Illuminate Data & Assessment (DnA) vs. MasteryConnect

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Illuminate DnA
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Illuminate Education offers their student assessment management platform, Illuminate Data & Assessment (or Illuminate DnA), providing a means of tracking student standardized testing, test data analysis, and other features.N/A
MasteryConnect
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
MasteryConnect, from Instructure, featuring MasteryTracker, is designed to allow teachers to effectively assess core standards, monitor student performance, and report student mastery to parents and administrators.N/A
Pricing
Illuminate Data & Assessment (DnA)MasteryConnect
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Illuminate DnAMasteryConnect
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Illuminate Data & Assessment (DnA)MasteryConnect
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Illuminate Data & Assessment (DnA)MasteryConnect
Small Businesses
Renaissance Star Assessments
Renaissance Star Assessments
Score 9.1 out of 10
Renaissance Star Assessments
Renaissance Star Assessments
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
WileyPLUS
WileyPLUS
Score 9.4 out of 10
WileyPLUS
WileyPLUS
Score 9.4 out of 10
Enterprises
WileyPLUS
WileyPLUS
Score 9.4 out of 10
WileyPLUS
WileyPLUS
Score 9.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Illuminate Data & Assessment (DnA)MasteryConnect
Likelihood to Recommend
9.9
(4 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
3.0
(1 ratings)
6.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Illuminate Data & Assessment (DnA)MasteryConnect
Likelihood to Recommend
Illuminate Education
I think it is well suited for K-12 schools, especially for tracking student growth over time. The ability to easily upload state assessment results and produce pre-built reports provides teachers actionable data. The online assessment system is more appropriate for secondary (grades 6-12) students in our district due to the types of assessments our elementary (K-5) students complete. I have some experience with other systems and think that the illuminate software offers more flexibility in the types of data that can be stored.
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Instructure
I love that MasteryConnect already has hundreds of standards built-in, like the ACT readiness and socioemotional learning standards my after-school program uses. I think MasteryConnect would be harder to implement for an educational institution using learning standards not already in MasteryConnect. Also, MasteryConnect does not function as a grade book for someone looking for that kind of solution.
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Pros
Illuminate Education
  • Easy to use
  • Item banks
  • Outstanding customer service.
  • Reasonable pricing models.
  • Integrates well with student info systems.
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Instructure
  • Learning standards are already included in the software.
  • Allows educators to track students who are near-mastery and at-mastery
  • Color-coding system is easy to understand.
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Cons
Illuminate Education
  • Tech support seemed good but our main issue was never resolved. We received attention and someone was working on our issue, but they could never figure out why our student count was off for 1 grade level even though they said our data looked great.
  • The customized reports were powerful, but there was so much to learn for the average administrative user, like a principal, to get the detailed data they need. You would have to have a dedicated person to create customized reports.
  • At some point, our representative just stopped calling and there was no further contact. Then our rep left the company and the new rep only sent one email notifying us of the change. That was almost a year ago.
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Instructure
  • I don't like that we have to make separate trackers for each sub-strand of math on the ACT.
  • Sometimes it is difficult to find the assessments I am trying to score within trackers.
  • I wish I had more support on how to use the data in MasteryConnect.
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Usability
Illuminate Education
Illuminate DnA is a very usable system. A few items to learn and set up can be a bit time-consuming. However, once set up it is easy to use and powerful for a school that staff can master quickly. It has more features then we actually use but I hope we will over time.
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Instructure
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Illuminate Education
Our issue was never resolved so that we could use the software to produce accurate reports. Their tech department looked into the issue several times and could never figure out why our student was off and then they just closed the case. They confirmed we were performing the correct steps to load the data and they confirmed our data looked accurate. Great, but again why was our student count off?
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Instructure
On-boarding was fine and sufficient, but we haven't really heard from MasteryConnect since then. I haven't reached out to them, either, though.
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Alternatives Considered
Illuminate Education
Illuminate DnA offers more flexibility and additional features that our previous Data Director system offered. We were looking for a system that offered an online assessment portal and the ability to create elementary standard-based report cards when we selected the illuminate DnA software. We were impressed with the ability to easily create custom reports and liked the comprehensive student profile page.
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Instructure
MasteryConnect is a more affordable option for our medium-sized nonprofit. MasteryConnect fits our needs without being "too much" software. Illuminate and PowerSchool are more built for large school systems while we are a standalone organization with only about 250 students.
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Return on Investment
Illuminate Education
  • Better handle on student achievement.
  • Clarity around achievements on specific standards.
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Instructure
  • MasteryConnect has allowed our organization to track student learning data weekly for the first time.
  • We spend less than 10 minutes per week inputting student achievement data.
  • We are able to more quickly decide which skills to reteach because of MasteryConnect.
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