Last updated: June 22nd, 2025

Contents

  • Summary
  • Highlights
  • Median Student Growth Percentiles interactive charts
  • Median Student Growth Percentiles interactive data table

Summary

Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs) as defined by the OSPI:

“Washington uses student growth percentiles (SGPs) to measure growth in students’ Math and English Language Arts skills from one grade to the next. Student growth percentiles compare students in the same grade level with similar scores in previous years and measures their performance relative to those students.”

Median Student Growth Percentiles (mSGP):

“The median growth percentile summarizes student growth percentiles by district, school, grade level, or other group of interest. The median is calculated by ordering individual student growth percentiles from lowest to highest, and identifying the middle score, which is the median.”

Interpreting Median Student Growth Percentiles:

While not a perfect measurement, an mSGP above 50 infers that, on average, students in that group are growing (in the selected academic subject) more than their academic peers.

An mSGP below 50 infers that, on average, students are growing less than their academic peers.

If a school district has an mSGP of 70, that means that 50% of the students at that district have SGPs greater than 70% of their academic peers across the state.

In Washington State, while school districts have the SGP (Math and ELA) information for each student each fall when SBA results for the year are available from the OSPI, school districts have the option of sharing that SGP information with parents for their children.

As of this writing, 24 states use SGP as part of their measurements of student progress. Massachusetts for example uses SGP. But they use the average instead of median when aggregating for school districts. Massachusetts also charts their Average Student Growth Percentile against Percent of Students Meeting or Exceeding Proficiency Standards.

Massachusetts Average Student Growth Percentile

More information:

OSPI SGP FAQ

OSPI SGP Video Explaining The SGP

Highlights

For the 2023-2024 school year, for WA school districts with 200 or more students, the top 5 performing school districts as measured by the Median Student Percentile for Math are:

County, District, Median SGP Math

  • King, Rainier Prep Charter School, 77
  • Yakima, Union Gap, 64
  • King, Impact Salish Sea Elementary, 64
  • Mason, Hood Canal, 63
  • King, Vashon Island, 63

For the 2023-2024 school year, for school districts with 200 or more students, the top 5 performing school districts as measured by the Median Student Percentile for ELA are:

County, District, Median SGP ELA

  • King, Rainier Prep Charter School, 70.5
  • Mason, Southside, 67
  • Yakima, Union Gap, 65.5
  • Pend Oreille, Cusick, 65
  • Lewis, White Pass, 64

The OSPI publishes mSGP data by student group for each district in their online district report cards. The figure below shows mSGP student group data for 2 school districts: the Seattle SD which has one of the highest overall mSGPs, and the Vancouver SD which has one of the lowest overall mSGPs for large school districts.

OSPI Online Report Cards

mSGP data by student group

As with other SGP studies in other states, the WA State SGP data clearly shows the weak negative correlation between mSGP and the percentage of low income students at a school district.

Comments on the mSGP student group data:

  • The Gender X students in the Seattle SD are improving in their academics at a faster pace than their peers.
  • Asian students (and their parents) put a heavy emphasis on education and working towards a long range goal.
  • English Language Learners are having to learn basic and sometimes remedial English while they try to learn the next level ELA and mathematics.
  • Highly capable kids learn quickly and continually when given the chance to thrive. That is why they are highly capable. Keep in mind that students designated as highly capable (as part of admissions to highly capable programs) already scored in the 95th percentile on previous academic tests. So their SGP academic peers across the state, by definition, also scored in the extreme high end of tests. Many of the SGP academic peers of each highly capable student therefore are likely to also be highly capable students at other school districts.
  • Being homeless makes it difficult to keep up.
  • Non-low income students are more likely to have 2 college educated parents at home who can provide built-in tutoring 24/7 to not only help their children keep pace but to excel.
  • Students without disabilities have fewer problems to overcome.

Median SGP interactive charts

2023-2024 Median SGP ELL all districts

Other charts

2023-2024 Median SGP interactive data table