Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do they matter or is it just for MD own knowledge?

My daughter is in 1st and has only ever done a Math MAP. Does that change?

The MAP-R begins in 3rd grade. She'll start taking it three times a year then. It is used to determine the lottery pool for CES (which guarantees access to ELC at the home school), so for that purpose it definitely matters. Same with middle school magnets/access to the enriched social studies class at the local school (HIGH).

HIGH has a low cutoff. OP's "above grade level" reader is qualified for HIGH.

Not necessarily if you are a low FARMs school and they just go with central office placements.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Since MCPS has done away with entry testing into the CES and magnets, MAP scores have become more important to determine in-pool eligibility. So that's one practical reason to have high scores if you're interested in those programs.

OP said their kid isn't interested. CES isn't just about high literacy. It's extremely intensified work (more than the middle school TPMS program is intensified for math/science.) Your child has to love reading and writing a lot, not just be highly able, or else they'll burn out in the class.

I didn’t see that OP wrote that. And please, CES is easy. My kid didn’t find it intense at all. Just a little less mind-numbing. You really need to stop scaring people off. Some of us respond because our kids are older and we’ve been through this already.

If you had a CES student and a middle schooler, you'd know that CES is more intense than Advanced English in middle school.

Much more. To be honest, much more intense than 9th grade honors English too. Not familiar yet with higher grades.

It used to be before MCPS switched to "CES for all" and lowered the admission standards to the CES centers.

MAP scores can and will fluctuate for most kids. Parents shouldn’t immediately be concerned about this. In the lower grades this is especially true as more students begin to catch up in reading and comprehension.

With regards to the test and reading generally, workbooks and extras are not needed unless the kid is continually declining and thus is paired with some decline in class. As someone noted in order to continue to score high, students need to develop good cognition skills. These skills are useful in all other subjects. It’s not just about reading books but discussing what is read in meaningful ways. For instance using prediction, drawing inference, comparing with other books or events, analyzing characters and their intents, etc.

If you want your kid to do better generally again you don’t need workbooks you need to engage with the kid about what they are reading and ensure they engage in texts with more depth and content variety.

There’s a difference in graphic novels between the Dogman series, Amulet series, and Science Comics series. Just as there is a difference The Babysitters club, I survived, Stuart Little and Harry Potter.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Since MCPS has done away with entry testing into the CES and magnets, MAP scores have become more important to determine in-pool eligibility. So that's one practical reason to have high scores if you're interested in those programs.

OP said their kid isn't interested. CES isn't just about high literacy. It's extremely intensified work (more than the middle school TPMS program is intensified for math/science.) Your child has to love reading and writing a lot, not just be highly able, or else they'll burn out in the class.

I didn’t see that OP wrote that. And please, CES is easy. My kid didn’t find it intense at all. Just a little less mind-numbing. You really need to stop scaring people off. Some of us respond because our kids are older and we’ve been through this already.

If you had a CES student and a middle schooler, you'd know that CES is more intense than Advanced English in middle school.

PP you replied to. My kids are in college and one is 13, taking classes in high school. Let me repeat: CES was easy. The usual advanced tracks in middle school, whether magnets or not, are easy. We’re far from the high magnets, and our high school offers a wide array of APs, so they didn’t apply to high school magnets. It doesn’t make any difference for college admissions anyway. What matters is taking the most advanced courses at your school and getting straight As (plus having incredible extracurriculars, which I find rather controversial since it reinjects inequity into the process, inequity they wanted to stamp out with test-optional practices, but that’s a topic for another day).

I am pushing back on this idea that the CES is hard. That’s all.

OP here again. My current 6th grader went through CES and I didn’t find it very intense at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reading books alone doesn’t help increase MAP scores. My DS reads quite a bit but he isn’t a bookworm and reading isn’t his favorite thing either. But he is above grade level and does well in school but still doesn’t get very high scores in fact sometimes his scores dip. What can we do to increase his scores?

What grade is your kid in? Are they old enough and compliant enough to make the test seriously? A low score on a computer test is a positive signal in a K-2 kid.

He is in 4th grade. Scores have ranged from 97th in 3rd to 85th in 4th, not sure why his performance is so inconsistent. I do read with him and he does workbooks too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Since MCPS has done away with entry testing into the CES and magnets, MAP scores have become more important to determine in-pool eligibility. So that's one practical reason to have high scores if you're interested in those programs.

OP said their kid isn't interested. CES isn't just about high literacy. It's extremely intensified work (more than the middle school TPMS program is intensified for math/science.) Your child has to love reading and writing a lot, not just be highly able, or else they'll burn out in the class.

I didn’t see that OP wrote that. And please, CES is easy. My kid didn’t find it intense at all. Just a little less mind-numbing. You really need to stop scaring people off. Some of us respond because our kids are older and we’ve been through this already.

