Are my kids the only ones who bombed the spring MAP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, my 6th grader went up 20 points on the raw score (which in percentile still puts her in the 99th percentile). I told her not to be disappointed if it decreases next fall - at that level, it's probably just the run of questions she had.

In elementary I noticed that sometimes schools did not give all the recommended time to students for MAP (MAP is supposed to be unlimited time, but for practical reasons, schools do limit the time, sometimes not consistently). It's annoying if students want to be considered for the CES in 4th grade, because that's one of the criteria.

Other than that, just make sure they read this summer and do some basic math.

Some teachers will intentionally give students less time on the fall MAP than the spring MAP because they are evaluated on student growth, so, duh, of course they aren’t going to give a rip if the kids race through the test - as long as they don’t do that on the spring MAPs.

Sped para here. I've never seen this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grade 1 and 3. Each went down at least 10 percentile points (that's probably not the correct way to word it). Went from mid-90's to low 80's/upper 70's . WTF??!!

You should be looking at the absolute score, not the percentile. Usually the raw RIT score goes up by a couple of points. A decrease in percentile just means that your kids were less affected by the pandemic than other kids, or at least not as disrupted in fall/winter.

My DS in 2nd went up 2 points but dropped from 97% to 90%. I agree and think that kids did better once back in school.

+1. My kid’s points went up, but her percentile dropped.

[Anonymous]

My 9th grader was told it didn’t count and had tons of test/projects due the same week. They also gave him limited time. He bombed them going from 99 to 93 and 99 to 85 percentile go figure.

[Anonymous]

Over the years my kid's percentiles have been as high 99th (and 95th and 92nd) and as low as 60th and 67th.

Are these wild swings normal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Over the years my kid's percentiles have been as high 99th (and 95th and 92nd) and as low as 60th and 67th.

Are these wild swings normal?

Something similar happens with one of my kids. Percentages from high 70s to 97. He has ADHD though so never know if there are outside distractions or just having a bad day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Over the years my kid's percentiles have been as high 99th (and 95th and 92nd) and as low as 60th and 67th.

Are these wild swings normal?

Something similar happens with one of my kids. Percentages from high 70s to 97. He has ADHD though so never know if there are outside distractions or just having a bad day.

+1

My DD wasn’t diagnosed with inattentive ADHD until 9th, but over the years her scores on standardized tests were pretty wild.

Reading was fairly consistent because it’s her biggest strength, but we’d still see anything from 99th percentile to 91st on MAP testing, and math anywhere from one 68th to some 97th and 98ths. But rarely did her scores track in any kind of smooth curve.

Same with PARCC scores. Because the tests were on different days, sometimes in different rooms, one year she’d have a 5 in math and a 3 in ELA, the next a 2 in math and a 5 in ELA. She pretty much bombed the math COGAT in 5th (for her), in the low 80s, I think, but still managed to get into a Humanities magnet on the strength of her verbal and nonverbal sections, and her recent high math MAP scores that kind of balanced out the bad COGAT. She’d also done well on the math COGAT in 3rd, but I’m not sure whether the evaluators could see that score.

Now that she’s older and more able to articulate her issues, she says that the tiniest thing could distract her during testing. Itchy socks, the testing room smelled funny, kid next to her had a nose whistle, or she was even a little bit tired, and it would all fall apart. Even on the “good” days, she’d just blaze through the questions, knowing she’d eventually lose focus as the test went on, even without distractions.

This spring, the first MAP she’s ever taken while on meds, she scored in the 99th percentile for reading and 98th for math. This is definitely more in line with the results of the IQ testing they did as part of her neuropsych exam when she was tested for ADHD. So we’re hoping these solid scores on meds bode well for APs, IBs, and SATs, because she didn’t qualify for 504 accommodations this year, even before meds.

In retrospect, I feel like somebody along the way should have probably spotted the pattern (or lack of one), but I suspect it just kind of slipped past because she was always working above grade level, even on the ones she “bombed,” and managed to scrape into gifted programs because of her strong reading scores. I guess it was all relative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Grade 1 and 3. Each went down at least 10 percentile points (that's probably not the correct way to word it). Went from mid-90's to low 80's/upper 70's . WTF??!!

Mine showed improvement. One was up around 20 points in math the other 17. Their reading was up 10 and 7 points respectively. Percentiles are up or the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What does it mean when scores go down? That the student didn’t learn anything in the year?

