MAP-P test -- this seems dumb to me.

[Anonymous]

So my child came home tonight saying that she took the MAP-P and was confused by a number of questions that showed a number in part of a box and another number outside the box. She drew it out and I realized she was talking about one way to show a division problem -- but she has never seen division written this way. She actually knows how to do simple division, and would recognize the division sign (dash with dot above and below), or would know what was meant if it was presented in a word problem -- but I'm sure she missed all these questions because she had no idea what the "part of a box" was intended to convey. I know that she is not "supposed" to know how to do division, because it's above her grade level -- but it seems to me that if MCPS wants to test kids on whether they know division, they should use a couple of different formats, or at least use the most basic symbol. I was really surprised at this, and it makes me wonder what else the test is not testing accurately.

[Anonymous]

Same thing happened to my kid. No worries, they don't seem to use the test for much that i saw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So my child came home tonight saying that she took the MAP-P and was confused by a number of questions that showed a number in part of a box and another number outside the box. She drew it out and I realized she was talking about one way to show a division problem -- but she has never seen division written this way. She actually knows how to do simple division, and would recognize the division sign (dash with dot above and below), or would know what was meant if it was presented in a word problem -- but I'm sure she missed all these questions because she had no idea what the "part of a box" was intended to convey. I know that she is not "supposed" to know how to do division, because it's above her grade level -- but it seems to me that if MCPS wants to test kids on whether they know division, they should use a couple of different formats, or at least use the most basic symbol. I was really surprised at this, and it makes me wonder what else the test is not testing accurately.

on a positive note - I guess if she had never seen this, they aren't "teaching to the test", right?

[Anonymous]

If you are concerned, the best thing to do is to ask the teacher. Reports about school from MAP-P-aged children are not necessarily accurate and complete. It might also be helpful to ask the teacher what they use the MAP-P results for.

Here's a link with a bit more information about the MAP-P (which, incidentally, is not an MCPS test):

http://www.nwea.org/node/113

[Anonymous]

DS took it today and said the score, a grade (A+-F-) and ES,P etc showed up in the screen at the end of both tests. Page 66 & 66 has a way to interpret the RIT score

http://www.nwea.org/sites/www.nwea.org/files/resources/NWEA%202011%20Norms%20Report_01.17.2012_2.pdf