MAP
NWEA MAP Assessment
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 It takes more than a measure of height to track your child’s growth. You probably use many different kinds of measures – a bathroom scale, birthday pictures, and increasing clothing sizes as your child has grown and matured. Classroom test scores and ACT are not the only evaluation Mundelein High School uses to measure progress of your child. MHS also uses the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment.
No single test can give a full picture of your child’s knowledge and skills. The MAP assessment provides one measure of the whole picture. MHS is beginning its third year using this assessment to determine how your child is progressing. MAP is a computerized adaptive test that tailors the test to a student’s achievement level based on the abilities of each individual student. The computerized system adjusts the difficulty level of the questions based on the pattern of correct and incorrect answers. From the scores, teachers can see where strengths and deficiencies lie with each student. Using these scores, teachers and students can work together to strengthen and improve those skills that need reinforcement.
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Student Population
Primarily, Mundelein High School uses MAP testing for all students who have Individual Education Plans (IEP) and 9th grade students entering at the Introduction to Algebra or English 1 Essentials course. Testing typically will occur in September and April. However, an additional test window can be utilized in January if necessary. Students taking MAP tests may be assessed in mathematics, reading, or language usage.
Student Score Range and RIT Score
MAP assessments provide an RIT (Rasch Unit) student score range for your child and is a measure of individual achievement. You will notice there is a score range of three points on either side of the RIT score with the actual RIT score in bold print. The range indicates the possible variation in the RIT score that would be likely if the MAP assessment was taken again in a reasonably close time period.
District Average RIT and Norm Group Average
The district average RIT score indicates the average score of all students taking the test in District 120. The norm group average indicates the average score of all students in the nation at the same grade level taking the test at the same time of the year. The national norms include results from more than 3 million students in school districts representing all 50 states and 29 countries.
Student Growth/Typical Growth
Once MHS has a full year of growth to assess, you will see an indicator of student growth and typical growth in the RIT score compared to the RIT score from the testing session a year ago. Just as a doctor has a chart showing the most common height of people at certain ages, the typical growth is a comparison of other students in the nation in the same grade at the same time.
Student Percentile Range
The percentile range that is indicated on the Student Progress Report tells you how your child is doing compared nationally to other students in the same grade. For example, if your 9th grader has a percentile score of 81% in math, your child scored better than 81% of 9th graders nationally who have taken the MAP test.
Goals Performance
You will notice that both math and reading have goal performance indicators that provide even further information on how your child performed in the various goal areas tested for each subject area. The goal area performance indicators help you and your child’s teacher get a picture of your child’s strengths and areas needing more attention.
The Lexile range is located in the reading section of his/her report. A Lexile text measure is a value assigned to a book. This value is based on the difficulty level and the sentence length. A Lexile does not take into account whether the content of a book would be appropriate for your child, so a Lexile cannot be the only factor in selecting books. The Lexile range provides information on the difficulty of text that can be understood by the child 75% of the time. Lexile scores are reported in 150 point ranges.
Lexiles are helpful because targeting reading material to your child’s reading level improves comprehension and motivation. The Lexile range helps identify text that is "just right" for your reader. However, it is important to note that text that is "too easy" or "too hard" may be okay for a targeted purpose or for the opportunity for your child to simply be free to select books that seem interesting or fun to read.
Text that is below the Lexile range or "too easy" may be used on occasion to build fluency (speed and accuracy) or when reading high-interest materials for fun and relaxation or even for a specific instructional purpose. Text that is above the Lexile ronge3 or "too hard" may be used when you read to your child to develop listening comprehension and provide exposure to difficult content and concepts. Also, it may be fine for a child to stretch and try something hard because the topic is so interesting. Text that is "just right" or within the Lexile range is best used for instruction and independent reading. Your child will understand most of what he reads, but still be challenged to learn new vocabulary and practice comprehension skills.
More information on Lexile can be found at: www.lexile.com
QUESTIONS
For additional information regarding MAP testing, contact:
Anthony Kroll at (847) 949-2200 ext. 1326