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.

Domino is an exciting game of skill and strategy. A domino is a rectangular piece of a material such as bone, silver lip ocean pearl oyster shell (mother of pearl), ivory, or dark hardwoods like ebony with an arrangement of spots or “pips,” similar to those on a die, except that some squares are blank (indicated in this listing by a zero). Each face bears a number indicating the value of the domino when played, which may be a single point, a pair, a triplet, or a quadruplet. A domino may also be a square of metal or ceramic clay, or even frosted glass or crystal.

Dominoes are used for both games of chance and skill, as well as for art projects. They can be used to create curved lines, grids that form pictures when they fall, stacked walls, or 3D structures like towers and pyramids. In addition to being fun to play, dominoes can help children learn numbers and shapes. They can also teach the concept of probability, since each domino is a potential trigger for the next one to fall.

The word domino comes from the Latin dominus, meaning “lord” or “master.” Traditionally, a domino set is composed of twenty-six double tiles, each with an equal number of pips. A player makes a play by placing a domino on the table, either onto another domino or directly on the line of play. If a player is to make the first play of a given game, that player will draw the highest domino from the stock and place it on the table.

A player must then match the pips on the open end of the domino in order to continue playing it. If a tile is placed on the line of play with matching halves on both sides, it is considered part of the line of play and the count will increase. The other half of the double can then be placed on its own, creating a new line of play and increasing the count once again.

If no one is able to make another play, the game will end. Some games have rules specifying that the first play must be made by the player with the heaviest hand, or by the winner of an earlier game. In other cases, the players must draw additional dominoes from the stock to break ties.

The domino effect is a phenomenon in which an initial event prompts a series of subsequent events that can have a profound impact. It can be seen in political movements, such as the Arab Spring, when a single event can lead to many other events and changes that may seem unrelated at first but ultimately have a large and lasting influence. Similarly, when an author writes a scene in his or her book, that scene can be like a domino that affects the entire plot of the novel. It is important to understand this effect when writing fiction, so that each domino will naturally advance the story.