Mat‑Su and Kodiak superintendents: MAP Growth and DIBELS give actionable data; NAEP useful but not instructional
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Summary
Superintendents Randy Traini (Mat‑Su) and Cindy Mika (Kodiak) told the committee that MAP Growth and DIBELS provide immediate, actionable student data for instruction, while NAEP is a delayed, high‑level snapshot useful for trends but not for day‑to‑day improvement. They raised concerns about small rural samples, connectivity interruptions, and opt‑out impacts.
Dr. Randy Traini, superintendent of the Mat‑Su Borough School District and then‑ASA president, and Dr. Cindy Mika, superintendent of the Kodiak Island Borough School District, told the House Education Committee that district assessments such as MAP Growth and the DIBELS literacy screener are the practical tools teachers and leaders use to adjust instruction.
Traini described formative assessments as diagnostic instruments that educators use repeatedly to guide instruction and said MAP Growth provides actionable, student‑level results that allow teachers to change instruction quickly. He noted an individual MAP administration typically takes about 60–120 minutes, and the test’s adaptive design provides district and classroom reports, including a quadrant growth map that educators value. Mika described DIBELS (the READS Act screener) as a short, frequent individual assessment (about 15–30 minutes per student when administered one‑on‑one) that enables early identification and intervention for reading risk.
Both superintendents contrasted those local tools with NAEP. Traini said from a district perspective NAEP is “more like an autopsy report,” arriving too late and not disaggregated to be useful for improving individual schools or instruction. They raised operational concerns specific to Alaska: remote schools sometimes lack reliable Internet for MAP Growth (some remote sites use Starlink), and small samples mean one or two students from a rural school may be the entire tested cohort at that grade level. Mika noted several Kodiak rural sites had only one or two students at tested grades selected for NAEP in prior cycles.
Committee members and presenters also discussed participation and opt‑outs: superintendents said opt‑out rates in correspondence programs are high and that districts must account for opt‑outs when interpreting data. Traini and Mika said MAP is provided for the state‑required portions, with districts sometimes purchasing broader MAP packages for additional grades and tools.
The exchange highlighted the difference between tools that inform instruction immediately (MAP Growth, DIBELS) and those used as system‑level benchmarks (NAEP). Lawmakers requested further data on connectivity interruptions, opt‑out rates, and how sampling affects small rural communities.