Data sgp is an analysis tool for longitudinal student assessment data that creates statistical growth plots (SGPs) which provide visual evidence of students’ academic progress relative to their academic peers. Its use of students’ standardized test scores with covariate information and an established “growth standard” allows it to capture more of the variation in individual student performance than traditional percentile scores do.
Data SGP is free, open source software and runs on the R statistical software environment. It is designed to be used for educational assessment data but can be used with any kind of statistical data. It is available for download from the GitHub site with extensive online resources to assist users in getting started.
Using data SGP requires that the users have access to R and its install scripts on their computer; however, it is very easy to use. Most of the time spent with data SGP is with preparation of the data for analysis; and once the data is prepared correctly, analyses are quick and simple to run. The following articles are intended to help users prepare their data for data SGP and provide step by step instructions for running the analysis.
The sgpdata package includes an example WIDE format data set (sgpData) to simulate time dependent data used with lower level functions like studentGrowthPercentiles and studentGrowthProjections as well as a LONG format file to assist in the conversion process. Additionally, the sgpdata package contains an anonymized, panel data set of 8 windows (3 windows annually) of assessment data in LONG format for 3 content areas (Early Literacy, Mathematics, and Reading) to facilitate data SGP analysis.
To ensure accuracy of SGP analyses it is important that the data being analyzed be in a standard format. This is especially important when calculating scale score growth models. The sgpdata package includes the sgpData_LONG and sgpData_WIDE data sets to assist with converting data from your school’s system into this standard format.
Having accurate SGP data enables educators to make informed decisions about student learning by identifying students who are not making progress toward their achievement targets. They can then determine if these students require additional support or if they need to accelerate programs so that they can achieve their targets on schedule.
Data SGP also provides information to administrators about the percentage of their students who are on target to graduate and may indicate that more needs to be done to address achievement gaps for low performing groups. This can help guide program changes that focus on instructional strategies that are most likely to impact student achievement in these groups.
SGP results can be viewed by district or by high school in the new Student Profile/Growth dashboard. This dashboard will be accessible to all users starting in Fall 2019 and will replace the Student Profile/Growth graphs that were previously available in the Student Dashboard. The growth graphs for students in grades 4 through 11 display SGPs for each student, as well as SGPs by content area for those students who have completed a high school course.