NWEA MAP Suite vs. PowerSchool Unified Classroom

NWEA MAP is a great assessment for 1st grade and up. It directly aligns with the college and career standards. It can predict achievement on the ACT and state assessments. NWEA MAP used with kindergarten is not as aligned. It is very difficult for new kindergarteners to take. Most students guess because the assessment gets very long for them. It is a great assessment for the middle of the year for high achievers and at the end of the year for all students who are entering 1st grade.

Incentivized

In the classroom it is very well suited. For classroom teachers, and for school systems in general. It is appropriate in this capacity because it creates a streamlined sense of communication for all stakeholders: teachers, parents, students, and administration. It makes parent meetings very easy, it makes interventions for students easy, and it helps administration keep tabs on overall progress

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• NWEA MAP Suite calculates projected growth for individual students based on their grade level and RIT score for each subject.
• Projected growth can be found on many different reports.

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• Hand in/Hand Out Assignments
• Standards Based Assessments

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• NWEA MAP has technical issues during prime testing times (fall, winter, and spring). It is as if the system gets overloaded and cannot handle all of the students logged on at once.
• I would like to be able to see the reports immediately. Currently, you have to wait until the next day for the scores to be available.

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• The user interface is a little blocky and not entirely user-friendly.
• It does take more training than we'd like with new staff.

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The customer service is phenomenal! Every time I call, which is not very often, I always get a friendly agent that works hard to solve my problem and does not give up. They look at all angles of the issue and will go above and beyond to help. For example, our students are rostered by connecting NWEA MAP Suite to our SIS, and sometimes there is a glitch. NWEA will call the other software company if necessary, to help get the glitch fixed.

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They are very responsive to the issues that we have and follow through with their assistance. Having a live assist that is available when our teachers need it is essential too. They also seem to listen to suggestions on making improvements and have been transparent with us when renovations are done.

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NWEA MAP Suite is more directly aligned to our college and career readiness state standards and ACT. The questions are more rigorous than Renaissance Star Assessments. The reports on the NWEA MAP Suite are more detailed and exact in where the data came from.

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I have used markbook and gradebook. Each system had good features that were slightly different but the fact that this one is web based and accessible makes it the best of the 3 I have used. The learning curve to using the program is similar to the other 2 and overall has allowed me to save time reporting to students and parents.

Incentivized

• Allowed us to test students 3x a year to better evaluate if a student is growing or not.
• The data from the MAP assessment may be included as part of the placement review process along with other data points, such as student work samples and other assessment data to help determine if a student is ready for the next grade level.

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• Positive impact- i don't know how much it costs but every teacher spends probably 1-4 hours on powerschool every week but it streamlines communication

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