Can two different students with the same MCAS scaled score test histories have different student growth percentiles?
Yes. This can happen for at least two reasons. First, the growth calculation takes into account a student’s entire MCAS test score history, not just that of the previous year. Therefore, two students could have the same scaled scores in 2008 but different scaled scores in 2007 or earlier and therefore receive the same student growth percentile. Second, the student growth percentile metric is calculated from a transformation of the raw scores that underlie the scaled scores, not the scaled scores themselves. As many as five different raw scores can translate into the same scaled score, especially for students at the Warning/Failing and Advanced performance levels. Students with the same scaled score history may not have the same raw scores and therefore would not receive the same student growth percentiles. • If the median growth of my district’s African-American subgroup is 59, does this mean that the average African-American student in my district grew at a faster rate than 59 percent
Yes. This can happen for at least two reasons. First, the growth calculation takes into account a student’s entire MCAS test score history, not just that of the previous year. Therefore, two students could have the same scaled scores in 2010 but different scaled scores in 2009 or earlier and therefore receive the same student growth percentile. Second, the student growth percentile metric is calculated from a transformation of the raw scores that underlie the scaled scores, not the scaled scores themselves. As many as five different raw scores can translate into the same scaled score, especially for students at the Warning/Failing and Advanced performance levels. Students with the same scaled score history may not have the same raw scores and therefore would not receive the same student growth percentiles.
Related Questions
- Which students get growth percentiles, and which student growth percentiles are included in a school or district median?
- Are all students with student growth percentiles included in the bubble for a district/school/other group?
- Can two students with different score histories have the same student growth percentiles?
