Student Growth Percentiles (SGP) are a tool for assessing a student’s progress toward meeting state standards. They compare a student’s performance to the performances of academic peers who have been in the same grade for at least two years and who have comparable MCAS score histories. These academic peers do not need to be in the same subgroup (e.g., race/ethnicity, special education, sheltered English immersion) or be in the same school.
SGP calculations rely on a statistical process called quantile regression to place student scores on a normative scale, which allows the identification of students’ relative performance. By using multiple years of assessments and multiple tests, SGPs can help educators identify which students are making the most progress and which are falling behind.
The SGPdata package provides four examplar data sets for use with SGP analyses. The first, sgpData, specifies data in the WIDE format used with the lower level SGP functions studentGrowthPercentiles and studentGrowthProjections. The next two, sgpData_LONG and sgptData_LONG, specify data in the LONG format used by higher level SGP functions like abcSGP, prepareSGP, and analyzeSGP. The last data set, sgpData_INSTRUCTOR_NUMBER, contains teacher-student lookup tables utilized to produce teacher level aggregates.
Each year, the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) issues MCAS growth reports to administrators, teachers, and families. These reports provide students and parents with a picture of the relative progress they are making towards meeting standards in Reading, Math, and Science. This information can be helpful in assessing whether a student is progressing adequately and provides a basis for discussions with students and families about the value of education.
To understand how SGPs are calculated and what they mean, see the DESE SGP Resources page or one of the stakeholder-specific guides (SGP Guide for Administrators, SGP Guide for Educators, or SGP Guide for Parents). Each guide provides sample growth reports as well as prompts to use in classroom discussions with students and families.
A growing body of research supports the effectiveness of using SGPs in educational settings. A recent article from the Harvard University Press, entitled “Why SGPs Matter”, explores this area of inquiry and offers suggestions for implementing SGPs within schools and districts.