Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment MAP: Can You Have Artificial "Good Day" Score?

Hello all-

I've got a question about understanding the reading portion of a MAP score. I've seen plenty of people talk about having a bad day taking the MAP test. Can someone have a "good" day that gets them an artificially high score that they really shouldn't have? Maybe the score doesn't mean what it appears? Maybe a high score of 98% isn't high like a parent would think?

My DD took the MAP at the beginning of school this year. She got a 207 in reading in the 98th percentile. For second grade reading they want them going from level J-L. She was put in level K and didn't move. At conference, I saw her scores, but moreover, saw what they were reading and knew it was way too low. I demanded a reading group change to which the teacher said she would need to do a DRA which resulted in a move to level L (only 1 level) and a comment that she needed alot of work on comprehension.

I don't understand what's happening between the MAP score, DRA, and group placement. It seems like the MAP score doesn't mean anything this year. How can someone score high on the MAP but be in a lower reading group? Does MAP mean anything? Why is there such a divergence between MAP and the DRA?

I'm writing this because for the first time, I'm worried about reading. The teacher has stated my daughter is not in a high group and they were even making her go to an outside reading group for remediation which she said embarrassed her. I don't understand what is happening at the school and with all the knowledgable people on here I wanted to see what others thought. Is this gross incompetence? Or does this happen all the time? The school doesn't allow parent volunteers and doesn't send home any outside work so I didn't really know what was happening until conference. Since then I have felt very uneasy.

On any multiple choice test which does not penalize for incorrect answers, individuals may score higher than their actual knowledge. This is done by lucky guessing. This can be pure random chance or test-taking strategy. Sometimes an individual is able to eliminate one or more possible answers and increase the likelihood of guessing the correct answer. Some have said this indicates the individual knew something related to the question... for example, this may reflect vocabulary or random knowledge. Here is an article on "testwiseness" (link- http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Testwiseness_in_educational_psychology). Remember a test score is just one measure on one day, and can be influenced by many factors, including the child's interest in the topic of the reading material.

A teacher comment may be meant rather generically, for example, there may be a list of 4 or 5 areas of growth which apply to most pupils. Pupils may also score lower on reading material which is not of interest to them. That being said, you may wish to find out how your child's "comprehension" is being assessed? For example, is it computer-based multiple-choice questions? Is comprehension tested by "retelling?" Here are two stories you may wish to consider...
1) One family learned that the teacher's "comprehension questions" came with a grading key on which the teacher would tick off words which the child recited from the text verbatim. If a child put the story into their own words (for example, saying "pig" in place of "piggy", "rabbit" or "hare" for "bunny", "swiftly" or "quickly" for "fast") the child received a poor score for essentially demonstrating understanding/comprehension/vocabulary rather than rote memorization. It was not explained to the child that he needed to remember the story words exactly and say them back to the teacher... this was a "comprehension" test: tell me what happened in the story you just read.
2) One family learned that their child elaborated, theorized, and thought deeply about the reasons why each character may have done what they did, other things they may have done instead, how he thought the author would be leading to one ending, and felt that may have been better than the ending which the author chose... etc.

Obviously both of these kids were "beyond" in their comprehension of what they read. Some may say the test was flawed... or the testing conditions were flawed in not setting parameters proactively, for the child to keep in mind when discussing the story.

Another thought to consider, because you mention second grade: Some parents have learned interesting information when asking a teacher's view on whether children even out by third grade. Is it possible the teacher is directed to ensure that children even out by third grade? There are things which a teacher may do to influence the performance of the top pupils to even out.
1) Evening out can be accomplished by undermining a child, mocking achievement, encouraging underachievement. One example may be inducing guilt or shame by asking a non-competitive child who just happens to be at the top of the class (whether they know it or not), "Why do you always have to be number one?" Withholding earned awards, selectively withholding praise, making negative comparisons to others can be effective for this purpose while also damaging children.
2) Evening out can appear to have occurred by fostering conditions which allow lower subjective grading.

