Data SGP
The data sgp package is built for the R software environment. Its use requires some familiarity with the system and, like any analytical tool, some time to get acclimated to it. The R program is available for Windows, OSX and Linux and, being open source, can be freely compiled for just about any operating system. Running SGP analyses requires a computer with a working copy of the latest version of R installed.
Data sgp is an important part of the assessment system and carries with it the potential to inform both teachers and administrators about student progress. The goal of the data sgp project is to provide a large, easy-to-use data set that can be used for both student growth projections and student achievement analyses.
This dataset contains a number of anonymized, panel data sets in long format (sgptData_LONG) for three content areas: Early Literacy, Mathematics, and Reading. This is a very useful data set that allows for student aggregates by year and content area, as well as for teacher/instructor aggregates by class, grade level, or subject. It also allows for the creation of student growth profiles, which are important tools for assessing student learning and development over time.
There are two SGP formats provided in the data sgp project: Window Specific SGP, which is designed to compare or report student growth over specified testing windows, and Current SGP, which is intended as a quick check-in on a student’s progress from one assessment to another.
The sgptData_INSTRUCTOR_NUMBER data set contains an anonymized, student-instructor lookup table that associates teacher information with each students test record. It is important to note that, just as each student can have multiple instructors associated with them, each instructor can have many students in a single test year.
SGP is a measure of relative student growth in relation to the average for their academic peers. It is calculated by comparing the scale score of a student to the scale scores of their peers across different assessments in a given content area over the course of a single school year. This calculation allows educators to easily identify the students in their classrooms who are growing more rapidly or more slowly than their peers.
SGP results are reported as a percentage of the mean for each student’s grade level and subject. This provides a quick and intuitive way to analyze student growth for both teachers and parents. A growth percentage of 75% indicates that a student is growing faster than 75% of his or her academic peers. This is a good indication that the student is progressing at a satisfactory rate. However, it is also important to note that a low percentage could indicate that the student is still falling behind his or her peers. In these cases, additional interventions should be implemented.