MAP

Dear Parents,

Catholic schools in the Diocese of Metuchen follow the National Standards and Benchmarks for Effective Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools to guide us in educating your child. The standards state that “An excellent Catholic school has a clearly articulated, rigorous curriculum aligned with relevant standards, 21st century skills, and Gospel values, implemented through effective instruction.” While our schools provide a rigorous curriculum for students, we are constantly working to improve how we present excellent curriculum and real-world learning experiences.

In the fall of 2018, a committee in the Diocese of Metuchen surveyed schools and gathered information regarding the current IOWA assessment, and researched best practices of a comprehensive assessment. Ultimately, the goal of any assessment is to help teachers identify student academic needs in order to provide individualized instruction. With this goal in mind, and our vision to improve academic excellence, the committee identified NWEA MAP as an assessment that could provide data for teachers to help guide future learning for every student.

MAP is different from other assessments in that students are tested three times a year. Last year our schools administered the NWEA MAP Growth Reading, Math, and Language Usage assessments in grades one through eight in early fall and winter. Due to the Covid-19 school closure, the school did not administer the third assessment in the spring. We are now preparing to administer the first of three assessments for the 2020-2021 school year.

Over 400,000 Catholic school students and 10.7 million public school students across the nation use NWEA MAP. The NWEA MAP is a web-based assessment that is given on school desktop computers, Chromebooks, or iPads. Students take each of the Reading, Math, and Language assessments with their classroom teacher for approximately one hour. We believe that the NWEA MAP assessments will provide a personalized assessment experience that will help students learn, teachers teach, and administrators lead. The MAP assessment system provides many benefits, such as:

1. Data to understand unique learning needs of each student. 
2. Adaptive testing measures performance on, above or below grade level. 
3. Growth and achievement data 3 times per year. 
4. Data reports available within 24 hours of administration. 
5. Immediate results on easy to read reports that will drive instruction and improve teacher practice. 
6. Lexile scores included on reading reports. 
7. Links to the state test and ACT/SAT performance predictions beginning in fifth grade. 
8. Norming data to compare students to national, state and Catholic school benchmarks. 
9. Compatibility across tech platforms. 
10. Accommodations in the regular classroom through technological support. 
11. Artificial intelligence to identify and remedy rapid guessing behavior. 
12. Cost effective solution to assess more students. 

During the week of Tuesday, October 13 – October 16, your child will take a MAP® Growth™ test from NWEA® on a computer or tablet. MAP Growth scores will be used to help teachers check student performance by measuring achievement and growth. Your child’s teacher will use the results to tailor classroom lessons and set goals for students.

MAP Growth tests are unique, and it adapts to your child’s responses to measure your child’s skill level. If your child answers a question correctly, the next question is more challenging. If they answer incorrectly, the next one is easier. These results will provide a more complete picture of what your child knows and is ready to learn—whether it is on, above, or below their grade level.

Since MAP Growth tests provide immediate and accurate information about your child’s learning, it’s easy for teachers to identify students with similar scores that are generally ready for instruction in similar skills and topics, and then plan instruction accordingly.

MAP Growth reports also provide typical growth data for students who are in the same grade, subject and have the same starting performance level. Following each testing period, you will receive a Family Report showing a summary of how your child is performing academically.

We are truly excited to focus on your child’s individual growth and achievement. For more information about MAP Growth, visit  NWEA.org/familytoolkit. 

Sincerely,
Mrs. Connie Fortunato