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NWEA™ MAP® pathway configurations in Imagine Math 3+

If your district has chosen the NWEA ™ MAP ® Growth Assessment as the assessment provider for Imagine Math, you must decide which learning pathways will be auto-assigned to your students in Grades 3 and up. During the NWEA implementation process, District Administrators must select a pathway configuration from the table below and discuss this choice with their Customer Success Manager (CSM). 

The Default option inserts a personalized set of prerequisite lessons in students' rostered grade-level pathway based on their overall score on the NWEA MAP Growth Assessment for Math.

The Supplement option assigns domain-specific pathways based on individual RIT score ranges in addition to the grade-level pathway with its precursor lessons.  

No matter which option your district selects, Administrators and Teachers always have the ability to manually assign other pathways to Imagine Math 3+ students at any time. (See more about this at the bottom of this article.)

Choosing an NWEA MAP pathways configuration:

Administrators, use the information in the table below to decide how your organization will implement the NWEA pathways for students in Grades 3 and up. Only one option can be selected for your entire district.

 Reminder

Students in Grades PreK-2 are given only one pathway, which is based on their rostered grade level.

Option Description

Default Option:

Students receive one on-grade-level pathway

Once the NWEA MAP scores are integrated, the student's rostered grade-level pathway is personalized with additional prerequisite/remedial lessons based on the student's overall RIT score from the NWEA Assessment.

This option only inserts lessons on or below a student's rostered grade level based on their assessment results. Above-grade-level content will not be inserted.

Imagine Learning recommends the Default option for:

  • Schools or districts that do not have a lot of experience with Imagine Math and/or NWEA. 
  • Schools or districts that prefer an automated approach to pathway assignment and desire a single, on-grade-level pathway. This can help eliminate any confusion students may experience if multiple pathways are assigned and students aren't sure which one they should select.

Supplement Option:

Students receive one on-grade-level pathway and multiple domain-specific pathways

As with the default option, students are automatically enrolled in their rostered grade-level pathway with personalized prerequisite/remedial lessons based on their overall NWEA score.

In addition, students are automatically assigned multiple domain-specific RIT pathways to provide targeted support based on their MAP performance in each domain. The number and names of the domains vary by state. Texas, for example, has domain pathways for elementary school students in the areas of:

  • Number sense and operations
  • Measurement and data analysis
  • Algebraic thinking
  • Geometry

The domain-specific pathways can be at a skill level above, on, or below the student's rostered grade level. For example, if a 5th-grade student is performing at grade level in one domain, but above grade level in another, they automatically receive varying content levels catered to them based on their test results.

Students will have multiple pathways to work on and the teacher may need to tell students which one to select if work in a specific domain is desired. Educators may decide to assign the same pathway to all students in the class, or personalize their suggestions student-by-student:

  • Varies by individual student: The domain-specific pathway that students need the most attention to get up to grade-level proficiency.

  • The same for all students in the class: The domain-specific pathway most relevant to skills/concepts students are learning in their core math curriculum.

  • The same for all students in the class: The grade-level pathway in order to get comprehensive exposure to the topics that the student is expected to master by the end of the year. 

Imagine Learning recommends the Supplement configuration for:

  • Teachers and administrators who have experience with Imagine Math and NWEA, as this option involves multiple pathways.
  • Schools or districts that have students that need targeted focus on certain subject areas. 
  • Schools or districts that want to personalize the content for their students beyond what they receive with the default option. For example, one week students can focus on their default pathway, but another week they can focus on a supplemental pathway.  
  • Schools with many students working above their rostered grade level.

 Note

Students may repeat lessons since both the grade-level pathway and the NWEA domain-specific pathways draw from the same pool of lessons in Imagine Math 3+. 

No matter which configuration above is selected, at any time, Teachers and Administrators can also manually assign one or more grade-level pathways, domain-specific pathways, or any other custom pathways they create. These pathways will appear in the student's list of pathways when they log into Imagine Math, and educators must tell students which pathway they should select from the list. For more information, refer to Assigning pathways to Imagine Math 3+ students. 

With either option, Setting up and using NWEA™ MAP® with Imagine Learning and Sharing NWEA™ MAP® Growth scores with Imagine Learning need to be completed as part of the rostering process.

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