I was looking over my notes with a school administrator and see he asked if DS' current school has MAP testing. We have Iowa Assessment scores (which he also mentioned) but I'm not familiar with MAP(s) and am not finding anything useful... maybe I am searching incorrectly. Wondering how it is used in acceleration decisions.
MAP (NWEA MAP) is a computer-administered achievement test administered periodically to measure progress. Not every school or school system uses it. Many use other assessment packages for similar functions. Schools may use it as a proxy for individual achievement testing, as it generates grade equivalents and percentiles.
MAP testing is computer-adaptive, meaning that the questions become easier or harder depending on how a student responds. Our schools use it to periodically measure student growth.
Our schools also use it, along with other teacher-assessments, for appropriate group placement (groups are flexible). It is used, along with other criteria, as a part of the screening criteria for our G&T program.
The Rausch UnIT/RIT scale it also uses is supposed to be continuous, so a 3rd grader with a given RIT score, can check to see what percentile his score would place him in as compared with 2nd, 4th and 5th graders.
Ditto on what aeh and Loy58 said.
Also - for my DD, then in 1st grade, her school used MAP as an out of grade level test by signing her in as if she was a year older and a grade ahead of where she actually was. This was for the Iowa Acceleration Scale. For her age/grade MAP was the easiest thing for the school to use as they already were set-up to administer it.
Her school used MAP for yearly assessments so we could also see her growth from year to year.
Best of luck,
--S.F.