Data SGP is a student growth measurement that uses longitudinal test score data to assess achievement progress. It can help teachers identify specific students who are struggling, provide insights about student/teacher performance and support educator evaluation systems.

Individual SGPs can be shared with parents to enrich their picture of their child’s performance. Grade-level and subgroup SGPs can be reviewed by educators and data teams to identify areas of success and those targeted for improvement. Administrators can incorporate school and district-wide SGP data into their continuous improvement efforts.

SGPs are based on the idea that a student’s achievement should be compared to their peers in the same grade. This is the best way to measure student growth over time because it takes into account differences between assessments, as well as the different degrees of difficulty of making scale score gains from different starting points.

Each SGP is calculated for a particular subject and grade level and includes all the data associated with that assessment since it was first administered in that content area. Students who are held back a year will need to take two tests in separate testing windows within the current school year in order to have an SGP calculated for them.

The sgpData database provides unique identifiers for each student, along with the teachers who have taught them in each content area over the course of their education career. The sgpData_INSTRUCTOR_NUMBER column lists the instructor number associated with each test record for each student. It is important to note that these are not the same as the teacher IDs used in educator evaluation systems.

SGPs use latent achievement trait models estimated with student covariates to compare a student’s growth against standards established as growth norms. These models have the advantage of being statistically efficient and avoiding overfitting. The model essentially says, “Given the student’s scores on the assessments they’ve taken, this is what their scores should be in order to be considered proficient.”

At the state level, median SGPs are almost always 50 because the normed scores are established using only the student’s current year data. Consequently, half of the state’s students have growth above the median and half below.

Data SGP is an incredibly powerful tool for understanding student learning, and it’s important that districts begin using the new information available to them. However, they should do so with the knowledge that SGPs are not designed to be applied to educator evaluations just yet. The next phase of this project will be focused on supporting teachers in using these tools in the classroom. This will include the development of a series of podcasts that will walk teachers through these interactive data tools and explain how to interpret them. This work is currently underway, and should be available in the coming months. This will be followed by additional resources for administrators and data teams. Thank you for your patience and continued support as we work toward this goal.