Growth Targets
A major benefit of a longitudinal data system is the opportunity to measure an individual student's academic growth. Growth targets can be developed to describe typical or anticipated growth over a period of time from the normative data. When derived from an assessment system of compatible tests given in consecutive grades, it becomes possible to identify how much growth a student typically makes across set intervals of time. For example, growth targets can be used to set learning goals for a below-proficient student to increase the odds of reaching proficiency. Growth targets can also be used to encourage schools to pay attention to advanced students who have already met proficiency standards and design appropriately challenging instruction.
Percentage of Students Who Met or Exceeded Their Target RIT Versus Overall Percentage of Target RIT Met or Exceeded
The “Percentage of Students who Met or Exceeded their Target RIT” simply represents the percentage of students who have a “yes” marked under the Target Met column. In other words, in a class of 20 students, if 10 met or exceeded their target RIT the percentage would be 50%. This statistic is related to individual student growth. The statistic for “Overall Percentage of Target RIT Met or Exceeded,” however, is related to how the class as a whole performed. It’s best explained with an example: if the class had as its goal to jump two feet in the standing long jump by the end of the year and each member of the class did indeed jump two feet, then they achieved 100% of their goal. If, however, the average jump for all class members was three feet it would be 150% of their goal.