Data SGP is a free and open-source tool designed to assist districts in creating reports of student academic growth across both statewide and district-level measures. These reports aim to assist educators in comprehending SGPs and deciphering their information for maximum effect. For more detailed information about how SGPs work and can be utilized by you or your district please visit our academic growth webpage.
An SGP measures how much a student’s MCAS scores have increased compared to students with similar prior test scores, helping fairly compare those entering school at various levels and measuring progress and achievement even if standards have not yet been reached.
SGPs are calculated based on trends in student performance over time. Therefore, any year-to-year differences in SGPs must be interpreted with care. Furthermore, different test content has different rates of student growth; students enrolled in subjects that offer more difficult tests are likely to make greater strides than those taking easier exams.
SGPs must not be seen as an absolute measure of an educator’s effectiveness; rather they should serve as an indicator of student growth over the course of one academic year and be evaluated alongside other information such as teacher evaluation performance and student achievement before making decisions about an educator.
SGP analyses can be extremely powerful and straightforward to implement when properly prepared data has been assembled. Nearly all errors that occur during operational SGP analyses can be traced back to issues during data preparation steps; as a result, schools and districts must take the time necessary to ensure their data is ready for analysis.
As part of this process, an exemplar data set called sgptData_LONG and accompanying instructional support document were created to demonstrate how data sgp can be utilized operationally. The exemplar file includes student-level files with unique identifiers, grade level/time information and assessment occurrence data for every assessment for an academic year; this data set represents the format needed for SGP analyses using studentGrowthPercentiles and studentGrowthProjections lower level functions.
Additionally, this instructional support document details how the data sgp function can be utilized to produce SGP reports at both district and classroom levels, with instructions on how these results should be utilized within an operational environment.
Short video clips are also provided to demonstrate how to utilize the data sgp tool in an operational setting. Each of the short clips provides a brief introduction and demos how each function of SGP can be utilized effectively within an instructional environment, helping administrators spend more time engaging directly with students and classrooms.