Surprised by MAP score

[Anonymous]

DD8 struggled with blends in kindergarten but since that spring has been reading well. She reads chapter books now and I’ve been told she’s reading above grade level, so I was surprised by her lower score on MAP Language Arts. I’m wondering if some of it is that she’s never had to do what the test requires, which as I understand it is reading passages and answering questions. Has anyone else gone through this with their kid? Is it worth supplementing at home, and if so with what?

I know spring scores “matter” in that they are used for future academic placement, so I’m hoping to help her work on this.

My school also did not give any guidance about numerical scores or percentiles, so if anyone has a good resource that explains that specifically by grade level I would love to see it.

[Anonymous]

My daughter has always scored really low in all testing including MAP. She is a straight A student and has always been. Scores have no relationship to her abilities. I relied on teachers for guidance which basically was that she was fine. The only supplementing we did was a tutor like three times for calculus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD8 struggled with blends in kindergarten but since that spring has been reading well. She reads chapter books now and I’ve been told she’s reading above grade level, so I was surprised by her lower score on MAP Language Arts. I’m wondering if some of it is that she’s never had to do what the test requires, which as I understand it is reading passages and answering questions. Has anyone else gone through this with their kid? Is it worth supplementing at home, and if so with what?

I know spring scores “matter” in that they are used for future academic placement, so I’m hoping to help her work on this.

My school also did not give any guidance about numerical scores or percentiles, so if anyone has a good resource that explains that specifically by grade level I would love to see it.

I assume your DD is in 3rd. If your school provided no guidance about numerical scores or percentiles, why do you believe her current score is low? Have you sent a message to the teacher asking what is considered on grade level score is for this administration of MAP? Parent teacher conferences are coming up next month, this is the perfect time to ask any questions about what she is doing well in for ELA and where she is still progressing.

[Anonymous]

Technically it’s the winter score used in the CES lottery for MCPS. What was your kid’s score and are they in a high or low FARMS school. If low FARMS then unless your daughter is scoring about 97thb percentile the score won’t matter anyway. Wait until the parent teacher conference before worrying beyond that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD8 struggled with blends in kindergarten but since that spring has been reading well. She reads chapter books now and I’ve been told she’s reading above grade level, so I was surprised by her lower score on MAP Language Arts. I’m wondering if some of it is that she’s never had to do what the test requires, which as I understand it is reading passages and answering questions. Has anyone else gone through this with their kid? Is it worth supplementing at home, and if so with what?

I know spring scores “matter” in that they are used for future academic placement, so I’m hoping to help her work on this.

My school also did not give any guidance about numerical scores or percentiles, so if anyone has a good resource that explains that specifically by grade level I would love to see it.

I assume your DD is in 3rd. If your school provided no guidance about numerical scores or percentiles, why do you believe her current score is low? Have you sent a message to the teacher asking what is considered on grade level score is for this administration of MAP? Parent teacher conferences are coming up next month, this is the perfect time to ask any questions about what she is doing well in for ELA and where she is still progressing.

2nd grade, just turned 8. They provided a couple of lines that just included the numerical score and percentile. For ELA it included a couple score (“high”) for both and the lexile range. I’ve heard some schools provide a parent portal. This was just a sheet provided by the school. We had conferences and the teacher said she’s reading above grade level and language arts is all great except the need to work on more consistent capitalization. I don’t think the test required them to write any sentences.

[Anonymous]

Don’t worry about it. Next time she will know what to expect. These tests are on computers and there are many distractions during testing. Some kids rush through because they think it’s almost time for lunch or whatever.

-Teacher with many years of experience

[Anonymous]

My kid's scores always went down as the year progressed. Ask the teacher what students can do when they finish the test. If it is anything fun, kids often rush through the test to do the fun stuff.

[Anonymous]

There is a separate MAP test for reading and language arts. The reading test is focused on vocab, reading passages, and comprehension. The LA test is grammar, punctuation, sentence parts and structure, etc. IMO schools don’t do a great job teaching this anymore. Get her some language arts work books to practice these skills. This was probably her first language arts test. Usually first graders do only reading test and then in second grade they do reading AND language arts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Technically it’s the winter score used in the CES lottery for MCPS. What was your kid’s score and are they in a high or low FARMS school. If low FARMS then unless your daughter is scoring about 97thb percentile the score won’t matter anyway. Wait until the parent teacher conference before worrying beyond that

OP’s dc is not at mcps

[Anonymous]

I have a question about how to read MAP scores. If you have the numerical score, can you apply that a grade below or a grade above on the chart? So let's say 2nd grade DS has a numerical score of 206, which is 99th percentile in his grade. Can I take the 207 and compare that to percentiles for 3rd grade? Or are the numerical scores grade specific? Obviously the percentiles are!

I hope my question makes sense. I am not a math person

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a question about how to read MAP scores. If you have the numerical score, can you apply that a grade below or a grade above on the chart? So let's say 2nd grade DS has a numerical score of 206, which is 99th percentile in his grade. Can I take the 207 and compare that to percentiles for 3rd grade? Or are the numerical scores grade specific? Obviously the percentiles are!

I hope my question makes sense. I am not a math person

That is the way it works since comparisons are made year to year. The scores are not grade specific.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a question about how to read MAP scores. If you have the numerical score, can you apply that a grade below or a grade above on the chart? So let's say 2nd grade DS has a numerical score of 206, which is 99th percentile in his grade. Can I take the 207 and compare that to percentiles for 3rd grade? Or are the numerical scores grade specific? Obviously the percentiles are!

I hope my question makes sense. I am not a math person

That is the way it works since comparisons are made year to year. The scores are not grade specific.

Really? Don't kids take MAP tests in 9th grade too? I'm not sure whether to think it's an impressively planned test or it's very unreliable one given the huge age range of students it covers. I don't know that I trust a 2nd grader to be able to navigate and successfully take a standardized test on an iPad anyway...

[Anonymous]

My school form says the percentiles are based on 2020 norms. Is this the first year since Covid that kids are taking MAP? Or are the percentiles only updated every few years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter has always scored really low in all testing including MAP. She is a straight A student and has always been. Scores have no relationship to her abilities. I relied on teachers for guidance which basically was that she was fine. The only supplementing we did was a tutor like three times for calculus.

https://thehill.com/opinion/education/4953230-parents-misconception-gpa-sat-act/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a question about how to read MAP scores. If you have the numerical score, can you apply that a grade below or a grade above on the chart? So let's say 2nd grade DS has a numerical score of 206, which is 99th percentile in his grade. Can I take the 207 and compare that to percentiles for 3rd grade? Or are the numerical scores grade specific? Obviously the percentiles are!

I hope my question makes sense. I am not a math person

That is the way it works since comparisons are made year to year. The scores are not grade specific.

Really? Don't kids take MAP tests in 9th grade too? I'm not sure whether to think it's an impressively planned test or it's very unreliable one given the huge age range of students it covers. I don't know that I trust a 2nd grader to be able to navigate and successfully take a standardized test on an iPad anyway...

They take the test three times per year and the purpose is to see the growth in knowledge and skills. That is why they compare.the.score.year over year. If your second grader has a fifth grade score, then that means they know fifth grade math in second grade.