Using growth measures, in addition to standardized test scores, offers a more complete approach to understanding student performance than relying on test scores alone. Since the use of “Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)”as defined under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) only reflects how schools, CMOs and districts perform at one point in time, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) has decided to introduce a growth measure to the school accountability framework.

To measure student achievement growth for schools, CMOs and districts, Illinois uses a value table model. Student growth is determined by the performance of the students within a school, CMO, or district from one year to the next year. The amount of growth is then assigned a set value based on the value table. (For the explanation of how growth values are assigned, see the section on “Calculating the Student Academic Growth Value” by clicking View Details).

All of the students’ scores in a given school are added together and divided by the total number of students in the school to obtain an average growth metric. The same process applies to the CMO or district growth metric with all of the students’ scores for the CMO or district averaged to obtain the growth metric.

For more information about the Value Table Model click on http://www.isbe.state.il.us/GMWG/pdf/gmvt-fact-sheet-0813.pdf

• New Growth Model Using Value Tables (Illinois State Board of Education)

• Frequently Asked Questions - Value Table Growth Model (Illinois State Board of Education)

• Growth Models – An Update on the Effectiveness of Determining Student Progress and School Accountability (National Education Association)