Like CAMom, we were able to use the MAP results (in conjunction with ability and achievement tests) to get my DD first subject accelerated then grade accelerated, but that was also because she scored "off the charts" for her grade level. We're hoping my DS will do the same when he takes the math MAP (he already did for the reading MAP) so that we can get schoolwork commensurate with what he's doing at home on his own. In such a case, the test recommendations for what a student is ready to learn can be helpful.
In our district, I believe that the MAP tests are used in a general sense in conjunction with all the other assessments that the students take during the year. That is, they are really just used as another piece of the puzzle in trying to get a sense of how a child is performing. They are looked at equally to how the child is doing in class, on homework, and on tests, as well as how they are doing with other more official assessments. I'm not sure if that's how they are interpreted at the district level, but that is how they are used at a classroom level.
I think the further up in grade the students get, the more seriously they are taken at our school. I know that my DS's 1st grade teacher doesn't give the results much weight and she is, in fact, almost completely unfamiliar with which scores yield which percentiles. She feels that at such a young age, on a computer-read test, she doesn't know if students miss questions because they misread or misunderstood the question, because they made a silly mistake, or because they really didn't understand the concept.
I wish the teachers would read the "prescriptions" for what a student needs given his or her test score and then attempt to implement the recommendations, but as one teacher told me, they just can't do that for every single student.
Last edited by mnmom23; 04/28/10 08:03 AM. Reason: spelling
