Thanks for the response. So you are saying that the test is achievement-based, but only relative to grade level material (or at least a given band of grades). But the MAP test is adaptive, so that as questions are answered correctly, they get more difficult. I thought that "more difficult" meant introducing new topics, from higher grade levels, but on your account it just means asking more difficult questions within a grade level (or band of grade levels). I found out that my daughter was given the K-2 test, so she wouldn't have encountered any new topics, just harder problems about the topics she's covered in class. If that's the case, then it does seem as if the MAP test is not really charting the limits of her knowledge, but rather just indicates her aptitude at applying grade level knowledge.
I'm now wondering how well her teachers really understand the nature of this test. On the basis of her math score, as well as her reading ability (she is reading at about 7th grade level, with a lexile reading score of 1150, MAP score of 225) her teachers are recommending that she skip third grade. But if the MAP math test just measures how good she is at K-2 math, that would seem to be a very bad idea, as she would have to grasp fourth grade math concepts without having first learned third grade ones.
At the same time, the test might well indicate that she picks up math skills very quickly and thoroughly. So maybe some acceleration is in order?
