One Size Doesn’t Fit All
Each child learns differently. So NWEA developed computerized adaptive assessments that test differently, allowing teachers to see their students as individuals – each with their own base of knowledge.
Tests That Adapt to the Student
NWEA Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) tests present students with engaging, age-appropriate content. As a student responds to questions, the test responds to the student, adjusting up or down in difficulty.
The result is a rewarding experience for the student, and a wealth of detailed information for teachers, parents and administrators.
Stable and Consistent
When students take NWEA adaptive tests, they are presented
with test questions at different levels of difficulty, that adjust based on their responses.
At the end of a testing sequence, the student receives an overall score, called RIT, that indicates the instructional level appropriate for him or her.
Our RIT scale offers proven benefits:
- Stability: A RIT score of 148 ten years ago means the
same thing now as it did then. - Grade-independent: Test items match student performance, not grade level. So two students with a score of 210 are at the same level, even if one is in third grade and the other is in fourth.
- Equal Interval: On the RIT scale, the increments are the same whether it's the difference between 140 and 152 or 200 and 212. This gives educators a clear yardstick for measuring progress.
Available Assessments
A complete set of assessments is available, each aligned to national and state curricula and standards:
- MAP: Reading, mathematics and language
- MAP for Primary Grades: Reading and mathematics
Understanding RIT
Every test item on a MAP assessment corresponds to a value on the RIT Scale (for Rasch Unit), so educators gain a deep understanding of what a student knows. RIT assigns a value of difficulty to each item, and with an equal interval measurement, so the difference between scores is the same regardless of whether a student is at the top, bottom, or middle of the scale. RIT measures understanding regardless of grade level, so the information helps to track a student’s progress from year to year.
NWEA assessments provide information about individual students' instructional level. Because every student is unique, that instructional level can fall anywhere on a wide range of grade level achievement.
This document gives the user a full perspective of all comparative scores across grade levels. Additionally, the instructional suggestions provided give initial ideas that will spark discussion of effective instructional strategies to use with any given student.
NWEA Reporting