Reply to Magnet Middle School Thread: MAP scores and results

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

I am not the poster responded to, but my child got 285 and was in-pool but not selected to Takoma.  It happens.  No BS.

[/quote]

MCPS sucks![/quote]

I feel like there is a fundamental misunderstanding of what a high MAP-M score means.  MAP-M does not test ability, it tests knowledge.  A high MAP-M score can, to some extent, indicate ability, but only to a point.

Most math curriculum spirals.  Take, for example, fractions.  In first grade, you learn what a fractional number is and what it means.  Then you learn some simple comparisons of fractions to see which one is bigger.  Then addition and subtraction of fractions with like denominators.  Then equivalent fractions and simplifying.  Mixed numbers.  Addition and subtraction of fractions with unlike denominators.  Multiplication and division of fractions.  Converting fractions to decimals and back.  This is all over the course of 4-5 years.

A 2nd or 3rd grader, who has learned a little bit about fractions, might be able to figure out how to do some of the harder problems without being taught.  That kid would sore well on the MAP-M, but not phenomenally well.  Say, 99th %ile for the grade level they're in, but not 99th %ile for 3 or 4 years ahead.

Now say you're testing an age group of kids that haven't been taught fractions at all yet.  Most kids see that fraction - 1/3 - and have no idea what the symbol is meant to represent.  They can't manipulate it, even if they're really good at math, because they don't know the notation.   The kid in that age group who is whizzing through the fraction problems and scores in the 99th %ile for many grades ahead might be really good at math, but they've also been taught fractions outside of the curriculum.

The same is true for other things, especially as you get to the upper grades.  No one "just knows" what math symbols and notation mean before they've learned it.  A kid with a super high MAP-M score is not just extrapolating from learned knowledge because they're good at math - they've been taught extra math.  Now, they might be really good at math AND have been exposed to lots of extra math, but all you can know for sure from a really high MAP-M score is that the child has been exposed to above-grade level math concepts.  That might be consistent with their course registration.  Like, you'd expect a 6th grader in algebra to score higher than a 6th grader in 6th grade math, because you expect that they've been exposed to more concepts.  But if it's not consistent with their course registration, all you really know is that the kid is learning math outside of school.[/quote]

In general true, but also related to the kid's aptitude in digesting higher level math concept. My DS asked me what "sin and cos" meant after he attended 4th grade fall map. So I briefly taught him the definition of sine and cosine functions with respect to a triangle. Total no more than 10 minutes. He scored the question right at the next map test, at least this was what he told me. MAP is self-adjusted. If you get one question right, you have chance to be challenged with a harder question, or a concept that you've never heard of. Only the ones that are curious of the new concept (i.e., motivation) and aptitude can be exposed to more higher level questions. [/quote]

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