A Parent Guide to
Measures of Academic Progress (MAP)
District 196
How do you measure your child’s growth?
As a parent, you probably use more than a yardstick to measure your child’s growth. You may use bathroom
scales, photographs, or clothing sizes to measure physical growth. As your child matures, you may employ
other measures of growth such as changing bedtimes or adding new responsibilities. Likewise District 196
uses different measures to measure your child’s academic growth. These include report grades, student
portfolios, and a variety of tests. However, just as no signal measure of physical growth is completely
adequate, no single test provides a complete accountig of a child’s knowledge and skills. Each test
administered by the state and district and each test that a teacher uses in the classroom provide part of the
complete picture.
This brochure describes one of the test used by our district to manage, report, and you’re your child’s
educational progress. As part of a comprehensive assessment program, students in grade k-8 take MAP in
the fall, and spring of each school year to measure growth and, if needed, adjust instructional targets
during the school year.
The purpose of MAP *Accelerate student learning *Measure academic growth during the year
*Monitor student progress over several years *Evaluate the effectiveness of instructional programs
*Inform students, teachers, and parents
MAP Information
Scores are reported using two scales…
Percentiles – used to compare a student to a large group of students of similar age or grade level. These
score are useful to compare students in other school around the nation.
RIT (Rauch Units) – used to show a student’s current achievement level along a curriculum scale. These
scores show the progress a student is making toward mastery of the curriculum.
Graph: 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th
Median RIT scores
Parent Report: Your parent report will include several scores which provide information about your child’s
progress.
The RIT Score – The RIT score for your child is a measure of individual achievement in reading and math.
The RIT score is used to measure a student’s growth compared over a period of time. The RIT score reflects
the instructional level at which your child is currently performing.
Student Score Range – It is very important to remember that scores on any test are estimates of
performance with no one score being treated as an absolute. Score ranges indicate a range of measurement
error around a particular score (231-234-237). The score in the middle is your child’s score. The numbers
on either side of it define the score range.
District Average- This score is the average RIT score for all students in the district in the same grade that
were tested at the same time as your child.
Student Percentile Range- This score tells how you child is doing compared to other students in the same
grade when compared to a nationally normed group from NWEA. For example a score of 85 in math scored
as well as or better than 85 percent of the students in the nationally normed group.
Goal Areas- Each MAP test is comprised of parts or goal areas. The report includes a descriptive adjective
for each goal area of your child’s score. HI-Score is in the top third or equal to or greater than 66%, AV
means the score is in the middle third score between 33 and 66, LO Score is in the bottom third or below
33%.
Lexile- A lexile is a unit for measure text difficulty and reader comprehension. The lexile score for each
student appears on the parent report and is an indication of text difficulty that can be understood by the
student 75% of the time. Parents and teachers can use this score to find reading material that is
appropriately challenging for each student. Lexile does not evaluate genre, theme, content or interest. Even
though a student might be able to read books at a certain Lexile range, the content or theme may not be
appropriate for the student because of his/her age or maturity. Go to www.lexile.com to learn more
Growth Picture- Over the years you will be able to track your child’s growth by looking at the chart of the
test scores that appears on the student report. This score indicates growth from fall to spring in that testing
year.
Student Achievement
MAP breaks out student achievement in reading and mathematics into specific goal areas to provide more
detail. MAP tests provide feedback in the following curriculum areas:
Reading
-Word recognition and vocabulary
-Literal comprehension: narrative
-Interpretive Comprehension: Informational
-Literary response and analysis
Mathematics
-Number sense and Computation
-Function and Algebra
-Geometry / Measurement
-Statistics and Probability
MAP General Information:
-Is taken on a computer that tailors the test to the individual student’s correct achievement levels.
- Is un-graded and untimed and very accurate
-Measures and reports student growth over months and years.
-Is available to teachers throughout the year to use when needed.
-Predicts student success on state tests
-Provides specific feedback that teachers student and parents can act on immediately.
-
How will MAP improve my child’s education?
Provide meaningful information to parents and students regarding student progress in the areas of reading
and mathematics.
Inform the instructional decisions of teachers
Measure and report student growth over time using a consistent scale.
–
Motivate students to achieve clear, specific goals.
–
Facilitate program evaluation at the school and district level.
The richest and most reliable source of information concerning your child’s growth is the classroom teacher.
The teacher monitors performance daily using a variety of tools and strategies including assignments,
projects, observations and assessments