Most likely, it is just a normal fluctuation... remember a test score is just one measure on one day, and a single comment made in passing may be meant rather generically, to be taken lightly. Asking a few simple questions to help explore your child's interest in the reading material, how the comprehension is assessed, whether the teacher is encouraging your child's progress and success, and understanding the teacher's view on whether children even out by third grade may help you determine how to support your child's reading comprehension at home, as well as whether any advocacy may be needed to request a few specific changes with the school.

What does she read (easily and for fun) at home? Take at a look at that and try to level it:

http://www.readinga-z.com/readinga-z-levels/level-correlation-chart/

http://www.lexile.com/findabook/

Sometimes reading comprehension questions are very stupid and bad. If she was given a short and terrible assessment, it could have been off.

Can you ask for a list of comprehension questions to review with her? Also be sure to ask what kind of answers they want the kids to give - extremely detailed, or are they supposed to give broader answers. Learning the type of answers they want is very important. Is she supposed to be writing about the books? Couch your request as "we want to work with you by working with her at home on the same skills she is learning at school."

At second grade level in our school, the kids are expected to go from retelling what happened in detail to talking more about the characters and the setting, and explaining the plot in broader terms than before. They are expected to begin to do some analysis, at a very low level.

One of my sons had a lot of trouble in K with reading because he wasn't paying attention to the material during the DRA assessment, and didn't know he was supposed to retell every page in detail. Then he developed anxiety about the assessments because he knew he wasn't passing, and it got even worse. However, once I figured out what he was supposed to be doing, I was able to teach it to him in 10 minutes.

Our school sends home the list of comprehension questions/items that they are tested on to move to the next level, so that we can practice at home.

Sounds like they used the DRA for the comprehension.

Is your school a title 1 school? If it is you have the absolute right to volunteer. I can't imagine (other than the cost of the background checks) why title 1 school law demands that schools have home/school connection and volunteerism and then a school down the street can prohibit volunteers. If I were not welcome on campus, I would pull my son out. I think I would have to go higher up the food chain to find out the TRUE policy about volunteers.

I know my son comprehends all the books he reads. Our house is like living in a perpetual book club. My boys request that we read their favorite books and then we all have to talk about them. Sometimes the two boys are reading the same book and having in depth discussions about plot, motivation, what is to come next in the series, what they would have done differently, meanings of symbolism, etc. like other kids talk about the big game. If a teacher tells me his comprehension is low (which they did in 1st grade) I just have to chuckle. We also sometimes still read together at night...he reads one page and I read the next...and immediately discuss words, imagery, etc.

So my son reads 4th and 5th grade level selections in reading class and hopefully they work on his comprehension. Then he reads 6th, 7th and up books for pleasure. He just devours them and has absolutely no problem understanding what he is reading.

My son's best friend is a 6 year old girl in his class. My son is very advanced and got placed in a reading group all by himself because there were no others at his level. The girl, his friend, who is probably more advanced than him in my opinion was placed in a very low level reading group. When the parents told the teacher that she was reading Geronimo Stilton books at 5 years old, the teacher was very surprised. This girl is very quiet and is not forthcoming or wants to speak out - she is just a very quiet and thoughtful little girl. The teacher said that she does a periodic assessment of kids to place them in groups for reading - and the girl in question was not answering anything when the assessment was happening - because she was not the kind of kid who would speak out in a crowd. So, the teacher said that because of the lack of any other information regarding her comprehension abilities, she placed her in a low level group.
So, please check if your daughter is answering the teacher when the comprehension questions are asked. Let her also know that it is important to answer those questions to the fullest of her abilities. I believe that your daughter is showing her true comprehension abilities in the MAP test and hiding it when there is an oral comprehension test.
Ask the teacher to retest your child - in support of your request, make her work on a comprehension exercise at home on a popular book at your child's real level and take it to the teacher as proof.
Good luck.

