Can the kids re-take the MAP-M, MAP-R

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, op, the kids can retake the test - just email your kid's teacher and say you want her to retake it and why. I did that once when my dc's map-r score was sognificantly different lower than the prior test - I wanted to know if it was an off day or if there was an issue.

I never understand why posters bother to respond when they know they are not answering the question as the op intended it ... To the pp's, what you are described ng is not retaking the test, it is taking it again at the next planned test date.

Somewhat OT, but how did you even find out that the score was lower?? We don't get the scores sent home at our school. Does your school send home MAP-R scores?

My DC mentioned the re-test. I regularly make FERPA requests for MAP scores. Our school doesn't give them out, but under FERPA, if you write a letter requesting an educational record (like a MAP test score) then the school system is obligated to provide it to you by law. I also requested the special sub-score breakdowns that are available to teachers. The school had to provide it. I also asked the school system to provide a record of the 1st test, but they claimed that they could not do that because the "computer system" forced them to overwrite the re-test score so that the original score could no longer be seen.

After that, I wrote a letter asking the school did not have my consent to re-test my child without informing me first and providing me a copy of the record of the pre-re-test score.

The school system tested DC 5 times and only once did DC score higher (in the middle of the year). 4 out of 5 scores showed less than the required increase. 1 score showed a great increase, so much so that I asked my child about it. DC reported that some of the questions were the same, so maybe that's why DC did better. School kept working that one increase even though it was followed by significantly lower scores over the next year. School kept insisting that that one higher score was the accurate one and showed they were teaching adequately. I finally just gave up and withdrew our child for a private SN school.

This was in MCPS BTW.

You sound like a real treat!

[Anonymous]

Jiggering (or trying to jigger) a student's MAP scores to get out of providing services isn't ideal either, is it? I'm not the PP.

[Anonymous]

I've been a teacher in MCPS for 14 years and have never had any student retake MAP tests. Sometimes a student's score goes up and sometimes (not very often) it drops. It's just one piece of data among all the other anecdotal notes, grades, and classroom observations that I use when building the overall learning profile of a student. Rumor has it that we might not have MAPs much longer now that we have MIRL every month and a knew monitoring tool for math coming out next school year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, op, the kids can retake the test - just email your kid's teacher and say you want her to retake it and why. I did that once when my dc's map-r score was sognificantly different lower than the prior test - I wanted to know if it was an off day or if there was an issue.

I never understand why posters bother to respond when they know they are not answering the question as the op intended it ... To the pp's, what you are described ng is not retaking the test, it is taking it again at the next planned test date.

Somewhat OT, but how did you even find out that the score was lower?? We don't get the scores sent home at our school. Does your school send home MAP-R scores?

My DC mentioned the re-test. I regularly make FERPA requests for MAP scores. Our school doesn't give them out, but under FERPA, if you write a letter requesting an educational record (like a MAP test score) then the school system is obligated to provide it to you by law. I also requested the special sub-score breakdowns that are available to teachers. The school had to provide it. I also asked the school system to provide a record of the 1st test, but they claimed that they could not do that because the "computer system" forced them to overwrite the re-test score so that the original score could no longer be seen.

After that, I wrote a letter asking the school did not have my consent to re-test my child without informing me first and providing me a copy of the record of the pre-re-test score.

The school system tested DC 5 times and only once did DC score higher (in the middle of the year). 4 out of 5 scores showed less than the required increase. 1 score showed a great increase, so much so that I asked my child about it. DC reported that some of the questions were the same, so maybe that's why DC did better. School kept working that one increase even though it was followed by significantly lower scores over the next year. School kept insisting that that one higher score was the accurate one and showed they were teaching adequately. I finally just gave up and withdrew our child for a private SN school.

This was in MCPS BTW.

You sound like a real treat!

Not the PP, but it's an unfortunate fact of life that some schools in MCPS require constant parent advocacy and evidence gathering before they will provide the Free and Apprpriate education to which every child is entitled. It is sad that they spent so much time trying to stop services from happening rather than just providing them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been a teacher in MCPS for 14 years and have never had any student retake MAP tests. Sometimes a student's score goes up and sometimes (not very often) it drops. It's just one piece of data among all the other anecdotal notes, grades, and classroom observations that I use when building the overall learning profile of a student. Rumor has it that we might not have MAPs much longer now that we have MIRL every month and a knew monitoring tool for math coming out next school year.

PP, What is MIRL? Is this something parents will experience?