No, the tests are adjusted for where the state expects learning to be at that stage of their grade. The Fall tests have material from the beginning of that grade level. The Spring tests have material from the end of that grade level. The raw score gives you an idea of how well they are absorbing the material at their grade level. The percentage is a comparison of how that student did compared to all other students in their grade level across the state. If the percentage goes down, that means that their peers did a better job of absorbing the grade level material than this student. A score in the 90s means that the last time they tested, they had a better comprehension of the appropriate grade level material than 90% of the other MD students. A score in the 80s or 70s means that they are better than the respective percentage of other MD students. So, it means that statewide, more students absorbed more of the grade level material than your child did, but your child still learned better than 70% or 80% of the the MD state students.

One thing to keep in mind, the results often fluxuate based on their emotional state on the day of the test. I have noticed that when there is something disruptive in our lives or anxious, then they perform worse and when they are stable and happy, the perform better. My twins are rising 5th graders. The year that they were virtual, they were miserable and anxious and their scores went down. When they returned to school, they were happier and their scores went up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Over the years my kid's percentiles have been as high 99th (and 95th and 92nd) and as low as 60th and 67th.

Are these wild swings normal?

Something similar happens with one of my kids. Percentages from high 70s to 97. He has ADHD though so never know if there are outside distractions or just having a bad day.

+1

My DD wasn’t diagnosed with inattentive ADHD until 9th, but over the years her scores on standardized tests were pretty wild.

Reading was fairly consistent because it’s her biggest strength, but we’d still see anything from 99th percentile to 91st on MAP testing, and math anywhere from one 68th to some 97th and 98ths. But rarely did her scores track in any kind of smooth curve.

Same with PARCC scores. Because the tests were on different days, sometimes in different rooms, one year she’d have a 5 in math and a 3 in ELA, the next a 2 in math and a 5 in ELA. She pretty much bombed the math COGAT in 5th (for her), in the low 80s, I think, but still managed to get into a Humanities magnet on the strength of her verbal and nonverbal sections, and her recent high math MAP scores that kind of balanced out the bad COGAT. She’d also done well on the math COGAT in 3rd, but I’m not sure whether the evaluators could see that score.

Now that she’s older and more able to articulate her issues, she says that the tiniest thing could distract her during testing. Itchy socks, the testing room smelled funny, kid next to her had a nose whistle, or she was even a little bit tired, and it would all fall apart. Even on the “good” days, she’d just blaze through the questions, knowing she’d eventually lose focus as the test went on, even without distractions.

This spring, the first MAP she’s ever taken while on meds, she scored in the 99th percentile for reading and 98th for math. This is definitely more in line with the results of the IQ testing they did as part of her neuropsych exam when she was tested for ADHD. So we’re hoping these solid scores on meds bode well for APs, IBs, and SATs, because she didn’t qualify for 504 accommodations this year, even before meds.

In retrospect, I feel like somebody along the way should have probably spotted the pattern (or lack of one), but I suspect it just kind of slipped past because she was always working above grade level, even on the ones she “bombed,” and managed to scrape into gifted programs because of her strong reading scores. I guess it was all relative.

Thanks for sharing that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does it mean when scores go down? That the student didn’t learn anything in the year?

No, the tests are adjusted for where the state expects learning to be at that stage of their grade. The Fall tests have material from the beginning of that grade level. The Spring tests have material from the end of that grade level. The raw score gives you an idea of how well they are absorbing the material at their grade level. The percentage is a comparison of how that student did compared to all other students in their grade level across the state. If the percentage goes down, that means that their peers did a better job of absorbing the grade level material than this student. A score in the 90s means that the last time they tested, they had a better comprehension of the appropriate grade level material than 90% of the other MD students. A score in the 80s or 70s means that they are better than the respective percentage of other MD students. So, it means that statewide, more students absorbed more of the grade level material than your child did, but your child still learned better than 70% or 80% of the the MD state students.

One thing to keep in mind, the results often fluxuate based on their emotional state on the day of the test. I have noticed that when there is something disruptive in our lives or anxious, then they perform worse and when they are stable and happy, the perform better. My twins are rising 5th graders. The year that they were virtual, they were miserable and anxious and their scores went down. When they returned to school, they were happier and their scores went up.

Please note that there are scores and there are percentiles. For example, if my kid gets a 225 in the fall and a 225 in the spring, his score stays the same, but his percentile drops, because in the fall he was doing better than 96 percent of his peers, and in the spring, he's now doing better than 80 percent of his peers. As to why a kid's scores don't go up after a whole year of school, it could be anything--bad day testing, weakness in a certain area emphasized in the test etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Went down from 98 percentile to 85 percentile.
I'm confused, though, if they're giving the percentiles right away, are they being compared to previous versions of the test? Mine came home with their score same day of testing.

Look up “norm referenced testing.” It will explain this.