Updated third-party review and ratings highlight the technical quality of this early-literacy assessment
Portland, Ore. — Jan. 23, 2024 — NWEA, a K-12 assessment and research organization, announced today that its assessment, MAP® Reading Fluency™, has more convincing evidence of reliability, validity and accuracy in its ability to identify students in need of intervention, based on a review conducted by the National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII).
The review was conducted as part of NCII’s tools chart series that “assists educators and families in becoming informed consumers who can select academic and behavioral assessment tools and interventions that meet standards for technical rigor and address their specific needs,” states the NCII website. Each tool listed by NCII is evaluated by a technical review committee of experts against multifaceted criteria. In the latest review, MAP Reading Fluency increased its ratings in almost all key categories, receiving the highest rating of “convincing evidence” in nearly all classification accuracy categories. This rating improvement for MAP Reading Fluency is significant. As NCII states about the importance of evaluating screening tools, “classifying students’ risk status is a key step in universal screening because the aim is to have tools that permit accurate identification of who does and does not need additional support to make progress.”
“We set out to create an early-literacy assessment that was reliable, accurate and valid while also simplifying educator lives by providing data on an entire class within a short session,” said Patrick Meyer, VP of Psychometrics and Analytics at NWEA. “Third-party reviews, like those from the NCII, are a critical element to our feedback and evaluation process to ensure we continue to enhance and innovate in ways that provide deeper value to educators, and we’re doing that with MAP Reading Fluency.”
MAP Reading Fluency continues to evolve into one of the most trustworthy assessment tools in the market, providing educators with reliable and accurate data that supports instructional decisions to advance reading development for all students. The CODiE-award winning tool launched in 2018 as a first-of-its kind adaptive universal screening and progress monitoring assessment for grades pre-K to 5 is now used by more than 1.4 million students in more than 2,000 districts in the nation.
Beyond quality data, one of MAP Reading Fluency’s most valuable features is the time saving aspect for teachers. Instead of having to assess each student in a class one-by-one taking a day or more, a teacher using MAP Reading Fluency can get those powerful insights in one class period for an entire group of students. Aligned to the science of reading, the early-literacy assessment measures and monitors oral reading fluency, literal comprehension and foundational reading skills from season to season and year to year. It quickly screens students at risk of reading difficulty, including characteristics of dyslexia. The benchmark assessment is available in both English and Spanish.
About NWEA
NWEA® (a division of HMH) is a mission-driven organization that supports students and educators in more than 146 countries through research, assessment solutions, policy and advocacy services, professional learning and school improvement services that fight for equity, drive classroom impact and push for systemic change in our educational communities. Visit NWEA.org to learn more about how we’re partnering with educators to help all kids learn.
Contact: Simona Beattie, Sr. Manager, Public Relations, simona.beattie@nwea.org or 971.361.9526