Dear Kodiak Middle School Families,
Kodiak Middle School will administer the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Growth Assessments three times this year. The second assessment for KMS students will take place on December 10, 11, and 12 with make-up tests scheduled through December 20th. The whole school will test at the same time each day with a modified schedule to accommodate testing. The final MAP growth assessment will be combined with the Alaska System of Academic Readiness (AK STAR) in April.
The MAP Growth Assessment is a computerized adaptive reading, writing, and math test aligned with Alaska's teaching standards. It is used as an interim test in fall and winter to predict a student's performance on the end- of-year summative assessment known as the AK STAR. When taking the assessments, the difficulty of each question is based on how well a student answers all the previous questions. As the student answers correctly, questions become more complex. If a student answers incorrectly, the questions become easier. The MAP assessment is an untimed assessment and can take anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours for students to complete.
The MAP assessments help our school identify our students' learning needs in reading, math, and language usage. We will use the results of the Growth Assessments to identify students scoring below the 25%ile to recommend academic interventions. These interventions would be taught in a nine-week rotation in place of their elective. Please talk to your student about the importance of these assessments and help ensure they are ready to test each day.
If you have additional questions about the MAP assessments, please get in touch with KMS administrators or your student's math or English Language Arts teacher.
Rena Rankin, Principal
Judith Bruns, Assistant Principal
