set personalized Goals for a student.

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Solution

Key Concept: Early Exit

The 'Early Exit' goal is designed to help students complete their next level quickly. There are two possibilities:

1. Finishing High School material by the end of 8th grade.
2. Finishing 8th-grade material by the end of 5th grade.

Important: the material references to the rostered grade (a.k.a. knowledge grade), so in the second scenario, the goal is to roster the student in grade 9 by the time their age would place them in grade 6.

Comparing Goals: A Case Study

Consider a student rostered in 6th grade but aged for 7th grade. Let's compare the 'Early Exit' goal with a 'Boost: 2 Grade Levels' goal for the end of the school year:

• 'Boost: 2 Grade Levels' goal: Approximately 400 lessons to complete by the end of the school year.
• 'Early Exit' goal: Approximately 350 lessons to complete by the end of the school year.

This difference can seem counterintuitive, as the 'Early Exit' goal (reaching the High School level) appears to require fewer lessons than boosting two grade levels.

Explanation

The key to understanding this difference lies in how each goal calculates and displays lesson counts:

• 'Boost: 2 Grade Levels' goal: Shows the total number of lessons needed to advance two grade levels within the time frame set in the Dash UI (in this case, by the end of the school year).
• 'Early Exit' goal: Shows the number of lessons needed to stay on track for completing High School material by the end of 8th grade. This goal has a fixed end date (end of 8th grade) regardless of the time frame set in the Dash UI.

Detailed Calculation

• 'Boost: 2 Grade Levels' goal: 400 lessons ÷ 1 year = 400 lessons per year
• 'Early Exit' goal: 700 lessons (total to finish High School) ÷ 2 years (time until the end of 8th grade) = 350 lessons per year

Summary

The 'Early Exit' goal in Dash calculates the number of lessons a student needs to complete by a set date. This differs from other goals since they only use the time frame set in the Dash UI, which may cause some confusion.

FAQ

Why does the 'Early Exit' goal show fewer lessons than 'Boost: 2 Grade Levels'?
The 'Early Exit' goal shows the number of lessons a student needs to complete by a specific date to stay on track for the 8th-grade target, not the total lessons for all grade levels.

How is the 'Early Exit' goal calculated?
It's based on the student's current progress, the time left until the end of 8th grade, and the total number of lessons needed to reach High School level material.