[NWEA in Michigan] What to Do Next with Your MAP Growth Assessment Data
[NWEA in Michigan] What to Do Next with Your MAP Growth Assessment Data
The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) is placing more emphasis on benchmark assessments than ever before. For the 2018–19 school year, the MDE is instituting a statewide program that offers schools and districts reimbursement for the administration of high-quality benchmark assessments intended to supplement M-STEP summative exams. The NWEA™ MAP® Growth™ assessment is one MDE-approved provider that can offer educators outstanding insights into student progress and needs to support targeted instruction. But, once the test has been administered and RIT scores received, the data have to be put to use for those truly meaningful insights to be uncovered—and that can be a daunting process.
For many Michigan districts, the next steps typically include ongoing data meetings, sticky-note walls, and hours of spreadsheet analysis to tease out themes in skill gaps, identify specific grade levels in need of targeted intervention, and determine what your champion teachers are doing that’s moving the needle. These activities can certainly lead to key insights and data-driven instructional opportunities, but you’re also racing against the clock as those numbers become more and more stale.
What if the “what’s next” step didn’t require this much time and energy? What if technology tools could help you take NWEA RIT scores and immediately turn them into actionable individualized learning plans for each of your students? This is exactly what Edmentum can help provide via assessment integrations with two of our powerful online programs, Exact Path and Study Island. Here, we’ll take a look at these two options and help provide guidance so that you can make decisions regarding what will best serve your students’ unique set of needs.
How does the integration work?
Exact Path supports K–12 reading, language arts, and math instruction and integrates with MAP Growth K–2 in addition to MAP Growth for Math and Reading. We’ll partner with you to upload your RIT data file with the support of our Customer Success teams, and students will automatically receive a targeted learning playlist of instruction, practice, and assessment focused on closing specific skill gaps identified by their assessment performance.
What program needs can Exact Path help solve?
As our assessment-driven individualized learning program, Exact Path is focused on identifying where students are ready to start learning and providing the self-paced instruction needed to promote academic growth. Exact Path is ideal for students in need of that first-time instructional component, whether because they are significantly below grade level or because they are on a much more accelerated path. A dedicated intervention block would benefit from the comprehensive lesson module approach that Exact Path provides to ensure that students are able to correct any misconceptions in learning, are allotted time to apply those skills in a low-pressure environment, and are ultimately assessed on discrete skill mastery before moving ahead.
How does the integration work?
Our proven, practice and formative assessment program, Study Island, supports K–12 math, English language arts, science, and social studies for Michigan students. For this digital option, the NWEA MAP Link integration can be added to support targeted practice in math for grades 2–11, in reading for grades 2–12, and in science for grades 3–8 so that NWEA MAP Growth performance automatically drives targeted learning pathways after each simple data upload.
What program needs can Study Island help solve?
Study Island is built to Michigan’s unique set of standards to help drive focused practice that prepares students for M-STEP summative exams and also provides ongoing formative assessment to measure academic proficiency. When time is in short supply or a limited schedule doesn’t guarantee regular intervention, short, focused practice topics aligned to assessment results provide the standards-based reinforcement that students need. As students work in the program, simply review reports to evaluate progress toward standards mastery, and plan for data-driven instruction and intervention based on results.
Make sure that your NWEA MAP Growth data is working for you to give students the best chance at achieving academic success. While just one program might be the right fit for some, many Michigan schools and districts are also finding success combining the instructional strengths of Study Island and Exact Path to achieve both student proficiency and growth, respectively.
Ready to learn more about partnering with Edmentum to make the most of your NWEA MAP Growth data? Fill out this form, and we’ll be in touch shortly, or join us for a watch this recorded webinar!
