McGraw-Hill offers ALEKS (Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces), an assessment software platform providing a range of testing tools and standard or best-practice tests for subjects in primary and secondary education, as well as higher ed and homeschooling.
$19.95
per term
NWEA MAP Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
NWEA, a nonprofit headquartered in Portland, offers the MAP Suite, their flagship assessment platform and suite.
Among the specific scenarios where ALEKS is well suited would be independent work time during which each student could work on improving foundational math skills or on practicing topics recently learned in class. ALEKS is less appropriate when instructing more involved topics (i.e., Algebra 2 material), which would require whole-class instruction by the teacher first.
The grade level norms are averages and should not be used to set expectations or goals for students. The student score compared to the norm provides a perspective about how each student, or the class, or the grade level is performing. The NWEA MAP test assessments reveal precisely which academic skills and concepts your child has acquired and what he/she is ready to learn. NWEA MAP Suite reports allow teachers to better target instruction based on students’ strengths and needs.
NWEA MAP has technical issues during prime testing times (fall, winter, and spring). It is as if the system gets overloaded and cannot handle all of the students logged on at once.
I would like to be able to see the reports immediately. Currently, you have to wait until the next day for the scores to be available.
We did not need much support because installing and running ALEKS on Schoology was relatively easy; the department followed the steps outlined in the user manual on how to install ALEKS and were able to do so quickly. ALEKS help team has been helpful, but overall we did not need their help.
The customer service is phenomenal! Every time I call, which is not very often, I always get a friendly agent that works hard to solve my problem and does not give up. They look at all angles of the issue and will go above and beyond to help. For example, our students are rostered by connecting NWEA MAP Suite to our SIS, and sometimes there is a glitch. NWEA will call the other software company if necessary, to help get the glitch fixed.
I was not able to find any other products on your list, that I feel are really like ALEKS. I think of ALEKS as more of a teaching platform whereas other platforms I have used--MyMathLab, WebAssign, Knewton--are more of a homework platform.
NWEA MAP Suite is more directly aligned to our college and career readiness state standards and ACT. The questions are more rigorous than Renaissance Star Assessments. The reports on the NWEA MAP Suite are more detailed and exact in where the data came from.
NWEA MAP is a valuable tool for our district in terms of assessment data. I do not deal with the money directly, but from the teacher standpoint, it is a quality product.
