Somerville 2013 Growth Scores

Somerville schools are starting to show strong quality in terms of student growth.  Growth is a measure of the value added by the school, controlling for the student’s prior performance, as compared with each student’s statewide academic peers.  In this way Chelsea and Wellesley can be measured on a common scale for quality, although their students start in dramatically different places.  A 66 SGP means that 2/3rds of the students in that school grow more than other students statewide with the same previous score.  Growth below 40 is low and should be of concern.  Growth over 60 is high and should be celebrated. 

 As you can see from the table below, all but one subject in one school is now above 50, better than average, and several schools show very high growth and major gains in growth.  Of particular note are the Brown in Math and High School in English, although there are several other high growth scores.  I would also point out that the W Somerville, which had low growth for the past five years, is now showing high growth as well.