Students are more likely to be successful in school if they make meaningful progress towards reaching academic goals. Data SGP provides educators, parents and students with a powerful tool for tracking student growth toward those goals. SGP is a longitudinal analysis of students’ performance data and uses data from their Star assessment tests to produce statistical growth percentiles and projections that allow educators to identify when a student needs additional support.

Data SGP is a free software tool for the R statistical computing environment and is available online. It allows users to easily analyze and visualize student growth and achievement data from one or more schools, districts, states or the entire country. The software also allows users to generate a variety of reports including individualized student achievement targets and projections for students in their classes or schools.

In addition to calculating Student Growth Percentiles and Projections, Data SGP provides teachers with various tables that facilitate the use of this information in the classroom. For example, the sgpData_LONG data set contains an anonymized lookup table that displays instructors associated with each student’s assessment records and for each content area. This allows teachers to quickly determine which instructors teach students with similar grade level and demographic groupings.

A key advantage of SGP over a simple average (mean) is that it does not mask differences between schools. This may be due to a variety of factors including teacher or school characteristics as well as the design of the baseline cohorts for each student’s achievement data. Another important benefit is that SGPs provide a more accurate picture of student progress than simple averages.

Traditionally, SGP has been used by educators to track student progress and determine whether they are meeting or exceeding academic goals and expectations. SGPs are also an effective way to differentiate instruction for low performing students by outlining the amount of growth required to reach proficiency. Additionally, SGPs can be used to assess accelerated programs to ensure most students remain on pace with their academic peers and do not slow down as they move through the curriculum.

Using longitudinal student assessment data to generate SGPs requires complex calculations and is subject to a variety of error sources. Data SGP provides a set of tools that help mitigate these errors and makes the process easier for educators to implement. This enables more accurate identification of students in need of extra support and more efficient use of time for those teaching them. This allows educators to focus on the most productive activities and avoid wasting precious time on low achieving students or those who have already achieved proficient levels. Data SGP is an invaluable tool that helps educators more effectively meet the needs of all students.