Any teachers here familiar with NWEA MAP tests? Could use any teacher's advice.

[Liberty Belle]

I've spoken with a teacher I know, but I would like to see if her opinion is biased. This is going to be long and I really appreciate you reading it and giving me any input you can.

My son will be going into 2nd grade next year. His first grade year was not so great. He was diagnosed with ADHD and is about to be diagnosed with SID (his clinician is sure of it, but he's not had a formal evaluation yet). His behavior was very off and on and when it was off, it was really off. Let me also preface the rest with saying I do not think my child is a "special snowflake."

He's a very smart boy (unbelievable sense of humor, learns quickly, retains amazingly well, etc). His kindergarten teacher recognized this and he was in accelerated groups the whole year. His behavior in kindergarten was ok, his bad days were way better than his bad days last year. At most he lost a couple stars or got a note sent home. His teacher never suggested we talk to his doctor or anything, though.

Anyway...his spring MAP test scores in reading (196) and math (207) were in the 99th percentiles. His growth for the year was 26 points in reading and 30 points in math. Well above the typical growth.

His teacher, though, is discounting the scores and says he is academically behind. When asked for specifics, she mentions handwriting and spelling (I agree) and reading (fluency). How he reads at school (as described by her) is not how he is reading at home. I think it's probably the environment, but I don't know.

When she first told us about the MAP scores (the winter scores which were 97% and 98%) she said she was shocked. When we ran into his kindergarten teacher and told her the scores, she didn't bat an eye and said she was not surprised.

Now when we ask her about the scores (with the latest ones being particularly high) she just says, "The tests are read to them!" Ok, yes, but isn't there a reason they're read to the first graders? And this is not when we're specifically talking about reading.

We had a 504 meeting for him near the end of the school year and (he was approved) in it she was very cold and rude. At one point she snapped at my husband (who is very calm and polite), "Did you not hear what I said?!" At the end of the meeting the counselor said she wanted to assure us that they put a lot of thought into who would be his teacher next year. Afterwards his principal (who we love) pulled us aside and told us she thought it would be a great fit for my son, that the teacher is "kind of like him." Which leads me to believe that they recognize his first grade teacher was a bad fit. And I can tell you many other things she said, too, which just infuriated me (many times giving my son false information). And ways in which she seemed to purposefully escalate bad behavior.

So, basically my questions are:

1. Could he score in the 99th percentile and not be (at least) on grade level (except for handwriting which the test can't score)?

2. She mentioned the MAP test scores could have been so high due to "splinter skills." I thought the test was pretty thorough, though, and don't really understand how this could be true. Can it?

3. Could boredom be contributing to his bad behavior? (His clinician and principal said he should be given more challenging work, but teacher never did this as far as I could tell).

4. What can we do next year to foster a better relationship with his new teacher? And how can we emphasize that yelling at him and deliberately antagonizing him (ripping up his paper in front of him and throwing it in the garbage, because "You have to understand, I told him three times to stop writing") only makes things worse, it doesn't "scare him into shape."

I hope I'm not coming across as anti-teacher. I am a para and love education and have worked with wonderful, caring teachers. I also realize my son's behaviors would be frustrating and that (among other things) is a big reason we had him evaluated as soon as they suggested it. We've been very supportive.

Thank you so much for reading this. I'm just feeling very frustrated and can use all the help I can get.

 

[Liberty Belle]

Giving a bump.

 

[stm61]

I teach a self-contained EMD/TMD/ED room. This year we added some LD's just for fun lol. Anyway, my kids scores have always been about where I thought they would be. My non-readers were about 150, which I think is about as low as they can go for their grades. My LD kid, who I knew was bright, but was deliberately playing dumb so he didn't have to work, scored very high. I think he met the national avg. for his grade in math. We did have a problem with readers giving a bit to much help to the kids, but they don't read the reading part of the test for them. We solved the problem this year and some of my kids dropped 30+ points, which put them where I thought they should be. Next year I hear we're testing 3 times, instead of 2. Don't worry to much about 1 teacher's attitude. Sometimes they just don't click with a kid or there's a personality clash. Maybe meet with the teacher when school starts and discuss some of the concerns you have? If possible meet right before the kids return, so you can approach it as "we want to give you a head's up, or we want to present a united front with you to our son", something like that?

 

[SandiH]

We don't test 1st graders in MAP however, those scores are HUGE!!!!!!! What a smarty you have.

What kind of reader is he at home? I've had students that can't isolate sounds but can read words like crazy and they may or may not have comprehension issues. I've also had students struggle with the decoding of words but comprehend at grade level.

It sounds like the school recognizes that the teacher wasn't a good fit. Some teachers are much better at working with children with some differences (difficulties, challenges, whatever you want to call it). Some are better and managing the adhd symptoms and channeling that energy into learning. Some are also better at understanding that some kids need a challenge and even though they may be missing a skill, that skill deficit isn't holding them back.

