SGP measures the relative growth of students relative to their academic peers as measured by scaled score changes from one assessment year to the next. SGPs are reported in percentiles and range from one (lowest growth) to 99 (highest growth). A student’s SGP for any given subject area will be calculated by dividing their most recent MCAS score by their starting MCAS score and multiplying this number by 100; SGPs are available for grades 4-11 students within schools and districts as well.

StudentGrowthPercentiles and studentGrowthProjections, two high-level functions within the SGP package that perform calculations directly, require LONG formatted data. If provided with suitable sets of data and parameters, prepareSGP can generate this formatted LONG data needed for these analyses. There are also higher level wrapper functions – abcSGP and updateSGP – available that simplify source code required to perform these analyses.

SGPs can be downloaded and viewed for individual students, schools, districts, and subgroups from the BAA Secure Site. Educators can use these SGPs to track student development and make informed decisions for their students; it can also show how groups perform relative to one another.

To generate SGPs, the state analyzes MCAS results of all students from each district and school with sufficient assessments. They average all SGPs across schools, districts and groupings within districts before creating state average SGPs which may fluctuate over time but provide an indication of typical student growth across particular schools, districts or groupings.

At a local level, teachers and administrators can utilize SGPs to determine how much a student has advanced relative to other students in his/her grade in any content area. The information can be presented two ways: window specific SGP which compares growth over a specific timeframe or Current SGP which serves as an assessment of progress towards proficiency.

Educators can utilize SGPs to identify students who may require extra support in certain subject areas and gauge how their progress towards meeting proficiency is progressing. Teachers and administrators can use this data to develop targeted strategies to support student learning, such as additional instruction, practice or interventions. Furthermore, the Star website offers resources tailored specifically for educators and parents alike. These resources include FAQs, webinars, and articles that detail different approaches to implementing SGP in classroom settings. Furthermore, the Star website features an interactive map which depicts where SGP clusters exist across the state. Educators can utilize this map to quickly locate schools and districts with the highest and lowest SGP clusters, and to view trends by grade level, gender and ethnicity. Administrators and teachers alike can use these maps as a great way of exploring more about their local SGP data and identify students in need of additional support.