Preparation, planning and assessment administration are critical steps is the process of using assessment data to improve teaching and learning. The resources on this page provide assistance with the requirements and best practices of assessment administration.
1. How can I learn more about NWEA’s MAP assessments?
There are several ways to learn more about the MAP assessments:
- NWEA’s Susan Klassen hosts free Data Dig webinars following each testing term – fall, winter, and spring. Ensure NWEA has the correct contact information on your MAP website to stay informed of all learning opportunities and updates. Our office will also forward the email invitations to attend.
- NWEA’s Susan Klassen offers free, one hour, Data Consults to all CMU partner schools. These data consults can be arranged directly with Susan at susan.klassen@nwea.org.
- NWEA hosts free national webinars and national professional learning opportunities on their event page.
- Ensure NWEA has the correct contact information on your MAP website to stay informed of all learning opportunities and updates.
- The Help Center on the MAP site.
- The Center purchased professional development content for our partners that can be found on the NWEA website: MAP Growth Foundations Online and MAP Reading Fluency Foundations Online.
- All of our office’s events are available on our Upcoming Events page.
2. When are the contractually required Assessment Windows?
The fall and spring MAP Growth assessment windows can be found at
www.TheCenterForCharters.org/AssessmentWindows.
For winter testing, schools will notify our office if and when they would prefer to test via an Epicenter task. The MAP Growth Winter Testing Window Choice is due on November 13, 2024. This Epicenter task provides the opportunity for schools to choose when the winter test window will open and close. Alternatively, schools will also have the option to indicate that they will not administer the MAP Growth assessment during the winter.
For additional assessment compliance support, our office provides assessment windows and assessment-related submission requirements in the Master Calendar of Reporting Requirements Assessment Guide.
3. Is administration of the winter assessment required?
MAP Growth testing is not required by our office during the winter. However, many schools choose to administer MAP Growth during the winter to check students’ progress mid-year.
Schools will notify our office if and when they would prefer to test via Epicenter task. The MAP Growth Winter Testing Window Choice due on November 13, 2024. This Epicenter task provides the opportunity for schools to choose when the winter test window will open and close. Alternatively, schools will also have the option to indicate that they will not administer the MAP Growth assessment during the winter.
4. Can the fall or spring test window be adjusted?
In order to establish an optimal environment for the collection of achievement and growth data, our office utilizes NWEA’s instructional week defaults for test windows: four weeks of instruction prior to administration of the fall assessment, twenty weeks of instruction prior to winter test administration, and thirty-two weeks of instruction prior to spring test administration. Therefore, no changes can be made to the fall or spring window.
5. What are the assessment administration requirements and best practices?
Please see the
MAP Assessment Requirements and Best Practices document for a full description of the assessment administration requirements and best practices, and watch the
Establishing Exceptional Assessment Environments video.
6. Which grade levels and subject areas must be assessed according to the charter contract?
Please see Section 7b; Educational Goal and Related Measures and Section 7e; Methods of Pupil Assessment of your charter contract for the grade levels and subject areas you are required to assess.
7. What accommodations can be utilized during the administration of MAP?
Please see the
MAP Assessment Requirements and Best Practices for a full description of student accommodations.
- Note: Text-to-Speech (TTS) may be utilized for the reading assessment for answer choices, question directions or questions/prompts. TTS may not be utilized for reading passages. If TTS for reading passages is represented as a need in a student’s IEP or 504 Plan, the student must be exempted from the reading assessment. This exemption must be documented on the Assessment Coordinator Verification Form (Form A2). This exemption is appropriate for a very small number of students (estimated to be approximately 1-2 percent of students with disabilities participating in general assessment; this number is not a cap but an anticipated percentage of student need).
- TTS may be utilized for the math assessment for answer choices, question directions and questions/prompts, and reading passages.
Please see NWEA’s Accessibility & Accommodations FAQ for a full description of student accommodations as recommended by NWEA.
