Introduction
Boost Insights launches in September 2024 and will run concurrently with MARK until February 2025, when MARK is retired.
Take a look at the frequently asked questions below for more information about the transition, then review our quick start guide for Boost Insights.
To access Boost Insights, click here or copy and paste the URL in your browser: boost-insights.com.
Is Boost Insights still free to access?
YES! As with MARK, Boost Insights is free to all of our standardised assessment customers, including marksheets, free reports, and all test resources! We believe that assessment is the backbone of understanding learners’ needs, but only with clear, robust, and freely available test data analysis.
What if I have leftover interactive test credits in my account?
Any existing interactive test credits in your MARK account will not be transferred to Boost Insights. We therefore encourage you to use these up before the end of the 2023/24 academic year, and only purchase the necessary number of credits before then.
If you do have leftover test credits in your MARK account in September 2024, you can continue to assign and use these within MARK until the end of February 2025, at which point the platform will be taken offline and login will no longer be possible. Additionally, any test data added to MARK will be automatically transferred to Boost Insights until the end of February 2025.
Please note that you cannot add more credits to your MARK account after September 2024.
From September 2024, you will be able to purchase interactive tests credits for Access Mathematics Tests (AMT) and Access Reading Tests (ART) for Boost Insights.
New PiRA, New PUMA , PUMA for Scotland, and GaPS credits will be available from October 2024.
If you have any questions concerning your interactive test credits, please speak to your local assessment consultant.
What happens to my existing and historic test data in MARK?
Although we advise moving to Boost Insights as soon as possible, you can continue to access MARK until the end of February 2025.
In many cases, test data that you enter into MARK during this time will appear in Boost Insights as well, and you can use this to generate reports in Boost Insights. Beginning in October 2024, a daily data sync will ensure that your MARK data is carried into Boost Insights the next day.
However, it will not be possible to enter data and generate reports in Boost Insights and see these reports in MARK, or generate reports in MARK for interactive tests taken in Boost Insights.
In addition, we now have a retention policy on test data in effect in Boost Insights. In summary, if a learner is inactive, then their data will be anonymised and no longer available for you to view. A learner is considered inactive no test is added for over 2 years, or 3 years for our ART/AMT test suites.
Historical data will be migrated from MARK to Boost Insights for the test suites below:
- New PiRA
- New PUMA
- PiRA for Scotland
- PUMA for Scotland
- NTS Reading
- NTS Maths
- BNST
- SSRCT
Historical data will NOT be migrated for products that are now out of print or have new editions publishing in 2024:
- PiRA primary (2016)
- PUMA primary (2016)
- GaPS (2018)
- ART (2018)
- AMT (2018)
- PUMA Year 6 extension (2018)
- PiRA Key Stage 3 (2018)
- PUMA Key Stage 3 (2018)
- Progress Tests (all subjects, 1st and 2nd editions)
- Ready Check Go Maths
- Optional tests A, B, and C (all subjects)
This means that if you are planning to take New ART, New AMT, or New GaPS interactive tests, you must do so in Boost Insights.
If you wish to keep your historic data for these tests after MARK is retired, then you will need to download them from your MARK account beforehand. We suggest you do this as soon as possible, preferably before the end of 2024.
The whole school and class/group gap analysis reports will let you save your data to spreadsheets, but you're to download your data using any of our MARK reports.
What reports will I have access to in Boost Insights?
There are eight free reports for standardised assessments in Boost Insights, taking teachers’ favourite bits from our current MARK reports and adding even more ways to dig into the data! These reports are:
- School overview
- Question-level analysis
- Group report
- Individual learner report
- Learner progress report
- Test performance comparison
- Age performance comparison
- Group average review
For more information about generating reports and the different report types in Boost Insights, click here.
Can I still access Shine Interventions in Boost Insights?
Yes, Shine Reports and Learning Sequences are fully supported within Boost Insights, as they currently are in MARK.
For schools with active Shine Maths and Shine Reading Skills subscriptions extending beyond September 2024 (due to expire from 1st September onwards), your remaining subscriptions will be transferred from MARK to continue within your new Boost Insights account in September 2024. Therefore, from July 2024, Shine will no longer be available to purchase for use in MARK, and any subscriptions purchased from this date will begin on Boost Insights.
Please note, a new edition of Shine GPS will launch for Boost Insights in September 2024 to align with the release of New GAPS. For those with Shine GPS subscriptions due to expire before September 2024, please contact your local assessment consultant to extend your current access, as you are currently unable to re-subscribe to the current edition of Shine GPS.
What will happen to my users?
Any staff or learners in MARK will be automatically transferred to Boost Insights, and your Access Coordinator will remain the same.
However, only the Access Coordinator will have access to the platform, meaning staff will not be able to log in and administer administer interactive tests, enter marks, or generate reports, while learners will not appear on test assignments, marksheets, or reports. The Access Coordinator will need to grant access to your users before you can start using the platform.
As in MARK, the Access Coordinator will also need to promote your learners to their new year groups and classes in the Admin Hub. This can be done manually or via your MIS sync.
If you're not sure who your Access Coordinator is or your old Access Coordinator has left, please contact the digital support team.
Can I still sync my account with my MIS and export test data?
Yes, MIS syncs with our data partners, Arbor and Wonde, are supported in Boost Insights, and the Admin Hub will retain all your MIS user sync information from MARK. Please be aware, however, that we no longer support MIS syncs via Xporter.
Test data sharing with FFT and Arbor will need to be reconfigured within Boost Insights.
For detailed guidance on MIS syncs and test data sharing in Boost Insights, click here.
Are there any MAT/School Group-level reporting features?
With a MAT/school group login, MAT and school group leaders will have access to the performance data in their schools, allowing for comparison of attainment across institutions, subjects, and academic years.
For more information about MAT/school group logins and reporting features, click here.