In the State of Oklahoma, the results for standardized tests in the past have been returned to schools as a stack of printed reports inches thick. Even for small schools the task of extracting information from these reports was daunting. While the raw data was available to schools, turning it into a useful format was challenging.

When the Superintendant for Fairview Public Schools came to GammaStream asking about how to turn this raw data into something useful, Comprehend did not exist. Several issues had to be addressed. First, it was impossible to predict exactly what kind of information teachers would be interested in. Would they be interested in the performance of male students versus female? Did they need to compare one ethnicity to another? Or, did they need to analyze both together? Next, how do we distribute the reports? Should we use email, an Excel file, or a web application? Finally, would the whole solution have to be redeveloped every year as new data sets arrive? Comprehend was developed to solve these problems.

The solution involved creating an application (Comprehend) that could load a standard XML data set, allow the user to filter and view the records contained withing that set, and finally generate reports base on the user's selections. As a result, any school in Oklahoma can send the raw data to GammaStream where it is processed into Comprehend Data Sets and pressed to CDs for distribution to teachers. The teachers simply insert the CDs into their computers, launches Comprehend directly from the CD, and generates the reports of interest.