In July of 2017, Our Lady of the Lakes Catholic School contracted with Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) to use their MAP assessment for students in grades Jr. Kindergarten-10.  This assessment tool gives students three different assessments, Math, Language Usage, and Reading, that are computer adaptive adjusted to their ability.  As students answer questions correctly, the assessment will challenge them with more difficult questions, as they answer incorrectly it will ask easier questions.  This assessment is taken on an iPad and is individualized for each student.  

All students, grades Jr. Kindergarten through 10th took the assessment this fall.  “This is a phenomenal tool that allows us to measure our students on a nationally normed scale and shift our students to a growth mindset,” said president Rick Vanden Boom. “This assessment is given to over 10 million students across the world, we are excited to know where our students rank on a local, state, national, and global level!”  

While this is the first year of the MAP assessment at Lakes, it will track a student’s growth throughout their entire tenure at school.  Teachers from all grade levels have been able to use the feedback to adjust and drive new instruction.  “I loved seeing how my students from last year performed on their math assessment and seeing how this year’s student’s measured up.  This allowed me to drill into the specifics of what students needed to know and also build upon their strengths,” said high school math teacher Terry Zaleski.  

Our Lady of the Lakes Catholic School is the first school in the Archdiocese of Detroit to implement this assessment through grades JK-10 and hope to be leading a new wave of assessment and instruction for the coming years.  “We researched this tool for an entire year and consulted with other dioceses in the country to find out how they were using NWEA’s MAP.  This tool gives us instant feedback, provides a growth model, and gives our students individualized steps to raising their achievement,” said Vanden Boom.

While it will take some time to see the effects of student growth with this assessment, there has already been great signs at the beginning of the testing schedule.  “For almost all of our grades tested, students scored a grade level ahead of the grade they are current in.  While this is a great accomplishment, we are always looking at ways for our students to set goals individually and grow, that is the beauty of this assessment!”