I think most MAP projections that I have seen actually project a dip in scores in the fall (as compared with spring - the end of the school year). I think many parents of gifted kids have actually observed a rise in scores in reading following the summer (seems to happen with my DD9).
For MAP, DD's reading RIT scores were higher than math until 3rd grade. In 3rd grade, her math RIT scores overtook her reading scores - if both are high, this appears quite normal.
Those look like very high scores for the fall of second grade!
We don't have MAP but a test that sounds practically identical. I looked at the chart of norms, and reading scores are generally higher than math, but with different percentiles. I find the percentiles a lot more interesting than the actual scores. So my DD has alwsays had a higher reading score, but it was a lower percentile than math. DS showed this trend as well until the last test this fall (just a few days ago), his math was actually slightly higher than his reading score, which has never happened with DD. I think it's because he is so extremely high in math. I also noticed that for "most" kids, scores drop over the summer (quite significantly, like one whole grade level!) but this doesn't always happen for kids in the top quartile, esp. in reading. Kids in the top quartile are probably reading over the summer, and their scores keep rising.
You might find this recent NWEA research interesting:
https://www.nwea.org/resources/summer-growth-patterns-gifted-students/Executive summary: schools do not contribute to gifted students' growth in reading, and contribute only a little bit in math (and not as much as to math for NT students).
Ohhhh, aeh, that is an interesting read! So DD, who made no reading growth per MAP all of last school year, eventually made ALL of her "projected" growth by this fall's NWEA (it would appear all growth was made during the summer)...hmmmmm....
DS went up basically an entire grade level over the summer for reading and probably 2 grade levels for math. Now that school is started I'm going to sit back and watch his scores drop. His teacher does seem to actually care, though, but there's only so much that can be done.
That's an awesome post aeh. It almost needs it own thread to make sure everyone can see it.
One of the author's suggestions about increasing reading scores by making sure student's are reading at challenging levels reminds me of the old "Mr. Obvious Show" that used to be on the radio. A "long time listener, first time caller" was always trying to figure out the most absurd problem, he would finally "get it" and then always reply in a dumbfounded way "Huh, I never made the connection".
I feel like the local school system is operating that way most of the time. Even DH is starting to question the vehemence towards MAP.
Our district has now cancelled the winter test (after administering MAP for only 1 year!). They have also figured out that parents would be none too happy seeing zero growth the first semester.
I think one thing that is actually helping me is that I keep asking to see the scores and the "suggested learning objectives" that go with the scores. So they may view me as being a helicopter mom but they know I know what the scores mean and will question why no growth occurs. I noticed that what they are posting online (each child has records online) is much less specific than what we used to get. People were probably starting to ask too many questions about why their child is not progressing.
Thanks for sharing the link to that study. It's good that someone did a study relating to kids at the high end. On its face, the premise makes some sense but if you only look at the top percentiles like 98 and 99, the RIT norm charts actually show that these top performers increase their RIT scores during the school year (Fall to Spring) and stay about the same during the Summer (Spring to Fall). I only looked at the top two percentiles for 3rd through 8th grade but the Reading scores increased 5 to 12 points in math and between 3 to 8 points in reading during the school year but decreased 1 to increased 2 in math and mostly stayed the same or decreased 1 point in reading over the summer.
I suppose you can always make the argument that gifted kids do not score in these top percentiles so that these scorers in the top 2 percentiles are not the gifted kids but I find that hard to believe since MAP is so adaptive that it even yields huge score differences between the 95 percentile and the 98/99 percentiles whereas the 50th and 75th percentiles are tightly clustered. For example, for 6th grade Math, the 50th is 212 while the 75th is 222 whereas the 95th is 236 but 99th is 249.
Our son showed no growth last year in reading. He was in the 99th percentile in Fall of 2013, but was kept in a lower reading class than he could have handled due to his poor writing skills. So, it was no surprise he showed no growth over the school year.
We have yet to receive his MAP score for this Fall.
I think those who are following this thread will find this an interesting article. Scary, but interesting.
Understanding "High Flyers" Helps Them Soar
And when it works... DS had his skip last year, reading which started at 99% for two grades up went up 20+ points, and math which was at 99% for four grades up increased 10+ points.