Following considerable examination, the Blue Valley School District has replaced the Iowa tests (ITBS and ITED) with a different type of assessment - Measures of Academic Progress (MAP).

Developed by the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), MAP is a computerized, adaptive assessment program that provides educators with information they can use to improve teaching and learning. The assessment itself adapts to the student's ability, accurately measuring what a child knows and needs to learn. MAP tests also allow teachers to measure individual student academic growth over time, independent of grade level or age.

MAP tests are easy to administer and each computer-based assessment takes about an hour. An advantage of the MAP assessments is that individual student scores are available immediately after testing. The reports - available to teachers within 24 hours of uploading to NWEA - provide teachers with timely access to information they can use for instructional planning and school improvement.

NWEA has the largest norm reference group in the nation, providing highly accurate, norm-referenced scores. MAP results, however, go beyond ranking student achievement to identify the skills and concepts a student knows, and what he or she needs to learn in order to keep growing. With accurate, timely information on an individual student's needs, teachers can target instruction so every student is learning and growing.

MAP assessments in reading and math will be administered in late September or early October and again in the spring to students in grades K-8. These tests will provide highly accurate results that can be used to:

• Identify the skills and concepts individual students have learned;
• Diagnose instructional needs;
• Monitor academic growth over time;
• Make data-driven decisions at the classroom, school and district levels; and
• Place new students into appropriate instructional programs.

Testing takes valuable time from instruction, so it makes sense that the assessments Blue Valley gives students should make a difference. MAP has a long and successful track record of providing educators with the information they need to help students learn and grow.

Teaching and learning is what Blue Valley is all about, and this is yet another tool that will contribute to the district's success.

MAP tests are computerized tests that adapt to your child's level of learning. Each test is uniquely created for your child as he or she proceeds through the test. As a result, each student has the same opportunity to succeed and maintain a positive attitude toward testing. With MAP tests, we can administer shorter tests and use less class time while still receiving detailed, accurate information about your child's growth. Each test, consisting of 42 questions for reading or 52 questions for math) takes about an hour.

The scores are reported on a scale called the RIT scale. RIT stands for Rasch UnIT, a measurement scale developed to simplify the interpretation of test scores. This scale is used to measure student achievement and student growth. The scale is an equal-interval scale, like a yardstick in inches, so that a change of one unit indicates the same change in growth, regardless of the actual numerical values. RIT scores range from about 150 to 300. RIT scores make it possible to follow a student's educational growth from year to year.

A Lexile is a unit for measuring text difficulty and reader comprehension. Lexile measures are based on predictors of how difficult a text is to comprehend. Matching a student's Lexile score range to the Lexile rating of specific texts makes it possible to select reading material that will be appropriately challenging. Books with Lexile ratings at the lower end of a student's Lexile range are suitable for independent reading. Texts in the upper part of a student's Lexile range are better suited for instructional reading. For more information about Lexiles, see the Lexile website at: www.lexile.com.

The following tables provide a guideline for interpreting RIT scores. A mean score is an average score. As an example, when compared to the scores of the roughly 75,000 students in the comparison , or norming group, a 3rd grader with a RIT reading score of 189 would have the same skills as the students whose scores fall in the middle of the overall range. The median, or middle score, for MAP tests is the same, or nearly the same, as the mean score. This implies that about half of the students in the norming group have a score that is higher than the mean score and about half of the students would have a lower score.

Standard Deviation refers to the extent to which scores vary from the mean. About 68% of all scores will fall in the range between one standard deviation above the mean and one standard deviation below the mean. As an example, for 3rd grade, the standard deviation is about 16 and the mean is about 189. In the comparison group, about 68% of all third graders' scores will be in the range of 189 ± 16 or between 173 - 205.

More information about NWEA and MAP tests is available at their website, http://www.nwea.org.