The Math Formulas Behind High School Teachers' State 20% This Year

As folks who have gone through the process will you, quitting cigarettes is one of the most difficult things a person can try to do. Yesterday, I was able to get through a full day without them. But then I had trouble sleeping. After a few hours of not being able to fall off, I stalked the internet hoping to find something very technical and boring to read, as being bored often helps me sleep. I was lucky enough to find this from NYSED, which explains how my Growth Scores (the state 20% of my performance review) will be calculated at the end of the school year.

I grabbed some screen shots of the math formulas that the state will use to calculate growth scores for high school teachers and thought I'd share some.

Here is the formula used to *calculate* each student's Student Growth Percentile (SGP). 

Here is the formula used to calculate the final score for teachers (our Mean Growth Percentile)

There is actually some good news here. The test scores from each of our students will be placed on  their own bell curve (measured against the test scores of other 'similar' students). That's what all of this crazy math is supposed to be about.

As I alluded to in a separate post, this means that, when considering the state 20%, our performance as teachers will be the result of student performance along several bell curves. So if we find ourselves on the bottom of one bell curve (let's say our students from low-income families with learning disabilities performed poorly that day),  then we may find ourselves closer to the top of another bell curve (let's say our  students from low income families without learning disabilities performed better). This might have the result of everything evening itself out at the end of the day (and by the end of the day, I mean to say our Mean Growth Percentile. I really need to get a better hobby).


No matter though. After reading this, I ran right out to the store and picked up a pack. Oh well. I'll try again in a week or so.