As we say in APS, we have no time to wait—and no time to waste—when it comes to closing achievement gaps and improving outcomes for all students. And five strategic pillars—the APS5—guide us in answering this urgent call. One of these pillars is Data: more than ever, we use evidence to drive our decisions, and we empower our teachers and parents with the information necessary to track results over time, monitor our students’ progress, and make adjustments.

This year we began measuring the growth of every K-12 student with a well-known national assessment known as Measures of Academic Progress (“MAP”). Using MAP, we are able to shine a light on every student’s progress throughout the year, and APS families have detailed reports that are customized to their students’ growth and learning. These reports have gone out to every family this year, strengthening the connections between learning in school and at home. In addition, APS school leaders and teachers have the data they need to make timely adjustments to their instruction and to accelerate learning.

And just to review another key point, unlike the Georgia Milestones exam, MAP isn’t used for accountability. There are no school or district ratings from MAP—only good data throughout the year. As a formative assessment, this information comes much faster than Milestone results and can be put to quick use in the classroom.

Recently, APS students took the spring MAP—their final MAP assessment of the year—and this data helps shed light on each student’s progress from August to March. When looking at the results overall, several highlights emerge:

• Math growth was a strong suit—following national trends, MAP growth was higher in math than in reading, and student growth in both subjects, locally and around the country, has been hit hard by the pandemic; and
• Range of school-level performance—also mirroring national patterns, there was a variety of MAP growth and achievement across schools—something that APS is analyzing so that we can build on the effective practices of high-growth schools heading into next year.

MAP Growth Details
As shared at recent community meetings in each Cluster, MAP allows us to see growth percentile bands of students district-wide and in each school—from the lowest percentile group (20th and below) to the highest (81st and above). Below, you can see this data for the district and for a sample list of schools. You can explore this data further by using our drop-down menu and clicking on different data points and schools of interest.

You can also see this data simply as the overall percentage of students meeting or exceeding their growth targets¹. For example, below, you can see that 64% of students at West Manor hit their growth targets in Reading. Use the options on the right to view other grade levels and/or the results for reading.

In addition to growth percentiles, MAP allows you to see achievement percentiles and even a projected Milestone proficiency rating (these are estimates, not the actual proficiency rates, which we will not have until we get Milestone results in the summer). You can explore this data in our dashboard here and let us know your questions and suggestions on Let’s Talk!.

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1. These results will be somewhat similar to Georgia’s Student Growth Percentiles (SGP) as a measure of student growth. However, there are a few differences. The SGP results measure Milestones growth from April to April on the Milestones, while the MAP Growth Targets measure growth from August to March on MAP. Also, the MAP exam is adaptive (which allows more precise measurement with fewer questions), and students who are particularly high or low-scoring will receive off-grade level questions, while the Milestones only include grade-level questions.