Using data from the MAP Growth National Dashboard, this research brief highlights an urgent challenge in academic recovery: middle school reading. While students have shown encouraging progress in math and elementary reading since the pandemic, reading achievement among grades 6-8 remain stagnant, with the lowest-performing students falling even further behind.

This is the technical appendix to the “Struggling adolescent readers left behind: Evidence of post-COVID-19 declines and pathways forward” research brief, which highlights an urgent challenge in academic recovery: middle school reading.

This white paper examines how the 2025 update to NWEA’s MAP® Growth™ national norms changes the interpretation and use of key norm referenced metrics in school accountability contexts. We show how shifts in post COVID achievement and growth patterns and the introduction of NWEA’s enhanced item selection algorithm (EISA), call for careful review of commonly used metrics.

The 2025 norms update addresses several critical factors: evolving U.S. student demographics, documented shifts in academic performance following the COVID-19 pandemic, and the item-selection algorithm in the newly enhanced MAP® Growth™.

NWEA research brief examining Kindergarten test scores from more than 400,000 U.S. students and noting patterns that can predict academic success or identify students at risk of falling further behind. This early identification is key for educators, enabling them to intervene and influence learning trajectories before the next critical milestone: third grade.

This is the technical appendix for the NWEA research brief titled, “Behind at the Starting Line,” which examines Kindergarten test scores from more than 400,000 U.S. students and noting patterns that can predict academic success or identify students at risk of falling further behind. This early identification is key for educators, enabling them to intervene and influence learning trajectories before the next critical milestone: third grade.

This technical report presents achievement and growth norms for Spanish MAP Reading Fluency Foundational Skills (grades K–3), enabling educators to interpret student performance and progress in early literacy domains relative to national peer groups.