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NOTE: These workshop resources are retired as of 7/24/2023 and this course will be archived in September 2023. Please contact NWEA Support if you need help finding something.

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NOTE: These workshop resources are retired as of 7/24/2023 and this course will be archived in September 2023. Please contact NWEA Support if you need help finding something.

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Description

Discover how a Minnesota high school reversed low math performance with a rigorous program and measurement from MAP Growth.

View case study

Related Topics

eBook

Assessment empowerment 101: What it is, why it matters, and how to do it

We assess our students every day. But do we always know why? In this e-book, Erin Beard, content design coordinator on NWEA’s professional learning team, tells you everything you need to know about assessment empowerment, from what it is to exactly how to bring it to life in your classroom.

Topics: Assessment literacy, Classroom tips, Differentiated instruction, Empowering educators, Equity, Formative assessment, Growth, Informing instruction, Personalized learning, Professional learning, School improvement

Products: Professional Learning

Fact Sheet

NWEA Policy and Advocacy Agenda

In relentless pursuit of our mission to help all kids learn, the Policy and Advocacy team at NWEA elevates five key areas in which we seek to influence decision-making: informing the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, driving equity and innovation in assessments, supporting the reimagining of accountability, building and supporting a diverse educator workforce, and expanding opportunities to learn.

Topics: Empowering educators, Equity, ESSA, Growth, Informing instruction, Innovations in reporting & assessment, Insights and reports, Measurement & scaling, Policy & Advocacy, Research, School improvement, Teacher preparation

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How a Minnesota district reversed low math performance with an innovative approach.

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Discover how a Minnesota high school reversed low math performance with a rigorous program and measurement from MAP Growth.

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MAP Growth Science for use with Next Generation Science Standards

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MAP Growth Science for use with Next Generation Science Standards

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What do chefs, politicians, mechanics, educators, and doctors all have in common? The answer is science and engineering. Most of us probably didn't realize when we started Kindergarten that science and engineering would affect us every day for the rest of our lives. Science and engineering are all around us - in current events, in the food we eat, even in governmental policies. Science-and therefore, science education-is central to student's lives, preparing them to be informed citizens, successful problem solvers, and knowledgeable consumers. If kids are to be able to pursue expanding employment opportunities in science-related fields, they must have a solid K-12 science education.

Thanks to new, multidimensional standards like the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), K-12 students have access to a high-quality science education that provides them with the skills and knowledge they need to be well-informed citizens, to be prepared for college and careers, and to thrive in modern society. Major advances have taken place in the world of science, engineering, and in our understanding of how students learn science effectively.

The foundation for the new multidimensional science standards is A Framework for K-12 Science Education (2012 NRC) that describes a vision of what it means to be well-educated in science and engineering. So far, 37 states have developed new multidimensional standards, including the 19 states, the District of Columbia, and the American Education Reaches Out (AERO) schools that have adopted the NGSS. In addition, there are 6 other states in the process of developing new science and engineering standards as shown this this May 2018 map.

The dimensions of all these new science standards are:

1. Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) - the behaviors that scientists and engineers engage in as they study and build theories or systems

2. Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs) - which clarify connections across science disciplines and help students create a coherent view of the world based on science

3. Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs) - the fundamental ideas students must know to understand a given science discipline

These multiple dimensions represent an effort to make all kids scientifically literate (not just future scientists), so all kids can participate in a dialogue about current events and issues. The real innovation in multidimensional standards is the requirement that all students operate at the intersection of practice, connection, and content.

As Roy Beven, M.Ed., senior science content specialist at NWEA and recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching, says, "This elevates the process of engineering design up there with the process of scientific inquiry. This means kids learn to problem solve and use science to answer questions. It helps them make sense of the phenomena they see around them while they get the opportunity to practice problem solving and apply it to their everyday lives."

NWEA has developed MAP Science assessments that have been aligned to new multidimensional standards, including the NGSS*. These assessments are designed to be a growth measure as students' build their understanding of the multidimensional performance expectations. NWEA is the only assessment provider that provides this type of assessment, and has invested an immense amount of time into understanding these multidimensional standards and aligning test items to them.

