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NWEA

NWEA
 
MAP® is a computer adaptive test created by NWEA™ that kids take two to three times per school year. The results provide teachers with information to help them deliver appropriate content for each student and determine each student’s academic growth over time.
 
What are the NWEA tests?
 
NWEA stands for Northwest Evaluation Association, which is the non-profit organization that provides the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP test) for grades 2-8 and the Measures of Academic Progress for Primary Grades (MPG test) for grades K-1.
 

Creating a personal learning journey

We know that children learn better—and faster—when teachers have a clear picture of what each student knows and what they are ready to learn next.

That’s why our assessments react to each student’s answers. In the testing world, this makes our tests “adaptive,” or personalized to measure the needs of every student.

  • If your child answers a question correctly, the test follows up with a more challenging question.
  • If your child answers incorrectly, the test follows up with an easier question.
 
Adaptive tests make it possible for teachers to pinpoint what each child needs in order to learn best. At NWEA™ we help teachers understand your student’s unique learning needs—because every student matters
 NWEA
Is my child making typical growth?
 
There are several places on the Progress Report that will indicate a student's growth: 
 
STUDENT RIT stands for Rasch Unit, which is a unit of measure that uses individual test question difficulty values to estimate student achievement. This score is independent of the age or grade of the student and reflects the instructional level at which the student is currently performing in each subject area. 
STUDENT RIT PROJECTION for the end of the school year is based on the student's actual RIT score at the beginning of the school year and the average growth of students nationwide in the same grade-level that had a similar RIT score.
RIT GROWTH for an entire school year can be compared to the growth projection from the beginning of the year to evaluate whether the student progressed as expected.
 
What is growth? 

 

In the simplest terms, growth is change over time. To study growth, we measure a thing repeatedly on successive occasions and draw conclusions about how it has changed. 

 

Most people are familiar with physical growth and some of the ways in which it is measured. For example, one of the things doctors do with new babies is to weigh them and measure their length. Height and weight measurements are continued as the child matures. The change in these measurements over time tells us about the growth in height and weight of the individual, which in turn gives us clues about the child’s general health and well-being.

 

Measuring reading ability is more like measuring temperature. Although we can see a person’s height or weight, we cannot directly observe the temperature of an object. We can see evidence of temperature by observing the height of a column of mercury in a thermometer. Similarly, we cannot see a person’s reading ability. However, we can see evidence of a person’s reading ability by asking them to respond to questions about textual matter they have read.

 

What is “typical” growth?

 

When we ask, “What is typical?” whether it pertains to performance, height, reading ability, or growth in these attributes, we generally assume that we can make a judgment about what occurs most frequently in the general population of individuals. Usually this is accomplished by gathering information about the general population so that we have a frame of reference (data) against which to make comparisons. This data is gathered at a particular time in the school year and represents an approximation of what the student performed on that day. When using data it is important to look at those numbers over time. We may look at them over one year, but this type of data shows a much clearer picture when looked at over the course of several years.

 

Adapted from: What is Expected Growth? A white paper from MetaMetrics® , Inc. by Gary L. Williamson, Ph.D.