Data SGP is a software package for analyzing student achievement data with percentile growth projections/trajectories. Designed to aid educators in understanding student achievement data, the tool gives teachers a clear picture of what will it take for students to reach their achievement targets and allows them to focus resources where most needed while providing additional instruction to those making sufficient progress toward reaching them.
The data sgp package offers classes and functions to enable users to utilize R statistical software environment to analyze educational assessment data. It uses large scale longitudinal education data to calculate student growth percentiles as well as project projected or trajectory growth projections using conditional density estimation methods and coefficient matrix derived coefficient matrix estimates.
Data SGP package also offers an anonymized dataset containing all of the data necessary for conducting SGP analyses: sgptData_LONG is a five year longitudinal panel data set aggregated by teacher and class and includes variables like: VALID_CASE, CONTENT_AREA, YEAR, ID, SCALE_SCORE and GRADE (if running student growth projections). Furthermore, additional demographic/student categorization variables used by summarizeSGP function to generate student aggregates are also present within this data set.
SGP can be utilized by individual teachers, schools, districts and states alike to evaluate the efficacy of their education programs. It provides a snapshot of student performance on state assessments as well as areas for additional support that may be needed. Educators can then utilize SGP reports to set personalized learning goals for their students.
On the SGP website, a visual overview of student performance can also be found here: http://datasgp.org/statistics/scoreboard/
People often perceive data SGP as an expensive and time-consuming method to evaluate student assessment results, yet this needn’t necessarily be the case; there are ways of automating its use so it becomes much more cost effective for larger groups or teachers. Furthermore, online resources exist which provide resources on using this software’s features effectively.
To take advantage of data SGP, educators must register on their state’s website. Once registered, they will gain access to an SGP report specific to their school or district that reveals how students performed on state tests and the percentage who fell below, on, or above the performance curve; it will also indicate the number of students that exceeded it and give teachers an idea of which students they should target for future improvements – providing invaluable data that allows for accelerated programs as well as making sure all children reach their achievement targets on schedule.