By adapting to each student's learning level, the MAP Science assessment offers a personalized

assessment experience that helps answer the question, "Are my students really learning science and engineering?" Within 24 hours, educators have essential information about what every student knows and is ready to learn. They can use MAP Growth data to:

Identify and reinforce evidence-informed instructional practices

Differentiate instruction using valid, reliable, and actionable data

Evaluate science-related programs and identify professional development needs

Use exclusive norms and growth information to compare student achievement and growth over time

Prepare students for end-of-year state-mandated assessments

Beven notes, "This is a very exciting time in science education. Students are starting to experience three-dimensional teaching and learning as teachers implement the new, engaging, multidimensional science and engineering standards."

To learn more about MAP Science for use with Next Generation Science Standards (2013)*, check out this FAQ on our community.
* Next Generation Science Standards is a registered trademark of Achieve. Neither Achieve nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.
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What do chefs, politicians, mechanics, educators, and doctors all have in common? The answer is science and engineering. Most of us probably didn't realize when we started Kindergarten that science and engineering would affect us every day for the rest of our lives.

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MAP Growth Math: Course-specific assessments

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MAP Growth Math: Course-specific assessments

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Help kids plan for the future with College Explorer

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Help kids plan for the future with College Explorer

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College readiness doesn't just happen when a student receives a diploma. It's a process that begins with early learners and continues into high school. And according to Achieve, many students aren't prepared for first-year coursework at a community college: 52% need remediation in math and 34% need it in English. College instructors agree.
What is College Explorer?
That's why we developed College Explorer, an online tool to help students, families, teachers, and counselors navigate-and prepare for-post-secondary options. I sat down with Greg King, a research scientist with our Center for School and Student Progress, to learn more about this helpful resource and its recent refresh. His responses have been edited for length and clarity.
How can this tool help high schoolers?
College Explorer is a tool designed to help students, teachers, parents, and counselors connect future intentions and goals with MAP® Growth™ RIT scores, a measure students see every year. It's a way for students to explore different colleges they never thought they might get into and for parents to talk with their kids about the different options for life after high school, particularly if they've never been in environments where college is a daily conversation.

Most kids don't know what fields exist or what careers and colleges are out there. I know when I grew up, I basically thought you could be a teacher or you could go into manufacturing, the military, or some sort of service industry. That's all I really knew. I didn't know about business or economics, or the education research I do now. I think most kids don't know those things either.

College Explorer opens up new possibilities for students to be engaged in school, to look ahead and say, 'I can go do these things.'"

Not only do many students miss out on hearing about the opportunities to prepare for careers at two- and four-year institutions, they also don't know about the costs, so they are left with an information gap.

As an education not-for-profit that's focused on equity for all and closing opportunity gaps, it's really important to us to provide that missing link. It's important for us to let students know, "You can accomplish these things. Let us help you make those connections and start those conversations."
College Explorer just underwent a refresh, correct? What kinds of changes should people look for?
It's all about providing lots of educational power and educational information to anybody who uses our tests. And this is a publicly available tool, so we're doing that free of charge.

It's now really fast for students to switch between colleges they're exploring, look at different majors, look at everything each school offers. We've also made it easier to use: we've changed the format so it flows a little easier. And we've added more images so it's easier to see things visually as opposed to just reading text or tables.

[T]his tool allows counselors to hear what interests kids early on and help students see what they can accomplish."

Something I'm really excited about is the cost section. We show how much in-state and out-of-state tuition is, and then we also provide information about additional costs, including room, board, books, things that go into living in a place. Students can filter the cost of college by income level because we know those costs are going to look different from tuition since students get financial aid, scholarships, and other help, which brings those costs down.

The cost section is something I would really encourage people to look at when they're thinking, "I don't know if I can afford college." The cost could actually be less than they think once they apply to the school and complete the FAFSA.
It's pretty evident how College Explorer can help students who are in high school and preparing for the next step of post-secondary education. But how can families, teachers, or counselors help younger students, say sixth or seventh graders, make the most of this resource?
And, finally, we hear a lot about debt in the news and in popular media, but when you look at the debt by income level and by institutional type, it might look a lot different from what students' perceptions are. So we've made that filterable so students can really see what it looks like for the typical student who is more comparable to them than just the typical student in general at that college.

I'm really excited you asked that.

