Data SGP is a method for measuring student growth using longitudinal (time dependent) assessment data. Educators can use data sgp to compare students, identify areas for improvement, inform classroom practices and evaluate schools/districts.

SGPs are an alternative to standard percentile rankings which are based on the number of students who scored lower than a given student. SGPs are based on the percentage of students who scored higher than a given student and measure how much a particular student grew relative to academically-similar peers. This type of comparison is important because it avoids the problems that can occur when comparing students who took different assessments and start from different scores.

To calculate SGP, educators must have access to longitudinal assessment data for at least two different testing windows. Each test used should have a different subject-matter and grade level. SGP reports typically include a table of results that provide both a summary and detailed analysis of a student’s performance in each test over time. Teachers can also download a spreadsheet containing more detailed sgp data by selecting a specific student in the report. This spreadsheet will contain five columns, each containing information on one of the five years of assessments that have been administered to the student.

The first column, ID, provides the student’s unique identifier. The next five columns, SS_2013, SS_2014, SS_2015, SS_2016 and SS_2017 provide the students’ assessment scores from each of the five testing years. The spreadsheet will also include a table of results which includes the SGP for each subject and grade level.

Teachers can use the sgp data to determine how much a particular student grew. Educators can then compare this amount of growth to other students to see how well their student did. A student whose SGP is above the 50th percentile has demonstrated growth in the content area equal to or greater than half of the students with comparable score histories on that subject-matter test.

Data SGP is available through the state’s website. To get started, educators must register for an account with the state and then download their SGP reports. Once the files have been downloaded, educators can view the report for each student and view a graph that shows how their student’s performance has changed over time. The report will also include a list of all students who fell outside the curve and how many students surpassed it.

In order to perform SGP analyses, teachers need longitudinal student data in WIDE format and/or a long data set. The SGP package offers a wrapper function for analyzing WIDE data and a function to analyze LONG data. For operational analyses that will be run year after year, LONG format is preferable as it offers several preparation and storage benefits over WIDE. However, for one-off analyses WIDE data can be just as effective. Both functions can be found in the “Data SGP” tab of the Teacher View.