The data sgp is an important tool for monitoring and communicating student learning. It is a percentile rank that compares a student’s score on an assessment to the scores of academic peers who have taken the same test. The percentile rank is then used to identify how much the student has grown or declined since the previous year’s assessment. This information can help educators and parents understand the progress of students who are not making sufficient gains toward proficiency.
SGPs are based on trends in statewide performance each year and may shift dramatically from year to year. For example, a student’s SGP could increase or decrease significantly due to a temporary impact such as the Covid-19 pandemic. However, a student’s SGP would be expected to return to its normal level in the following years.
A Student Growth Percentile (SGP) is a percentile rank that compares the student’s current score on an MCAS test to the scores of academic peers who have taken that same test. The student’s SGP is then used to identify how much the student is growing or declining in his or her skills. The SGP is an important tool to consider along with scaled scores and achievement levels in evaluating a student’s academic development.
What do the different SGPs mean?
A student’s SGP reflects the average rate of growth that their academic peers have achieved in a subject. It can be compared to the typical achievement of other students in their grade and subject, or it can be compared to other student’s who have scored higher or lower than the student on a previous test.
The SGP is an important tool for interpreting student achievement results and can provide valuable information about how well a student has learned during a school year. However, the SGP should be interpreted with caution because it is based on changes in the overall performance of other students. It should also be compared to other students’ SGPs from the same year with care as changes in SGPs between different years can sometimes be misleading.
In general, differences in SGPs between students of the same grade should not be viewed as meaningful unless the differences are at least 10 points or more. This is because a small difference in SGPs between two different grades can reflect either a real or an artificial change in the average rate of growth for that group of students.
In addition to the technical resources available on the Student Growth District and School Resources webpage, OSPI has created a series of vignettes that explain how to interpret and use the various SGP reports that are available in Renaissance Next for Leaders. The vignettes are designed to be as easy as possible to read and will answer some of the most frequently asked questions about using and understanding SGPs. The vignettes can be accessed from the SGP Reports page.