Reply to Compacted math selection - when and what MAP-M score?

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Reply to "Compacted math selection - when and what MAP-M score?"

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[quote=Anonymous]I don't have information about cutoffs.  But I will say that at the end of my kid's 3rd grade year, she was designated as 'borderline' for Compacted, and I was asked to have a conversation with the administration about readiness.  I went into the meeting assuming it would be better for her to be in the regular course so she would master the material/not be behind others but then I learned that 60% of kids in our school were in compacted and I decided to put her into compacted.

The next two years (4th and 5th) her MAP-M scores skyrocketed-- from like high 70th percentile in 3rd (whatever the 'borderline' score was) to 90s in 4th and 5th (and onward--she is now in 7th).

What I learned is this.  The MAP-M score is not about natural talent in math.  It's about what you have been taught in math.  In third grade, she wasn't in the top math group, and her group went more slowly so when she went into MAP-M, more of the material was unfamiliar.  When she went into Compacted, she was taught math at an accelerated pace, so when she went into MAP-M, more of the material was stuff she'd been taught.

It may be that MAP-M is the best diagnostic we have, but if you're considering this choice for your kid, recognize that there is a chicken-and-egg problem.  Kids who are identified early (second and third grade) for informal acceleration will always do better on the diagnostic for later acceleration.

I'd imagine this may be a particular problem for kids who are young in their grade because they may have been slower to learn in the very early grades based on lack of 'readiness' from being younger than peers.  May also be a problem for minorities due to unconscious bias.  My kid is in both categories, and putting her into Compacted was the best thing we did-- she has had high As all through, including in 7th grade Algebra, and MAPs continue to be in the 90s.  But the school and we (parents) almost didn't put her on that path based on borderline MAP scores at end of third grade.
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