Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs) are an indicator of academic achievement relative to peers in a given grade or content area, regardless of starting point or prior test scores. SGPs enable teachers and parents to measure how effectively their teaching approach is helping their pupils flourish academically and individually. SGPs can also be used as an evaluation measure on teacher effectiveness when it comes to helping their pupils grow.

SGPs are calculated utilizing two years’ of historic MCAS data. Academic peers for any given student in his or her grade and subject area who share similar assessment score paths include demographic characteristics such as gender, race, income or educational programs such as sheltered English immersion or special education – however these criteria don’t account for those excluded due to invalid testing procedures.

In order to identify each student’s SGP, a statistical model that estimates the relationship between previous test sections and their current year scores can be applied to their records; this method of quantile regression provides the basis for identifying their SGP.

Once a Student Growth Profile (SGP) is calculated for an individual student, it can be compared with those of his or her academic peer groups at other schools and districts to gain an accurate picture of how his/her SGP compares with average SGP levels at both school and district levels.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that an individual student’s SGP does not reflect their true performance or what they have learned; their SGP reflects how well they performed relative to other academic peers – it could even be caused by factors beyond teaching itself!

Educators can access their SGPs and growth projections in various formats, such as graphs and reports. For instance, MCAS Growth offers several SGP vignettes which provide administrators, educators and families with sample growth reports to assist with reviewing student performances and discussing performance concerns.