An Explorational Study of Educational Leaders\u27 Attitudes, Opinions, Understanding, and Application of Student Growth Percentile (SGP) Data

Student Growth Percentiles have recently become popular as a way to report student progress over time. Because of the perception that they are relatively simple to understand, they have also become a popular tool to use when evaluating teachers and school-based administrators, even though this is not the purpose of their design. Previous studies have examined the impact of student growth measures on teachers who are evaluated annually with a tool that includes a component of student growth. This study builds on the previous work of Clauser, Keller, and McDermott (2016) and Collins (2014). It examines the actions and opinions of school-based leaders in a suburban school district in Metro Atlanta evaluated with the Georgia Leader Keys Effectiveness System, of which Student Growth Percentiles will be a component beginning in the 2021-2022 school year. Research participants completed an online survey and participated in a semistructured interview to identify what leaders think of these measures, how they utilize these measures in their educational practice, how they interpret these measures, and what decisions they make in response to these measures. The researcher identifies misinterpretations and misunderstandings of how to interpret Student Growth Percentile data and discusses their implications for future leader development. Because this study is limited to a single school district, there are many areas identified for future research