Located on 160 acres of cattle pasture and wheat fields southeast of Lamont, Oklahoma, the SGP observatory is comprised of an extensive network of sensors that collect data from Earth’s surface, troposphere, and stratosphere. The site’s heavily instrumented Central Facility and smaller, unstaffed observatories offer high-quality atmospheric observations for scientists to use in a variety of applications from single observation analyses to multi-observation process studies to assimilation into Earth system models.
The SGP pool site provides a unique opportunity for researchers to collaborate on projects that utilize atmospheric, hydrological, geophysical and biological data. The facility is home to more than 20 different research groups from around the world, and offers an excellent venue for international scientific meetings and conferences.
Each year, a team of more than 50 professional and support staff oversee the operation of the SGP observatory, providing continuous monitoring of key atmospheric variables as well as access to the data from instruments on-site and at remote locations throughout the state. SGP staff also work to ensure that the data are incorporated into Earth systems models and that the results from model simulations are accurate and relevant to the real-world conditions experienced by our citizens.
A graphical depiction of a student’s academic progress that shows how much they have grown over time, relative to their peers with similar achievement history. SGPs range from 1 to 99 and are interpreted like percentile ranks, where higher percentages indicate that students are growing at a faster rate than academically-similar peers.
In addition to its ability to provide educators with a more detailed picture of a student’s performance, SGPs also help schools communicate the complexity of official state achievement targets/goals by clearly showing how much growth must occur in order for a student to reach their goal within a specified timeframe. This is especially helpful for schools in states that require a minimum amount of time to reach proficiency.
SGPs are often preferred by policymakers and practitioners over another statistical measurement of teacher effectiveness, value-added models (VAM), because they are more intuitive to interpret. Ranking students of similar baseline academic performance based on how much they grew in the year is easy for educators and parents to understand.
Educators and data teams can review individual SGPs, grade-level SGPs, and district/school-wide SGPs to identify students that need more support or those that are on track to meet their goals. SGPs can be used as a part of the teacher learning objectives (SLOs) process and can inform educator evaluations.