Our district uses a test similar to MAP. Someone suggested to me that I request the teacher print out a "Suggested Learning Objectives" form from the test website for my child. From that, I was able to see specifics of what DD should be learning next, for instance what math concepts she needs to learn next, and that she should be working on 6th grade material for a certain type of reading passage and 7th grade for another. From just her scores and percentiles, I had no idea what grade level she was testing at. I don't know if they have something similar for MAP, but I found it somewhat helpful in terms of it telling me specifics about what she's mastered on the test and what she needs to work on next.
The school is pretty open about sharing percentiles, but specific info needs to be requested from the teacher. The teacher probably thought I was a nut even asking (and probably didn't know she could print out such a thing), but that's Ok. All the school cares about is that the scores go up. They don't really care what level a kids is at or use the scores to differentiate instruction and give kids material at the correct level(at least that's what my cynical side says). I am almost positive DD is not given reading at a 6th-7th grade level even though that's what the test says should be done. And that is definitely not happening with math.
