Data sgp is an assessment metric that compares student test score results against those of academically similar students (their educational peers). The result is a percentage representing how much the student has improved on a particular section of the assessment relative to their peers. The use of this metric has become increasingly popular as educators seek to better understand their students’ learning. Educators can then use this information to more accurately identify students who may need extra support, tailor classroom instruction for high performers and evaluate teachers/schools/districts.
SGP differs from standard growth models and other methods in that it allows schools and districts to track student/teacher progress against official state achievement targets or goals. This serves to motivate students and teachers by tying performance against measurable goals, something that cannot be accomplished using standard growth models alone. Michigan for example uses student growth percentiles as an important component of its educator evaluation system and many states are considering making this a requirement for all educators.
The sgpData spreadsheet provides a convenient and straightforward way for educators to access SGP data. It contains all of the student data required to run the higher level wrapper functions including studentGrowthPercentiles and studentGrowthProjections. This data set is formatted in LONG format which offers significant preparation and management benefits when compared to WIDE formatted data sets.
In addition to the raw test score data sgpData includes teacher lists and a unique student identification number for each individual student. A variety of demographic and student categorization variables are also present, making it easy to create summary reports.
Educators can utilize this data to create student growth reports that can be shared with their students and families. These reports highlight a student’s relative improvement in comparison to their academic peers and can be used by parents to help them understand their child’s progress and whether or not they are on target to meet the state’s educational standards.
Running SGP analyses requires a computer with the free-of-charge open source software application R installed. The program is available for Windows, OSX or Linux and can be downloaded from the CRAN website. Because SGP analysis makes use of advanced R functions, familiarity with the program is recommended prior to diving into the data. Numerous resources are available on the CRAN website to get newcomers up to speed. In particular, the SGP Vignette and the SGP User Guide are excellent resources for those who have not previously worked with this type of data. In addition to providing an introduction to SGP analysis the vignette and the user guide provide detailed descriptions of the SGP data structure, calculation and output functions.