Measure of Academic Progress (MAP): How does it work

by Mark Hefner

16 February, 2017

CHIANG MAI, THAILAND: The Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) is a computer adaptive test that show exactly which academic skills and concepts a student has acquired.

Computer adaptive means the test questions automatically adjust in complexity to the answers provided by the student. For example, the MAP test adapts to a students correct answers by increasing the difficulty of the test questions.

Every item on a MAP test is anchored to a vertically aligned equal interval scale called a RIT scale. RIT is short for Rasch Unit. This creates a unit of academic measurement that covers all grade.

The MAP test is taken in the fall, winter and end of the school year. This allows educators to identify early areas of academic development in their students that may need more attention.

In the United States, the MAP test is given to 10.2 million students from 49 states in 6,000 school districts studying in 23,500 public schools. The test is given 3 times a year  at the beginning, the middle and the end of the academic calendar.

From the 10.2 million students tested in the United States, a sample of the results from 72,000 to 153,000 students are taken from 1,000 of the MAP tested American schools. From this sample, average results are produced which schools and districts are able to use to evaluate how well they are doing compared to other schools in the United States.

The chart below was created to compare MAP scores against the age of the student and their grade. The averages are from the fall, 2016, MAP test in reading, math and language usage conducted in the United States.  

The chart works by finding a students age in the right vertical column. Move horizontally left across the page until the age intersects the purple line in front of the green, red and black column. These vertical columns are the reading, math and language scores for the listed grades that run horizontally below the vertical columns. The top of the columns reflect for the age and grade, the average scores .which run vertically on the left axis. 

For more information about the MAP, go to their website at www.nwea.org/assessments/map or contact the AAP Coordinator, Mr. Mark Hefner, at mhefner@nis.ac.th.

The United States MAP Average 2016

(Click the link above to download this chart)