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Arizona Growth ModelWhy is this Data Unique?
Currently the Arizona Department of Education tracks and provides a snapshot of overall student achievement; however, The Arizona Growth Model provides more accurate information than a one-shot picture. The Arizona Growth Model measures student progress from one year to the next in the context of a student's “academic peers.” The Arizona Growth Model compares each student's performance to students in the same grade throughout Arizona who had similar AIMS scores in past years and calculates a growth percentile. Students are compared to themselves from year to year so the results are not skewed by income levels, parental involvement, race or gender. Growth percentiles use multiple years of a student’s test scores to show how each student is progressing from year to year and to estimate the student’s expected future academic performance. This enables teachers to act now on timely data, rather than looking at test results long after the school year ends and it is too late to help students. Why is This Data Important?
The Arizona Growth Model shines a spotlight on Arizona’s most effective schools – district and charter – that produce the highest sustained academic rates of growth in students. This helps parents, schools and policymakers to focus on quality schools moving students academically forward and those schools that may need intervention as students struggle to learn and understand state standards in math and reading.
How Can Teachers and Schools Use the Growth Model?
Teachers and schools can determine if a student made typical growth compared to students with similar growth patterns in a year. They can spot a student’s weak areas in order to give the student extra help so he or she can meet state standards. Looking at year-to-year results in math and reading, teachers can spot trends in a student’s learning so they can encourage more, faster growth or act quickly to stop a downward drift. It also allows teachers to identify students that may be scoring low but have grown dramatically in the past – requiring different strategies than a student with low, flat scores. Teachers and schools can also answer the following questions:
How Can Parents Use the Growth Model? A parent can see if their child is making appropriate progress or if their child needs additional assistance. For example, the chart below shows a current fifth grade student. This child’s progress in math shows that he was scoring low in math in third grade. The child did not improve enough in fourth grade to pass AIMS, and still will need to receive extra help to pass AIMS in the future. These charts help parents provide the targeted focus in the child’s area of weakness. How can Arizona as a State or its Policymakers Use the Growth Model? The student-level data provided by the growth model can be summarized at the school level to provide policy-makers and other interested groups with a school average growth. When viewed over multiple years, policy-makers and parents can identify schools that are consistently strong in growing their student’s level of knowledge, or those that are consistently weak. The Arizona State Board for Charter Schools has been a pioneer in using the growth model to hold charter schools accountable for improving student achievement. What Data is Used in the Growth Model?
The growth model uses the yearly AIMS scale score for every student in the state. This volume of data allows for clear patterns in student level growth to be compared across individuals. This is the highest level of detail in any other growth model used nationally, to date. The Arizona growth model is a replication of the Colorado growth model, developed by Damian Betebenner of the National Center for Assessment, and used for state-wide accountability. Colorado and Massachusetts have also adopted this growth model for its statewide system. |
