Lessons · Teaching · growth against proficiency
Growth against proficiency
Proficiency asks whether a learner has reached a bar; growth asks how far they moved. A class can be low on one and high on the other, and the two questions need two different answers.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
The data meeting shows your class below the bar and you go home certain you have failed. The same class moved further in a year than any other class in the building. Both statements are true, and only one of them is about your teaching.
How to think about it
Put three numbers on the page every time: where they started, where they are now, and where the bar is. Growth is the difference between the first two. Proficiency is the second against the third. Report both or you have reported neither.
Worked example
Autumn 412, spring 476, bar 480Three numbers, always three.
Growth = 476 - 412 = 64 pointsHow far they moved.
Proficiency: 476 is under 480, so not at the barWhere they ended up, against the bar.
Typical growth for the year: 40 pointsSixty-four against a typical forty, and still short of the bar. That is one sentence, not two arguments.
Your turn
A learner scores 388 in autumn and 455 in spring. Write the line that gives the growth.
455 - 388 = points
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Reporting whichever of the two suits the story. A class below the bar with large growth and a class at the bar with none are the two most misread rows in any data meeting.