MAP scores and curriculum adjustment

[Spellbound]

I am trying to figure out how much I should be tweaking curriculum or if I should be at all. We work with a virtual academy that uses the MAP test and the results look like maybe I may be doing more review than I thought I was. He doesn't love what we're doing. I get the detailed information in a couple of weeks, so that will help to set up the curriculum adjustment. I would say at this point, i've been enriching, but not accelerating the work, except for math. Even there, he tests as algebra ready but I'm not sure he's ready. I have other data that that would indicate it's an appropriate option. I am looking at numbers that would still be gifted 2 years ahead.

Has anyone used MAP testing and found it useful enough to make a bigger jump in curriculum?

[Guest benaysmom]

My children took the MAP test when we moved (they are now in public school). My son scored a 99% in math and a 96% in reading. I am trying to get the school to accelerate him, but no luck yet!! I was homeschooling up to when we moved. (2nd/3rd for my son in math and 4th in math for my daughter) They put them back a grade because they have to go by their age. So my son is in 1st and my daughter is in 3rd.

[Capt_Uhura]

This is difficult. I watched my son take the MAP test remotely from another computer. Many of the problems, a smart and intuitive kid can figure out. That doesn't mean they have the solid, rote skills required to jump into that grade level. My friend's DD, who is 10, scored so high, you would think she should be in Algebra I but she doesn't have all the skills required. Granted, she'll probably be in Alg I next year as a 6th grader but she certainly wasn't ready for it this year as a 5th grader. She needed that year of making those skills second nature. My son scored better than 75% of 11th graders in language arts but he couldn't go into a high school level class and put out high school level mechanics...ie be able to write lengthy papers etc. This is a tough situation to be in....kids that are so advanced conceptually but not as advanced writing skills (mechanics, writing stamina, personality stamina to sit and work on something for over an hour). I find that we get bogged down in getting those mechanics down that sometimes we don't get to the more interesting conceptual stuff. All my living math books are gathering dust b/c we just don't have the time.

[joannqn]

In case you only get the basic information with the results, this PDF is quite helpful. The tables at the end (page 130 or so) give you the percentiles for all grade levels for all of the subtests.

 

I completely rethought all of our curricula after my daughter took her first MAP test. Until then, I didn't realize that she needed more than doing a basic curriculum one year ahead. She's much happier now.

 

Between learning from my mistakes with my daughter and my son's MAP test results, I accelerate my son much faster than I did my daughter. I don't skip any lessons, we just do fewer practice problems to go through it faster (ie. test pages only unless more is needed).

 

For us, the MAP test has been accurate when combined with my knowledge of their abilities. It gave me the courage to move faster and require more.