NWEA and MAP Assessments
HSE Assessment 2016-2017
What are NWEA Measures of Academic Progress (MAP)?
NWEA Measures of Academic Progress are a series of tests that measure your student’s general knowledge in reading, language arts, and math. The test is aligned to the Common Core Standards. Your student will take NWEA beginning in the second grade and again each year through the 4th grade. Your student will take NWEA in the fall, winter, and spring of each school year.
What are NWEA Measures of Academic Progress Used For?
They measure your student’s progress or growth in school. You may have a chart in your home on which you mark your student’s height at certain times such as on his/her birthday. This is a growth chart. It shows how much your child has grown from one year to the next.
Measures of Academic Progress do the same type of measurement and monitors your student's growth in reading, language arts, and math content areas.
How Do the Tests Measure Growth in Learning?
Measures of Academic Progress use scores to measure growth in reading, language usage, and math. Scores depend upon two things: how many questions are answered correctly and the difficulty of each question.
What Do the Tests Cover?
Each Measure of Academic Progress is made up of parts which are called goals. Take a look at these sample goal areas for each test. Your student will take tests with goals that are similar to these.
Reading
· Literature
· Informational Text
· Foundations/Vocabulary
Mathematics
· Algebraic Thinking
· Number and Operations
· Fractions
· Measurement and Data
· Geometry
When you, your student, and your student’s teacher look at NWEA results, it may become apparent that certain goal areas need more attention than others.
Do All Students Take the Same Test?
Yes and No.
All students take a computerized reading, language arts, and math test. Although every test has questions covering the same goal areas, not every test has the same questions, and test questions vary in difficulty.
In a computerized adaptive test, the difficulty of the test is adjusted to the student’s performance, so each student sees different test questions. The difficulty of each question is based on how well the student has answered the questions up to that point. As the student answers correctly, the questions become more difficult. If the student answers incorrectly, the questions become easier.
How Important are the Tests to Students and Teachers?
These tests are important because they keep track of progress or growth in the basic skills. They let teachers know where students’ strengths are and if help is needed in any specific areas. NWEA is just one look at how students are doing. Teachers already routinely assign projects and tasks, administer other tests, discuss student work, and report grades. These are all very important ways of looking at student progress.