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Assessment Task Force MAP Demo Test Feedback

March,2013 Primary Math

Primary Reading

Math 2-5 Observations: If a student isn't explicitly told to use scratch paper, he/she will do worse than a student who is using scratch paper Some word problems are a little funky (wording) Seemingly a lot on probability/stats Misconceptions (focused on chance, range, and mean average) are more aren't discernible from this assessment

In Geometry, several Q's on nets, even though shape characteristics/attributes pertinent to standards If students have a sound operational vs actual conceptual understanding approach (procedurally

skilled), then scores will be inflated

Multiple Reflections:

choice is limiting - points back to knowing what they don't know (which is still needed)

Looking into DesCartes may reveal more of the areas of proximal development, misconceptions (are most teachers utilizing this resource?) Bank of questions tilting more towards Common Core themes? much on probability/stats and including more 0 A strand Q's)

possible so

(for instance, eliminating

Is the full potential as a screener and growth measure? If screener, is time investment worth it? Do teachers react to the data instructionally? Growth measure - how do we assure teachers it reflects the 'type' of conceptual development they are instructing for? Can it lead teachers to a place where understanding of student misconceptions is an emphasis?

Can the assessment be shortened or refined to only include content pertinent fluency/application? With more conceptual understanding

to

assessed in other formats?

Reading 2-5

I thought the process was fine but that some of the questions were poorly constructed-in those cases I could reasonably argue against everyone of the answer choices. My overall impression is that it does not include nearly enough non-fiction text analysis questions to support student acquisition of skills vital to what we are supposed to be teaching now. I should have kept count, but it seemed to me that there was a preponderance of questions dealing with poem analysis, poetry terms, literary terms such as metaphor, alliteration, allusion, rhyming schemes, etc. I also thought that there were several questions that would have required significant background knowledge in order to answer the question. One that comes to mind is a passage from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar that involved a speech by Antony. It would have been challenging to answer the question correctly if a student didn't have knowledge of who the players were as the question dealt with Brutus' motivations and a little knowledge of history would be key to understanding the speech. I also thought there were numerous questions that were "fuzzy" - I could understand an argument being made for more than one answer being correct because there wasn't sufficient context given in the question. Sorry I can't think of a specific question, but these would have been questions that asked things like what is "the most likely" or "least likely" or "best" argument types of questions ...

Math 6+ I was surprised at how advanced the questions became: trig functions, trinomials, function notation multiplication of

At least one question was a direct repeat of a previous question - we got them both correct.

Reading 6+

Algebra EDC Graphs were frequently difficult to read for the specificity required of the answer choices

Several questions tested standards that are not Algebra 1 standards in WA at this time: o o o o o o Exponential decay Graphs of circles, ellipses, hyperbolas Circle graphs (pie chart) Inscribed circles Division of fractions Compound inequality

We missed a circle graph question early. We were asked 3 more circle graph questions.

We

missed all of them. I felt empathy for the student who doesn't know a skill and then is asked several more questions assessing that skill. I was surprised our score was as high as it was given how many we missed - 24/52 scored a 252 There was at least 1 ambiguous question. "What would be the first step ..." implies only one first

step is acceptable when there are several correct first steps that could yield a correct working of the problem.

Geometry

EOC

General Science

Science Concepts

& Processes

Other feedback On both math and reading, I experimented with deliberately missing questions, but since I wasn't willing

to take repeated tests, I didn't really learn what might be the outcome of doing that. I'm sorry that I don't have time to go into the analysis of my results - based on feedback from principals, I can readily see how educators can glean much very important information.

Generally the tests were pretty "good," in that they asked some solid, thought-provoking questions. humbling!). In Science, and maybe in Reading, I encountered a couple of questions in which my prior knowledge Certainly, the fact that Reading started out at such a high level was a shock, (and a bit

indicated that the answers given were too ambiguous, but I don't recall which questions those were, and maybe I was just wrong. My main reaction has to do with the felt experience ofthe 1) student. I can see several issues:

Traumatic? If a student has any worries about his/her academic prowess, it could be very upsetting to encounter the hard questions at the beginning; being faced with "overwhelming" questions erodes self-confidence - not a good thing in an educational environment. This is an important issue, IMHO.

2)

Exhausting, tedious? At a certain point, I suspect that many students may become tired and disengaged .... An 'e) "1 don't know'" category has, no doubt, many drawbacks, statistically, but on the other hand, to me it actually seems cruel and unusual to be "forced" to go through many

questions which one can't answer, and end up guessing (being defeated) or forcing oneself to analyze and make a best guess (a certain amount of this may develop character, but too much of this is defeating). A few questions that are too hard are okay .... For students who have a high level of comfort with the material, I believe these effects would probably, but not always, be lessened. Conclusion: I still value the data provided by the MAP tests very, very much, but I also have concerns: lot of class time, and they can be unpleasant and discouraging for some students. They take up a

I think it's important

to balance the benefits with the negatives, and to always make our testing as efficient, yet humane as possible. In any event, I would hope teachers get lots of careful, repeated coaching on prepping students: "1 hope

you'll enjoy this; it's a way for you to show off what you've learned; if you run into hard questions that you don't know, IT'S OKAY! Just give it your best guess and go on ..... This helps your teachers to learn about what you don't know - that's one way I know what to teach you about ..... If you get tired, just take a little break and close your eyes for a minute ...." Etc., etc.