Data SGP is a tool for analyzing educational assessment data, providing educators with insights into student achievement. The tool compares the performance of an individual student to other students with similar achievement histories, and reveals how well the student is growing academically.
The SGP is reported on a scale of 1 to 99, with higher numbers indicating greater relative growth than lower ones. The SGP is calculated by comparing an individual student’s test score on a particular MCAS section to the scores of other students with comparable MCAS performance histories. For example, a student with an SGP of 90th percentile has achieved more progress on MCAS than 90% of the other students who performed like them in the past.
Educators use SGPs to evaluate student performance, inform instructional decisions, and assess school/district performance. The SGPs are available to all districts in grades 4 through 11, and are displayed in the Student Profile/Growth dashboard.
SGPs are important because they help us understand how much a student has learned over time. They reveal which students have improved their knowledge, skills and abilities, and help us identify the need to provide additional support for struggling students. The SGPs also give educators and parents insight into a student’s progress, helping them plan for future academic challenges.
An additional benefit of the SGPs is that they are not influenced by the performance of a few high-achieving students. Unlike the class median, where the middle student in a class defines the program’s score, SGPs aggregate using the state’s median; as such, programs are not penalized by a small group of highly capable students who cannot keep up with their peers.
The SGP analyses require the statistical software environment, R – an open source program that is free for Windows, OSX and Linux with numerous resources to assist new users. The analyses are performed using advanced functions that require some familiarity with the software, but any errors encountered while running the analysis revert back to issues with data preparation.
To run SGP analyses, download a copy of the data sgp file from the BAA Secure Site and paste the student data ONLY (not the header or formula) into one of the interactive data tools below. The lower level SGP calculations (studentGrowthPercentiles and studentGrowthProjections) use WIDE formatted data; however, the higher-level vignettes use LONG formated data. In general, it is easiest to manage data in the LONG format and we recommend using this for all operational analyses.