The Georgia Student Growth Model (GSGM) is being implemented for instructional improvement, accountability, and educator effectiveness. Historically, Georgia’s assessment system has only enabled educators and other stakeholders to ask questions such as “What percentage of students met the state standard?” Or, “Did more students meet the state standard this year compared to last year?” The GSGM will allow Georgia to move beyond questions about status to ask critical growth-related questions such as:
Did this student grow more or less than academically-similar students?
Are students growing as much in math as in reading?
Are students on track to reach or exceed proficiency?
The GSGM will provide a wealth of rich information on student, school, district, and state performance on Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCTs) and End of Course Tests (EOCTs). In addition to providing student-level diagnostic information and improving teaching and learning, the GSGM will work in conjunction with other factors as part of the state’s new accountability system, the College and Career Readiness Performance Index (CCRPI), and serve as one of multiple indicators of educator effectiveness with the Teacher Keys Effectiveness System (TKES) and the Leader Keys Effectiveness System (LKES).
What is the Georgia Student Growth Model (GSGM)?
A growth model describes change in student achievement across time. A growth model becomes value-added when the growth is attributed to an entity (a teacher, a school, etc.). In many models, the value-added is the difference between predicted performance and actual performance. These models use information about a student (prior achievement, demographic information, etc.) to predict how that student will perform. The student’s actual performance is compared to his or her predicted performance. The difference is considered value-added. The Georgia Student Growth Model does not predict performance; rather, it describes observed student growth.
Georgia is implementing the Student Growth Percentile (SGP) methodology as its growth model. SGPs describe a student’s growth relative to other students statewide with similar prior achievement (students who have a similar score history). An SGP not only shows how an individual student is progressing from year to year, but it also shows how groups of students, schools, districts, and the state are progressing. SGPs do not require a vertical scale in order to describe student growth. Students will receive a growth percentile, which describes his or her “rank” on current achievement relative to other students with similar score histories. Growth percentiles range from 1 to 99, with lower percentiles indicating lower academic growth and higher percentiles indicating higher academic growth. Students also receive growth projections and growth targets, which describe the amount of growth needed to reach or exceed proficiency in subsequent years.
Educators can access growth model results via the GSGM Visualization Tool, which is available in the Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS). Because it contains student-level information, it is secure and only accessible to educators. Public access to growth model results will be available through the College and Career Readiness Performance Index (CCRPI).
How will the GSGM be utilized?
The primary purpose of the GSGM is to improve teaching and learning by providing an additional way of analyzing student performance. Additionally, the GSGM will be utilized in the College and Career Readiness Performance Index (CCRPI) and the Teacher and Leader Keys Effectiveness Systems (TKES and LKES).