Data SGP is an information database about student development. As an effective teaching tool, SGP analyses can assist educators with pinpointing issues of student achievement; however, performing analyses on such an extensive dataset can be daunting and require significant amounts of data that is difficult to manage; in order to overcome this barrier it’s vital that one understands how the database operates and its uses.
First step of using data SGP is preparing it for analysis. This involves clearing away unnecessary information from databases and making them more easily readable – often time consuming process that often needs the assistance of data analysts. Next comes evaluating its educational value to improve student performance.
SGP compares student growth against that of their academic peers across the nation, using both their most recent Star assessment and one prior test from another testing window (Fall, Winter or Spring). SGP allows educators to assess students based on how much growth is necessary to meet achievement targets or meet other goals they set themselves.
SGP also can identify low achieving students and inform the development of interventions to accelerate their development. Furthermore, SGP provides an accurate picture of what students require in order to reach grade level so that achievement goals and targets can be more clearly articulated.
Even though SGP is used widely by teachers, there remain several misconceptions about its uses and limitations. Many people may perceive data SGP as an expensive and time-consuming way of analysing student growth; it is important to remember this isn’t always true and that investing in data SGP for educational improvement could yield substantial returns.
The SGP database consists of two tables, sgpData and sgpData_INSTRUCTOR_NUMBER, that provide unique identifiers for every student enrolled, while sgpData_INSTRUCTOR_NUMBER contains insturctor information associated with each test record for that student. Furthermore, it includes an anonymized list of teachers who have taught each student within each content area – though teachers can potentially teach multiple students in any given year.
Data SGP has become the standard method for measuring student growth in the US, but it still has some drawbacks. Although its name implies otherwise, most SGP analyses can be performed on simple relational databases due to relatively smaller datasets involved compared to global Facebook interactions for instance. Although much effort goes into preparation of SGP data correctly and on-time analysis may result in misleading or inaccurate results if preparation steps are missed – failing this task could result in inaccurate and misleading analysis results.