MAP THE BASICS

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MAP THE BASICS
Prepared by Debbie Sanders, Instructional Coach
Beck Academy IBMYP August 2009
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What is MAP?

• MAP is not a "mastery" test. Students are
  not expected to get every question right. In
  fact, the best assessment measure is one where a
  student gets 50 of the questions right and 50
  of the questions wrong. This is where we get the
  best information on the actual instructional
  level of a student.

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• Percentile and Percent
• Percentile is how well a student performed
  compared to a norm's sample for that grade.
• Fifth graders are compared to fifth graders,
  ninth graders to ninth graders, etc.
• A student at the 35th percentile scored as well
  as, or better than 35 percent of the students in
  the norm sample for that grade.
• 65 percent of the students performed better.
• Percentiles are not good measures for showing
  growth.
• A common mistake is for people to think that a
  student in the 35th percentile got 35 percent of
  the items correct. Percentile has nothing to do
  with the percentage of correct answers a student
  gets on a test.

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How can MAP be of use to me as
a teacher?

• MAP scores are reported as RITS. The RIT scale is
  used to measure how tall a student is on the
  curriculum scale. Like measuring height on a
  yardstick, RIT scores can be compared to indicate
  how much growth a student has made.
• Characteristics of the RIT Scale
•         Equal interval.
•         Unrelated to grade or age.        
•         Reflects instructional level.

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• Score Ranges
• Score ranges indicate the range of error
  or confidence band around a score.  It is
  important to remember that no score is absolute.
  We would expect that if a student took the test
  again relatively soon, his or her score would
  fall within this range most of the time.
• Placement and Instructional Implications
• Consider ranges when determining whether students
  make the cut for programs. Students performing
  within the same range have similar instructional
  needs.

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• Important things to note about Score Ranges
• There is no significant difference between scores
  that are less than three points apart.
• 195 in Computation and 197 in Measurement are
  comparable scores.
• The range is one standard error above and below
  the student's RIT score. 
•    The mean and median RIT for the class allows
  comparison of the class with the norm group for
  that grade.

The standard deviation is an indication of the
academic diversity of the group.  Large standard
deviations would represent a class that is spread
out across many RIT bands. Whole group
instruction would probably not be as effective
with this group. Smaller standard deviations
represent a class that is clustered in only a few
RIT bands.
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What does the standard deviation in this reading
MAP assessment tell us about this ELA class?
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Teachers can help their students set
goals based on their NWEA data.
The MAP conference sheets are now in the student
planner. Have the student list specific goals
from fall to spring. MAP conferences should be
completed before the end of November.

• Conference with each student.
• Review individual data with student.
• Celebrate success.
• Set a goal for improvement.
• Set a growth goal
• Make a plan.
• The teacher will _____________.
• The student will _____________

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There are a variety of teacher reports.

• Class reports of RIT ranges in descending order
  are useful to create differentiated groups.
• Class reports by goal descriptors provide
  specific instructional levels in each goal level
  of the assessment.
• Parents also receive individual progress reports.
  These are only printed from the district
  downloads approximately two weeks after testing
  ends.

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Descriptors are based on grade level percentiles
as determined by our norming study. Hi means the
score is in the top third (percentile scores
greater than 66.) Av means the score is in the
middle third (percentile scores between 66 and
33.) Lo means that the score is in the bottom
third (percentile scores equal to or less than
33.)
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• We can see, at a glance, that the Goal
  Performance area of Measurement on the report
  above has the lowest mean for this class. It is
  almost four RIT points lower than any of the
  other goal areas and is five points lower than
  the overall mean RIT for the class.. Our research
  tells us that three or more points higher or
  lower than the overall mean RIT for the class
  represents a relative area of strength or concern
  for the class

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How do I use Lexile ranges effectively with my
students?

• The Lexile range is a score (displayed as a
  150-point range) that can be used to find text of
  appropriate difficulty. It allows educators and
  parents to find appropriately challenging books,
  periodicals, and other reading material for
  students. It represents a level of reading
  difficulty that leaves the reader neither
  frustrated nor bored.
• Lexile measures are based on two predictors
• Semantic difficulty - word
  frequency
• Syntactic complexity -
  sentence length
• Lexile measures allow you to manage student
  reading comprehension. When reader and text
  measures match, the reader is "targeted." This is
  the basis for selecting text that is targeted to
  a student's reading ability, and the result is an
  expected 75-percent comprehension rate - not too
  difficult to be frustrating, but difficult enough
  to encourage reading progress.Lexile is a unit
  for measuring text difficulty and reader
  comprehension.

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• When looking at Lexile ranges, remember
• Content - teachers and parents play a critical
  role in choosing material that is age
  appropriate.
• Genre - when introducing a new genre, teachers
  may have to offer more support for students.
• Interest - when students are highly interested in
  a topic, they might be able to read and
  comprehend text that is at a higher Lexile than a
  topic that they are not as interested in or
  familiar with.

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Look at Lexiles as a range of scores. The RIT
score represents the test items a student gets
right about half of the time, or their
instructional level. The Lexile score represents
the level at which the student can read with 75
comprehension. 100 points below the Lexile score
is considered the range where the student reads
fairly well independently 50 points above is
considered the range where the student will
need some guidance.
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Example Emily takes the reading assessment this
fall. She scores 223. This is her RIT and
instructional level (9.0) Her Lexile range is
1000. What books can you suggest for her
independent reading? The Hobbit by J.R.R.
Tolkien 1000 Lexile 223 RIT
Lexile ranges can be viewed at the following
site http//www.lexile.com.
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• MAP
• TESTING SCHEDULE
• 2009

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Please refer to your folder and handouts.