The Roadmap for Preparing Students for the MAP Exam

Assessments are considered as a significant component in the process of improving education all over the world. Formative assessment helps teachers to enhance students’ learning skills and develop their academic progress. Nowadays, for educational accountability, countries, schools and teachers are evaluated based on students’ progress results in various types of assessments. Benchmark tests, specifically the Measure of Academic Progress (MAP), is one of the external benchmark assessments in which students are not performing well according to the required targets of the UAE National Agenda 2021. Therefore, I have designed a roadmap that can help all teachers who are responsible for preparing students for the MAP exams and improving their learning skills in general which has been proven in my study titled (Educational Leaders’ Perceptions of the Implementation of Formative Assessment Strategies on Enhancing Students’ Results in the MAP Exams in American Private Schools in the United Arab Emirates).

Educators’ role

Stage One: Analysis

Identify the students’ current skills - Classify students’ skills according to their level in the Depth-of-Knowledge model.
Students’ results in the last MAP exam with the identified Growth Projection for each student.
Ask: (Where am I now?), (Where am I going?), (What strategies can help me achieve my target?).
Results of teacher-student individual constructive feedback (Strong and weak areas).
Results of the student’s self-assessment (Strong and weak areas).

Stage Two: Building an effective teaching plan including

Setting the needed skills for each student - Identifying the intended learning outcomes.
Preparing appropriate differentiated motivational activities and tasks that are suitable for students’ needs including critical thinking, problem solving that is related to real life applications, and previous MAP questions.
Implementing various formative assessment strategies such as: Think-Pair-Share strategy, Feedback strategy, Self-Assessment strategy, Problem-Based Learning strategy, Questioning strategy, and Exit-Card strategy.
Continuous practice.
Constant assessments including (discussions, individual constructive feedback, self-assessment, students’ work)

Stage Three: Continuous monitoring and evaluating students’ progress including

The results of the students in the three MAP exams over the whole academic year.
Classroom Observation.
Evaluating ongoing information about students’ progress through the use of various FA strategies.

School’s role

Ensure teachers’ competence in delivering the suitable and motivational ways of teaching that can improve the required skills of students.
School support. Schools must provide teachers with professional development sessions, a reasonable teaching load, an appropriate learning environment, a moderate number of students in each class, and a range of resources in order to achieve the required results.
Sufficient time.

Voice of Dr. Mina Radhwan

Dr. Mina Radhwan has been working in the UAE for the past 15 years. She earned a masters degree with a degree of excellence in Science Education. She currently holds a PhD degree in Education (Leadership and Management). Dr. Mina works as an educational evaluator in the Ministry of Education. She has published some articles related to types of assessments, the best ways of teaching and learning, curricula, and benchmark exams.

The Roadmap for Preparing Students for the MAP Exam - the voice of Dr. Mina Radhwan