First Day of NWEA Testing

The MAP Assessment from the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) is one that I've been boosting incessantly for a while now. I think that value added models of student growth are the only real way to measure student growth; it's where they start and end that really matters, not necessarily what the finishing line is supposed to be.

So this morning I had both computer labs here in my building buzzing. In one I was set up for the first grade classes, who are very, very easy to test this time of the year: average test time is about 13 minutes, and you even have some knuckleheads (one from my class, natch) who finish in under 5. That's a fun conversation:

"Johnny, there's no way you could be done in that short a time."
"But I am done!"
"You got me. Let me rephrase--there's no way you could have done a good job in that amount of time."
"I tried my hardest!"
"Really? Let's do the math--you spent about 8 seconds per problem. About half of that time is the computer reading the problem to you, sooooooo......"
"Can I go to the bathroom?"
"No. No you may not."

That said, the beauty of the NWEA is instant feedback. It backed up what I was already thinking, that I don't have any exceptionally high kids, that one or two are very, very low, and that the rest are in-between. That's OK with me.

Over in the other lab there were a couple of third grade classes that came through, and they say that their test is quite a bit harder this year after a re-alignment that occured over the summer. It'll be neat to see what they're saying at the end of the year.

This, to me, is what testing should be: quick, functional, and applicable. My next big project will be to lay out all the scores on a graph for each grade level to get ready for my RTI presentation to WERA this coming spring, but I'm rather looking forward to that piece because data matters and giving the teachers an easy way to read the data is critical to the growth we're trying to achieve.

Dino Rossi is running for Governor here in Washington, and a big part of his platform is ditching our state level assessment (the WASL) in favor of something better. I won't be voting for him, but on that point he's absolutely right.