MEDIA CONTACT: Matt Cardoza, GaDOE Communications Office, (404) 651-7358, mcardoza@gadoe.org
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July 24, 2014 – The Georgia Department of Education today released its Student Growth Model, the metric that will help educators, parents, and other stakeholders better understand and analyze the progress students make year to year. The department is also releasing a web tool, located at gastudentgrowth.gadoe.org, which will allow parents and members of the public to view visualized student-growth data. This data is based on the 2013 school year. Data reflecting 2014 school year student progress will be available in late fall.
The Georgia Student Growth Model (GSGM) will provide students, parents, educators and the public with more in-depth information on student progress. Historically, Georgia’s assessment system has only enabled us to ask certain questions: “What percentage of students met the state standard?” for example, or, “Did more students meet the state standard this year compared to last year?”
The GSGM will allow all stakeholders to take a deeper look at student growth by school and school district, asking questions such as, “Did students in this school grow more or less than academically similar students across the state?” or, “Are students growing as much in math as in reading?”
“The Georgia Student Growth Model is an initiative that will give students, their teachers, their parents, and the public a more complete and comprehensive picture of individual growth,” State Superintendent Dr. John Barge said. “In turn, teachers will be equipped to provide more complete and individualized instruction, and parents will be better prepared to help their students improve areas of weakness. As a result, learning in our public schools should improve.”
The web tool the department is releasing today, located at gastudentgrowth.gadoe.org, will allow parents, educators and members of the public to drill down into student-growth data by district, grade level, student group, assessment, and subject area. Parents will receive individual student-growth reports, and teachers will be able to view individual student-growth data for each of the students they teach. In order to protect student privacy, the public will only have access to aggregate data by district and school.
“In order for this new data to be useful, it has to be available to teachers, administrators, parents and the communities that have a stake in their local schools,” Dr. Barge said. “This tool will make the data produced by the student-growth model visible in a visual, easy-to-navigate manner.”
In addition to its primary purpose – improving teaching and learning by providing an additional way of analyzing student performance – the GSGM is utilized in the College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) for the Progress determination and as one of multiple indicators of educator effectiveness in the Teacher Keys Effectiveness System (TKES) and Leader Keys Effectiveness System (LKES).
More information and resources:
2013 School CRCT Test Growth Data (Excel Spreadsheet)
2013 District CRCT Test Growth Data (Excel Spreadsheet)
2013 State CRCT Test Growth Data (Excel Spreadsheet)
2013 School End-of-Course Test Growth Data (Excel Spreadsheet)
2013 District End-of-Course Test Growth Data (Excel Spreadsheet)
2013 State End-of-Course Test Growth Data (Excel Spreadsheet)
Georgia Student Growth Model Website
Video explaining GSGM
GSGM Overview
GSGM FAQ
Navigating SGP Data Tool
Transitioning the GSGM to the Georgia Milestones Assessment System