Student Growth Percentile Calculator

A Student Growth Percentile (SGP) is a measure of how much a student has grown academically compared to their academic peers — other students across the state or district who had similar prior test score histories. SGPs range from 1 to 99. A student with an SGP of 60 grew as much as or more than 60% of their academic peers in the same subject.

A regular test percentile ranks a student's score against all students at the same grade level at a single point in time. An SGP, by contrast, measures growth by comparing a student only to peers who started from a similar score baseline. This makes SGPs a fairer measure of progress because they account for where a student began.

An SGP of 50 means the student demonstrated growth equal to or greater than half of their academic peers who had comparable prior scores. A score near 50 represents typical or median growth. Scores above 50 indicate above-average growth, while scores below 50 indicate below-average growth relative to similar peers.

Generally, an SGP between 35 and 65 is considered typical or adequate growth. SGPs of 66 or higher are considered above average or high growth, while SGPs of 34 or below are considered below average or low growth. Some state frameworks define specific cut points for adequate yearly progress toward proficiency.

SGPs are most commonly calculated for Math and ELA (English Language Arts) because those subjects are tested annually across consecutive grades, enabling year-over-year comparisons. Some states also calculate SGPs for Science and Social Studies depending on their testing schedules.

SGPs measure growth, which by definition requires at least two data points — a starting score and an ending score. The prior year score is used to identify academic peers (students with similar performance histories), and the current year score determines how much the student grew relative to those peers.

Yes, SGPs are widely used in educator effectiveness systems and school accountability frameworks. When aggregated across a classroom or school, they produce a Median SGP (MSGP) that reflects the typical growth of a teacher's students or a school's population. However, they should be interpreted alongside other measures and contextual factors.

The growth z-score used in this calculator measures how far a student's score change is from the peer group's average score change, expressed in standard deviations. The SGP converts this z-score into a percentile rank using the normal distribution, making it easier to interpret — an SGP of 84 corresponds roughly to a z-score of +1.0.