Data SGP (Student Growth Potential) is an innovative new measure of student achievement which compares current performance against that of academically similar peers. SGPs can be used to identify students needing additional academic support as well as evaluate programs designed to prepare them for future success. In comparison with traditional assessment measures like test scores or ACT scores, SGPs offer more accurate depictions of how well students are progressing by showing the amount of growth required in order to meet a particular achievement target.

SGPs are normalized on a scale from zero to 100 and compared against all students across the state at the same grade level and subject. This provides more reliable and comparable measures of student achievement and growth than the more typical bell-shaped curve. Furthermore, SGP results are more sensitive to classroom composition than VAMs; therefore they’re better suited for evaluating teacher impact on student learning.

Example 2: In this scenario, a student scoring 300 on the Wisconsin Knowledge and Competence Examination (WKCE) earned an SGP score of 74.7, placing her in the 75th percentile among other students in her grade who have similar achievement histories on both WKCE and Forward Exam tests – an improvement of 6.7 points over her previous score on Badger Exam.

SGP results can be seen in both the Data Dashboard and student report cards on the student profile page. Currently, the state is exploring using SGPs as part of an initiative to increase accountability and enhance school effectiveness.

To take full advantage of SGPs, educators should become acquainted with both their definition and computation process. SGPs are calculated based on comparing a student’s current test score against academically similar peers with similar achievement histories on past Star assessments – up to five years of student test score history including Badger Exam and WKCE assessments are considered when computing these ratios.

Key to SGPs is their use as percentile ranks; thus they indicate how many academically similar peers had higher SGPs than a student in question; for example, an SGP of 60 indicates growth at or greater than 60% of peers who share similar academic studies.

SGPs for grades 4-11 are reported and displayed in the data dashboard, however 2014-15 Badger Exam performance does not appear here as SGPs did not become available until 2015-16. Furthermore, since up to five years of student test score history (which includes Badger) is being taken into account when computing SGPs displayed here compared with two or three years. Hence they will typically be lower than what schools would anticipate from only having two or three years worth of performance history (such as WKCE and Forward exams).