Growth Analysis

Measuring Growth District, School and Student Performance on MCAS October 13, 2009 PRESENTED BY Maureen Sabolinski, Superintendent of Schools Michele Kingsland-Smith, Director Instructional Services Bob Lima, Assistant Principal for Academics

What is Growth ?

MCAS: How each student is performing relative to state standards

Is John proficient in 6 th grade mathematics?

Cannot compare John’s scaled scores from year to year

Growth: Measure of change in an individual student’s performance over time

How much did John improve in mathematics from 5 th grade to 6 th grade?

Did John improve more or less than his academic peers?

Why Measure Growth?

To improve the validity and the scope of decisions we make using MCAS results

Make improvements in curriculum and instruction

Target assistance

Conduct program evaluations

Make accountability determinations

To expand the notion of achievement to include both performance and growth

Achievement = Performance + Growth

New DESE Metric to Measure Growth: Student Growth Percentiles (SGP)

Each student’s rate of change is compared to other students with a similar test score history (“academic peers”)

The rate of change is expressed as a percentile .

How much did John improve in mathematics from 5 th grade to 6 th grade, relative to his academic peers?

If John improved more than 65 percent of his academic peers, then his student growth percentile would be 65.

Growth Model Key Concepts

Growth is distinct from performance

A student can perform at a low level but grow quickly, and vice versa

Each student is compared only to their academic peers, not to all students statewide

All students can potentially grow at the 1 st or 99 th percentile

Growth is subject-, grade-, and year-specific

Different academic peer groups for each subject, grade, and year

Therefore, the same change in scaled scores on different tests can yield different student growth percentiles

Student Growth Percentile Scale 20% Rule of Thumb

Typical student growth percentiles are between about 40 and 60 on most tests.

Students or groups outside this range have exceptionally high or low growth.

Differences of fewer than 10 SGP points are likely not educationally meaningful.

SGP 81 – 100 SGP 61 – 80 SGP 41 – 60 SGP 21 – 40 SGP 1 – 20 Very high High Typical Low Very low

Fan Chart - ELA Growth grades 5- 7 Advanced Proficient Needs Improvement Warning/Failing 80 to 99 60 to 79 40 to 59 20 to 39 1 to 19 SGP Student A  230 35% 65% SGPs between 40 to 59 are typical 2006 2007 2008

Scatter Plot Data Chart Growth by Performance for Students Higher achieving Lower growing Lower achieving Lower growing Higher achieving Higher growing Lower achieving Higher growing

Scatter Plot Data Chart Growth by Performance for Grades Higher achieving Lower growing Lower achieving Lower growing Higher achieving Higher growing Lower achieving Higher growing Grades 4, 5, 6 mathematics – All elementary schools in one district

Growth Distribution Chart School by Grade

District Action Plan