If your fourth grader scored more than 280 in MAP-R, what does s/he read at home?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That report is from the samples, not from all the MCPS students. So it is possible that the max score in the report is not really the MAX.

It's at least 10,000 kids per grade in the sample (see first column in Table 5) --- all kids who took spring MAP-R and PARCC ELA that year. It's possible there's a kid who took MAP-R but not PARCC and isn't in the sample group, but the general idea still stands that a MAP-R of 288 in the spring of 4th grade would be an extreme outlier, both on the national norms (5.5 standard deviations above the mean using current norms, or one in 10 million) and within MCPS (4.6 SD above the mean using the data in that report, which is from 2014-15, or ~5 in a million).

I agree it's rare but I don't buy that MCPS is that much higher than the national norms based on the charts they've published. What are you looking at that indicates otherwise? The data in my child's map report shows the district average as being maybe 2%-3% higher than the national.

MCPS publishes how their scores stack up to national norms on the PDF they provide with your kid's scores. It's not substantially higher just slightly so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 4th grader got a 230 something (can’t remember exactly—236 I think), and they don’t actually read books outside of the William & Mary books assigned at school and whatever library books they read at school when killing time. They do read a lot of content online related to their hobby/passion along with news articles (most short).

I was a bookworm as a kid, but I hated most of the classics. I read garbage. Shrug.

When DC was in 4th they also scored 236 that winter but after spending the latter part of the year in DL and 5th in DL their score in the beginning of 6th is still around 236.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 4th grader got a 230 something (can’t remember exactly—236 I think), and they don’t actually read books outside of the William & Mary books assigned at school and whatever library books they read at school when killing time. They do read a lot of content online related to their hobby/passion along with news articles (most short).

I was a bookworm as a kid, but I hated most of the classics. I read garbage. Shrug.

When DC was in 4th they also scored 236 that winter but after spending the latter part of the year in DL and 5th in DL their score in the beginning of 6th is still around 236.

The test changes in 6th grade, so many scores go down slightly between 5th and 6th. But I'm sure virtual learning last year didn't help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 4th grader got a 230 something (can’t remember exactly—236 I think), and they don’t actually read books outside of the William & Mary books assigned at school and whatever library books they read at school when killing time. They do read a lot of content online related to their hobby/passion along with news articles (most short).

I was a bookworm as a kid, but I hated most of the classics. I read garbage. Shrug.

High five for Christopher Pike and Sweet Valley High

And another for VC Andrews and Babysitters Club for this bookworm!

I read a ton of Stephen King starting at around age 10, same age as my DD. I think he’s a good writer, but the content is way too mature for a kid that age. It was definitely more than I could handle in some ways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just get him a library card and turn him loose.

Seconded.

+1. Whatever they want, as long as they can handle the material (ie digest the content, feel comfortable asking questions/discussing anything scary or bothersome or that the don’t understand). If kid ask for recommendations I suggest a variety of books from picture books all the way up to adult reads. Also I’d ask if there is a particular topic they are interested or genre they like best. Anyone reading at that level is capable of deciding for themselves with access and opportunity.

Introduce them to the library catalog and process for holding books, Provide access to Goodreads or something similar, remind them about magazines/newspapers/podcast.

[Anonymous]

Horrible Histories
Horrible Geographies
Anamalium
Welcome to the Museum Series
Who Was Series biographies and then select more in depth biographies on individuals of interest
Smithsonian books
How Things Work

National Geographic magazines


Try some Sci Fi books

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 4th grader got a 230 something (can’t remember exactly—236 I think), and they don’t actually read books outside of the William & Mary books assigned at school and whatever library books they read at school when killing time. They do read a lot of content online related to their hobby/passion along with news articles (most short).

I was a bookworm as a kid, but I hated most of the classics. I read garbage. Shrug.

When DC was in 4th they also scored 236 that winter but after spending the latter part of the year in DL and 5th in DL their score in the beginning of 6th is still around 236.

The test changes in 6th grade, so many scores go down slightly between 5th and 6th. But I'm sure virtual learning last year didn't help.

Test changes and growth is usually slower in reading than in math. Don't worry about it at all.

[Anonymous]

I have a kid who is now 7th grade who learned to read at 3 and was so far ahead of anyone his age that it was laughable. He read the entire Harry Potter series when he just turned 5 for example, and then the latest one a little later (the play), as soon as it was published. He devours books. He’s 12 now and I have always let him pick whatever he wants to read, which means that now at 12 he’s mostly reading the same level of books that he was reading at 8 - at 8 they were years above his age, now they are closer.

If I remember rightly, he was very into dystopian science fiction at that age (10) - books like Maze Runner and the Hunger Games. Greek mythology was also a big interest - there are some pretty dense books on that topic, going way beyond the Rick Riordan stuff (which he also liked). Just let him pick what he wants to read!

