PVAAS

Understanding the Growth Standard

The growth standard is denoted by the dotted line in the center of the growth color indicator bar. Conceptually, growth is simply the difference between students' entering achievement and exiting achievement. If students maintain their entering achievement over time, then the growth measure is zero (or close to zero). Zero represents the growth standard. Positive growth measures are evidence that students made more than the growth standard, and negative growth measures are evidence that students made less than the growth standard.

The growth standard signifies the minimum amount of academic growth that educators should expect a group of students to make as they move from one grade to the next in a specified subject area. In general, this signifies appropriate, expected academic growth. Simply put, the expectation is that regardless of their entering achievement, students served by each LEA/district, school, or teacher should at least make enough growth to maintain their achievement relative to other students. This is a reasonable target for educators who serve all types of students.

• In the growth standard methodology, the growth standard means that students maintained the same position with respect to the in the reference group student achievement that year.

• In the predictive methodology, the growth standard means that students made the same amount of growth as students with the average district or school in the reference group for that same year, subject, and grade.

Both models define the growth standard based on the empirical student testing data; in other words, they do not assume a particular amount of growth or assign the growth standard in advance of the assessment being taken by students. Both models use an intra-year approach to measuring growth and defining the growth standard. This means that the growth standard is always relative to how students' achievement has changed in the most recent year of testing rather than a fixed year in the past.