Coronado Students Given a MAP to Future Academic Success

For generations, teachers have had tools to measure a student’s progress. What they haven’t had is a way for those tests to help a student progress. Now they do.

It is called Measures of Academic Progress, or MAP, a computer-based testing system that not only measures a student’s progress in reading, language arts and mathematics, but identifies a student’s strengths and helps address areas of weakness.

“Its vision is for educators to know well each child’s needs and help facilitate each child’s goals,” said Claudia Gallant, director of curriculum and development for the Coronado Unified School District.

 “Before a struggling student would scratch his head and say, ‘I just don’t get it,’ and often that would be the end of it,” she said. “With MAP we can help that student by identifying gaps or holes in their knowledge and help fill them.” 

In reading, for example, the program measures a student’s ability to understand words in a number of areas. This allows a teacher to pinpoint exactly where the problems are. For some students, it’s a lack of vocabulary, for others it's phonics, still others don’t understand word structure.

Coronado Unified introduced MAP this fall as a pilot program, and 375 students in grades 3-11 are currently participating. Thus far, the test has only been given twice, but those involved with the project are already impressed with what they have seen, according to Gallant.

 “I’m excited about the potential of the program,” said Bill Cass, principal of Silver Stand Elementary. “It gives the students ownership for their own learning.”

MAP is not just for struggling students. “It helps average and advanced students to reach their real potential,” explained Eric Lehew, executive director for Learning Support Services in Poway Unified School District, which has used MAP for more than a decade.

Because it is computer-driven, MAP adapts its questions as the student takes the test. If the student answers a question correctly, the next question will be more difficult, Lehew explained. If the student gets a question wrong, the next question will be easier.

You can't do that with a paper and pencil test. “You can only know if a student attained that level, not if he could have exceeded it,” he added.

Since its full implementation in 2001, the number of students in the Poway district who scored on the advanced level and stayed advanced has increased dramatically, said Lehew.

Among second-graders, for example, the number of students performing at the advanced level rose to 47 percent in 2010 from 32 percent in 2005, a 15 percent increase in just five years. During that same period, the district's Academic Performance Index score rose 26 percent, Lehew said. 

It is a program the entire Poway district values, especially its teachers. “Last year during budget negotiations with the teachers, MAP was the one program they refused to cut. It was that important to them,” he said.

Using data from MAP scores, teachers can “tailor instruction and set goals for each student, small group or an entire class,” Gallant said. 

The test is administered three times a year in the fall, winter and spring. The results are known within 24 hours. “This is important,” Gallant said. “It allows teachers, parents and students to address needs right away.”

MAP was developed by the Northwest Evaluation Association (NEA) in 1999. “We now have over 5,000 partners. Most are school districts,” said Jean Fleming, director of marketing for NEA. “To date more than 5 million students have taken the MAP tests.”