If you had a CES student and a middle schooler, you'd know that CES is more intense than Advanced English in middle school.

Much more. To be honest, much more intense than 9th grade honors English too. Not familiar yet with higher grades.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Since MCPS has done away with entry testing into the CES and magnets, MAP scores have become more important to determine in-pool eligibility. So that's one practical reason to have high scores if you're interested in those programs.

OP said their kid isn't interested. CES isn't just about high literacy. It's extremely intensified work (more than the middle school TPMS program is intensified for math/science.) Your child has to love reading and writing a lot, not just be highly able, or else they'll burn out in the class.

I didn’t see that OP wrote that. And please, CES is easy. My kid didn’t find it intense at all. Just a little less mind-numbing. You really need to stop scaring people off. Some of us respond because our kids are older and we’ve been through this already.

NP. My kid is older and went through it already. I agree that it is incredibly intense. The workload was very heavy. In fact it seemed mostly focused on producing heavy workload rather than quality or depth of work. I do think it varies between centers and teachers though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Since MCPS has done away with entry testing into the CES and magnets, MAP scores have become more important to determine in-pool eligibility. So that's one practical reason to have high scores if you're interested in those programs.

OP said their kid isn't interested. CES isn't just about high literacy. It's extremely intensified work (more than the middle school TPMS program is intensified for math/science.) Your child has to love reading and writing a lot, not just be highly able, or else they'll burn out in the class.

I didn’t see that OP wrote that. And please, CES is easy. My kid didn’t find it intense at all. Just a little less mind-numbing. You really need to stop scaring people off. Some of us respond because our kids are older and we’ve been through this already.

If you had a CES student and a middle schooler, you'd know that CES is more intense than Advanced English in middle school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do they matter or is it just for MD own knowledge?

My daughter is in 1st and has only ever done a Math MAP. Does that change?

The MAP-R begins in 3rd grade. She'll start taking it three times a year then. It is used to determine the lottery pool for CES (which guarantees access to ELC at the home school), so for that purpose it definitely matters. Same with middle school magnets/access to the enriched social studies class at the local school (HIGH).

HIGH has a low cutoff. OP's "above grade level" reader is qualified for HIGH.

Anonymous wrote:Reading books alone doesn’t help increase MAP scores. My DS reads quite a bit but he isn’t a bookworm and reading isn’t his favorite thing either. But he is above grade level and does well in school but still doesn’t get very high scores in fact sometimes his scores dip. What can we do to increase his scores?

What grade is your kid in? Are they old enough and compliant enough to make the test seriously? A low score on a computer test is a positive signal in a K-2 kid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Since MCPS has done away with entry testing into the CES and magnets, MAP scores have become more important to determine in-pool eligibility. So that's one practical reason to have high scores if you're interested in those programs.

OP said their kid isn't interested. CES isn't just about high literacy. It's extremely intensified work (more than the middle school TPMS program is intensified for math/science.) Your child has to love reading and writing a lot, not just be highly able, or else they'll burn out in the class.

I didn’t see that OP wrote that. And please, CES is easy. My kid didn’t find it intense at all. Just a little less mind-numbing. You really need to stop scaring people off. Some of us respond because our kids are older and we’ve been through this already.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never figured out why they matter. My HS kid who takes honors and AP scores well below the 50th percentile on the MAP R. Clearly no reflection on abilities.

There is no point to MAP testing in high school for most students, but they're made to sit and take it. Of course he's clicking straight through.

Sure, it isn't used for student placement but it does help the county evaluate the school. It's too bad they can't coordinate with the state and minimize the number standardized tests needed to accomplish that. Personally, I have more faith in the MAP than the wacky MCAP test the state recently made up.

Students not learning doesnt make the MCAP a bad test. Have you ever actually seen one? Go look, and tell me what's wrong with it.

Anonymous wrote:
Since MCPS has done away with entry testing into the CES and magnets, MAP scores have become more important to determine in-pool eligibility. So that's one practical reason to have high scores if you're interested in those programs.

OP said their kid isn't interested. CES isn't just about high literacy. It's extremely intensified work (more than the middle school TPMS program is intensified for math/science.) Your child has to love reading and writing a lot, not just be highly able, or else they'll burn out in the class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you care about increasing scores? Do you want him to go a magnet literacy program that he won't enjoy?

There is differentiation in reading groups based on MAP scores. Also, there is a whole thing when the kids take the test and then brag about their scores. Even though I know my DC is better at reading than what his scores show, I usually can’t do anything about it. I know its mostly self-imposed stress and worry.

There is something you can do, and now is your chance. Teach your child and yourself self-esteem and not being a mental slave to a standardized test written by someone who never met your kid or your school.

Anyway how do you know what reading level a score corresponds to?