Schoolwide News

Lower school students have just wrapped up their MAP testing, and middle school students are entering their testing window next week.  Standardized tests tend to raise blood pressures and anxiety levels in both kids and their parents.  So this seems like the perfect time to talk about what the MAP test is and isn't, and hopefully quell some of the anxieties about this assessment and its scores.  

The MAP test (Measure of Academic Progress) is taken twice a year — at the beginning and end of the school year. It’s produced by NWEA, a non-profit organization focused on educational research and growth-based assessment.  While MAP does offer comparison data, it’s not designed to rank or label your child — it’s meant to provide insight into how your child is progressing and what they’re ready to learn next so teachers can better support them.

MAP is an adaptive test. That means the questions adjust based on your child’s responses. If your child answers a question correctly, the test increases the level of challenge. If they get a question wrong, the next questions are a bit easier. The goal isn’t to find a score that judges your child's academic ability, but rather to help teachers hone in on what your child is ready to learn next.

MAP gives us helpful information about your child’s progress in math, reading, and language usage. It shows us where they’ve been growing, where they may need extra support, and how their current understanding compares to previous tests.

However, MAP doesn’t tell the whole story, and it’s not designed to. It only shows the final product of their mathematical thinking, not all the steps along the way. It doesn’t measure creativity, collaboration, curiosity, perseverance, or the joy your child brings to solving tough problems. It doesn’t reflect the insightful comment your child made in class, or the way they helped a classmate make sense of a tricky idea. The MAP score is just one piece of a complex mosaic of how your child learns and what they know.

Teachers at EAB already have a strong understanding of their students’ learning, and the MAP test adds valuable data points to help make this picture more complete. It provides quantitative insights that help us identify students who may need more support or greater challenge, track growth over time, and group students flexibly according to their learning needs.

It’s natural to feel some stress around testing, but it’s important to remember that MAP is a low-stakes tool designed to inform teaching, not judge students.  MAP scores don’t appear on report cards or transcripts. It’s not something kids need to cram for — or even to study for. It’s simply a way for us to check on the academic progress students are making.

It’s also normal for scores to go up and down a bit between tests. Learning isn’t always a straight path, and things like mood, energy, sleep – even growing bodies and brains – can all make a difference. What matters most is the overall trend we see over time, not any one data point.

The best way to talk to your child about MAP? Let them know we just want to see what they already know and what they’re ready to learn next. Encourage them to try their best, but let them know this test doesn’t define them.

At EAB, we see your child as a whole learner. We celebrate their thinking, persistence, and growth, not just their scores. The MAP test is just one way we support your child’s learning journey. It's one piece of a much larger mosaic of observations, interactions, and assessments that we use to help every child grow with confidence, curiosity, and joy.