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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Can someone explain if the questions are easier why the scores are dropping?[/quote]

Yea it doesn’t make sense for the high achievers. From NWEA’s research it’s the lower achievers who end up lower here because they’re less likely to see items from significantly below grade level…. It does seem odd that folks are complaining that their high flyers are struggling [/quote]

High achievers are not getting the most difficult (advanced) questions which are worth the most points. Therefore, the highest scores are getting lower. But they are still using the old tables, resulting in misleading percentiles.[/quote]
Thank you, PPs, for bumping my question.

These high achievers don’t sound like they had a solid understanding of some earlier math concepts. [/quote]

If they didn't have a solid understanding of earlier math concepts, they would have never gotten to the harder, above grade level questions in the first place. It's an adaptive test. If you get an "easier," lower-level question wrong, you don't keep getting harder and harder questions. If you get them right, then the test continues to give you more challenging questions (at least this is the way it was before this year). The problem is the quantity of grade level questions is a lot more this year than it previously was. The test is still capped at the same number of questions. So by default, it means less questions and opportunities for harder, above grade level questions and to score higher as a result.

And yes, scores would go down if kids are not getting the harder questions because higher level questions are worth more. [/quote]

This is wrong, as previously explained. The old test gave equal credit for hard questions on grade level material and for easy questions that rely on outside of school "exposure", like special notation.  For example, my kid once got a question wrong because she didn't know the long division symbol in 2nd grade, even through the division problem was very simple, like 12/2.

The new test favors harder questions on grade level topics, exactly the "deeper" content everyone is always whining that their kids aren't getting and therefore "need" hyper acceleration. [/quote]

So they wrote a bunch of new questions? It's interesting that it is simultaneously claimed that nothing has really changed (look at the charts - the scores are the same) and that there has been a profound change in the types of problems on the test.[/quote]

No, they are changing the ITEM SELECTION ALGORITHM, not the Item Bank.[/quote]

PP said that the students will now be getting deeper content questions. Where were these questions till now?[/quote]

In the question bank but selected less often.[/quote]

This is such BS. I don't understand why people here accept such lack of transparency. I come from what some would consider a relatively corrupt country and for every exam of any significance there are publicly available questions and answer keys many years back. You can file a complaint and you can see how others have answered questions, if not their names.

In contrast, students here are taking exams that are pretty significant (e.g. [b]a consideration for entry to highly coveted magnets[/b]) and never know what they did correct/incorrect, what questions other students are getting and how they are doing. And everybody is ok with that. "The questions were there but selected less often". Really. They were there all along... but students were not getting them. Totally makes sense and you should definitively not expect any details or explanations. [/quote]

This is the problem, not the test itself or NWEA's periodic changes.  NWEA articles clearly indicate that MAP is designed for different purposes, doesn't have high single-point-in-time score fidelity for individuals, isn't supposed to be the primary test for such selection and, if used at all, should be used with an abilities-related test (not by itself, as MAP scores more closely reflect exposure than ability).

MAP, when used for well-aligned purposes and with best practices, is actually a very good tool -- just not the right one for this job, especially when MCPS is no longer in the bind of virtual learning due to the pandemic that necessitated its use as the only standardized test they could muster.  Of course, it would be a lot easier if the county would actually fund MCPS well enough that it wasn't as prone to continuing the cost savings realized.[/quote]

No, there should be no "ability test". Students should be tested for their readiness to join a program. If they are able, but not actually proficient in math, they can't follow the program at the HS level.

So, the idea of the test is appropriate. The problem is that it completely lack transparency. There should be a test similar to what Stuy was using. Everyone can see what is on the test, which is the same for everyone.[/quote]

What is the difference between proficiency and ability?[/quote]

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