So let's say it's the end of sixth grade and it's time to start picking out classes for seventh grade. I come in as a student and say, "I really like Minecraft. I just really like building things. What electives can I take?" A counselor might say, "Well, that sounds a lot like an engineer."

The student and counselor can then start diving into questions using the new college major portion of the tool. They can ask, "How's your math work?" An answer might look something like this: "Let's start working on those math skills to continue to bring those up. It looks like you might want to continue to grow your reading and language usage skills, too, so we can help you be ready for engineering-focused courses when you're in high school."

[College Explorer] is all about providing lots of educational power and educational information to anybody who uses our tests."

Or let's say a student loves poetry or writing. A counselor or teacher could help them take a look at some of the schools locally or nationally that have really good writing programs and see what that student might need to do to get into those schools. Or the counselor could go to the college major sheet and help a student explore what they might need to do to become an English major.
Check out the newly refreshed College Explorer with your students, colleagues, school counselors, and families. And hear more from Dr. King in the following video.
Now the idea of majoring in engineering or English may change later, but this tool allows counselors to hear what interests kids early on and help students see what they can accomplish. College Explorer opens up new possibilities for students to be engaged in school, to look ahead and say, "I can go do these things."

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Help kids plan for the future with College Explorer

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College Explorer is a tool designed to help students, teachers, parents, and counselors connect future intentions and goals with MAP Growth RIT scores.

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Mapping the Road to College: College Explorer Tool

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Mapping the Road to College: College Explorer Tool

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College Explorer from NWEA® helps students, parents, and teachers develop pathways to higher education.

This powerful tool links MAP® Growth™ scores with national benchmarks for colleges, universities, and even specific majors. Together with goal setting and parent conferences, College Explorer can help students develop a plan, consider new possibilities, and put post-secondary dreams within reach.

The College Explorer map displays colleges whose median ACT® scores correspond to the range of MAP scores entered, based on the NWEA College Readiness Benchmarks report. The tool also links to the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard database, providing information about college costs and more.

I'm tremendously grateful to NWEA for developing tools that bring hope and promise to students and communities who have been marginalized for so long. It is so inspiring to hear students dream bigger for themselves for the first time after using the College Explorer tool.

Victorene King, Principal, Neal Math and Science Academy

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Mapping the Road to College College Explorer from NWEA® helps students, parents, and teachers develop pathways to higher education. This powerful tool links MAP® Growth™ scores with national benchmarks for

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Users logging in to the MAP Administration site at start.mapnwea.org for the first time: If you received an email to create a password and that link has expired, you can receive a new email using the “Forgot Username or Password?” option on the login page and create your password.

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Growth in your state

MAP Growth and MAP Reading Fluency frequently meet the specific, rigorous criteria states set to support growth and skill mastery for every student. Use the dropdown menu to learn more about state-approved options from NWEA available in your area.

Co-creating solutions with state partners

We work alongside state leaders to develop assessment programs that are part of comprehensive systems. Our student-first solutions help our partners provide instructionally relevant information while producing trustworthy summative results for accountability purposes. We are guided by each state's unique goals with an emphasis on efficiency, coherence, utility, and opportunity.

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Co-creating solutions with state partners. We work alongside state leaders to develop assessment programs that are part of comprehensive systems.

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Usted imagina un futuro brillante para su hijo/a. Nosotros también. Por esta razón nuestras pruebas miden lo que los estudiantes saben y lo que están listos para aprender – para ayudar a los profesores a planificar y diferenciar teniendo en cuenta cada estudiante individual.

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https://dpdol.nwea.org/SPL/MG_AR_ERAdmin_GrowthandGoalSetting_LCenter.pdf

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https://dpdol.nwea.org/SPL/MG_AR_ERAdmin_GrowthReports_LCenter.pdf

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Norms and Comparative Data Learning Center

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Norms and Comparative Data Learning Center

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https://dpdol.nwea.org/SPL/MG_AR_ERAdmin_NormsandComparativeData_LCenter.pdf

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https://dpdol.nwea.org/SPL/MG_AR_ERAdmin_StrengthenDataUse_LCenter.pdf

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https://dpdol.nwea.org/public/growth/18/AR_Administrators_StatusReports_LCenter.pdf

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Primary Grades Test Selection Quick Reference

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Primary Grades Test Selection Quick Reference

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Resources for parents

You see a bright future for your child. So do we.

