Score:
New Jersey’s plan places a strong weight on student achievement and growth.
It proposes to include a simple measure of student achievement (percent proficient) and a normative growth model (for elementary and middle schools). The state plans to give slightly more weight to academic growth (40-50 percent of a school’s rating) than academic proficiency (30 percent) in the accountability system.
New Jersey deserves credit for pairing its growth model with a clean measure of achievement.
New Jersey’s growth model – Student Growth Percentiles (SGP) – compares the progress students make against their similarly performing peers and converts those scores into percentiles. However, placing such a strong weight on SGP scores could dilute the benefits of having strong state standards if they play a smaller part in school ratings.
