There’s an interesting paradox with new technologies: the simpler and more seamless the user experience, the more complexity and upkeep you’ll find behind the scenes. We see this every day with MAP® Growth™, the computer-adaptive interim assessment from NWEA, which is designed to ensure every student has a unique testing experience. To make this level of adaptability possible, the MAP Growth item pool must be deep so it never runs out of questions to ask students—and so the test always has a new, relevant question waiting for kids as they make their way through the assessment.
While a peek under the hood of MAP Growth reveals some pretty sophisticated machinery, its power can be boiled down to a simple if/then proposition: If a student gets a question wrong, then the next question is easier. If they get a question right, the next question is harder. This means it’s exceedingly unlikely that any two MAP Growth tests will be the same, or that any two students will receive the same questions in the same sequence.
In this article, I’ll share how the MAP Growth item pool makes MAP Growth such a robust, industry-leading assessment. I’ll also explain how NWEA continually works behind the scenes to keep it that way.
Best-in-class item pool
MAP Growth is the sum of many parts—more than 50,000 parts at any given time, to be a little more precise. Here’s how MAP Growth’s pool of test items sets it apart from other learning assessments:
Depth and excellence
When it comes to the quantity and quality of the MAP Growth item pool, it’s a both/and situation. MAP Growth stands out as the industry leader in both the number and precision of its test items, which are designed by experts specifically to get educators the most accurate data possible.
More than 50,000 questions at any given time
Each student receives only 43 items on their test, but it takes a large multiple of that number to ensure the test is tailored to each student. This comprehensive item pool, which MAP Growth draws from to create its personalized assessment experiences, evolves over time and ensures that you can accurately measure students at all levels of achievement across all grade levels. For most tests, no student will see the same question within a 14-month test window, which increases the test’s validity.
Another reason the item pool is so deep is that the questions are intentionally written to align with individual state standards.
Depth of Knowledge (DOK)
Depth of Knowledge is a cognitive model that categorizes tasks into four levels of rigor based on the complexity of thinking required to complete them. Forty to fifty percent of MAP Growth test items are in levels 2 or 3. The higher the DOK, the more cognitive effort it takes to answer a test item correctly. Having so many MAP Growth items with DOK 2 and 3 means that students will be presented with content at varying levels of difficulty that require varying levels of ability.
Technology-enhanced items (TEI)
Over 30% of the items in the MAP Growth item pool boast the TEI designation. These items use a wide variety of interactivity to more precisely measure student comprehension.
Besides text-entry boxes and drag-and-drop options, many other TEI items with names like “Click and Pop,” “Gap Match,” and “Common Stimulus” allow for a more authentic measure of the content, while engaging students in higher-order thinking.
How the item pool stays current
With so many individual questions making up the MAP Growth item pool, NWEA has developed a well-honed practice of continually reviewing and improving the item pool. Here’s how:
Ongoing adjustment and alignment
When states update their standards, NWEA updates the MAP Growth item pool accordingly. We might add new questions to reflect the new standards, or we might remove old ones that are no longer as useful.
Changing with the times
Beyond the standard sets of test items we develop, we also create new content to stay relevant with contemporary instructional practices and pedagogical approaches. This process also helps us ensure that reading passages are authentic and permissioned where possible.
Quality control
With so many test items in play, housekeeping plays an important role. We conduct periodic quality-control reviews of questions to make sure they haven’t moved on our scale and that they’re still up to date. For example, when we come across items that include illustrations of CD players, corded phones, and other outmoded technology devices, we flag those items for review and replacement.
Enhanced item-selection algorithm (EISA)
In the spring of 2023, we introduced a new type of test in 18 states that features the EISA, and it was expanded to 16 more states in the summer of 2024. As of the 2025–26 school year, all students taking MAP Growth will be using this new test. The new algorithm provides two unique benefits that help make MAP Growth even better at assessing students:
- The new EISA prioritizes items that align with students’ grade level, meaning that students taking these new tests will be better measured against the core instruction they receive relative to grade-level expectations. This increases the test’s validity.
- The algorithm allows NWEA test creators to adjust the number of questions students see within each instructional area, asking students more questions based on their own state’s priority grade-level standards.
Learn more
For everything you ever wanted to know about MAP Growth and more, check out our comprehensive video, which serves up details about the MAP Growth item pool and the many other features that make MAP Growth the clear leader in its field.
