There are 3 key metrics that indicate the progress a student is making. Growth is the most important, with Effort and Accuracy helping to diagnose the cause of low Growth when it occurs.
Effort
Effort is the amount of the teacher-assigned work (a number of modules) that the student completed in the lead up to a test.
Liam was assigned 6 modules by his teacher, and completed 5 of those. So 5 modules were on his test.
His Effort score is 5 out of 6, or 83%.
If a student gets through all the assigned work ahead of time, the teacher is able to add extra modules as a once off. In this case the Effort score can even exceed 100%, as the student completed more work than originally assigned.
Accuracy
Accuracy is the amount of modules that were mastered on the test, compared with the amount completed (not the amount assigned).
Liam had 5 modules on his test. He mastered 4 of those modules.
His Accuracy score is 4 out of 5, or 80%
Note that 80% Accuracy indicates that a student has shown mastery of 80% of those modules. It doesn’t mean they’ve got 80% of the questions right and 20% of the questions wrong.
A student could also complete a minimal number of modules and then, when tested, get all questions correct. This would result in a high Accuracy score, but a low Effort score.
Kate had 1 module on her test, and mastered it. She gets 100% Accuracy, but that score alone doesn't reflect that she completed very little of the work her teacher assigned her.
Growth
A student’s Growth rate is the most important of the 3 metrics, as it reflects the new maths that they’ve mastered over time. It emphasises the value of continual development, as well as building on pre-existing or new knowledge.
Growth rates are based entirely on the number of modules that a student masters on a test. The table below summarises these values:
| Number of Modules Mastered | Growth Rate |
|---|---|
| 0 | 0% |
| 1 | 33% |
| 2 | 67% |
| 3 | 100% |
| 4 | 133% |
| 5 | 167% |
| 6 | 200% |
| 7 | 233% |
| ... | ... |
Liam mastered 4 modules on his test, so his Growth rate for this test is 133%.
If he keeps this up, he'll learn 1.33 curriculum years of maths in this year.
Why might a student’s Growth rate not be high?
- Low effort: If a student is not completing enough of the teacher-assigned work in a fortnight, then they won't be able to learn as much new maths and their Growth rate will be affected.
- High effort, low accuracy: If a student is completing plenty of modules – so they’re putting in a lot of effort – but have low accuracy on the tests, then their growth rate is affected.