Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy MAP testing and RIT scores

Thanks for posting that Dottie. I hadn't see it before.
CAMom, good luck with the P/T conference and be ready to mention FERPA if they refuse to give you your child's test report.

WOW Dottie, those cutoff are high on the Heroes page. I'd have to say those most be above 99.9%. For example, my 7 year old, grade skipped to 3rd grade just scored 221 on the math portion of the MAP. It's not even on the 3rd grade percentile chart- it's up somewhere above 99%. But that's still 13 points below the Heroes for 7 year olds!

And Inky, hopefully I won't have to FERPA them. I am a school administrator at a charter school in the same district. They should know better than to mess with me now! Last year this time, the school had a new principal and I hadn't gone back to work. So they tried all sorts of funny tricks.

Several questions as this discussion has made me curious.

Is MAP testing only done by schools or is it available elsewhere?

It seems like it could be useful for homeschoolers, etc. in determining where to start their kids on certain subjects.

In terms of schools, are these districts giving all the kids the test? I am impressed by any district that is willing to find out a kid is way ahead of grade level - ours just wants to ignore that fact.

Cat

I vaguely remember that there was a virtual academy or other type of setup here letting kids sign up to do MAP that were homeschooling. I remember some threads about it late last spring. Hopefully someone with more details will pipe in.

Our situation is unique because DS is at a charter school. The district doesn't do them and wouldn't know what to do with the info. Just his school does it. They test all kids K-5 three times a year. They tend to focus heavily on the kids that score below 70th percentile and work to bring them up. Those scoring 90th and above are supposed to be receiving full differentiation to match their scores... which I have yet to see.

Some homeschoolers on this board have done the MAP testing through their local public schools. Dazey used a company out of Florida. Here's a link to the thread:
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....8214/those_who_tested_w_NWEA_MAP_th.html

I think most districts are giving all the kids the test because it can help predict the NCLB results. The big issue is what they do with the MAP results. I've started to notice a shift in my district in the language. It used to be the stated goal was every child reaches proficiency. Now, the latest message from the superintendent is "every student makes at least a year�s growth each school year and that those who are behind grow even more so that we can close the gaps."

DD8 started at an accelerated cluster magnet and I was impressed they looked at what % of students were achieving at the 95% on the MAP test. If a school has a goal to make sure each child achieves a year's worth of growth, it's harder to ignore the needs of the gifted. This is one of the reasons I think the MAP test helps advocacy efforts for the parents of gifted children.

Just another question about MAP. Looking at the charts we see where our kids compare to other Grades, but is there a rule of thumb regarding the percentage in a Grade that are actually reaching Grade level? I'm trying to figure out what a real Grade level equivalent is likely to be as the 51st percentile I presume includes those not reaching Grade level? Does this make sense? I'm confusing myself!

It's not specific to the MAP test but this may help:
http://lexile.com/about-lexile/grade-equivalent/

So, what, if anything, is the benefit of joining HEROES for kids who don't live near their location? I'm sure that dd12 has qualifying scores for their scholars program and her reading MAPS from when she was 9 might be high enough for HEROES or were maybe just a point below -- I'd have to go back and pull them out to see.

I'm curious too Cricket!

It looks like they've changed the MAP qualification since I looked last. My DS is now just 6 points from the qualifier in reading. He takes the test again in two weeks and he'll still be 7 so we'll see what that means. I'm not sure it does anything for him one way or the other but it is a good baseline.

It also looks like they added a membership for anyone who is already a DYS?

"HEROES offers two types of membership:

* Full Membership is reserved for students who have a qualifying test score or are members of DYS.
* Associate Membership is available to interested adult.
"