Growth data provides educators with a snapshot of a student’s academic journey. It helps determine whether they are making sufficient strides towards reaching their long-term achievement goals.
Student Growth Percentiles are calculated based on each student’s assessment history and current performance relative to academic peers across the state. To do this, quantile regression is used to estimate conditional density estimates while linear models determine their percentile positioning relative to target values set forth for future levels of achievement.
Students’ academic growth can then be projected forward using their current percentile position multiplied with their expected score on future assessments. Educators can then use this information to plan ahead for interventions their student may need and make adjustments that ensure they are meeting or exceeding their academic growth targets.
Educators can access SGP data for their students by logging in to the BAA Secure Site and downloading their student file. Once downloaded, this file can be opened using one of Macomb or Clare-Gladwin ISD’s interactive SGP tools that allows educators to balance growth and achievement through four achievement levels – Developing, Approaching, Meetings or Exceeds. Each tool also displays growth/projection bands for each student in its graph display.
As with any analysis, it is crucial that teachers or administrators grasp the methodology and assumptions being used to calculate SGPs. Below is a brief outline of how SGPs are calculated and should be interpreted:
SGPs are calculated by comparing current performance with past MCAS test administrations in the same subject area, thus creating a rate-of-growth score for every student that tests with us in that subject area. Therefore, a student with high or moderate rates of growth could have equal MCAS scaled scores due to having different academic peer groups across their past test administrations.
Due to this instability, percentile rankings calculated using SGPs do not remain constant year over year and any shift in student SGP should be taken with great caution.