B-R students in grades 3-11 have taken the MAP test for reading this week and will take the MAP test for math next week. s will be given out at Parent-Teacher Conferences Thursday February 7th.
MAP is used to measure a student's progress or growth in school.
If you have ever used a growth chart in your home to show how much your child has grown from one year to the next, this will help you understand the scale MAP uses to measure your child's academic progress. Called the RIT scale (Rasch unIT), it is an equal-interval scale much like feet and inches on a yardstick. It is used to chart your child's academic growth from year to year. RIT scores typically start at the 140 to 190 level in 3rd grade and progress to the 240 to 300 level by high school.
At Bancroft-Rosalie, Math and Reading are tested three times a year (Fall, Winter, Spring). Language is tested once a year. When testing is completed, the school staff are looking for two key things,
1) academic performance level and 2) growth over time.
Academic performance-
Each grade level has a national average score for each time of year tested. We want to see the majority of our students scoring above the national average for that test at that time. For example, the 7th grade reading mean score at the middle of the year (winter test period) is 218.2. Of the 20 7th grade students that took the test this week, 75% scored above 218- very positive results.
The MAP test also has a "college-readiness" score. In reading, a score of 235-240 is considered college-ready. A 235 reading score places a student in the top 25% of all students taking the test across the nation. Twelve of the 17 B-R juniors have scored at or above 235 on the reading test- very positive results.
Growth over time-
Here is an example of MAP reading scores for a fictional student A who would be in the 11th grade in 2012-13.
Fall 2010- 221
Winter 2011- 226
Spring 2011- 230
Fall 2011- 232
Winter 2012- 232
Spring 2012- 230
Fall 2012- 232
Winter 2013- 243
This student improved from a 221 to a 243 from the beginning of his freshman year to the middle of his junior year. This student went from an average score (221) his freshman year to a college ready score (243) his junior year. A tremendous amount of growth in reading performance.
Fictional Student B would be a 10th grade student in 2012-13.
Fall 2010- 217
Winter 2011- 209
Spring 2011- 221
Fall 2011- 213
Winter 2012- 219
Spring 2012- 219
Fall 2012- 225
Winter 2013- 205
This student scored in the 40-50 percentile range compared to other students in his grade. This is below average performance, but it is difficult to determine his actual performance level because of the randomness of the scores. I would conclude that this student has not given his best effort each time. The fact that he/she has a score above average (225 in Fall 2012) would give me hope that they can perform at grade level when they are motivated to do so. Perhaps an ice cream bar if score improvement would get them to try their best.
If you have any questions about your child's scores, please ask at Parent-Teacher Conferences.
