Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment MAP Scores Indicating Lack of Challenge?

My DD9, who is in 5th grade, just took her MAP math test yesterday and her score went down from the spring. When she was subject accelerated into 3rd grade math when she was in 2nd grade, her scores were in the mid-90th percentiles for 3rd graders within a semester of the acceleration. When she moved up to 4th grade full-time the next year, she improved from the spring of 3rd to the fall of 4th, but then got the exact same score each of the three times she took the MAP that year (fall, winter, spring). That, of course, means that her percentile went from the 90s down into the 70s. Now, with a 3-point lower score yesterday, her percentile went down to the high 60th percentile.

The thing is, despite the acceleration, she has never been challenged in math, save the first few weeks of the accleration when she actually had to think about a few problems. She routinely scores in the mid- to high-90s in everything math related at school with absolutely no effort. So far this year she's had two math tests and she's gotten an A+ on both of them with no trouble or effort at all.

On the one hand, I don't really care about the MAP tests, especially in light of great state test scores in the spring and in light of her great grades. On the other hand, I worry about two things. One, will her scores this year place her in a lower math group that would be even less challenging to her? And two, does this lack of growth in scores show that she's hurting from a lack of challenge in math?

More importantly, what should I do, if anything? Should I start afterschooling her in math? She's busy with several different activities that challenge her athletically and musically, but she doesn't tend to do anything academic (besides read) outside of school. I don't think we really have anywhere to go with challenging her within the school since she's in 5th grade (the last grade in the building) and we're going to move her to private school next year.

I've e-mailed the teacher -- who think DD is wonderful, btw -- about our general concerns and have asked to talk with her later this week. But I'm just wanting to get your thoughts on this before I talk to her. Thanks for your help!

There is a learning ladder for RIT scores here:
http://www.powayusd.com/projects/edtechcentral/lladder/Default.asp

If she's not being exposed to material at her readiness level at school then I would look at trying to change that or after schooling. Here's a website with Math activities by RIT level:
http://www.sowashco.k12.mn.us/ro/Pages/studentlinks/map/

Here's information about negative growth on the MAP test:
http://www.nwea.org/support/article/554
You may want to ask your daughter if any of it applies in her case. It is just one test and a quick snapshot at that. Do you have any other norm referenced tests to compare? Like you, if I saw that kind of drop in percentiles I'd be asking questions.

We've had this happen with both of our dds. In dd12's instance, she didn't actually show negative growth, but her math RIT score in 4th grade from the fall to the spring went up something like three points when the average was more like 10.

That year, she was placed in a regular 4th grade math class with "enrichment" that entailed me pulling her and any other kids who had scored 80% or better on the pretest for the unit out once/week to do things like suduko puzzles. Dd was the only kid in the class who scored an 80% or better on the pretest for every single unit. Her reading RIT was in the 99th and stayed in the 99th. She makes progress in reading regardless of instruction. For math her RIT in the fall was in the 97th and in the spring was in the 91st.

In her case, I could clearly say that it was due to inadequate instruction that year. She skipped 5th grade the next year and I feel that her math instruction has been adequately challenging since. Math is not her strongest subject so 1 yr of acceleration has been sufficient.

In dd10's instance, her RIT scores have fluctuated wildly. Both math and reading have been somewhere between the 50s to 90s with scores varying by as much as 40 percentiles from the spring to the following fall or vice versa. In her case, I have to say that I don't think that the scores are a very accurate representation of what she knows. We have a lot of theories as to why they move around so much, but I don't really think that it is due to instruction.