It's why our assessments measure what students know and how they are growing academically-to help teachers develop strategies for equitable instruction that maximizes every learner's potential. Every child can learn and grow. Our solutions help educators make it happen.

Understanding the MAP Suite

See how these high-quality assessments support academic growth

Preparing for testing at home

Support and tips for a smooth experience

Supporting your learner

Resources to help you advise your learner before and after the test

Homeschool families looking for options to use MAP Growth
If you are a homeschool family looking for an option to use the MAP Growth test, visit Homeschool Boss to learn more about solutions.

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Learn how MAP Growth works, what it measures, and how it's scored.

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All students deserve the opportunity to work toward meaningful and realistic academic goals. But goal setting can be challenging, and different students need different goals. How do you determine the right goal for a student? How do you know if a goal is too easy or too hard? Will the goal identified help the student advance to where they need to be academically?

What is this tool?

The MAP® Growth™ Goal Explorer simplifies the goal-setting process by helping students, families, and educators identify meaningful student goals that, if attained, would be significant accomplishments for the student. This tool will help you determine how realistic a goal is, with the understanding that the most useful goals are rigorous and challenging. That said, we also don't want to set students up to fail.

How should this tool be used?

The MAP Growth Goal Explorer should be used to support conversations between teachers, families, and students to establish goals that strike a balance between what is meaningful and what is realistic.

What to do next?

Setting a roadmap or action plan to achieve the chosen goal helps keep students on track. There is no set approach that is appropriate for all students, but the following steps provide a framework:

Collaborate with students to set growth goals that they are motivated to achieve.

Establish concrete activities that students understand and can pursue autonomously to achieve the goal. The Student Profile or Class Report provide information about specific areas to focus on as well as areas of greater mastery to celebrate and build upon.

Check in with students regularly to monitor motivation and progress towards execution of the goal.

Definitions

Additional NWEA Goal-Setting Resources

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The MAP Growth Goal Explorer All students deserve the opportunity to work toward meaningful and realistic academic goals. But goal setting can be challenging, and different students need different goals.

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Essential Reports for Primary Teachers Workbook

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Essential Reports for Primary Teachers Workbook

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As you use MAP Growth data, refer to these common questions.

And to inform your educational decisions, use the resources under .

Overview of MAP Growth data

By using MAP Growth tests, your schools can gain insight into the growth of all students. What makes it possible is the NWEA MAP Growth norms study, which is representative of schools across the nation. NWEA norms enable you to compare student achievement in a single term (i.e., achievement norms) as well as across terms (i.e., growth norms):

Use growth norms to:

1. project the amount of growth that is typical for similar students

2. set appropriate growth targets, based on the projection

3. evaluate the observed growth in a subsequent term

Student-level growth

School and district growth

2020 Norms resources

Consult the following documents to give you insight into your MAP Growth test results.

Standards Alignment

(Studies linking your state's test with MAP)

MAP College Readiness Benchmarks

(Research brief, including ACT ® readiness)

Achievement Status and Growth (ASG) and School Norms Calculator

(Tool to estimate hypothetical growth scenarios)

Average Test Durations

(Typical test times per subject, term, and grade)

Achievement and Growth Tables for Private Schools, Public Charters, and Other Specialty School Groups

Interactive tool to provide context on the typical patterns of achievement and growth in math, reading, language usage, and science for private, charter, and specialty school groups

Guidance for Administering MAP Growth

(How to improve accuracy and integrity of assessments)

For students who take course-specific tests, you can find growth percentiles and projections in the following resources:

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How to intergret growth data and to use the NWEA norms. Growth topics include: projections, conditional growth (CGI), historical growth, flat or negative growth. Norms topics include: growth charts, RIT comparison charts, college readiness, standards, average test durations, achievement/growth calculator, school norms calculator, and course-specific math norms for the algebra and geometry tests.

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https://teach.mapnwea.org/impl/GradelevelTestGuidance.pdf

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How Can I Help My Learners Leverage Their MAP Data? Using the Student Profile Report (8-10 min)

Basic Use

As you get started, follow these tips.

