First, it allows teachers to interpret a student’s proficiency in terms
of average or typical performance on representative assessment activities; and
second, it takes into consideration the relative difficulties of the tasks involved
in assessing student proficiency.
Once constructed, maps can be used to record and track student progress and
to illustrate the skills that students have mastered and those that the students
are working on. By placing students’ performance on the continuum defined by
the map, teachers, administrators, and the public can interpret student progress
with respect to the standards that are inherent in the progress variables. Wright
maps can come in many forms, and have many uses in classroom and other
educational contexts. In order to make the maps flexible and convenient enough
for use by teachers and administrators, we have also developed software for
teachers to use to generate the maps. This software, which we call GradeMap
[Kennedy et al. 2005], allows consumers to enter the scores given to the students
on assessments, and then map the performance of groups of students, either at
a particular time or over a period of time.