Background | Example Scenario | SGP Uses | SGP Graphs | History | Resources
Background on Growth
Growth measures evaluate students’ academic progress over time. This dashboard presents a growth measure called Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs). SGPs are calculated by comparing the amount of academic progress a student has made over one year to the amount of academic progress made by other Wisconsin students with similar performance histories on annual statewide assessments.
Example SGP Scenario
Consider an example student named Simon. Simon is in sixth grade this year and scored a 370 on the statewide assessment in English language arts (ELA). Last year, in fifth grade, Simon scored a 300 on the ELA exam. However, Simon’s 70 point scale score increase cannot be compared to students in different grades or with different starting scores. SGPs solve this problem.
SGPs place Simon’s score increase in the context of other sixth graders with similar score histories. That is, Simon’s sixth grade performance is compared to other sixth graders whose prior scores are similar to Simon’s. The SGP growth calculation gives a single value between 1 and 99 to every student, and the SGP can be compared to any other student’s SGP, including students with different starting scores and grade levels.
Using SGPs
SGPs should be reviewed by educators, data teams, and administrators to identify areas of success and areas for improvement. DPI uses mean SGP data in the federal ESSA accountability system. SGPs are not used in the school and district report cards, because state law requires report cards to use a different growth measure (value-added growth).
SGPs produce a percentile ranking of scale score changes for a group of students with a similar starting point. SGPs are on a scale from 1 (lowest growth) to 99 (highest growth). Suppose Simon’s SGP is 63. This means Simon grew more than 63 percent of the students who started at the same place and that Simon’s rate of growth, after considering his starting point, was at the 63rd percentile compared to all other students.
For school-, district-, or student group-level reporting, the mean SGP of students in the school/district or student group is presented. The mean SGP for a group is calculated by pooling all of the individual SGPs and identifying the mean, or average. The mean is used as a representation of typical growth for that selected group of students.
SGP Graphs
Aggregate SGP graphs display mean SGPs. When viewing SGP data by demographic group, each bubble on the graph represents one student group. Bubble size varies according to the size of the student group; the larger the bubble, the larger the group. The bubble’s position along the horizontal axis of the graph indicates the mean SGP; the further the bubble is to the right, the higher the mean SGP. The bubble’s position along the vertical axis indicates the percentage of students scoring proficient or advanced on the statewide assessment in that year; the higher the bubble location, the greater the percentage scoring proficient or advanced. Data points toward the bottom left of the graph represent both low achievement and low growth. Data points in the upper right of the graph represent both high achievement and high growth.
Hovering the cursor over a bubble displays the number of students, mean SGP, and percent proficient or advanced for that group.
Authorized users can drill down to student details that provide multiple additional data points. The detail provides the growth interval (e.g. sixth to seventh grade); student demographics; each student’s growth percentile and corresponding growth level (high, low, typical); scale score data and performance levels; and attendance rate in the growth year.
History
SGPs for grades 4-8 were first produced for the 2008-09 school year, and SGPs for grades 9-11 were first produced for the 2017-18 school year. DPI did not calculate or report SGPs for the 2014-15, 2019-20, or 2020-21 school years.
Resources
The guides below are meant to provide assistance in reading and interpreting SGP reports. For more information on measuring growth and how growth data are used in Wisconsin, please see the Academic Growth webpage.