All the students will sit the NWEA MAP test next week.  We are often asked what the RIT results mean.

To summarize: 

The RIT scale is a measurement tool based on Item Response Theory.  It’s divided into equal parts, similar to centimeters on a ruler, to measure a student’s academic growth over time.  Each subject area has its unique RIT scale. The difficulty of test questions and the achievement level of students are both placed on the RIT scales.  A higher RIT score represents a student’s ability to perform more complex skills and understand more difficult concepts.

If a student has a particular RIT score, they are about 50% likely to correctly answer an item calibrated at that RIT level. Topics at this RIT level are likely to be topics the student is ready to learn.  A student’s score on any MAP Growth test is a function of both the proportion of questions answered correctly and the difficulty of the questions asked.

A valid RIT score is considered to be between 100 to 350, depending on the subject.  The overall difficulty of each test question is determined by three dimensions: cognitive demand of the task, reading and text level difficulty, and presentation.

This scale allows teachers to track student progress and identify areas of strength and improvement. It is a valuable tool in personalized learning and instruction and a very important tool in the OSG Toolkit, to improve student academic performance. 

It is very important that students are well rested on the days they come to school to sit their MAP assessments.  They should also know, and be reminded by parents and staff, that this is a very important assessment and that they should put maximum effort into their work.