Wyckoff Considers Adding New Standardized Test

The days of Wyckoff students taking the TerraNova exams are over, district officials announced at a Board of Education meeting this week. But, in addition to the state-mandated PARCC exam, which will replace the NJ ASK and HSPA beginning next year, Wyckoff students may start taking an additional standardized test that district officials say could help inform Common Core instruction.

Wyckoff Superintendent Richard Kuder told board members and parents this week that the district is looking at the MAP exam, or “Measures of Academic Progress,” test, to possibly take the place of the TerraNova, which he said is not aligned to the new Common Core education standards being instituted at every school across the state.

“It’s based on growth,” Kuder said of the MAP. “We could use it to inform instruction. We are thinking about piloting the exam to see how beneficial it would be.”

The MAP test, he said, is administered completely online, the same way the PARCC, which will become the state-mandated standardized test all students in grades 3 through 11 will take starting next year, is. 

The MAP is also aligned to the Common Core standards, and is “adaptive,” so students will be given questions throughout the exam that are reflective of how they’ve performed so far, he said. The MAP will automatically have students move on to a tougher question if they get a question right, and a simpler one if they get one wrong.

“It’s individualized,” Kuder said. “You’re able to assess a student’s actual progress.”

The MAP exam can also be administered pre-K through 12th grade, and can provide the district with almost immediate score results, which officials said would help in using the exam to inform instruction.

The exam would cost $12.15 per student per year to administer, Kuder said.

However, district officials said they are still weighing whether or not adding the MAP would mean too many testing days, overall, during the school year. The PARCC exam will take up nine days over the course of the year, officials said.

“I want to make sure we’re not over-testing our students,” Board of Education President Robert Francin said.

Kuder said the district would continue to consider the MAP, recognizing that the number of testing days, “is a serious concern.”