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry you all have had some of these experiences. I guess I'm fortunate enough to work in a school where nearly everyone seems to want to do right by kids. In regards to MIRL it is simply an acronym for Monitoring Instructional Reading Levels. Each teacher (K to 5) must submit their students' instructional reading levels every month to a data base. We have to report out each student's accuracy, fluency, comprehension, and instructional level. There's also a column for teachers to enter instructional notes about the reading behaviors he/she is seeing the child exhibit (strengths/barriers). While giving kids running records (to assess reading levels), comprehension checks, and anecdotal notes is nothing new...it ensures ALL teachers in MCPS are regularly monitoring students' reading levels. Next year, there will be something similar put in place for math. I believe all K to 5 teachers will have to provide (and report out) on three common assessments per marking period. When Curriculum 2.0 rolled out we were no longer given the old Unit Assessments that were required for all students to take at the end of each unit. These scores were put in to a data base and tracked by administrators and central office. Curriculum 2.0 does offer MCPS formative assessments but up until now, there hasn't been a district-wide mandate that teachers actually give them to their kids and report out their scores. The pendulum for accountability is definitely sweeping back again. I like the idea of it but it's not always so easy to accomplish with class sizes at 30 or 31 kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry you all have had some of these experiences. I guess I'm fortunate enough to work in a school where nearly everyone seems to want to do right by kids. In regards to MIRL it is simply an acronym for Monitoring Instructional Reading Levels. Each teacher (K to 5) must submit their students' instructional reading levels every month to a data base. We have to report out each student's accuracy, fluency, comprehension, and instructional level. There's also a column for teachers to enter instructional notes about the reading behaviors he/she is seeing the child exhibit (strengths/barriers). While giving kids running records (to assess reading levels), comprehension checks, and anecdotal notes is nothing new...it ensures ALL teachers in MCPS are regularly monitoring students' reading levels. Next year, there will be something similar put in place for math. I believe all K to 5 teachers will have to provide (and report out) on three common assessments per marking period. When Curriculum 2.0 rolled out we were no longer given the old Unit Assessments that were required for all students to take at the end of each unit. These scores were put in to a data base and tracked by administrators and central office. Curriculum 2.0 does offer MCPS formative assessments but up until now, there hasn't been a district-wide mandate that teachers actually give them to their kids and report out their scores. The pendulum for accountability is definitely sweeping back again. I like the idea of it but it's not always so easy to accomplish with class sizes at 30 or 31 kids.

FWIW, all of the data PP mentions above (or any piece of it). would be considered an educational record within the meaning of FERPA, and parents have a right to view it as well as get a context to understand it. Context would be, for example, how many other kids scored above or below my child at his grade level? What were the questions? what was the reading selection? what fid the teacher note about reading behaviors?, etc.

[Anonymous]

In my experience, when parents have asked what their student's instructional reading level is I just tell them where they are currently reading. I'll let them know where they are according to the grade-level benchmark but I don't believe it's relevant to share that there are 6 kids reading at a level higher than him/her and 23 below. As a parent I'd want to know what my child's strengths/needs are and not how they rank according to their classmates. FWIW, the reading selection is the text being read during small group instruction with the questions coming from the text and the indicator(s) being taught that week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, op, the kids can retake the test - just email your kid's teacher and say you want her to retake it and why. I did that once when my dc's map-r score was sognificantly different lower than the prior test - I wanted to know if it was an off day or if there was an issue.

I never understand why posters bother to respond when they know they are not answering the question as the op intended it ... To the pp's, what you are described ng is not retaking the test, it is taking it again at the next planned test date.

Somewhat OT, but how did you even find out that the score was lower?? We don't get the scores sent home at our school. Does your school send home MAP-R scores?

My DC mentioned the re-test. I regularly make FERPA requests for MAP scores. Our school doesn't give them out, but under FERPA, if you write a letter requesting an educational record (like a MAP test score) then the school system is obligated to provide it to you by law. I also requested the special sub-score breakdowns that are available to teachers. The school had to provide it. I also asked the school system to provide a record of the 1st test, but they claimed that they could not do that because the "computer system" forced them to overwrite the re-test score so that the original score could no longer be seen.

After that, I wrote a letter asking the school did not have my consent to re-test my child without informing me first and providing me a copy of the record of the pre-re-test score.

The school system tested DC 5 times and only once did DC score higher (in the middle of the year). 4 out of 5 scores showed less than the required increase. 1 score showed a great increase, so much so that I asked my child about it. DC reported that some of the questions were the same, so maybe that's why DC did better. School kept working that one increase even though it was followed by significantly lower scores over the next year. School kept insisting that that one higher score was the accurate one and showed they were teaching adequately. I finally just gave up and withdrew our child for a private SN school.

This was in MCPS BTW.

You sound like a real treat!

To me, she sounds like a great parent doing her best to advocate for her child in a very imperfect system.