Browser recommendation: Avoid using Internet Explorer® and Safari® 8, because of slow performance. Chrome™ performs the best. If needed, try clicking refresh: .

Prerequisite: Your school or district should have correctly set the Weeks of Instruction between testing, under MAP preferences. This setting specifies the average amount of instruction your students received, so it determines how they align to students in the NWEA norms study.

Quick access: To jump straight to a specific student, open View Reports > MAP Reports, and use the Student Quick Search.

View prior test data: You can choose previous terms from the menu at top:

The default- Most Recent-means the most recent term with test data, which could differ for each subject. To alert you when the most recent score comes from a prior term, an asterisk appears next to the subject score.

Change student, class, or term rostered: There are various ways to switch to a different student:

Percentile colors: Wherever you see color coding, it indicates the percentile (a percentage-based ranking) of the achievement your student reached. It compares your student with students in the NWEA norms study from the same grade and with the same weeks of instruction between testing (as specified in your MAP preferences).

Printing

For family conferences and other meetings, you can quickly prepare printed reports for all students or a selection. While viewing any student in the Student Profile report, click Print and Share, and then Batch PDF:

Tip: The Family Report provides the best choice for conferences. See .

There are many choices you can explore, including which students to print:

Caution: Under Pages, the Instructional Areas option uses a large amount of paper. For each student, it prints all of the "ready to DEVELOP" learning statements in all areas.

Subject Scores

The overall RIT score appears in each subject tab, along with important test details to qualify this test result:

Standard Error and Possible range: Show an estimate of the measurement precision. If retested soon after, the student's score would be within this range most of the time.

Minutes: Total of the minutes a student took to complete all test questions (excludes any test interruptions). For a comparison of typical test times, see Average Test Durations.

Rapid-Guessing %: A rapid guess means the student answered well below the average response time measured by NWEA for each test question. The response is so fast that the student could not have viewed the question completely. If N/A appears, it means no rapid guessing was detected for that test.

Note for partners who view MAP Growth information from state assessments: Rapid-guessing information is not available for assessment data derived from state assessments.

Estimated Impact: Shows how different the score would have been if the student had been fully engaged during the test. For example, with a RIT score of 210 and an Estimated Impact of -3, it means the student might have scored 213. Occasionally, you might see a positive Estimated Impact, which means the score probably exaggerates the student's capabilities, as a result of correct guesses.

Note: If a student takes both a course-specific test (such as Algebra I) and a general subject test (such as Math 6+) in the same test window, only the most recent test appears in this report.

Highlight Recommendations

In the Highlights section, you can review a summary and recommendations for the most recent test results (if needed, change the Term to Most Recent):

This information also appears in the printed report as part of the profile overview page.

Comparisons

The Comparisons section enables you to put the MAP Growth score into a meaningful context. You can connect the student's score with other measures to answer various questions:

How well is my student growing?

How will my student perform on state or college exams?

What reading level does my student need?

To see the full view, click the expansion arrows:

Growth Examples

Consider a student who does well in math, but not in reading. There could be more to the story when you compare the Achievement to Growth.

High Growth: Although the student's reading Achievement score was below average for Reading, you could offer encouragement by focusing on the above-average growth shown. With continued growth, this student can catch up with peers.

Low Growth: After congratulating this student on a great Achievement score for Math, you could ask about the below-average growth and suggest more challenges to keep the student growing to potential.

Growth Details

For a closer look into growth calculations, refer to the following measurements in the expanded view:

Conditional Growth Index: This statistic underlies the Growth Percentile (see the following explanation video). It relates your student's growth to the growth patterns of matching peers within the NWEA norms study (same grade, starting RIT score, and Weeks of Instruction before testing). In addition, this measurement involves a conditioning process that incorporates how difficult it was for each student to grow.

A value of zero (0) corresponds to the mean (typical) growth, indicating that growth exactly matched projections. Values above zero indicate growth that exceeded projections, and values below zero indicate growth below projections.

Projected Growth: Shows the number of RIT points your student was expected to grow between the Comparison Period, based on the growth of matching peers in the NWEA norms study.

Observed Growth: Shows the actual RIT point difference between the start and end term of the Comparison Period. Comparing Observed and Projected Growth provides a simple confirmation of the other growth insights.

