Growth of Student Groups

There are two ways to view information on this report. You can View Growth by Subject Area or View Growth by Student Group for an individual district or school. Each table shows a subject or student group depending on which tab you select. Each row shows growth across all tests, grades, and courses for a subject or student group depending on which tab you select. Expand the rows to show growth by test, grade, or course. Each row displays the growth measure, standard error, index, and level where available.

You can expand or collapse the information in the table. To see all information in one table, click Expand at the top of the table. To see all information in each row, click the arrow beside the student group or subject.

Technical Details

This report is only available for some subjects. Contact EVAAS Technical Support to request a list of the subjects that are included.

This report provides district value-added measures for specific student groups, for example, students who are economically disadvantaged and students who are English Learners. In North Carolina, the student groups for which district value-added measures are available are:

• Academically or Intellectually Gifted
• American Indian/Alaskan Native
• Asian/Pacific Islander
• Black (not Hispanic)
• Economically Disadvantaged
• English Learners
• Hispanic
• Students with Disabilities
• Two or more races
• White (not Hispanic)

For Math 3, the only students included in this report are those included in the SAG composite.

The EOG row in each table is the overall growth index that combines EOG growth measures across grades for that student group and subject.

The EOC row in each table is the overall growth index that combines EOC growth measures for that student group and subject.

The collapsed row of each table is a growth index that combines EOG and EOC growth measures for that student group and subject.

When viewing growth by student group, there is an overall row at the bottom of each student group. This is the overall growth index that combines growth measures for that student group across all subject areas.

The minimum number of students required for the calculation of growth for a student group is the same as the general value-added reporting. There must be at least six students for the gain model or 10 students for the predictive model with sufficient testing history in a student group in a specific year, subject, and grade to receive a growth measure in that year, subject, and grade. The across-grades measures are calculated using the same thresholds for the minimum number of students. A user will not see a row for a group if there is not enough data available to provide a measure.

The same rules for excluding students from other value-added reports also apply to this report. These rules are described in Statistical Models and Business Rules.

A list of students for each student group is not available within this report. Many of the student groups can be found by selecting Student Search from the Reports menu and choosing Who last tested in along with the grade, race, and demographic.

Students are placed in groups based on data from their EOG or EOC assessments with some exceptions.

Understanding the Report

The model we use to calculate growth measures depends on the assessments administered. Concept of Growth provides additional details.

Growth Measure

Each growth measure is a conservative estimate of the academic growth the students made, on average, in a grade and subject or course. Because the growth measures are estimates, consider their associated standard errors as you interpret the values.

The growth measure is calculated differently for assessments analyzed with the gain model than it is for other assessments.

See also: Measuring Growth.

Standard Error

All growth measures on the EVAAS reports are estimates. All estimates have some amount of measurement error, which is known as the standard error. This value defines a confidence band around the growth measure, which describes how strong the evidence is that the group of students exceeded, met, or fell short of expected growth.

For more information about standard errors, see Growth Measures and Standard Errors.

Calculating the Growth Index

The standard error is used in conjunction with the growth measure to calculate the growth index. Specifically, the growth index is the growth measure divided by its standard error. This calculation yields a robust measure of growth for the group of students that reflects both the growth and the amount of evidence. All index values are on the same scale and can be compared fairly across years, grades, and subjects throughout the state.

For some of the overall growth indices, a corresponding growth measure and standard error might not be possible. A user will not see a row for a group if there is not enough data available to provide a measure.

Growth Indicators

The Level column is color-coded to aid in interpretation. The colors indicate how strong the evidence is that the student group exceeded, met, or fell short of expected growth.

The legend at the bottom of the report provides guidance for interpreting the colors.