Note
This article applies to students assigned Imagine MyPath Reading and/or Imagine MyPath Math. Imagine Science Corner and Imagine Purpose do not have assessments.
Organizations using Imagine MyPath K-12 have 3 assessment options for their Reading and Math students:
- The MyPath Assessment (MPA) - included in the MyPath program
- The NWEA™ MAP® Growth Assessment
- The Renaissance Star Assessment
Most students take the selected assessment 3 times a year, allowing educators to view and measure growth throughout the school year.
District Administrators should decide on an assessment option in collaboration with their Customer Success Manager (CSM) as they plan their initial MyPath implementation. Students' assessment scores determine each student's learning path in the MyPath curriculum. With each subsequent assessment, the students' learning path is adjusted, if necessary, based on their latest score.
Once students take an assessment, the program displays each student's rostered grade level and their most recent assessed grade level, also known as their placement grade. Students may be placed on grade level, at any grade below grade level, or up to two grade levels above their rostered grade.
Note
Some districts opt to use the MyPath Assessment for some students and NWEA or Renaissance for other students. Within a single school, you could use the MyPath Assessment with some students and either the NWEA MAP Growth or Renaissance Star with others, but you cannot use all 3 or both NWEA and Renaissance Star in the same school.
If your organization plans to use different assessments with different grade levels or different schools, consult with your CSM to determine whether the MyPath Assessment should be left on or turned off for each school. If you leave the MyPath Assessment on, then all students will take the MyPath Assessment even if they are also taking the NWEA MAP Growth or Renaissance Star assessment. If you turn the MyPath Assessment off, teachers must manually place the non-NWEA/non-Star students into their learning paths one at a time.
We strongly advise against switching your assessment type mid-year. Each assessment type is scored differently. Therefore, if you switch mid-year, you won't be able to calculate growth from the beginning to the end of the year.
The table below provides further information on all three assessment options.
MyPath Assessments
| Description | Additional Information |
|---|---|
|
The MyPath Assessment is a highly adaptive assessment that determines student proficiency in key content domains. Students in the same grade level receive different questions based on their performance. The MyPath Math assessment is fully available in Spanish for students in Grades K-5. This is the recommended assessment option for organizations that do not have a partnership in place with NWEA or Renaissance. |
MyPath Reading students take the English Language Arts (ELA) assessment; MyPath Math students take the Math assessment. Students take the assessments by logging in to MyPath and selecting Go for the desired subject. MyPath Assessment scores are available for educators in the MyPath Assessment report. Overall and domain-specific scores are reported as scaled scores and corresponding assessed grade levels. By default, 3 assessments are scheduled per year. The default windows are as follows, but can be adjusted based on the start and end date of your academic sessions:
District Administrators may add a fourth assessment, if desired, but Imagine Learning recommends waiting at least 45 days in between assessments to allow sufficient time for students to demonstrate growth. |
NWEA™ MAP® Growth Assessments
| Description | Additional Information |
|---|---|
|
The NWEA MAP Growth Assessment is a computer-adaptive third-party assessment that measures what the students know, how they are growing academically, and what they are ready to learn next. Students in the same grade level receive different questions based on their performance. This is recommended for organizations that are already using NWEA in their school or district, so that students don't have to take an additional assessment. Note The Spanish versions of the NWEA MAP Growth assessments are not supported. |
MyPath Reading students take the NWEA MAP Growth Reading assessment; MyPath Math students take the NWEA MAP Growth Math assessment. Once the students take the assessment, their scores are automatically synced with Imagine MyPath via the NWEA ID number in the student's MyPath profile. Students' MAP scores (Overall RIT scores and Lexiles [Reading]/Quantiles [Math]) are available for educators to view by logging into the NWEA portal or by viewing the Benchmark Growth Report within Imagine MyPath (after the students have taken at least 2 assessments). The NWEA MAP Growth has 4 default testing windows:
Your organization is responsible for determining when the test actually gets administered. |
Renaissance Star Assessments
| Description | Additional Information |
|---|---|
|
The Renaissance Star Assessment is a third-party fixed-form assessment that measures student mastery of grade-level content. All students in the same grade level respond to the same set of test items. This is recommended for organizations that are already using Renaissance in their school or district, so that students don't have to take an additional assessment. |
MyPath Reading students take the Star Reading assessment; MyPath Math students take the Star Math assessment. Once the students take the assessment, their scores are automatically synced with Imagine MyPath via the Renaissance ID number in the student's MyPath profile. The testing windows are up to 3 times a year; the schedule is determined by your organization. Students' Star scores are available for educators to view by logging into the Renaissance portal or by viewing the Benchmark Growth Report within Imagine MyPath (after the students have taken at least 2 assessments). |
Tip
You can see each student's placement grade and placement method in MyPath by going to Classes > Student Placement. Administrators can also view this information at the district and school level in the Cumulative Performance Report.
Teachers and administrators can elect to bypass or override a student's assessment score and instead manually place the student in their learning path. Imagine Learning recommends this option in the following situations:
- A student's formative and summative in-class assessments provide evidence that the student's
assessment results do not reflect their true abilities. - You want to place students based on a different assessment, other than NWEA MAP Growth or Renaissance Star.
- You want to place students in a learning path without them taking an assessment.