How to Use MCAS Data SGP
Data SGP is a collection of aggregated student performance measures collected over time that teachers and administrators use to inform instructional decisions, evaluate schools/districts and support broader research initiatives. Data SGP can also help educators show students and parents just how much their child is learning relative to his academic peers; its comparison metric compares individual student assessment scores against that of their academic peers to reveal insight as to whether they’re improving more than, less than or just as expected.
The sgpData spreadsheet allows users to quickly access, view and download MCAS student growth percentiles for every state subject tested by MCAS. This tool gives educators an opportunity to assess student growth across subject, grade and instructor and to pinpoint specific areas for improvement. Furthermore, Data sgp offers an anonymized teacher lookup table which allows them to associate instructors with individual student test records.
An example data set has been created to demonstrate how to implement the data sgp package effectively in different scenarios. The sgpData file consists of five years’ annual, vertically scaled assessment data in WIDE format that was anonymized before serving as the model for data formats required by studentGrowthPercentiles and studentGrowthProjections functions of studentGrowthPackages.
To use the sgpData spreadsheet, the user must first download and install their version of the data sgp package (see instructions in section below for download and installation steps). Once completed, they can open their spreadsheet within Excel or Google Sheets.
As soon as you open the sgpData spreadsheet, the first thing that becomes apparent is its variety of tabs and columns. The first tab displays each student’s current sgp score calculated using up to five years of test score history since 2014-15 Badger year; its range is 0-100 where higher numbers represent greater relative growth.
An SGP value of 75 or above indicates that a student has performed at or above 75% of his or her academic peers, making this metric especially helpful in identifying those students who require additional instruction to close any gaps between their performance and that of others in their class.
The sgpData tab also provides an overview of student’s progress toward meeting or exceeding state targets in one or more subject(s).
These graphs provide a visual depiction of student development over time in each subject area. Each graph illustrates progress toward reaching one’s target and includes data regarding those students who have achieved it.
The sgpData tab includes an annotated chart comparing student growth in each subject against state targets, helping identify which subjects a student should focus on to meet or surpass those targets and develop personalized interventions accordingly.