SGP Data
SGP data are used by educators, school districts and administrators to analyze student growth and to identify areas of strength and weakness in their educational programs. The SGPdata package is available for use with the free open source statistical software program R, which can be downloaded for Windows, OSX or Linux. The SGPdata package assumes some familiarity with using R but does include easy-to-use wrapper functions that simplify the lower level code required to conduct many operational analyses.
For each student in the state, a mSGP is calculated and assigned to their Star report, along with a teacher practice score and an SGO score (teacher evaluation). For teachers, the mSGP is used for part of their annual evaluation. The mSGP is based on the student’s trajectories over several years and is an indication of how far a student has progressed toward proficiency in a given subject area.
SGP scores are based on a student’s performance relative to their academic peers on the same test administration. Students in the same grade level and same content area are placed into academic peer groups based on their MCAS score histories. Students who achieve high scores on the MCAS test are expected to grow faster than students who perform at lower levels.
The mSGP is reported on a 1-99 scale, where a higher number indicates greater relative growth. A mSGP of 75 means that the student has grown faster than 75% of their academic peers.
To determine a student’s SGP, the state analyzes the growth of students in each content area in each grade level from their most recent test administration to the current one. The SGP is then compared to the growth of all other students in that grade level and a percentile ranking is assigned to the student.
A SGP of 75 means that the student grew faster than 75% of their academic peers. For students with multiple SGPs, the state averages these ranks to generate an overall rank of their progress.
This process is repeated for each student in a class, school and district to identify trends in student achievement. The results of this analysis are reported in the school, district and statewide mean SGP scores that are presented in the Star reports.
In addition to mean SGPs, the state provides window specific and current SGPs which provide a more detailed view of a student’s progression over time. The SGPs calculated and provided are based on the historical growth trajectories of Star examinees and the current projections of what is necessary to reach or maintain proficiency. The SGPs are updated regularly to ensure that they are based on the most current information available.