Saturday, May 29, 2010

NWEA's MAP testing and the Seattle Schools

The Seattle Schools Superintendent sits on the board of NWEA the outfit that produces the MAP test, which the Seattle Schools give three times per year for a "formative" assessment. note NWEA gets paid plenty for providing this test 3 times per year.


NWEA via MAP spews out about a 1,000 objectives per student for the teacher to use "formatively". What a laugh. ... consider the following for grade two....

A Seattle grade two teacher notes the following:

A).. Teachers have been told that MAP is a formative assessment and that it is to be used to guide instruction. I have in my hand the MAP data for one single student in my second grade class. It contains 24 pages of goals. The first column has 318 objectives to reinforce with this student. The second column contains 340 more skills and concepts to develop with this child. And the third column has 320 more skills and concepts I am to introduce to her. With 28 students in a classroom, clearly, this use of MAP simply does not pass the straight face test.

B).. As you know, teachers are required to teach second grade standards to second graders. These MAP results often set goals far beyond second grade. I will close by reading from this list and you can judge for yourself whether these are appropriate goals for a second grade student, who, according to classroom assessments, is already being sufficiently challenged by second grade standards.

a. “Adds fractions with like denominators with reducing or converting to a mixed fraction”

b. “Adds decimals through the hundred-thousandths place”

c. “Multiplies integers with unlike signs”

d. “Subtracts numbers with 5 digits or more with regrouping”

e. “Divides integers with unlike signs”

f. “Divides a 2 digit number or a 3 digit number by a 1 digit number with a remainder"

g. “Writes mixed numbers as improper fractions and improper fractions as mixed numbers”

h. “Applies algebraic methods to solve theoretical problems”

etc.

{GRADE TWO right .. and with the Everyday Math program as the primary source for instructional material}

Little wonder we see results like these from the Seattle Public Schools for Math...

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maria's conflict of interest is not violating any Washington state laws. Just because its unethical doesn't mean a thing. If you are going to accuse one superintendent, then you might as well accuse all of them. Sitting on the board of the NWEA is a perk - they should at least get paid as much as the bank and realty executives that get paid buying and selling land.

dan dempsey said...

My complaint is the MAP test is a piece of crap. Really look at that "formative test" to aid teachers of second graders.

I do not care if she is on the NWEA board or not. She buys crap over and over that is my issue.

"Discovering Math"
New Technology Network Contract
NWEA's MAP

couple that with School closures and re-openings (astronomical cost mismanagement)

the Student Assignment Plan and its quality schools

and her willingness to piss everyone off regularly ... check the legal bill that is being run up by the district cha ching cha ching
=========

The only reason for the MAP test must be performance management of teachers because only a moron would be duped into thinking it is a formative assessment tool.

Like the NSAP is to create quality schools which she failed to define.

Of course the four school directors keep voting for everything the "Supe" recommends.

Anonymous said...

Maria is probably using the inverse law of testing - the least discriminating test is also the dumbest and most expensive test so then all kids can look more successful on paper, no matter how stupid teachers are. The first law of reform says all teachers are born stupid that's why they became 'educators?'

Anonymous said...

Microsoft Management's World of the Future

How do we revolutionize classrooms?
a. make more tests.
b. stop reading.
c. play videogames
d. learn how to type with two fingers.
e. learn powerpoint.
f. shame the sinners into becoming good citizens.
g. teach linear regression instead of algebra.
h. extort large quantities of money from taxpayers.

dan dempsey said...

I agree the MAP test will likely show things are fine.

The WASL was a spin machine for OSPI.

hschinske said...

How in heck is anyone supposed to have a "copy" of the MAP test? That makes no sense.

Helen Schinske

Anonymous said...

Can anyone tell me: are the MAP test results and the MAP goals shared with the parents?

Anonymous said...

Jeff from Peoria, Illinois, here. We give the MAP three times a year in all of our public schools. Funny, I was looking at the materials from the NWEA corporation. On the sample questions they provide, there are grammatical errors . . . unintentional grammatical errors. I pointed this out when our district first purchased the test . . . to no avail.

So I wonder . . . if the questions themselves have grammatical errors in them . . . how accurate can this test possibly be???

Yup . . . it's all about $$$. :)

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know the cost of all the programs to prepare for MAP testing.

Anonymous said...

It cost $370,000 for the Seattle Public School Contract for 1 year