Data SGP is a comprehensive analysis tool that uses longitudinal student assessment data to generate statistical growth plots (SGP), which show student performance over time compared with academic peers. Educators can use SGPs as data visualizations to gain an in-depth understanding of students’ progress while identifying areas of strength and need. SGPs often prove more helpful than standard percentile scores as they offer insight into why an individual student may be succeeding or faltering relative to peers.
SGPs help educators assess how students are doing relative to state goals and targets – something not easily accomplished using standard growth models alone. SGPs enable educators to show parents/community that proficiency is an attainable goal for all their students, while simultaneously motivating teachers by creating tangible goals that correlate directly to teacher performance – something which cannot easily be accomplished using test scores or traditional percentageiles alone.
While many states have begun providing SGPs to educators and families, many districts still do not have access to it or access to training necessary to use it effectively. OSPI has made efforts to remedy this situation by hosting workshops and materials for school administrators that familiarize them with its functions – these workshops and materials can also be found online or as webinars that educators can participate in directly or through virtual means.
Current SGP usage can be found primarily in Washington schools as part of educator evaluation systems. They can be found in Star assessment reports and used to inform instructional decisions by showing teachers how their students are progressing and what must be done to reach proficiency.
SGPs can also serve as an invaluable communication tool between students and families by giving a visual representation of academic performance over time. This can be especially helpful for children with learning differences like autism who find it hard to express what they understand in classroom lessons.
Though implemented differently across the state, all Student Growth Profiles will contain essential elements. Each SGP contains an ID column which uniquely identifies each student, along with various columns providing assessment data over time – the first five columns being: 2013_20142015and2016 which contain scale scores related to testing years respectively.
The final two columns, SS_2017 and SS_2018, contain student growth trajectories for 2017 and 2018. This information can be used to calculate SGPs as well as percentile trajectories on growth achievement plots.
The SGPdata package includes two data sets in WIDE format – sgpData that models the format required by lower level functions like studentGrowthPercentiles and studentGrowthProjections – to assist with conversion from WIDE format into required SGPdata format; additionally there is also LONG format data set (sgpData_LONG) available that assist with this conversion process. Furthermore, prepareSGP uses these sets as arguments indicating whether SGP analyses should be optimized for print form or presentation form – depending on whether SGP analyses are run as cohort or baseline referenced system respectively.