MAP Growth Goal Explorer User Guide and FAQ - How to Set Meaningful and Realistic Growth Goals

Oct 3, 2026

Uploaded by iuabcfuw

MAP Growth Goal Explorer user guide explains how to determine appropriate fall-to-spring academic growth goals using grade, state, fall RIT score, and subject inputs. It describes Average Growth, Aspirational Growth, and Custom Growth, including percentile meaning and how to choose aspirational levels. The guide shows how benchmarks and NWEA normative data help evaluate whether goals are meaningful and realistic, and outlines next-step actions for teachers, families, and students. It also covers how to download tool information as a PDF.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

About the MAP Growth Goal Explorer

Information needed and where to find it

Aspirational, Average, and Custom Growth

Evaluating whether a goal is meaningful and realistic

What to do next

Downloading information as a PDF

Frequently asked questions

GUIDE MAP Growth Goal Explorer user guide and FAQ All students deserve the opportunity to work toward meaningful and realistic academic goals. But goal setting can be challenging, and different students need different goals. How do you determine the right goal for a student? How do you know ifa goal is too easy or too hard? Will the goal help the student get where they need tobe academically? We created the MAP ® Growth Goal Explorer to help answer these questions. About the MAP Growth Goal Explorer The MAP Growth Goal Explorer is designed to support and simplify the goalsetting process by showing a range of possible fall-to-spring growth goals against the backdrop of important academic benchmarks. This tool is intended to help teachers, families, and students work together to establish goals that strike a balance between what is meaningful and what is realistic. Information needed and where to find it To start exploring possible goals, go to the Let’s Get Started section. Enter your student’s grade, state, fall RIT score, and test subject (MAP Growth K–12 Math or Reading) . Teachers can find students’ fall RIT scores in many places, including the Student Profile and the Class Profile reports. Families using this tool can find students’ fall RIT scores in the Family Report. Aspirational goal based your student’s information. You can also enter a Custom Growth goal. • Average Growth is the amount of growth demonstrated, on average, for students in the same grade and subject and with similar starting achievement. This is the default “growth projection” in NWEA® reports. Approximately 50% of similar students meet or exceed this level of growth. • Aspirational Growth refers to a target growth percentile above the national median. By default, the tool displays the 60th percentile growth, which means approximately 40% of similar students meet or exceed this level of growth. Other levels of aspirational growth (55th percentile to 95th percentile in 5 percentile increments) can be selected using the dropdown menu. • Custom Growth is a goal of your choosing that could include growth to any meaningful target, such as one of the benchmarks included in the graph (e.g., national average or state proficiency level) or any other RIT score. Evaluating whether a goal is meaningful and realistic Several benchmarks are included in the tool to provide context for your student’s growth goal and to help you evaluate whether achieving this goal would be meaningful progress toward important academic targets. These benchmarks include the national achievement average spring score for students in the same grade and subject, and spring cut scores associated with achieving proficiency on a state’s end-of-year assessment1. Comparing the projected score for each growth goal to these benchmarks can show whether average or aspirational growth would bring a student to proficiency, or whether a more rigorous goal may make sense. To help you determine whether agoal is realistic, the tool uses NWEA normative data to contextualize growth goals relative to the level of growth that is observed on average by other similar students across the US. This is important information because goals are most useful when they are rigorous and challenging. Pursuing an unrealistic goal can lead to discouragement and frustration. MAP Growth Goal Explorer user guide | 3 What to do next Setting a roadmap or action plan to achieve the chosen goal helps keep students on track. There is no set approach that is appropriate for all students, but the following steps provide a framework: • Collaborate with students to set growth goals that they are motivated to achieve. • Establish concrete activities that students understand and can pursue autonomously to achieve the goal. The Student Profile or Class Profile reports provide information about specific areas to focus on as well as areas of greater mastery to celebrate and build upon. • Check in

FAQs

How difficult should a growth goal be?

Strive for at least average growth, but recognize that average growth may not raise achievement relative to similar peers. To increase percentile standing, growth must exceed the average; highly above-average goals are harder to reach without additional supports and may require a multi-year strategy.

Why are the growth projections in this tool slightly different from other NWEA reports?

The tool presents a subset of information compared with other MAP reports, which can make projections differ slightly.

What information is needed to explore possible goals?

Enter the student’s grade, state, fall RIT score, and test subject (MAP Growth K–12 Math or Reading). Fall RIT scores can be found in the Student Profile and Class Profile for teachers, and in the Family Report for families.

Oct 3, 2026

Uploaded by iuabcfuw