Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment MAP Aligned To "State Standards"?

Maybe someone else has input on this as states continue to grapple with Common Core with some still repealing, some reviewing and threatening to repeal.

Recently I asked my DD's teacher for Des Cartes info for her MAP math test this year. I've not mentioned this before on the forum, but we are in a non-Common Core state.

Previously, the school was using all CC textbooks from Pearson and teaching CC until 1 year ago when the transition was finalized. But during that transition, everything was still CC.

MAP testing was given each year and everything aligned with CC standards as per NWEA's site.

Now this year I just found out, NWEA has a new page which says they have just aligned with my state's standards over the past summer and when we received the printout from school, it now says "aligned with ****** state standards" at the bottom of the report for the RIT bands instead of the previous "aligned with Common Core Standards".

The RIT band items seem to be different because I have a printout for DD from last year and can see all items for each band that was aligned with Common Core. The new state-aligned report doesn't match up with NWEA's RIT reference chart either. It's much lower.

What is weird though, the norms match up exactly with the 2015 National Norms posted here awhile ago. DD was 236 for 4th grade which was still 99%. Reading matched up as well.

Now I don't know what to make of this. Are we taking the same test? Is it completely different? Our state standards are much lower and the CC MAP test was the only reassurance we had that DD was keeping up nationally. Now the new report looks like a totally different test and doesn't even match up with NWEA's sample practice problems. But the norms seem to align which doesn't make sense in light of the differing RIT band goals we observed on the new report.

Anyone have any experience with this? What does it mean in comparing test results when MAP is "aligned to state standards"?

I think you are seeing a couple of different effects here. The 2015 norms are lower than the 2011 norms so it is possible that in a comprehensive historical report, the newer norms may have been applied retroactively to the immediately preceding year (2014).

The Common Core version has at least some questions that are different, so the RIT score should be specific to the Common Core version but I believe that RIT conversion to percentile remains constant. We have experience in the opposite direction. A couple of years ago, our district changed to Common Core MAP before they began using the Common Core curriculums. My kids' scores in math averaged an 6.5 point jump while their scores in reading averaged a 3 point drop from Spring to Fall. There could have been other causes and both kids likely had ceiling issues but both kids mentioned noticeable differences in Reading MAP, particularly in the literary/fiction section. They were seeing unfamiliar terminology/questions.

However, you are talking about the upper end, where a specific individual may easily buck the state trend. There are huge differences among states, at the average level and especially at the upper end, but if your DD stays around the 99th percentile, she is certainly "keeping up nationally" even if she would fall below the top percentiles in competitive states.