Data SGP (Student Growth Percentiles) is a measure of student achievement that compares students’ test scores with those of their academic peers. It is a useful tool for educators because it provides a clear picture of student progress and helps them identify areas for improvement. This information can help teachers create more targeted plans for individual students’ needs. Educators can also use SGP to evaluate their own instructional practices and support classroom research initiatives.
SGP analyses require longitudinal student assessment data in either WIDE or LONG format. The lower level functions, studentGrowthPercentiles and studentGrowthProjections, can be used with either type of data set, but higher level wrapper functions are designed to work with LONG data sets. Whenever possible, we recommend using the LONG data format for operational analyses because it offers a number of preparation and storage advantages over WIDE data sets.
Unlike traditional metrics such as mean or median scores, SGP results are reported in percentile terms, which make them easy to understand for educators and parents alike. A student’s percentile score indicates how much they have grown compared to their academic peers, making it easier for educators to identify and target areas where additional support is needed.
The sgpData spreadsheet includes data for five years, providing educators with a complete picture of student progress over time. The first column, ID, provides a unique student identifier, while the remaining columns, SS_2013, SS_2014, SS_2015 and SS_2017, provide each of the student’s assessment scores for each year.
When evaluating the effectiveness of teaching methods, SGP allows educators to identify the effectiveness of different instructional strategies by comparing students’ current performance with their previous assessment scores. Educators can then identify what works best and adjust their approaches accordingly.
Educators can use SGP to identify struggling students, determine which students have made the greatest gains and assess teacher/student performance. The data can be used to improve teacher training and support, inform curriculum development and support educator evaluation systems.
SGP uses latent achievement trait models estimated from historical test score data and student covariates to estimate student growth standards. This approach reduces estimation error and increases validity when comparing students. It can also be applied to other student assessment data, such as teacher evaluation data, to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching and school improvement efforts.
The SGP database contains a wide range of geochemical data from the Neoproterozoic through Paleozoic, covering iron, carbon, sulfur and major and trace metal isotopes. The data will be used to address key questions in Earth history research, and it will eventually be migrated to permanent data repositories. In the meantime, it is available to researchers through an online access portal.