Great grades, terrible test scores and vice versa

[Anonymous]

I have two kids with inattentive ADHD. One is in 5th grade, one in 7th grade in MCPS. The 5th grader has never done well on standardized tests. This child apparently does not meet grade level expectations for MAP scores for either math or literacy. However, this child has all A’s for grades in academic subjects.
The 7th grader does very well on MAP tests (scores in the high 90s) but struggles with class grades (mostly Bs, Cs, and sometimes a D).

To me, this tells me the MAP tests are mostly meaningless and not an accurate assessment of grade level knowledge. Have you had kids with either of these types of profiles? I don’t know how worried I should be. I think the tests and schoolwork represent their strengths and weaknesses with executive function skills.

[Anonymous]

I would get an educational evaluation or at least tutors.

[Anonymous]

My ADHD child with high MAP scores and lower grades clearly exceeds grade level content. He gets lower grades because he skips questions and forgets to turn in assignments. He needs to work on exec function skills, which we are, but no one who meets him would think his MAP scores aren't an accurate assessment of his knowledge.

So I don't think your framing is correct. It's more important to look beyond the tests and grades to see *why* your kids are getting the scores and grades that they are. If it's not clear what their issues are, then yes, getting more data or input from an evaluation or tutors can help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My ADHD child with high MAP scores and lower grades clearly exceeds grade level content. He gets lower grades because he skips questions and forgets to turn in assignments. He needs to work on exec function skills, which we are, but no one who meets him would think his MAP scores aren't an accurate assessment of his knowledge.

So I don't think your framing is correct. It's more important to look beyond the tests and grades to see *why* your kids are getting the scores and grades that they are. If it's not clear what their issues are, then yes, getting more data or input from an evaluation or tutors can help.

This. I do not think the MAP scores are meaningless. Clearly one of your children does have some knowledge despite the bad grades, that's why the MAP is informative.

You should be worried about both of them because both of them lack executive functioning and executive functioning is very important in high school and in life generally. What a weird question.

[Anonymous]

I think it's the opposite, the grades don't have much meaning and the MAP scores tell you a lot. Grade inflation is endemic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My ADHD child with high MAP scores and lower grades clearly exceeds grade level content. He gets lower grades because he skips questions and forgets to turn in assignments. He needs to work on exec function skills, which we are, but no one who meets him would think his MAP scores aren't an accurate assessment of his knowledge.

So I don't think your framing is correct. It's more important to look beyond the tests and grades to see *why* your kids are getting the scores and grades that they are. If it's not clear what their issues are, then yes, getting more data or input from an evaluation or tutors can help.

This. I do not think the MAP scores are meaningless. Clearly one of your children does have some knowledge despite the bad grades, that's why the MAP is informative.

You should be worried about both of them because both of them lack executive functioning and executive functioning is very important in high school and in life generally. What a weird question.

+1 To conclude that the test is flawed, rather than try to work on the reasons that one of your kids is doing poorly in school as measured by grades, and the other is doing poorly as standardized tests is a very odd conclusion to me. What do their teachers say? "Copium" as they would say.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I’m not disputing the importance of executive function. I am well aware of both kids strengths and weaknesses with executive function. They have both had neuropsych evals. We are working on the executive function issues. I’m mostly frustrated that the school system thinks one kid is not at grade level because of a test score. Because of the executive function issues, this child has a hard time demonstrating her knowledge through the format of the MAP. Clearly the kid has grade level knowledge as grades are all As. I see the work that comes home and the kid knows the content and can do the work independently. The problem is that the school thinks the issue is one of knowledge so the learning support they provide is not targeted to the real issues (test stamina, test anxiety, working memory, processing speed, and sustained attention). This kid struggles to perform under standardized test conditions which are not present with day to day class work.

Kids need to be trained in how to take these tests. Schools don’t really do it.

[Anonymous]

Grades aside, you are seeing work coming home that shows your child understands the content. That's great. That makes things easier.

It sounds like your concern is with MAP math, is that correct? When the problem is with the online format and testing anxiety, it's possible that practice taking online math tests might help.

Maybe the course challenges on Khan Academy might be similar enough that practicing those at home could normalize testing online for her, and lessen the anxiety? It would also give her practice using scratch paper for online testing, which is harder for some kids because they need to get into the habit of copying the problem down before working through it. Especially with processing speed issues, getting into the habit of using scratch paper will become more important for her as the problems get harder.

[Anonymous]

In general, a kid in an MCPS elementary school with low MAP scores but all As is most likely to not really know the content. It's often extremely easy to get As especially in elementary school, and MAP scores tend to be pretty reliable for most kids. If you have verified directly (not by grades but by talking with your child, watching them do homework, etc) that your child has fully mastered the content, though, and they are known to have test anxiety, then it sounds like in their case it is different. But that doesn't mean MAP is worthless. And if your oldest gets high MAP scores but poor grades, I would definitely take that as a major red flag to dig into what's going on with them in class-- you can't get MAP scores that high without strong content knowledge, so the low grades must be due to something else.

[Anonymous]

For the B/C class DC -- is that the overall grade (end of quarter, year) or what is happening with most individual assignments? Do they have wild fluctuation based on type of work or even 1-2 assignments that derail an otherwise really solid B into A territory grade? I'd dig deeper and see where the "breakdown" is