Anyone in blogging cyperspace use this instead of achievement testing?
I'd be interested in your thoughts, comments, good or bad. We have an all school training on the first teacher day back.
MAP®
Measures of Academic Progress®
Understanding
each student’s academic level gives teachers the power to help them
excel. MAP computerized adaptive assessments are the tools that make it
possible – providing educators with the detailed information they need
to build curriculum and meet their students’ needs, one child at a time.
This fall will be our third year with NWEA. I really like it actually -- it gives me a really good idea of where all of my students are. The only thing I don't like is the gurus in my district are using it as an "end all be all" and that's not fair (ie I was told that even though I had a child gain 42 points--which is unheard of--in a year, it wasn't good enough because he didn't meet the minimum 5th grade score). My girls school uses it too and I really like the information it provides both on the teacher end and the parent end. The best part for me as a parent is the graphs that they send home after the tests are done -- it allows me to see where my girls are in comparison to their school and the country.
ReplyDeleteThis will be our first "official" year of this test. 25% of my merit pay will be decided by the results. I'm not sure of the details but it sounds a little scary to me.
ReplyDeleteJulie
Thoughts of a Third Grade Teacher