NWEA Assessments

 

Overview of NWEA

Every school year, students take assessments designed to help teachers better understand what kids know and how they are growing academically. The Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) is a norm referenced test used for screening, formative assessments and performance monitoring.  NWEA MAP provides assessments for most Illinois schools and is used by more than 12 million students worldwide. 

Use in School District 189

Students within School District 189 take the NWEA MAP assessment three times a year (fall, winter, and spring) as follows:

Reading: Grades K-8

Math: Grades K-8

Science: Grades 3-8

NWEA Fall testing data is used as baseline data to measure growth and percentile performance for the current school year. These performance measures are used as a focus for student intervention and as a part of the PLC monitoring process. 

Our teachers and school leaders actively review and discuss data from the most recent NWEA results. We look at growth, state assessment projected proficiency, and achievement percentiles for each grade level in the areas of reading and math. These data also inform improvement plans in place at each building across the district. 

Growth and Achievement

We use NWEA MAP assessment data to consider two different factors: student growth and student achievement. The growth percentile rank indicates how much a student grew in comparison to similar students in the norm group. The achievement percentile indicates how well a student performed in comparison to similar students in the norm group.

Understanding RIT 

The NWEA MAP test uses a scale called RIT to measure student achievement and growth. RIT stands for Rasch UnIT, which is a measurement scale developed to simplify the interpretation of test scores. The RIT score relates directly to the curriculum scale in each subject area. It is an equal-interval scale, like feet and inches, so scores can be added together to calculate accurate class or school averages. RIT scores range from about 100 to 300. Students typically start at the 180 to 200 level in the third grade and progress to the 220 to 260 level by high school. RIT scores make it possible to follow a student’s educational growth from year to year.

RIT scores align to grade level standards and skills. Scores are unique to each grade level and should not be used to determine a student’s grade level or equivalency.