Data governance is the process of managing information as an enterprise asset. It includes activities and techniques designed to ensure that data is fit for use, including quality, security, and privacy. Data governance also encompasses the processes for collecting, storing, and managing data. Data governance tools include metadata management and class-level controls that allow for the separation of sensitive data from other data.
Student Growth Percentiles (SGP) measure the progress of students compared to their academic peers. SGPs are calculated for each student following completion of each year’s statewide assessment by comparing the student’s current score to their prior-year’s score in a comparison group. Each teacher’s classroom SGP score is the aggregate of all the individual student SGP scores in that teacher’s classroom.
Students are grouped into groups by their grade and subject and compared with other students who have similar previous MCAS scores. Academic peers can include students from the same school/district, or they may be drawn from a wider group of schools and districts. The number of years of previous MCAS test scores used to determine a student’s SGP depends on the grade and subject being tested. For example, students in grades 8 and 10 are compared with their academic peers who have one or more of the same previous year’s test scores, while students in grade 4 are grouped together for the same analysis regardless of whether they are in the same classroom or not.
For teacher evaluation, two common methods of aggregating SGPs are the mean and the median. Both are equally valid, but the median is typically preferred because it is less sensitive to variations in the composition of a classroom. It is also less susceptible to situations in which a few students do unusually well or poorly relative to their peers in a given year.
A statewide median SGP will always be approximately 50 because norms are established using the entire state’s sample of test results. However, in some years the median SGP will be higher or lower than 50 because of shifts in statewide performance trends (e.g., the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic).
The first column of sgpData provides the student’s unique identifier, or ID. The next five columns, SS_2013, SS_2014, SS_2015, SS_2016, and SS_2017, provide the scale scores associated with each of the student’s MCAS tests in these five years. sgpData can be sorted by each of these columns to help identify patterns in the student’s growth. However, it is important to note that the first step in interpreting the sgpData is to identify which test and year are being considered. Then the sgpData can be analyzed to determine whether or not the student’s growth is being impacted by the particular circumstances in question.