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Hello,

I’m a teacher and am trying to use Airtable for just about everything student data-related this year. I teach ESL students, and am trying to figure out the best way to organize some of their test scores. They take the ACCESS test, which measures their English language proficiency in different language domains, such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. The scores range from 1.1 to 6.0

I have all of their scores entered in the student info table, but it’s difficult to utilize looking at it that way, since a student might be a level 2 in writing, but a level 6 listening, for example. I want to make another table where I can organize the data to be more helpful. I want to have columns with levels 1-6, and the following rows:

Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
Comprehension
Oral
Literacy
Composite

Each one would link to the students’ names in that level, so it is easy to see at a glance which students are at which level for the different language domains. My problem is that I want to also be able to sort by class period so that I only see the students in my first hour class at one time, for example. This information is in my student info table so that I can sort by class period if I want to. Can anyone help me find a good way to do this? Thank you!


I’d suggest having a “Students” table that is separate from your “Student Info” table.

Your “Student” table would have the student’s name, class period, and any other general info about a student.

In what you currently call the “Student Info” table, you can have all your scores listed (I’d rename the table to “Scores” or something like that), as you do, and have a record “Link” to the student from the “Students” table. Then, you can perform a “Lookup” to find the student’s class period and still be able to group by period in a table other than the “Student” table.

Does that make sense?

I’d suggest having a “Students” table that is separate from your “Student Info” table.

Your “Student” table would have the student’s name, class period, and any other general info about a student.

In what you currently call the “Student Info” table, you can have all your scores listed (I’d rename the table to “Scores” or something like that), as you do, and have a record “Link” to the student from the “Students” table. Then, you can perform a “Lookup” to find the student’s class period and still be able to group by period in a table other than the “Student” table.

Does that make sense?


I think it does, but here’s the problem… I need the student names to be in multiple columns at the same time, for each of the different levels/domains, so I don’t think that the lookup column would work for me - it ends up being really messy because I’d need to be able to sort by several different ones at the same time, which doesn’t work. Here’s a picture that might help to explain

I think it does, but here’s the problem… I need the student names to be in multiple columns at the same time, for each of the different levels/domains, so I don’t think that the lookup column would work for me - it ends up being really messy because I’d need to be able to sort by several different ones at the same time, which doesn’t work. Here’s a picture that might help to explain


I’m sorry, @Alexandra_Fausett – I am having trouble relating this new screenshot and request with the original one. I’m not wrapping my head around the big picture of what you are trying to do and how it affects other parts of your database – I’m just dense like that :crazy_face: . I’m much better at hearing a description like “I want my database to do this, that, and the other,” and then working that out from a clean slate. If it’s worth the effort to you to try to explain a kind of ground up picture of what you’re trying to do here, I may be able to help you better.

@W_Vann_Hall, on the other hand, is extremely skilled at looking at an existing base and being able to piece together what’s going on and find the problems and their solutions. Maybe he’ll chime in here and be able to save you that effort.

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