Growth on 2019 State Achievement Tests: Empirical Benchmarks and the Role of Scale Choice

Abstract

Benchmarks for “years of learning”–expectations for annual academic growth in standard deviation units–are popular to contextualize the practical significance of a causal effect. Though they are applied in studies using a variety of outcome measures, these benchmarks must be built using vertically scaled test scores. Vertical scales must be established to measure growth across grades, and different scales can lead to different conclusions about how much students grow. This article introduces new benchmarks for annual growth based on 2019 grade 3–8 state achievement tests in math and ELA, which are more appropriate for use in contemporary studies using test scores as an outcome measure than existing benchmarks based on older tests aligned to prior generation standards. While high-level trends in growth are generally consistent between prior studies and the present study, differences do arise that would lead to substantively different conclusions about the practical significance of a causal effect. Based on exploratory analyses of growth differences across 2019 achievement scales, further guidance is provided on when and how to use this type of aggregated benchmark for annual growth.