Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment MAP Scores - not moving

Nearly so. Most of these benchmarking and progress monitoring tools (MAP, GRADE, STAR, EasyCBM, DIBELS, AIMSweb, etc.) are intended to facilitate RTI/MTSS, which is the public health model-inspired system of screening and progressively-intense supports for those performing below grade-level expectations. Occasionally, one can glean some useful info for high-achievers from grade-level testing, but really, they are designed to identify and monitor low-achievers. Unless you use out-of-level testing, you'll probably be bumping into the ceiling on a regular basis.

Excellent advice.
To your last point: Not necessarily, as they are continuously-scaled across grade levels. There may not be, as you rightly point out, enough items (if any) of difficulty level 300 on the 2-5 reading test to obtain a 300 score. Also, as these are Rasch scores, and not deviation scores, comparing scores in one subject area to another is even more sketchy than usual. (NWEA specifically says not to do it.)

I defer to your expertise. I only saw the 300 as an upper number on some publication relating to MAP. In reality, the reading scores are always lower across the board compared to the math scores for the same percentiles. That's why I can only vouch for the possibility of a 280 on the math and a 250 on the reading for the MAP 2-5.

This seems to be how our district uses it. They still make all the kids take it 3 times per year, but they only seem to be looking for scores that fall below a certain level, because those are the students who are at risk for not passing the state-standardized testing. They might qualify for interventions. Right on the test report there is something called SIP % which is the "student's estimated % correct for all test questions aligned to grade and topic." I think this is the number that the district is most interested in (or that's what the cynical side of me says).

Thanks, everyone. If anyone knows of any MAP resources for reading RIT scores over 235, that would be great.

It is simply silly for DD to keep taking this test if she cannot make any progress on it. Since they all have to take it, she will keep hitting the same wall unless we help her. I don't think its a matter of her reading ability at this point, I think it's a matter of above-grade level material on the test that she simply has not been exposed to.

take a look at this site, perhaps it can help

http://clinton.k12.wi.us/maptest_sites/map_reading_goal.html

The other active MAP thread somewhere around here has a link to the norms going up to grade 11 (meaningfully, to grade 5 for your kiddo, based on the form of the test).

DD's score went up very little from winter to spring. Last fall I worked with her on advanced reading stuff, or at least had her take practice tests since we needed the stupid reading score for the g/t program, and her score jumped way up. But I haven't done that over the winter so her score basically plateaued. The school has NO instruction for reading above grade level (third grade)...other than the fact that they can read advanced books up through grade 5 independently. There is no instruction on the books. To do well on the reading tests kids would probably have to understand concepts like "what's the theme?" They may understand the book, but that doesn't mean they'll understand what a "theme" is. The teacher put together reading groups and gave up after 1-2 weeks. So how in the world would kids be able to answer questions that are several grades above their instructional level? They may have the capability to understand the concepts, but still have to be taught.

After my DS took the MAP for the first time as a 1st grader last year, he asked me, "What is foreshadowing?" He had guessed that it meant that the authors used a different, shadowy font in the book. Even in our gifted program, literary terminology is not taught to the kids who are ready to learn it.