The data sgp tool takes student growth percentiles from the BAA Secure Site and displays them in a simple table with bubble graphs. Teachers and administrators can easily view a students growth relative to their academic peers in the current year as well as over time.
A student growth percentage (SGP) is a number that indicates how much a student has improved on the current MCAS test compared to their academic peers with similar score histories. SGPs are based on the comparison of up to two years of historical MCAS performance and a statistical procedure known as quantile regression that places the students’ performance relative to the performance of their academic peers on normative scales.
Students with high raw scores on previous test sections are typically expected to show more improvement than lower performing students, and this is reflected in the SGP scores produced for each student. However, even students with the highest raw scores may find that they have grown more or less than their peers.
Because the SGP is a relative measure, changes in the SGP from one year to the next need to be interpreted carefully. Differences in SGP between different years should only be viewed as significant when they are greater than 10 points. This is because the average SGP of a particular student represents the sum of the growth attributable to the range of experiences that the student has had since the end of 8th grade through 9th grade and most of 10th grade.
When comparing SGPs across different schools, districts or student groups it is important to remember that the statewide median SGP is 50. This is the point at which half of all students have SGPs that are higher than the median and half that are lower. This reflects the typical trend of statewide growth over time.
Using the data sgp tool, authorized users can click on the bubble graphs to view additional information about student SGPs for each of the student groups displayed. The details include: the mean SGP; the number of students in each group; the student demographics; each students growth level (high, low or typical); the percentage proficient/advanced; and the students’ individual MCAS score histories and scale scores.
The data set sgpData_INSTRUCTOR_NUMBER is an anonymized data set that includes a lookup table that provides insturctor numbers associated with each student’s assessment record. This is necessary because students can be associated with multiple teachers in a single content area in a given year. It is recommended that districts use this data set to ensure that the correct teachers are associated with each students’ assessment records prior to running any operational SGP analyses. This is especially critical for districts that plan to use SGPs for educator evaluations in 2021-22.