SGP What is it and where did it come from?

What is it? Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs) are a measure to assess educators of students in grades 4 through 8 that take the NJ ASK Math or Language Arts test.

Do I need to worry about SGPs? Currently, ONLY educators that teach mathematics or language arts in grades 4 through 8 need to worry about SGPs.

NO! So….. I teach HS Social Studies. I teach kindergarten. I teach second grade language arts. I teach Algebra II in high school. Do I have to worry? NO!

SGPs for students DO NOT indicate proficiency therefore SGPs for students measure their growth, or improvement, from one year to the next.

How are SGPs derived? Each student is given their own SGP based on two things: Their improvement from their previous year’s NJ ASK score and; The range that his/her academic peers (students with similar score histories) throughout the State scored. SGPs for students are based on 1% to 99%. A decrease in score from one year to the next will result in a low, positive, growth percentage.

How are my student SGPs related to my mSGP? The median score of all your students’ SGPs becomes your mSGP provided: You have at least 20 separate students enrolled in your class for at least 70% of the time prior to NJ ASK. You must teach at least 60% of the time prior to the NJ ASK.

Misconceptions vs. Reality SGPs are based on how well my students score. SGPs measure a student’s growth. I have a few students that don’t try and this will hurt my score. More than 20 scores are needed and the median is used. I teach special ed., my score will suffer if they don’t do well on tests. SGPs are based on progress compared to academic peers.

Once your mSGP is determined, it is then converted to a scale of 1 to 4. In our example, the mSGP of 73 converts to a evaluation rating of 3.7. (The conversion chart can vary from year to year.)

For further information, please visit: http://www.nj.gov/education/AchieveNJ/resources/TeacherEvaluationScoringGuide.pdf