Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs) measure the rate at which students have improved academically over time. Calculations are done for individual students by comparing them against academic peers who took the same state assessment in previous years, and reported as percentages; higher numbers indicate greater growth whereas lower ones show less. SGPs should be taken into consideration alongside scaled scores and achievement levels to get a clear picture of student knowledge and skills.

The Data SGP Tool enables users to easily compare, view, and report student growth percentiles over specific assessment windows. It is designed to assist teachers and administrators better understand their students’ progress by providing information about how a particular student performed relative to his or her academic peers, and providing a snapshot of a given window’s student growth over the past year.

SGPs are determined using up to two years’ worth of historical MCAS scores, identifying academic peers based solely on their MCAS score paths – not demographics or program participation.

Though SGPs should not replace MCAS achievement levels as an indicator of student proficiency, teachers can use them as an invaluable way of informing instruction and communicating the effects of experiences beyond classroom instruction.

The SGP Data Sgp Tool contains four sample data sets designed for use with SGP analyses. SgpData represents WIDE format data required by lower level SGP functions like studentGrowthPercentiles and studentGrowthProjections; while sgptData_LONG and sgptData_INSTRUCTOR_NUMBER represent LONG format required by higher-level functions like abcSGP, prepareSGP, and analyzeSGP.

Comparisons in student growth percentiles between years must be treated with extreme care. Keep in mind that the rankings for each year’s SGPs change every time the algorithm changes; so differences between SGPs for one year do not always have the same significance in future rankings. Also be wary when viewing window differences because SGP calculations occur every year and changes can have unexpected results on future rankings.