Conditional Growth Explanation

Projection Details

The projections for state and college exams have some qualifications:

There are no projections available from summer test results.

Which state and college projections appear depends on the state alignment that your district selected during MAP implementation.

If your state does not have a specific NWEA linking study, default projections developed by NWEA appear on the report.

Depending on the state, projections could be limited to certain subjects (typically reading and math) and certain grades (typically 2 through 8).
College readiness projections are limited to grades 5 through 9 (SAT®) and 10 (ACT).

To make projections, the report follows these steps:

Uses NWEA norms to estimate growth to the term when the state or college assessment typically occurs.

Uses the NWEA linking study to correlate that projected RIT score to an estimated proficiency.

ACT College Readiness: The "On Track 24" projection is the highest benchmark. It is based on a more stringent ACT® cut score of 24, instead of 22.

Readability Measure

The Lexile ® measure is an estimate based on your student's RIT score. The Lexile measure reflects word frequency (semantics) and sentence length. Use it to choose appropriate reading material. Find books at Lexile.com. Lexile is a trademark of MetaMetrics ®, Inc.

Quantile Measure

The Quantile ® Framework is a mathematics measurement framework developed by MetaMetrics. It is a nationally recognized mathematics score aligned to the NWEA math RIT score. Similar to the MetaMetrics Lexile score, the Quantile score helps educators understand the difficulty of specific mathematical skills and concepts on a single developmental scale. You can use the Quantile Framework for Mathematics to match students with classroom materials.

To learn more, visit Use Quantile Measurements.

Quantile and Metametrics are trademarks of MetaMetrics, Inc., and are registered in the United States and abroad.

Instructional Areas

In the Instructional Areas section, you can see the component parts of the assessment. Lower scores appear near the top so that you can suggest where to focus efforts, and higher scores appear near the bottom so that you can celebrate your student's strengths.

Note: Formerly known as "goal performance scores", instructional area scores appear on existing reports, such as Class Profile report, Student Progress report, Grade report, and others. Key differences:

Range of scores: Instead of a range representing the Standard Error, only the middle score of that range appears here. However, you can see the +/- Standard Error when you click an instructional area to open the details.

Low/high percentiles: Instead of comparing scores with NWEA norms, the scores are compared with the overall score and, in some cases, designated "Area of Focus" or "Relative Strength."

Note: Instructional area categories may be labeled differently depending on your test version or state assessment.

Note for partners who view MAP Growth information from state assessments: Due to state summative test designs, learning statements are not available for state assessments.

About Suggested Area of Focus/Relative Strength

You may see some areas labeled Relative Strength or Suggested Area of Focus. These labels help you pinpoint how the student performed relative to the subject overall. Here is how the report designates each area:

Growth Over Time

At the bottom of the page, you can see all historical, longitudinal data for a student:

To see further back

Scroll up and change the Term menu, above the student name. If you choose Most Recent, the graph adjusts to the current calendar term.

Definitions for Growth Over Time

See also: Percentile Colors

Goal: If you have set future growth goals in the Growth Goals section, they appear here. If not, no goals appear on the graph. For prior terms, it is a gauge of how well your student met the goals you set together. For future terms, it helps to show the direction you have set.

Projected Score: This projection is based on your student's actual RIT score in a previous term, plus the typical RIT growth of matching peers within the NWEA norms study. Matching peers have the same prior RIT score, as well as the same grade and weeks of instruction between testing (as specified in your MAP Growth preferences). Using matching peers provides a fair comparison, so it is reasonable for your student to meet the projection and even grow beyond it.

Average Achievement: Shows the average score (50th percentile) for all applicable students within the NWEA norms study. Students within the norms study have the same grade and weeks of instruction between testing (as specified in your MAP Growth preferences).

District Grade Level Mean: Shows the average score for students within your district who were in the same grade and who tested in the same term.

If it doesn't appear in a given term, the district testing window is not yet closed. Contact a team leader to close the testing window, and then wait for overnight processing.

Linking Study (Cut Scores): If applicable, you can see your student's projected performance on state or college readiness assessments. Bars showing the cut scores are hidden by default, so use the check box on the right to display it.

