Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment NWEA MAP growth - appropriate instructional level?

I’m wondering what anyone’s thoughts/experiences are about the NWEA MAP score “growth”. Can it help with determining if a child is appropriately placed and/or used to advocate for more acceleration?

DS (3rd grade) growth in math from Fall to Spring was 8 points. With the NWEA norms, I was able to calculate that this is at the 22 percentile for growth for the school year.

Don’t gifted kids typically learn faster than NT kids? My DS usually just needs to be shown a math concept once and he gets it. If he’s appropriately challenged, shouldn’t his growth be higher than average not lower?

His teacher is happy with his scores and said he’s showing growth so he’s learning. She also said he’s “doing well” and “appropriately placed” (I'm not sure I agree).

DS’s Spring 3rd grade spring Math MAP score was 243 which is at the 99.8 percentile.

He’s in a math pull-out which is a 1 year advancement in curriculum. I had to push hard (multiple meetings and a formal letter to the district office) to get DS into the math pull-out because his 2nd grade local COGAT score was just below their cut-off. Is there anything that suggests appropriate math instruction level based on MAP scores?

Should I push (I'm sure it would mean another fight with the school) to have him advanced further for next year?

I have no idea how it works, but supposedly DS's school puts the MAP data into Khan Academy and it works up an appropriate curriculum based on his strengths and weaknesses. I'm not sure if this is something that you could do yourself or if it's a special thing just for teachers. I think the program also needs more than just the overall score (since I was told it specifically targets weaknesses). But hey, it's something you could look into.

You might want to meet with the teacher specifically to ask questions regarding the amount of growth. For example: What is the growth target or goal for students with different beginning scores? What is the average overall growth target or goal for the classroom? For the grade level? Where does your child's growth fall, as compared with others? Etc. Gather as much information as you can.

This would NOT be a time to divulge information, such as your calculations or research, just gather information. In other words it is OK to play dumb. Ask questions, jot down the answers, and ask follow-up questions to show you are processing what the teacher is explaining. When the teacher's explanation has confirmed your belief that your child's growth is less-than-average, then you can begin to ask whether your child's growth goal ought to be higher.

Please keep in mind that under common core, US public school teachers are evaluated on closing achievement gaps, and excellence gaps. Extensive data collection tracks their ability to close gaps within their classroom. Under common core, school ratings/rankings are also based on closing gaps. This is often accomplished by capping the growth of students at the top.

This post helps explain why gaps may never be closed, despite a school's efforts.

Something to keep in mind.. as the scores go higher and closer to the ceiling (MAP 2-5 ceiling is 260) , it is harder to show growth. My suggestion , and what we did, was switch to 6plus MAP as a 4th grader. This allows for more questions as its ceiling is 320. We had no success using MAP to get acceleration. We were finally able to get further acceleration after showing WIAT results after a full neuro work-up.


https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1nA_PlvjvwFTi5vMwRxlfmmVUJo63pfwn67ZAMHaV4oU

Looks like anyone with a score report can enter NWEA MAP scores into Khan Academy for individualized practice:
https://www.khanacademy.org/mappers

You just need the four goal performance subscores.

And yeah, f&ejsmom is correct. If you're already at the ceiling of the test, it's hard to show growth.

DS has only used Khan Academy for learning coding and likes it. I didn't know you could enter the MAP data and target the math lessons. I will definitely get the MAP subscores from the teacher and try it! Thanks, SaturnFan and aeh.

Good point! I forgot about test ceilings. I hope I can get what DS needs without getting something like the WIAT. Our district doesn't like outside testing, I had to be very persistent to get them to accept DS's WISC-V (outside) results.

Indigo: Good advice - Thank you!

I'm looking to verify my mom instinct that DS is still not at the appropriate level of challenge. This year seems to have been a review of what he already knew, despite the one-year advancement in math curriculum. If my gut is right, then I definitely need data that I can point to when advocating for additional advancement.

Here's the document about transitioning from math MAP 2-5 to MAP 6+, which indicates 231 on math as a point to move up, if being exposed to higher level material. Our school did not do this early switch, and one DC was in the 250s and saw a sizable drop once on the 6+ (consistent with the spring to fall drop in the document below), which I found concerning in that they use 253 as a flag for taking the Iowa Algrebraic Readiness Assessment. You'd think they'd want a more stable score as a baseline. Our school did utilize the MAP results, in conjunction with other assessments, for acceleration decisions. I did not know you could input results into Khan, though, that's very good to know.

https://www.nwea.org/content/upload...ath-6-plus-Transition-Guidance-MAY15.pdf

Our district doesn't accept outside testing for gifted services either. We had the neuropsychologist testing due to suspected autism (DX autism level I, anxiety and depression). The WIAT scores for math hit hard ceilings. At that point they gave in a bit but still not sure what to do with him next year as they won't bus him to the junior high for math. Due to his lower (under 130 on WISC) verbal score on the WISC-V, he doesn't qualify for the self contained classrooms where they would place him in the proper math sequence for his ability (His GAI is 140)