8. How does the Center calculate student participation rates during the fall and spring designated assessment windows?
Our office obtains the number of students who completed the assessments from the MAP site, enrollment provided by the school on the Assessment Coordinator Verification form, as well as school-entered enrollment information from MSDS to complete participation calculations.
Extenuating circumstances (hospitalization, incarceration, etc.) prohibiting students from completing the assessment must be noted on the Assessment Coordinator Verification form. Our office may require additional documentation during the participation calculation process for clarification.
9. What technical support is available before, during and after assessment administration?
NWEA Partner Support
8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern, Monday through Friday
(877) 469-3287
techsupport@nwea.org
Chat with an NWEA Expert
MAP Help Center for additional assistance
10. Why was the Assessment Coordinator Verification Form (Form A2) rejected in Epicenter?
The Assessment Coordinator Verification form involves a critical process designed to ensure that MAP reports include the test data for all students. To ensure reports holistically demonstrate the achievement and growth for every student you serve, certain student data elements must be accurate and complete on the NWEA website. Prior to submitting Form A2, ensure accurate completion of all students’:
- First and last names
- 10-digit Unique Identification Code (UIC)
- Birthdate
- Grade level
- Gender
- Ethnicity
- School of Record
- Class
- Current Term
If any of the required student demographic information is missing or incomplete, the form will not be accepted in Epicenter. For support with this process, view the Guidance for Verifying Student Data Elements for Form A2 video and/or question 11 below.
Note: This process takes time. Please begin this process at the beginning of the test window and submit Form A2 early to allow time for corrections if needed.
11. How can one ensure leading zeroes on students’ Unique Identification Codes (UIC) are not dropped when creating rosters and opening data files?
When creating and uploading the Class Roster File (CRF):
- Format the Student ID column as “Text” to ensure Excel does not automatically drop leading zeroes when saving, opening and/or uploading the CRF to NWEA’s MAP site.
When opening a Students by District report or a CRF:
- Please refer to the Guidance for Verifying and Correcting Students Data Elements for Form A2 video and/or the written guidance provided below.
- Right-click on the .csv file and select Open with… Select Notepad.
- With the file open in Notepad, Select File => Save As.
- Remove the .csv from the file name and make sure the type is text.
- Close the file in Notepad.
- Open Excel.
- Go to File => Open => go to folder where the file has been saved. NOTE: if the file isn’t shown, select the file type (which will probably say All Excel Files…) and using the drop-down box, select All Files.
- Select the text file and open. A Text Import Wizard will pop up. Select ‘Delimited’ as the file type. Check the box; ‘My data has headers,’ then Next.
- Click on the ‘comma’ box under delimiters, then Next.
- Scroll through the file and locate the UIC in the ‘Student ID’ field. Highlight the column and select ‘Text’ in the Column Data Format box. Click Finish.
- In the spreadsheet that opens, find the Student ID field, and highlight the entire column.
- Right Click, select ‘Format Cells.’
- Go to the number tab and select ‘Text.’ Hit OK, then save the file as an Excel sheet.
12. What are the spring achievement measures listed in the charter contract in Section 7b: Educational Goal and Related Measures?
The NWEA MAP 2020 National Norms (spring achievement measures) are:
Grade | MAP Reading Student
Achievement Norms | MAP Math Student
Achievement Norms |
3 | 197.12 | 201.08 |
4 | 204.83 | 210.51 |
5 | 210.98 | 218.75 |
6 | 215.36 | 222.88 |
7 | 218.36 | 226.73 |
8 | 221.66 | 230.30 |
For additional information on NWEA’s norms, please see NWEA’s MAP Growth Normative Data Overview.
13. What requirements are in place regarding students’ retesting?
No more than five percent of the students required to test per the charter contract may be retested during the fall or spring assessment window.
Please see the MAP Assessment Requirements and Best Practices document for a full description of the retesting requirements and best practices.