Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy MAP test

So, I'm just needing a little reassurance here. DS8 just finished math and reading MAP testing. In kindergarten and first grade he averaged 20+ points of growth each year. So far this year, he has gone up only 3 points in reading and NONE in math. He's scoring about two grade levels ahead in math and three grade levels ahead in reading.

My hunch is this is largely due to lack of instruction in the classroom. His teacher arbitrarily set goals for him on these tests and, as of right now, he realizes that he's not making progress toward those goals. Now he's concerned about his test scores. He's only 8. I really wish she hadn't shared his scores with him.

The school also has this crazy MAP test fever that is making me nuts. I've heard stories about teachers announcing scores in class and one is actually writing their scores on their desks! I really don't want to get caught up in that frenzy, but I am concerned that this is showing that he's not learning anything at school.

I need to approach the teacher about this, don't I? Ugh.

Do you know which version was administered? Some schools give a "primary" version to lower grades. He could have reached the ceiling...

He probably took the 2-5 version. If he has high scores already, he's less likely to see as much growth. Also, I think K-2 students typically have higher growth than over 3rd grade.

Don't worry too much, though. In math, DD9 grew only (less than 5) points from fall to winter last year, but then grew another 20 points by spring. She showed almost no growth in reading last year, though.

I believe that "growth projections" actually come from NWEA.

In terms of approaching the school, you certainly can. They may tell you that it is only one measure of growth. Still, with a high achieving student, it can be reassuring to see that they continue to grow.

Ugh, I opt our kids out of standardized testing for other reasons but if I found out the school was posting scores publicly like you mention I would opt out just to prevent that from occurring.

Do you have any other reasons to doubt that your son has been learning new material besides the test scores?

Yes, like BenjaminL, I'm a bit surprised that they would make the scores public! I've always told my DC that their test scores are private and that they are not to discuss them with anyone.

I was stunned that they were doing this with scores, too. I wouldn't have even believed it had we not had the most jaw-dropping experiences ourselves.

My son's teacher has a pretty bad reputation. I heard horror stories before school started. There is no ability grouping, even though she has a gifted cluster, and there's no differentiation-that I can tell anyway. She never sends home any graded work/tests and I have no clue what's going on in the classroom.

We've had such difficult battles with the school this year over 504/IEP stuff that I haven't pushed the teacher about what's going on in the classroom. Now I see these MAP scores and I'm getting a little concerned.

I disagree with teachers publicly sharing scores (in most cases), but every kid in our district knows that your score flashes up on the screen at the end of your MAP test. Can't really hide the score from the kid. DD10 tells me her score after she tests - you don't need to wait until the scores come home.

Kids also know what percentile scores are needed for the advanced classes, so they pretty much know which kids did well on the MAP tests.

The only times I recall scores being shared with the whole class are when kids did really well (as in a perfect score on a national contest).

Well one starting point might be to meet with the teacher and ask for more feedback in the form of graded sheets and tests. That seems very reasonable and something other parents in the classroom would be interested in as well if you wanted to organize a more collective action. An escalation up to the principal if there is no action on that front could be a second step.

FYI, this showing of the score at the end of testing is a feature that can be turned off by the administration. My son told me in 5th grade that the teacher turned off the scores because the kids were comparing scores too much.

Note that the growth in MAP scores is designed to go up more dramatically in the early grades, and then it decreases as the students get older. That is another possible reason you won't see quite the same giant leaps in growth after the first couple years.

These are the winter RIT math scores from kindy through G11, 99th %ile. See how the difference between higher grades is only a couple points, whereas lower grades jump ~15? (Ignoring here the fact that you can get higher scores than 284)

182 - K
205
217
230
243
254
262
272
277
281
283
284 - 11th

NWEA 2011 RIT Scale Norms - see App B

But if your child is gifted the couple point advancements tend to happen earlier than that because they are already in the advanced math classes.

Do you have privacy laws? Generally telling a third party someone's test results is a breach of privacy issue. Until the kids are a lot older I would campaign to get the score thing turned off and just tell the kids they did really well, well, need some work in x area etc. I would be most unhappy with them being written on the desks. That said except at university I have never come across anyone who respected privacy in education and even they slipped up.

It was also suggested at one point here that parents didn't have a right to know if the child didn't feel like sharing but that hasn't happened. They are pretty reluctant to share any results though so it does have a downside.

I think that groups of boys comparing scores in the past was what led to having that feature turned off on our school's MAP tests. Now we usually need to wait for the envelope with scores to come from the school.