Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Achieving Only Half Of MAP Growth - Worry or Not?

DD7 took the MAP test and only saw half her growth for the school year in reading. She was at 99th percentile at the beginning of the year and fell to 96th by the end. She was supposed to advance 20 points and only saw 10. No winter test so we could not see it but I knew she was regressing all school year. I almost took advice here and pulled her as many stated the regret they felt but DH is emotionally invested in the public schools here (why I do not know) and would not allow it.

I'm concerned about a long-term deficit from the lack of learning that took place. DH says "she's still 96%, no big deal".

Is this a big deal? Will it continue to haunt us now with low level reading groups in the future?

She had a brand new, inexperienced teacher who was really not together this year. Reading was put on the back burner for DD as I felt the teacher thought she could be somewhat ignored. Class was supposed to be "differentiated" but in reality it was very mixed with many students still reading picture books.

DD was kept on low level books for nearly 3/4s of the year (small paper readers from Fountain and Pinnell - no chapter books even), then all the sudden at the end of the year was given 1 book 200 points above her Lexile to read all by herself ( ie. ignored) which she obviously struggled with.

While the lack of growth seems concerning, from your post it also seems to be directly related to the lack of reading instruction at her level of readiness and ability, throughout the year, in the classroom.

Fortunately, reading is an area in which growth may be facilitated at home. What are your child's reading interests and patterns outside of school? What type of books does she gravitate toward?

Some families make regular trips to the library and/or book store.

Reading with a dictionary nearby or making a list of new or unfamiliar words can help with vocabulary acquisition.

Reading aloud to you in the car, as you drive to activities or on errands, is another strategy which some families use.

Having conversations about what she is reading, taking guesses at predicting what may happen next, developing alternative endings, and discussing the characters (which ones would make good friends, what behaviors/decisions were positive/negative/risky), may be another way to facilitate reading growth.

Because you mention Lexile levels... did you know, parents can look up books by lexile level, online at Lexile Find-A-Book.

Are you sure it is not a testing issue? MAP does not calibrate very well towards the top of the range. If you think your child has improved during the year but MAP is saying otherwise I would not rely that highly on the MAP scores.

Also growth goals are meant for the median. A growth goal on the 99th percentile might not be the right norm.

We've been there. Here's my take: With reading MAP, your child will grow by reading independently to a point. At some point, they NEED instruction at a higher level to grow. A winter test would have been helpful. Keep in mind, too, though, that at higher RIT scores, it IS true that growth can slow.

I have one DC in a high 99% that failed to grow in a subject altogether this year. This IS concerning, IMO, particularly because the child opined during the year that (s)/he was not learning anything new in this subject.

With kiddos in the 99th percentile, you need to almost ignore the percentiles. The more important question is: Did the RIT score grow? The child mentioned above is STILL in the 99th percentile (but won't be if this continues), but the RIT score is not moving.

As much as I don't like the idea of after-schooling, I think that is the least worst option and the path of least resistance in this case. I would start with 20 minutes of math and 20 minutes of reading together each day to see if that's enough or too much.

The short answer is that yes, I would be somewhat concerned. However...

I homeschooled my son for K-4. In 4th grade, he had the opportunity to take the MAP in the fall and the spring. I *know* that he made huge gains in reading and math that year (because I taught him and saw it happening every day), but according to the test he lost two points in reading and gained only two points in math. His ITBS that year showed the growth, but the MAP did not, and I have no idea why (except that there is some evidence that he took a higher level MAP test in the fall than in the spring, but I don't know that for sure).

So my point is that there is a possibility that the test results aren't accurately reflecting her achievement. However, since you say you saw her regressing during the year, I would be more inclined to think that the test results are accurate.

I have almost the same concern. Though my DD5 is only in Kinder. She started out the year in the 94th percentile and ended at 83rd percentile. Her RIT score only went up 9 points over the year. (The projected growth was 13). I know she is still young, but I have a slight concern.
To make it more frustrating, several months ago I emailed her teacher and asked what and how much she was reading independently in school and how much she should be reading. I also asked if there were any concerns on her part. (I had suspected dyslexia, but that does not look to be the case now.) Anyway, the teacher replied to me by saying "don't worry about it".

My DD will read a list of words just fine, but if you ask her to read a book, she will refuse. I think that she just wants to hear a story fluently. And because she is not fluent yet, she refuses to try.

I posted up thread but was under the mistaken impression that MAP is a Math achievement test. Have deleted that post for not being relevant here. Note to self - RTFWP!

Reading is even easier than Maths just let you child read whatever they want and encourage them to spread their wings a bit. Reading after school and during school was fun for my DD so we never even involved the school. You have full control of this...

One more thing get them a dictionary and encourage them to use it!

I've posted this link previously, about low RIT growth in high-achieving/GT students:

https://www.nwea.org/content/uploads/2014/08/Data-Award-Karen-Rambo-Research-Brief_0.pdf

This is the abstract to the refereed journal article:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220671.2013.850398#.VW4TiE_BzRY

Thanks everyone for the advice. I feel that part of it is just not enough time was devoted to reading in school and having trouble transitioning to books without pictures. When I look at DD7's vs. DD9's reading instruction the differences are stark. DD9's class read dozens of books and her reading score actually surpassed the growth target.

DD7's class was so different in that the teacher did not even read to the class and they only covered 1 chapter book for her book club the entire spring semester. I feel there was just no focus on reading for DD. The teacher just did not care.

DD7 reads some outside of school and when she reads she doesn't seem to struggle with words, but I feel that the problem lies in the fact that she still seems stuck on the same level of books as last year and is having trouble transitioning to books without pictures. At the end of Kindergarten she was reading Magic Treehouse, A to Z Mysteries, and Geronimo Stilton. I feel all of these gave her the 99% score.

Now I need for her to move up a bit more but it's challenging because the books lose all the pictures and plain text is not as exciting for her. Because her teacher never read these types of books to the class, DD had no one to model after (is very important for DD as she models who she's around) and she is losing focus on books. We are spending this summer trying to transition to books without pictures and find ones DD can be interested in.