Heading into the 2022-23 school year, the Greene County School District will be utilizing a new student assessment program.

Superintendent Brett Abbotts says the Measures of Annual Progress (MAP) assessment is a computer-based program for reading and math that is adaptive, meaning depending on how students answer questions, the questions will either get harder or easier to determine where a student’s progress is. 

Additionally, Abbotts points out MAP has been approved by the Iowa Department of Education as a screener tool and it will replace two other assessments students are currently taking, which includes FAST and aMath. Abbotts believes MAP is a superior product overall.

“It’s more of a comprehension based tool and it’s more for like critical skills, analytical skills, and deeper levels of thinking for students. Which will really help us long term because it gives us something that’s very applicable to what they’re actually doing in the classroom as opposed to just wanting to see how fast a student can read or how fast a student can solve a problem.”       

Abbotts describes how MAP can also help improve the middle and high school’s performance profile, where both buildings were listed as “targeted” last year for both math and reading.

“It’ll give us the opportunity to start answering those questions of what can we do for this particular student group? And how do we make their instruction more personalized to get them to where they need to be? And get ourselves off those lists.” 

Abbotts says kindergarten through 11th grade will use MAP and be tested three times per school year. The School Board approved purchasing MAP for three years for $46,655 at their regular meeting in July. Payment for the program is through the district’s federally allocated Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds.