One student: +18 percentile points on MAP math after six weeks of Level Up

Every summer on record, one student's MAP math percentile stayed flat or dropped. This time, after six weeks of Level Up, it jumped 18 percentile points, from the upper middle of the pack into the top 13%.

MAP Growth is a test from NWEA that many schools give each fall and spring. It ranks a child's math score against students in the same grade at the same time of year. In spring 2026, at the end of eighth grade, this student was at the 69th percentile. In September, a few weeks into ninth grade, the same student was at the 87th: 18 percentile points higher and the highest MAP math result on record for this student. In between came about 15 hours of Level Up over six weeks, starting in late July. No tutor, no camp, no other math program over the summer.

From the student's MAP math report. FA26 is fall 2026 and SP26 is spring 2026; the middle number in each range is the result. The name, school, logo and three columns are left out.

What 18 percentile points means

A percentile is a ranking, not a percent of questions right. In spring, the score was as good as or better than about 69 of every 100 eighth graders in NWEA's national comparison group. In fall, it was as good as or better than about 87 of every 100 ninth graders, which is the top 13%. That move, from 69 to 87, is the 18 percentile points.

On MAP's own scale, called RIT, the score went from 239 to 245.

Summers used to go the other way

During the last school year the percentile climbed, from the 65th in fall 2025 to the 69th in spring 2026. Summers were where it stalled or slipped: no change in 2022, down 10 percentile points in 2023, up 1 in 2025. (There was no spring test in 2024.)

From the student's MAP math reports. Each percentile compares the score with students in the same grade at the same time of year.

On MAP's RIT scale, the score actually fell in each of those summers. Some summer drop is normal: NWEA's research finds that math scores typically drop 2 to 7 RIT points over a summer in the elementary and middle school years. The student's own report shows NWEA's averages doing the same, from 229 for eighth graders in spring to 225 for ninth graders in fall.

This time the score went the other way: up 18 percentile points and up 6 RIT points while those averages fell 4.

The report page itself. Blue bars are the student's RIT scores; yellow bars are NWEA's national averages for the same grade and time of year. The name, school, logo and the school district's own averages are removed.

What six weeks of Level Up looked like

Practice started in late July (the day after Level Up's assessment) and ran until the day before the fall test. Here are the six weeks in numbers:

• About 15 hours in total, skill practice plus the short warm-up that starts each day
• 28 days with practice, about half an hour on a typical day
• 2,242 problems answered
• 88 skills mastered, each one proven, including on hard problems, not earned with points or a streak

Most of those skills, 82 of the 88, came from sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade math. They cluster around the ideas high school algebra is built on: ratios, unit rates, proportional relationships, slope as a rate of change, square roots, cube roots and the difference between rational and irrational numbers. A few from the list:

• Find a unit rate
• Write y = kx from a graph
• Describe slope as unit rate
• Approximate square roots to a decimal
• Classify rational vs. irrational numbers

Seven of the 88 skills were proven without a single wrong answer. Others took real work: 19 took 30 problems or more. All 88 were proven before the fall test.

Why a ninth grader practiced middle school math

Level Up is a K-8 math program. For a student heading into ninth grade, that was the point. High school math stands on these middle school skills. The assessment showed where to start. Practice built up from there instead of rushing ahead to new material.

One student, one real result

Every kid is different, so this is one real result, not a promise. It shows about 15 hours of focused practice over six weeks and a fall score 18 percentile points higher, in the top 13%. Earlier summers came back flat or lower.

Level Up works the same way for every child. The assessment finds the math skills holding a child back. Practice teaches those skills first. A skill counts as mastered only once your child proves it. Kids master skills 3 to 5 times faster than in traditional tutoring. A school test like MAP is a fair, outside check on that work. See how Level Up works.