Academic Growth

How It Works

Academic growth is fundamentally different from proficiency. While proficiency measures whether a student meets a fixed standard, growth measures how much a student improved from one year to the next. A student who begins third grade reading at a first-grade level and ends the year reading at a second-grade level has shown strong growth, even though they are still below proficiency. Growth models vary by state but generally compare a student's actual progress against expected progress based on students with similar starting points. Value-added models (VAMs) and student growth percentiles (SGPs) are the most common statistical approaches used to measure growth. Schools that consistently produce above-average growth are doing something right instructionally, even if their overall proficiency numbers are modest. OpenSchoolData displays proficiency data alongside enrollment trends so parents can see both where a school is and how its community is responding over time. Growth metrics are also considered more equitable because they give credit to schools serving disadvantaged populations who make significant academic gains.

Related Terms

• Proficiency Rate, The percentage of students at a school who meet or exceed grade-level standards on state-mandated standardized tests in reading and math.
• School Data Profile, The collection of real federal data OpenSchoolData presents for each school, including NCES enrollment, demographics, student-teacher ratio, and EDFacts proficiency and graduation rates.
• Achievement Gap, Persistent differences in academic performance between student groups defined by race, ethnicity, income, disability status, or English proficiency, one of the most studied problems in American education.
• School Accountability, The system by which schools and districts are held responsible for student outcomes, including state ratings, improvement plans, and potential interventions for chronically low-performing schools.