I would wait and see how the fall is and how his 2nd grade teacher clicks with him. Hopefully you'll have an understanding and knowledgeable teacher who can help foster his skills and manage his energy.

Oh and who cares if the test was read to him. He had to comprehend at a pretty high level for those scores!

 

[Liberty Belle]

We don't test 1st graders in MAP however, those scores are HUGE!!!!!!! What a smarty you have.

What kind of reader is he at home? I've had students that can't isolate sounds but can read words like crazy and they may or may not have comprehension issues. I've also had students struggle with the decoding of words but comprehend at grade level.

It sounds like the school recognizes that the teacher wasn't a good fit. Some teachers are much better at working with children with some differences (difficulties, challenges, whatever you want to call it). Some are better and managing the adhd symptoms and channeling that energy into learning. Some are also better at understanding that some kids need a challenge and even though they may be missing a skill, that skill deficit isn't holding them back.

I would wait and see how the fall is and how his 2nd grade teacher clicks with him. Hopefully you'll have an understanding and knowledgeable teacher who can help foster his skills and manage his energy.

Oh and who cares if the test was read to him. He had to comprehend at a pretty high level for those scores!

Thank you two.

At home, most days, he reads fine. Sometimes he'll see, for instance, the word "Children" and see the first sound and guess "Chicken," or something, but if I remind him to look at the letters, he's great at decoding. He does better when reading a book or paragraphs vs individual words.

At the beginning of the year he would ask me to reread outloud what he just read, but he doesn't do that anymore and seems to still comprehend just fine.

He lacks confidence in reading. If he has a friend over and they're playing a game or something, he'll ask them to read it for him. I have to remind him that he can read it just fine and when he tries he does great.

I brought home some GRL books and he was reading H and I, which I think is on level. He doesn't do that at school, though. And he reads much better when on his medication (low dose of Daytrana).

We're reading every day over the summer and doing some fun, enrichment type stuff. He does well for me. His handwriting has improved just since school got out and he doesn't complain about writing in his journal everyday.

I'm just trying to figure this kid out. Some of the things he says is just amazing. But, he told me the other day he didn't want to get any smarter. I asked him why and he sadly said, "I just don't."

I'm praying next year is a better fit.

 

[Liberty Belle]

I teach a self-contained EMD/TMD/ED room. This year we added some LD's just for fun lol. Anyway, my kids scores have always been about where I thought they would be. My non-readers were about 150, which I think is about as low as they can go for their grades. My LD kid, who I knew was bright, but was deliberately playing dumb so he didn't have to work, scored very high. I think he met the national avg. for his grade in math. We did have a problem with readers giving a bit to much help to the kids, but they don't read the reading part of the test for them. We solved the problem this year and some of my kids dropped 30+ points, which put them where I thought they should be. Next year I hear we're testing 3 times, instead of 2. Don't worry to much about 1 teacher's attitude. Sometimes they just don't click with a kid or there's a personality clash. Maybe meet with the teacher when school starts and discuss some of the concerns you have? If possible meet right before the kids return, so you can approach it as "we want to give you a head's up, or we want to present a united front with you to our son", something like that?

My son's school just reads to K -1.

Thank you for your advice!

 

[Liberty Belle]

We don't test 1st graders in MAP however, those scores are HUGE!!!!!!! What a smarty you have.

What kind of reader is he at home? I've had students that can't isolate sounds but can read words like crazy and they may or may not have comprehension issues. I've also had students struggle with the decoding of words but comprehend at grade level.

It sounds like the school recognizes that the teacher wasn't a good fit. Some teachers are much better at working with children with some differences (difficulties, challenges, whatever you want to call it). Some are better and managing the adhd symptoms and channeling that energy into learning. Some are also better at understanding that some kids need a challenge and even though they may be missing a skill, that skill deficit isn't holding them back.

I would wait and see how the fall is and how his 2nd grade teacher clicks with him. Hopefully you'll have an understanding and knowledgeable teacher who can help foster his skills and manage his energy.

Oh and who cares if the test was read to him. He had to comprehend at a pretty high level for those scores!

Forgot to mention -

I'm not sure exactly how he is reading for her. All she's said is "How can I tell if he's comprehending when he can't even read" (which struck a nerve, because even if he were in GRL level A and B books, I wouldn't call that "not reading" and he's far above that) and when he was in SAFE once, he asked the SAFE teacher for harder math, he gave him third grade math and said he did it no problem. His teacher's response was "How can he do third grade math, when he can't even read?"

So, it sounds like he's not reading much at all for her there, unless she's exaggerating. She doesn't give specifics and just sounds frustrated when we ask her about it.