The goal for every student in my class is to realize academic and social growth on a personalized and (hopefully) exciting level. In the next couple of days we will have completed the MAP test for reading and math. This information will serve as one metric to help us understand our own learning strengths and needs. I encouraged the students to write down their scores, in order to begin to understand themselves as learners. The results of the MAP will be printed and shared with each student and later, as a point of reference, during parent-teacher conferences at the end of the quarter.
While the MAP is only a one hour snapshot of how a student is doing on one particular day, it can be a useful bit of information when understood in context with other assessments. They are, by no means, the "be all and end all" in terms of assessment. MAP scores can fluctuate due to a number of factors (academic growth is not always a pretty slope). However, if treated with care, they can be very helpful. Let's take a closer look.
Here's a brief description of the MAP Scores and how we may use them to foster growth.
For Reading:
You get an "overall score"; which is an average taken from the scores in each individual reading goal.
The reading goals are Literature, Informational Text and Vocabulary. This is helpful information because the "overall" score gives us a big picture idea of reading level, while the goal scores reveal a more specific look at how you respond to different reading standards. While your overall score may be high, you may also be able to identify where you should be working to improve according to your goal scores. These "Goal Scores" match up with the Common Core Reading "Strands". Knowing this information gives us clues about where we could use more practice.
The MAP also reveals a Lexile Range. "The idea behind The Lexile Framework for Reading is simple: if we know how well a student can read and how hard a specific book is to comprehend, we can predict how well that student will likely understand the book." (Lexile.com).
If we understand a student's reading level, we can match that student's reading activities to text of equal readability level. This practice is an optimum way to increase reading level. Practice at your "instructional" reading level is recommended.
The Lexile range reported on the MAP gives us a range from independent reading level to frustration reading level. The lower end of the range should be the student's independent reading level. These are books that you can read "on your own" with about 95% accuracy. The middle of the range is where I want students studying for instructional purposes. On Newsela, for example, the student can slide the reading level gauge to match their current Lexile Level. For help finding appropriate books, you can go to Lexile.com to find books by title or genre. The more a student reads at their instructional reading level, the more they will grow.
Here is a helpful site for reading practice according to MAP score: MAP for Reading
For Math:
The MAP test for math also reveals an overall score. Again this "overall score" is an average taken from the 4 math goals. The goals are Operations and Algebraic Thinking, Number Operations, Measurement and Data, and Geometry. These goals match up well with the "Domains" for the Common Core Standards for Math. Again, it is useful to understand each goal score to help identify how a student responds to different math standards.
Here is a helpful MAP Math site: MAP for Math
Knowing the individual goal scores reveals where each student should be working to improve according to the math standards.
In my classroom, MAP scores are used to help me understand the students as learners progressing on a continuum. Having this information in context with other assessments allows me to personalize their learning experience. I want the students to understand their score. However, I want to remove the idea of "high-stakes testing". In this classroom, it is just a measurement that shows us all the next step. I hope this is useful.