[Anonymous]

My DD at that age read Watership Down; James Herriot; science books, like Oliver Sacks; stuff like that. I tried to steer away from really mature content, which is probably why OP started the thread. It is doable but not easy and takes work on the part of the parent. Also poetry, especially epic poems like the Odyssey. Shakespeare was good but a bit of an eye opener in its raunchiness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That report is from the samples, not from all the MCPS students. So it is possible that the max score in the report is not really the MAX.

It's at least 10,000 kids per grade in the sample (see first column in Table 5) --- all kids who took spring MAP-R and PARCC ELA that year. It's possible there's a kid who took MAP-R but not PARCC and isn't in the sample group, but the general idea still stands that a MAP-R of 288 in the spring of 4th grade would be an extreme outlier, both on the national norms (5.5 standard deviations above the mean using current norms, or one in 10 million) and within MCPS (4.6 SD above the mean using the data in that report, which is from 2014-15, or ~5 in a million).

I agree it's rare but I don't buy that MCPS is that much higher than the national norms based on the charts they've published. What are you looking at that indicates otherwise? The data in my child's map report shows the district average as being maybe 2%-3% higher than the national.

Yeah, in general I don't think there's a ton of difference between MCPS and the national norms, but I did the calculations by looking at the mean and standard deviations shown in the MCPS report compared to the ones reported nationally for the MAP tests.

For 4th grade spring MAP-R, the national 2015 mean/average (which would have been in place at the time of the MCPS report) was 205.9 with a standard deviation of 14.92 (data taken from here).
The mean from the MCPS report was 210.0 with a standard deviation of 16.78.
So the averages are just a few points difference, but with a wider standard deviation in MCPS, so when you get ~80 points above the average (as the OP claims), that makes a difference.
(I'm a scientist who likes data and clearly I have spent too much time over the past decade that my kids have been taking MAP tests in trying to interpret their scores!)

Still doesn't change the fact that it is an incredibly rare score and, if accurate, something the OP should be discussing with the school.

Yes, I would love to know the teacher's reaction. My kid's teacher couldn't believe my kid jumped 20 points from Fall to Winter one year, so I am certain a score such as OP's child earned would cause quite a reaction. I have heard of a couple of kids scoring that high on the MAP-M in fourth and fifth grade in the centers, but not the MAP-R. MAP-M is easier *AHEM* to score higher, because kids can work ahead/be exposed to more advanced math concepts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My fourth grader scored 288 in MAP-R. He mostly reads nonfiction books and feels it is getting harder to find books in the library.

Please share the books your kids at a similar level are reading in any genre. Thanks.

If this is true, I think we should be asking the kid for advice. My kid in the 7th grade got a 253 today which I think is pretty good. 288 in grade 4 is a really high score.

[Anonymous]

That's a really high score, OP, my 4th grader got a 245 and I was super surprised. Anyway, she is into biographies - I just take her to the library and she gets a few books on whatever person she is interested in learning about. Sometimes the motivation is something they learned at school. Then she likes making a book report on their life, and drawing a picture of the person. It's this thing they used to do in her old Montessori and she still does it and just stores it in a binder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My fourth grader scored 288 in MAP-R. He mostly reads nonfiction books and feels it is getting harder to find books in the library.

Please share the books your kids at a similar level are reading in any genre. Thanks.

If this is true, I think we should be asking the kid for advice. My kid in the 7th grade got a 253 today which I think is pretty good. 288 in grade 4 is a really high score.

Your 7th grader did fantastic. The ES scoring is different than MS scoring but this cannot be real or OP child is a genius. 288 is very high in high school, let alone in ES or MS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My fourth grader scored 288 in MAP-R. He mostly reads nonfiction books and feels it is getting harder to find books in the library.

Please share the books your kids at a similar level are reading in any genre. Thanks.

If this is true, I think we should be asking the kid for advice. My kid in the 7th grade got a 253 today which I think is pretty good. 288 in grade 4 is a really high score.

Your 7th grader did fantastic. The ES scoring is different than MS scoring but this cannot be real or OP child is a genius. 288 is very high in high school, let alone in ES or MS.

Yeah, it’s notable that OP hasn’t come back. I bet it was actually something like 228 or 238, both of which are very good for fourth grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My fourth grader scored 288 in MAP-R. He mostly reads nonfiction books and feels it is getting harder to find books in the library.

Please share the books your kids at a similar level are reading in any genre. Thanks.

If this is true, I think we should be asking the kid for advice. My kid in the 7th grade got a 253 today which I think is pretty good. 288 in grade 4 is a really high score.

Your 7th grader did fantastic. The ES scoring is different than MS scoring but this cannot be real or OP child is a genius. 288 is very high in high school, let alone in ES or MS.

What do you mean by scoring is different in ES and MS? Are you saying that the MAP scores progressive across all grades?