What
are the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP)? - Measures
of Academic Progress (MAP) are a series of tests developed by Northwest
Evaluation Association (NWEA) that measure your child's general knowledge in
reading, math, and science. Our Elementary Students will be taking MAP tests
Starting September 23, 2013. This is the first of the regularly three scheduled
testing sessions at Discovery School each year.
The results of these tests give students, parents, teachers and
administrators some excellent data to help make educational decisions.
What are Measures of Academic Progress Used For? - They measure your child's progress or growth in school. You may have a chart in your home on which you mark your child's height at certain times-such as on their birthday. This is a growth chart. It shows how they have grown from one year to the next. The Measures of Academic Progress also measure your child's growth, except they measure your child's growth in Reading, Math skills, and language Usage.
How
Do the Tests Measure Growth in Learning? - The Measures of Academic Progress use scores to
measure growth in reading, math, and science (gr. 7 only). Scores depend on two
things: how many questions are answered correctly and the difficulty of each
question.
What
Do the Tests Cover?
- Each Measure of Academic Progress is made up of parts, which are called goals. Take a look at these
sample goal areas for each test. Your child will take tests with goals that are
similar to these: Reading , Word Meaning, Literal Comprehension, Inferential Comprehension,
Evaluative Comprehension, Mathematics,
Estimation and Computation, Number Sense, Geometry and Spatial Sense,
Measurement, Data Analysis, Statistics, and Probability, Patterns, Functions,
and Algebra, Problem Solving and more.
When
you, your child, and your child's teacher look at MAP results in the Student
Led Conferences on Friday October 25,
2013 it may become apparent that certain goal areas need more attention
than others.
Do All Students Take the Same Test? - Yes and no. - All students take a computerized reading, math, and language usage test. Although every test has questions covering the same goal areas, not every test has the same questions, and the test questions vary in difficulty.
In a
computerized adaptive test, the difficulty of the test is adjusted to the
student's performance so each student sees different test questions. The
difficulty of each question is based on how well the student has answered the
questions up to that point. As the student answers correctly, the questions
become more difficult. If the student answers incorrectly, the questions become
easier. This enables the school to monitor the growth of students of all
abilities.
How
Important are the Tests to Students and to Teachers? - These tests are very important because they keep
track of each child’s progress or growth in the basic skills. They let teachers
know where students' strengths are and if help is needed in any specific areas.
MAP is just one look at how children are doing. Teachers already routinely
assign projects and tasks, administer other tests, discuss student work, and
report grades. These are all very important ways of looking at student
progress. This information allows teachers to make the best instructional
desicions to meet all of their students’ needs.
The best thing your child can do to
prepare for testing is
to work hard in school every day. Regular attendance, good nutrition, and
adequate rest are also important components for successful test performance.
Reminding your child to do the best he/she can is a good practice. Please check
with your child’s teacher if you would like the specific days and times when
these assessments will be administered.
MAP assessments are just one of the many
tools that we use at Discovery School to offer each child the best education
possible!
If you would like more
information, please visit http://www.nwea.org/
No comments:
Post a Comment