Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment MAP score, how reliable is it?

From what I've seen of MAP some kids might have about the same score for an entire year (dropping or rising slightly every few months) and then take a big jump up. I don't think it's all that sensitive. One lucky or unlucky guess can change the score.

Thank you all. This makes me feel a lot better. DS reads a lot, which I honestly think is the most important thing at his age. As much as we'd like him to make academic progress, we'd be most pleased if he is having a happy and memorable childhood!

I would not make that assumption at all. Neither of my 8th graders consistently increased with every administration of MAP. However, if you step back and look at broad patterns over years, then scores should roughly show an upward trend. Furthermore, MAP scores reflect a single day and not all the skills students actually acquire in school. As an example, DS' math score dropped 8 points from one administration to the next but I wasn't worried since he told me that he accidentally hit enter with a wrong answer marked. In his case, with scores near the upper limit (above 300), missing a question may have re-routed his test to easier questions. I don't remember how high the Primary version of MAP goes but that may be an issue as well.

Would you be concerned if the percentile kept dropping over two school years of test periods, from 99th to 90th? Say, a reading RIT score that in FA15 on the 2-5 then went up a few points in SP16, then dropped 1 point below FA15 score when moved to the 6+ test. Up only 1 point in WI17 and stayed same SP17, resulting in 1 point growth for the whole year, but the same RIT score as FA15? The kid read over 120 books this year (made a list). The math score recovered from the 6+ switch, but had a bigger drop and then over 10 points growth this year, to 14 points higher than FA15. Both subjects were in the 99th percentile on the statewide grade level test. Ride it out, or ask someone about it? Lit teacher indicated it was difficult to keep him challenged in class.

If he's already at the top of the test (which was likely the case in year one, when it was the 2-5 test), then negligible change, or even a slight decrease, is not surprising. A slight decrease on changing to the new level is also not strange. He's still near the top of the norms on the 6+, so there's not much space to move up.

Math is different from reading in the respect that exposure to more challenging skills and concepts is generally controlled by grade-level curriculum, while reading comprehension is mostly more of the same once you pass the fourth grade reading level, and consequently more a function of practice and native cognition than instruction. So he doesn't need to be taught reading to fly ahead (and top out the sensitivity/range of the test), but does need to be taught at least some math.

Keep in mind that the MAP has a standard test error that runs approximately +/- 3 points. When kids get somewhere in the neighborhood of the high 220s, maybe low 230s, on their reading test that test error also matches their expected growth for the year. At that level, I tell parents that MAP is very helpful for knowing what a student is ready to learn and is less helpful about showing actual growth.

I would push teachers to see how they're using the data. I routinely used MAP to teach upper elementary kids allegory, allusion, extended metaphors, etc that just aren't in the curriculum for kids that young.

I guess it just seems odd that it's nearly the same RIT as the beginning of almost two years ago, so the percentile keeps dropping; 90th percentile doesn't seem near the top on the 6+ (I guess that's relative; it equates a respectable 80th percentile 2-3 grades above). I suppose my feeling disappointed about the lack of honors/GT/differentiation in literacy in middle school is reinforced by a stagnant number, perhaps unfairly.

Think of this another way. If you look at the student growth norms, you will see that an eleventh grader with a RIT of 222 (considered average), is expected to post less than a point of growth over the course of the year. (Actually, the norms have such a student dropping slightly.) Clearly, your child is scoring at least that high, and has been for two years. At this point, challenging instruction might be expected to be challenging for a late secondary student. Accelerated middle school just may not be enough.

Those scales are not correct. My son is a 5th grader and took the Math MAP 2-5 and got a 285. I work in education and have proctored the MAP and have access to our district data. We have a few others in our district on the same test that are over 260. So I don't trust that google document.

Agreed. The document footer states it was last updated July 5, 2012; It is 5 years old.