Low MAP reading score of a bookworm

[Anonymous]

Bookworm DD8 started the year scoring 85 percentile on Fall MAP and over the year (3 more MAP tests) dropped steadily down until scoring 42 percentile on the last Spring MAP. Is this concerning or normal? She reports nothing unusual about the testing days, sleeps well, no other changes.

School uses a reading curriculum I despise, but I taught phonics at home and she reads chapter books that are above grade level. She reads a lot! They don’t teach spelling at school, but I assume this has nothing to do with the test score, right?

[Anonymous]

That's a serious concern, because the scores have been low for several tests in a row and they are used to assess placement in reading groups and later on, advanced English and Social Studies classes.

Does your child understand that they need to answer all questions correctly, and not skip any of them? Do they say they're running out of time (it's supposed to be an untimed test, but in practice, some schools just assign a timeframe to get it done)?

Do they have a reading disability, ADHD, low processing speed? When you say your kid is reading above grade level, is the grade level perhaps not very high?

You need to get to the bottom of it.

[Anonymous]

The only thing map-r matters for is CES lottery in 4th grade and middle school magnet lottery.

If you don't care for that then it doesn't matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's a serious concern, because the scores have been low for several tests in a row and they are used to assess placement in reading groups and later on, advanced English and Social Studies classes.

Does your child understand that they need to answer all questions correctly, and not skip any of them? Do they say they're running out of time (it's supposed to be an untimed test, but in practice, some schools just assign a timeframe to get it done)?

Do they have a reading disability, ADHD, low processing speed? When you say your kid is reading above grade level, is the grade level perhaps not very high?

You need to get to the bottom of it.

I wasn’t concerned until she dropped below average. I understand the national average is very low right?

They don’t have set books to read at school. At home I looked up reading lists at private schools and she has read books like Charlotte’s Web, Mouse and the Motorcycle and Wild Robot. She has no comprehension issues and we talk about characters and she asks about unfamiliar words.

It’s not a testing issue and I don’t think there’s a processing or ADHD issue because she scores in the 90 percentile consistently in math. She takes her time and doesn’t skip. She said school gives lots of time to finish the tests.

The teacher had said all year that she is reading above grade level and is doing great. She has a good understanding of the story and characters and no concerns at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only thing map-r matters for is CES lottery in 4th grade and middle school magnet lottery.

If you don't care for that then it doesn't matter.

They are often used for G&T placement

[Anonymous]

If you ask the teacher, they can share a detailed breakdown that shows what areas she's struggling in and what areas she's getting right.

[Anonymous]

I hope the school curriculum is not teaching 3-queuing.

[Anonymous]

Can they retest to be sure it wasn't an anomally?

My DS started reading with strong comprehension at age 3, but every so often had one of those low test scores. One I recall where he never got past the first question. Teachers always said, "don't worry, we know he knows the stuff, he's smart," etc.

Until middle school. Turns out he is super smart, but also has severe inattentive ADHD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you ask the teacher, they can share a detailed breakdown that shows what areas she's struggling in and what areas she's getting right.

What does this mean, what kind of specifics are given? The score sheet I was given does great down the lexile range and gives individual scores for categories like “informational text.”

The school year is over so I hesitate to contact the teacher if the info won’t be useful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only thing map-r matters for is CES lottery in 4th grade and middle school magnet lottery.

If you don't care for that then it doesn't matter.

They are often used for G&T placement

No real benefit other than lottery for map-r. Map-m is used for compacted math placement so that matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can they retest to be sure it wasn't an anomally?

My DS started reading with strong comprehension at age 3, but every so often had one of those low test scores. One I recall where he never got past the first question. Teachers always said, "don't worry, we know he knows the stuff, he's smart," etc.

Until middle school. Turns out he is super smart, but also has severe inattentive ADHD.

I don’t think it was an anomaly. Her numerical score was flat the first three tests which led to a percentile drop each time as other kids caught up I guess? and numerical score and percentile both dropped on the last test.

[Anonymous]

So it seems like people are generally in agreement here that 42 percentile is concerning?

[Anonymous]

It is concerning but you know your kid. Can she read well for her age or not?

That's all you really need to know.

[Anonymous]

Something's not adding up. Even 85th percentile, for a bookworm with good reading comprehension, isn't top notch. My kids were always at the 99th percentile for reading. Is she reporting the score she's seeing on her own screen? That way there's not risk of administrative error.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can they retest to be sure it wasn't an anomally?

My DS started reading with strong comprehension at age 3, but every so often had one of those low test scores. One I recall where he never got past the first question. Teachers always said, "don't worry, we know he knows the stuff, he's smart," etc.

Until middle school. Turns out he is super smart, but also has severe inattentive ADHD.

I don’t think it was an anomaly. Her numerical score was flat the first three tests which led to a percentile drop each time as other kids caught up I guess? and numerical score and percentile both dropped on the last test.

You need to ask her teacher if your dd actually took the test a separate time for each report you received. What are the odds she got exactly the same numerical score multiple consecutive times? (Although I thought MAP testing was only administered 3 times per year.) I found out that MAP-R wasn’t being administered to my child every time testing was going on. Her elementary teachers sometimes skipped testing her because she was clearly above grade level and they had no concerns. However, I kept receiving the reports generated by the school system, so I thought she just kept scoring in the same range. When dd mentioned that she hadn’t taken the test, I asked the teacher and she confirmed that dd hadn’t.