• Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs) 

     
    SGP is a measure of how much a student improves his or her state test performance from one year to the next compared to students across the state with a similar score history.

     

    What are Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs)?

    As a central tenet of AchieveNJ, educators are never evaluated on a single factor or test score alone, but on multiple measures of both effective practice and student learning. As part of this system, the state has committed to developing measures of student growth as required under the TEACHNJ Act signed into law in August 2012. By using a growth methodology to calculate student outcomes, the Department recognizes that students enter each grade level at varying starting points and with unique challenges and that we should focus on student improvement, rather than simply how many students attain proficiency.

    New Jersey measures growth for an individual student by comparing the change in his or her achievement on the state standardized assessment from one year to the student's "academic peers" (all other students in the state who had similar historical test results). This comparative change in achievement is reported on a 1 to 99 scale.

     
     
    What is mSGP and how is it calculated?
     
    Qualifying educators (of 4th-8th grade Language Arts and 4th-7th grade Math assessed by the state test) are assigned the median SGP (mSGP) score of all of qualifying students based on information submitted by the district (see this Course Roster Verification and Submission guidance for more information). Starting with 2014-15, educators who qualify to receive the mSGP score as one element of their evaluation will earn that score based on a) the most recent year or, b) the median of the previous three years combined – whichever is most advantageous to the educator.  For more information, please see this Guidance on Multiple Years of Data to Calculate mSGP.
     
    Which educators will receive an mSGP rating?
     
    For mSGP to be part of a teacher's evaluation, the teacher must be:
     
    • Assigned to a 4th-8th-grade Language Arts or 4th-7th grade Math course for 60% or more of the year prior to the date on which the state test was administered, and
    • Assigned 20 unique students by the district through the Course Roster Submission during the school year of the evaluation, or the combination of up to two previous years plus the current year. These students must be enrolled for 70% or more of the course duration prior to the administration of the test.
     
    For mSGP to be part of a principal/AP/VP's evaluation, that educator must be:
     
    • Assigned by October 15 to a school attended by more than 20 separate students who take the 4th-8th-grade Language Arts or 4th-7th-grade state test; and
    • Assigned to qualifying students reported as having attended the school for one full year prior to the administration of the test, according to the data submitted by the district in its State Submission.

    • mSGP data are available only for those who teach certain Language Arts or Mathematics grades which have baseline data and comparable test scores. Given that third grade is the first testing year, there is no baseline data to create an SGP for that grade.


    • The list of specific courses that a teacher may teach and receive an mSGP rating can be found hereContained in this list, however, are all pre-secondary education Language Arts and Math courses, for example, Language Arts (Grade 1). Normally, first grade teachers would not receive an SGP because their students are not taking the state tests. However, in a situation where a school is offering 4th grade students a first grade language arts course, teachers of this course would receive an SGP according to the three factors stated above. The full list of codes for all courses can be found here.