NWEA MAP Growth

What is NWEA MAP Growth?

NWEA Measures of Academic Progress, or the NWEA MAP Growth assessment, is:

• Online - Students access the test on their school devices.
• Untimed - Students test at their own pace.
• Adaptive - Items get easier or harder based on if the student answers the previous item correctly.

What is the Purpose of MAP Growth in Noblesville Schools?

NWEA MAP Growth is one data point used alongside other state, local, and classroom assessment data to support instructional decision-making for Noblesville students.

MAP Growth can help answer the following questions for the district, schools, and classrooms:

• How are schools and grade-levels performing and growing over time compared to schools nationwide?
• How are students performing and growing over time compared to students nationwide?
• How many students are meeting or exceeding their projected growth goals?
• How are students growing relative to achievement compared to students nationwide?
• Which student(s) performed significantly lower than their peers and might benefit from additional Tier II or Tier III support?
• Which student(s) consistently perform significantly higher than their peers and might benefit from High Ability instruction.

MAP Growth can help answer the following questions for parents:

• How is my child performing compared to other students in his or her grade-level?
• How is my student growing over time compared to students in his or her grade-level?
• Is my student meeting or exceeding their projected growth goals? 

NWEA MAP Growth cannot be used to answer the question: How are Noblesville students performing and growing over time compared specifically to other Hamilton County or Indiana students?

What do items on NWEA MAP Growth look like and how can I help my child get ready for testing?

To view practice test items similar to the item types that students will experience on MAP Growth, in your Internet Browser go to: https://practice.mapnwea.org/#/practice-landing

Use the following as login credentials:

• Username: grow
• Password: grow

Here are some things that you can do to help your child get ready for testing:

• Make sure that your child is well rested.
• Give your child a well-rounded diet.
• Reassure your child that the results from the test will not have negative consequences on them such as an impact on grades or as a single data point that determines retention or grade-level promotion.
• Remind your child to do their best even if they experience difficult or unfamiliar items.
• Remind them that when they do experience items that are difficult or unfamiliar to think about their choices, select their best guess, and keep going.

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 if my child didn't make significant growth between tests?

Scores from NWEA tests are estimates of performance and may not always reflect everyday performance. No score should be treated as an absolute or used in isolation. If a student had little or no growth between tests, it does not necessarily mean a student is not learning, that classroom instruction has not been effective, or that NWEA data is not reliable. Sometimes student scores fall for unidentified reasons, and additional data (such as classroom performance) will provide a more complete picture of student achievement. When looking at unsatisfactory growth, consider the following:

• Some students may have an off day, be distracted, not put in full effort, or testing conditions (interruptions for announcements, drills, temperature, etc.) in the school may have been less than ideal. 
• For students already performing at a high level of achievement, expected growth may be lower. Because test items on NWEA are independent of grade-level, high-achieving students will sometimes be have a few test items that involve content that they simply have not yet encountered, so the fact that they answer some of these items incorrectly is understandable.
• In some cases a decline may still be in the range of the previous term’s score and may not truly be a decline.

Concerns about a student’s growth should be communicated to the teacher to check if this data is consistent with other classroom data. 

How is my child performing compared to other students in his or her grade-level?

There are several places on the Progress Report that will indicate grade-level comparison results:

• PERCENTILE RANGE is the percentage of students nationwide who had a RIT score less than or equal to an individual student’s score. For example, if a student scored in the 75th percentile on a test, that student achieved a score that is higher than 75% of the other students who took the test. A score below the 21st percentile is considered low achievement, from the 21st to 40th is low average, from the 41st to 60th is average, from the 61st to 80th is high average, and over the 80th percentile indicates that a student is performing at a high level of achievement.
• DISTRICT GRADE LEVEL MEAN RIT allows a comparison of a student's RIT score to the average RIT score for students in Noblesville Schools in the same grade and tested in the same term.
• NORM GRADE LEVEL MEAN RIT allows a comparison of a student’s RIT score to the average RIT score for students in the same grade nationwide and tested in the same term.

How is my child performing in math & reading?

In the Goals Performance section of the Progress Report, a score for each goal area (topic or skill) included in the test is reported along with a goal range or descriptive adjective of the student’s score. The possible descriptors are Low (percentile < 21), LoAvg (percentile between 21 and 40), Avg (percentile between 41 and 60), HiAvg (percentile between 61 and 80), and High (percentile > 80). An asterisk (*) is displayed if the goal score could not be calculated due to too many items answered incorrectly or too few items available in the RIT range assessed. (Click on the images below to view skills within each goal area.) 

MAP Growth K-2 Kindergarten - 2nd Grade	MAP Growth 2-5 2nd - 5th Grade	MAP Growth 6+ 6th - 8th Grade

Additional Resources

NWEA Parent Toolkit This website contains more information and resources for parents from NWEA. The website can be found HERE.  

NWEA Progress Report Explanation This document explains the sections found on a Student Progress Report. The document can be found HERE.

Student Achievement Percentile Tables This document is useful in correlating overall RIT scores with percentile ranks. In each set of tables, there is one table for each combination of content area (mathematics and reading) and term (fall, winter, spring). The status estimates take into account the number of instructional weeks preceding a test administration. The document can be found HERE.  

RIT Reference Charts The charts in this document show examples of the kinds of work students can do at various points along the MAP Growth RIT scale, assuming they have been exposed to the content. This type of information is helpful in supporting appropriate instruction. Please note that each subject area has a unique alignment to the RIT scale. As a result, scores between subjects are not equivalent. The document can be found HERE.  

MAP Growth K-2 to MAP Growth 2-5 Overview *NEW for 2022-23 School Year* Based on updated guidance from NWEA, all students in grades K-1 will take the MAP Growth K-2 assessment and all students in grades 2-5 will take the MAP Growth 2-5 assessment (unless IEP or ILP directs taking MAP Growth K-2). This document explains the differences between the K-2 and 2-5 tests and possible reasons why some students drop the first time that they take the MAP Growth 2-5 assessment. The document can be found HERE.  

MAP for College Exploration See where NWEA MAP Growth scores can take your students with this tool. The tool links to MAP scores for students in grades 5-9 to colleges and universities based on the median ACT scores of students who were admitted and enrolled in those institutions. This interactive website can be found HERE.