Gray background -When there is no data, a gray background appears. Examples include: no completed test event, student not enrolled, or no norms study (12th grade Language Usage and 11-12th grade Science).

Growth Goals

For an upcoming term, you can create a growth or performance target for each student. Later, return to see if the student met the goal.

1. From the main Student Profile page, click the expansion arrows:

2. Consider the Tips for Setting Growth Goals (below).

3. Set a goal by making an entry and then clicking outside the box:

Use any of the goal numbers-the other numbers adjust to match your entry.

Note: The RIT Growth and Growth Percentile entries are not available if there is no recent test score to form the basis of growth.

4. As a best practice, type an Action Plan for future reference.

5. Click Set Goals to save your change.

After a moment, the goal appears in a row at the top. If needed, you can delete it, or overwrite it by setting a new goal.

Tips for Setting Growth Goals

General assumption: Your school or district has correctly set the Weeks of Instruction between testing, under MAP preferences. It forms the basis for much of the percentiles and projections shown.

For background information on growth, see.

1. Strike a balance:

Challenge your student: To advance academically, students should strive to go beyond the typical scores.

Be realistic: Consider past performance so the goal fits your student's capabilities.

2. How many RIT Growth points are reasonable?

By default, growth is set to the Projected Growth, if available. This growth projection is personalized to your student, because it is based on matching peers from NWEA norms (same prior RIT score, grade, and weeks of instruction between testing).

Using matching peers provides a fair comparison, because students with high starting achievement generally do not grow as much as students with low achievement.

Projected Growth is the midpoint for these peers (half grew more and half grew less).

This score is an initial suggestion-you might target above or below it, depending on other considerations.

In contrast, the Average Achievement (bottom left) shows you how all students typically perform within the same grade and same weeks of instruction between testing. It is simply the average score (50th percentile) for the target term.

3. Which of the percentile bands (rainbow colors) should your student target?

Percentiles compare your student with students in the NWEA norms study from the same grade and with the same weeks of instruction between testing.

For example, suppose your student is hovering just below the orange percentile band, and you want to encourage the student to reach the next band. Try setting Achievement Percentile to the low 40s, which is the cutoff for that percentile.

Next, consider Growth Percentile, if available. It shows the level of growth your student would have to show in order to reach the Achievement Percentile. Higher growth numbers mean a greater challenge.

How Growth Percentile is calculated: This measurement ranks each student's growth among the levels of growth observed across all matching peers within the NWEA norms study ( same prior RIT score, grade, and weeks of instruction between testing).

4. If available, consider the growth needed to reach an ideal cut score on state or college assessments. To display cut scores, select the options below the graph:

There are no projections available from summer test results.

Which state and college projections appear depends on the state alignment that your district selected during MAP implementation.

If your state does not have a specific NWEA linking study, default projections developed by NWEA appear on the report.

Depending on the state, projections could be limited to certain subjects (typically reading and math) and certain grades (typically 2 through 8).
College readiness projections are limited to grades 5 through 9 (SAT®) and 10 (ACT).

To make projections, the report follows these steps:

Uses NWEA norms to estimate growth to the term when the state or college assessment typically occurs.

Uses the NWEA linking study to correlate that projected RIT score to an estimated proficiency.

ACT College Readiness: The "On Track 24" projection is the highest benchmark. It is based on a more stringent ACT® cut score of 24, instead of 22.

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Sample and description of the Student Profile report, including projected proficiency, ACT, SAT, Lexile, conditional growth, disengaged reponses, instructional area scores, and growth goal setting and tracking

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NWEA Professional Learning Online

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The education blog

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Teach. Learn. Grow. | Voices of educators and experts

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A blog covering classroom tips, early learning, literacy, assessment, equity, SEL, and more.

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https://dpdol.nwea.org/public/growth/18/GR_ReportsPortfolio.pdf

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MAP Growth Instructional Areas state information

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MAP Growth Instructional Areas state information

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Select your state or test alignment below to view Instructional Areas, alignment to MAP Skills strands, upcoming test releases, and more.

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Once testing is complete, you can use the data to work with your students.

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Essential Reports for Administrators Workbook

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Essential Reports for Administrators Workbook

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https://dpdol.nwea.org/public/growth/18/AR_Administrators_Workbook.pdf