Fulton County Schools will spend nearly $500,000 to introduce a national test to be taken by thousands of students starting next school year.
The Measures of Academic Progress Growth Assessment, or MAP, will be administered to students in second, fourth and seventh grades. It also will replace the i-Ready assessment as a universal screener in high school to identify students in need of academic support.
MAP takes the place of the Iowa Assessments, which the district discontinued in 2019 after a testing period riddled with technology glitches.
Earlier this month, the Fulton school board approved a $483,696 contract with the nonprofit Northwest Evaluation Association to start using its MAP test instead. Fulton will administer it in addition to the state-mandated end-of-grade and end-of-course Georgia Milestones tests.
Chief Academic Officer Cliff Jones said that by testing students as young as second grade, the district can monitor literacy and math and identify students who are struggling “earlier in their academic careers.”
“This will allow teachers to provide tailored instruction and early intervention, if necessary. It will also allow the district to make strategic adjustments to our programs and supports to ensure all students have strong foundational literacy and mathematics skills before they enter the third grade,” he wrote in a memo to board members that the district provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The MAP scores also will be used to determine eligibility for the district’s gifted programs.
In Georgia, a handful of school districts are part of a pilot program to gauge if the MAP can be used as an alternative to the state-mandated Milestones. Students in participating districts take both the Milestones and the MAP so that officials can make comparisons.
Fulton County is not part of the pilot, but officials said they are monitoring the effort.
Georgia students begin taking Milestones tests in third grade.
Since it’s used in districts across the country, the MAP test will allow the district and parents to compare results to a national sample.
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