by Dennis Harter
dennish@isb.ac.th
Starting on September 4th, students will take the NWEA Measurement of Academic Progress (MAP) test in Math and Reading, during their Math and English classes. The MAP test is a computer-based test in either Reading or Math, that assesses students on each question, adjusting subsequent questions to determine appropriate challenge and provide a snapshot of what the student can do at that time of year.
MAP results come quite quickly to teachers, who are then able to use the data to better understand their students as math learners and readers. It is important to note that the “score” that comes out at the end of the test is “raw” at that stage and becomes more meaningful once the full data is shared including results from students around the world on that test.
Students will be given a full class period to complete a MAP test. For students who are not quite done, we have scheduled extended time for completion after-school, on Tuesday, September 12th for Math, and Tuesday, September 19th for Reading.
While the test is not timed, the NWEA offered that 60 minutes should be enough time for most students. Between the class time and the afterschool extended time, students will have close to 110 minutes to complete the test. (Last year, we implemented this time frame. The results from that session indicate that there was no impact on student performance to limit the time to the two sessions, as there was still plenty of time.)