Understanding the Meeting of Mastery Criteria for Opportunity Based Programs
- Brittney Kalicki
- Carolyn Garlick
- Scott LaPorta
When setting mastery criteria for a program, staff should be mindful that all components in the mastery criteria MUST be met in order for mastery to trigger.
Opportunity Based Programs
Programs created with opportunity based data collection (with and without prompts) have three components:
Components of Mastery Criteria | Good to Know! | Example Images | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minimum Number of Trials to be ran in session | Staff can always collect MORE than the minimum number of trials for a target | 
|
| 2 | Percent Correct of the trials that were ran during the session | If the percent correct is MORE than the minimum, it will count towards mastery criteria. | |
| 3 | Consecutive Number of Sessions or Days where the above two components must occur Note: Specific to Behavior Support, users have the option to track behaviors across consecutive sessions, days, weeks, or months. | Multiple sessions with a client in the same day will count as separate sessions (e.g. if mastery criteria is set for 3 consecutive sessions and a client met percent correct for all three sessions on Monday, that mastery criteria was met in a single day/3 separate sessions). Conversely, when Mastery Criteria is configured to "day," and multiple sessions occur on a specific date, the system will aggregate the data points and calculate the average for that particular day. Instead of displaying individual session data separately, the system will present an averaged representation for that date. |
If all three components are not met, then the data will not count towards mastery. Thus, mastery will not be triggered.
Example Scenario
Program: Naming Colors
Target: Blue
Mastery Criteria: Min 5 trials: 80% across 4 consecutive sessions
On Monday, staff collect 5 trials of BLUE. 4 out of the 5 trials are correct (80%). This is the 1st consecutive session towards mastery.
On Wednesday, staff collect 8 trials of BLUE. 7 out of the 8 trials are correct (87.5%). This is the 2nd consecutive session towards mastery.
On Thursday, staff collect 7 trials of BLUE. 7 out of the 7 trials are correct (100%). This is the 3rd consecutive session towards mastery.
On Friday, staff collect 4 trials of BLUE. 4 out of the 4 trials are correct (100%). This is NOT the 4th consecutive session towards mastery because the minimum number of trials was not met. This target will now RESEST to 0 days of consecutive sessions towards mastery.
Tips
If you feel as though mastery criteria has been met, but is not triggering, view the details of the data for the target. Here is a guide on how to view raw data: Viewing Data Notes and Trial by Trial Data
When viewing the data for the target you will want to verify that:
The minimum number of trials was ran for the session
The minimum percentage was achieved for the session
The above components occurred for the number of consecutive sessions specified in the mastery criteria
If you would like to master individual targets prior to teaching the program, you can adjust your mastery criteria. Here is a guide on how to do so: How to Manually Master a Target