School years › Scores and school papers, explained

MAP Growth scores explained for parents (RIT and percentiles)

MAP Growth is a computer test from NWEA that many schools give in fall, winter and spring. It adapts to your child's answers and reports a RIT score, a number on one scale across all grades, so you can see growth over time. The percentile beside it compares your child with students in the same grade nationally.

Checked October 29, 2026 against the sources listed at the end.

What the test is

MAP Growth is made by NWEA, now part of the publisher HMH. NWEA calls it an interim assessment: a check during the year that measures what a student knows and how much they grow, as opposed to the end-of-year state test.

Subjects: reading and math from kindergarten to 12th grade, and language usage and science from 2nd grade. The kindergarten to 2nd grade reading and math tests are called MAP Growth K–2.
Adaptive: a right answer leads to a harder question, a wrong answer to an easier one, so each child gets questions near their level.
Untimed: NWEA says most students finish in about 45 to 55 minutes.
How often: NWEA says most schools test at the beginning, middle and end of the year, and some only twice.

The RIT score

The main number is the RIT score. RIT stands for Rasch unit, a measurement scale. NWEA's point about it is that a RIT score means the same thing whatever the child's grade or age, so a child's scores from fall to spring, or from one year to the next, can be compared directly.

NWEA's technical report gives the scale a range of about 100 to 350. Younger children score lower on it and older children higher, because the scale runs across all grades. That's why the number alone isn't a grade: a 180 means something very different in kindergarten and in 5th grade.

Achievement and growth percentiles

The achievement percentile compares your child's RIT score with a national sample of students in the same grade, tested at the same time of year. The 60th percentile means your child scored as well as or better than 60 percent of that group. It is not the percent of questions answered correctly.

The growth percentile compares how much your child grew between two tests with the growth of students in NWEA's national sample who started in a similar place. It needs at least two test results.

The MAP Growth Family Report shows achievement, growth and projected proficiency: an estimate of how your child might do on a future test such as your state's, and for older students the ACT or SAT.

What a MAP score is not

Not a grade. NWEA says the RIT score isn't a grade and the Family Report isn't a report card.
Not a promotion test. NWEA doesn't recommend using MAP Growth to decide whether a child moves up a grade.
Not the whole picture. NWEA calls a score one data point. One score is one morning's work. Children have good and bad test days, so a single number matters less than the pattern across a year and how it matches what the teacher sees in class.

What to ask the teacher

Which skills does this score suggest my child is ready to work on next?
How does this compare with what you see in class?
Did my child grow as much as you'd expect since the last test?
Is the projection for the state test something we should act on?
Is there anything we can practice at home?

Questions parents ask

What is a good MAP score?

There's no pass mark. The percentile tells you how your child compares with others in the same grade nationally, and the growth measures show progress. Ask the teacher what the score means for your child's next steps.

Should my child study for MAP Growth?

No. It's adaptive and measures what your child already knows. A good night's sleep and breakfast help more than practice tests.

Practice at your child's level

Peabody, our site for children, has free stories and learning games written at each reading level and math grade, with no sign-up. Start where your child is comfortable, not where the calendar says.

Start reading on Peabody Peabody asks your child's grade, starts the stories a little under it, and moves the level as books run easy or hard.
Reading levels and math by grade Where each grade starts, and a page for every level and math path.
The free library Stories sorted by level, to read on screen.
Decodable readers Stories built from the sounds a beginning reader has been taught.

Where this comes from

Written for parents, to use alongside your child's teacher, not instead of them. General information only, not professional, medical or legal advice. Checked on October 29, 2026. Something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@peabody.kids.