I'm not familiar with MAP so can't really speak to it, but fwiw I agree with the others above who've suggested it could be related to having to answer questions orally if it was the DRA. We also found in the early grades that when DRA assessments were used the person administering them didn't always keep going - they would stop when they thought it was an ok place to stop, even though our ds could have successfully continued through many more levels. Another thing that can happen is an off-day - we didn't ever know when our kids would be assessed, and one day in 1st grade ds' teacher caught me at pickup to tell me how incredibly well ds had done on his reading assessment that day. I wasn't really at all concerned about levels, but my automatic response was surprise because ds had been up past midnight the night before (who knows why!) and so I just made an off-hand remark to the teacher that I was surprised he was able to stay awake through it. The teacher didn't say anything to me, but she right away wondered if he'd really tested to his best ability and gave him a second assessment where she offered him more challenging levels, and his level basically doubled. She just wasn't looking for it initially because he was already (on an off day) testing at a high level. It could be anything really - what I find most helpful is to look at what seems like a low score in the context of other assessment scores - has your dd had multiple high MAP scores in reading? Has she had other types of reading assessments that were high? Which test scores (high or low or in between) match what you see at home in terms of reading ability?

There's also another thing that I think is important to consider, and since I am not familiar with MAP tests I can't specifically address them. The thing to watch out for is the potential of a reading challenge when you see uneven test results. If you don't see any signs of a challenge outside of the testing, if your dd likes reading, and if you have only one test score, there's most likely nothing to think twice about. OTOH, reading challenges can be really tough to see in gifted children, particularly when they are young and start reading early. What happens with uneven testing *might* be that your child is being tested on different types of reading skills (comprehension vs fluency, silent reading vs oral comprehension etc.) It's definitely worth a look at what specific reading skills are being tested in what way (oral vs written vs multiple choice response) etc - you might find something there that would help understand why one score is lower than others.

polarbear

From what I have heard a lot of adults would have trouble with comprehension tests - we simply don't focus on minute detail.

Most high achievement test scores are not anomalies. Still, I was more convinced that my DD's MAP reading scores were a decent indicator of her reading level when she had multiple high scores. She took the MAP test in the fall of 2nd and then again in the fall of 3rd. She stayed in the same percentile range and showed excellent growth from year to year.

DD is a voracious reader (as in it is very hard for the teacher not to notice, as her nose is often in a book when she has a chance) and she also had some very high measures in other areas (Dibbles, AIMS-Web). I think it would be hard to argue that her recent MAP scores were an aberration.

Why does your DD's school give the MAP tests? Did they provide a MAP lexile level and does this level seem like an accurate measure of your DD's reading ability? Has she taken or will she take the test again soon? If she is showing a pattern of scoring high, it would be hard to argue that the score is just "good guessing."

"Poor comprehension" is a common excuse to give to parents of excellent young readers, as to why students cannot actually be instructed at their level (implying that although they can decode the words, they do not understand what they are reading). I believe that the MAP test actually does test this and it would probably be hard to obtain that score with poor comprehension. You may want to assess comprehension on your own, but evidence of excellent comprehension can help boost your request for more challenging instruction (other test scores, WJ III Ach. Reading scores, etc.).

HTH!

MAP test is so called the "computer adaptive test" or CAT. So if the kid guessed the answer, most likely, the computer would switch to the lower level problems. A few wrong guesses later, her score would be much lower than her actual knowledge level. Then she might feel more comfortable with the easy question and may start building her score back up.

Only in the extreme cases that the kid was in a totally "no-compliant" mood, the score would show quite a deduction.

In case that the kid was indeed in a "good" mood and she was smart enough to figure out the trick to get the best score was sitting at the computer for as long as the teacher allowed and think through the problems, then the score would show.

Lucky guess woudn't matter since it would introduce problems from more difficult level and the probabilities of more lucky guess would diminish quickly.