State Assessments

• ACCESS (ELPA) is given annually in WIDA Consortium member states to monitor students' progress in acquiring academic English.

• ACCESS (ELPA) is aligned with the WIDA English Language Development Standards and assesses each of the four language domains of Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing.

• K-12 students identified as Academic English Learners, AELs

• Online: Grades 4-12—Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing

• Online: Grades 1-3—Reading, Listening and Speaking; Writing (paper)

• Paper/Pencil: Kindergarten (entire test), Grades 1-3 (Writing only) and Alternate ACCESS (entire test)—Students with severe cognitive disabilities

Winter/Spring

ASD Assessment and Survey Calendar

ASD ELL Department

AK DEED ELPA website

• The AK STAR and Alaska Science Assessment are standards-based tests designed to measure student attainment of the Alaska performance standards.

• Content assessments in English language arts, mathematics and science are required.

• The assessments are required as a component under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

Grades 3-9—English language arts and mathematics (AK STAR)

Grades 5, 8 and 10—science (Alaska Science Assessment)

Online

Paper/Pencil—Some accommodated materials

Spring

ASD Assessment and Survey Calendar

ASD AK STAR website

Alaska DEED AK STAR website

Alaska DEED Alaska Science Assessment website

The AK STAR ELA and mathematics summative assessments are aligned to the MAP Growth benchmark assessment in a partnership with NWEA and DEED.

The Alaska Science Assessment science summative is provided in partnership with DRC and DEED.

• To identify, record and summarize the skills and behaviors students demonstrate at the beginning of their kindergarten year, based on teacher observations.

• Student skills and behaviors are defined by goals and indicators in five domains from Alaska’s Early Learning Guidelines:  Physical Well Being, Health, and Motor Development; Social and Emotional Development; Approaches to Learning; Cognition and General Knowledge; Communication, Language, and Literacy.

• Kindergarten students

• 1st grade students who did not complete the Developmental Profile in Kindergarten

• Observation Assessment Model

Fall

ASD Assessment and Survey Calendar

AK DEED Developmental Profile website

• Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM) is Alaska’s Alternate Assessment system for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities.

• DLM is based on grade-level content covered by the general, large-scale summative assessment, but at reduced depth, breadth and complexity.

• Content Assessments in English language arts, math and science are required.

• The assessment is a required component under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

Online

Grades 3-9—English language arts and math

Grades 5, 8 and 10—science

Spring

ASD Assessment and Survey Calendar

DLM website

AK DEED AA website

ASD Special Education Department

• The assessment data is used to support identification of students who are at-risk and in need of intervention and/or enrichment or acceleration

• MAP Growth is adaptive, which means that it adjusts question selection level based on student performance in order to provide a precise snapshot of student strengths and needs

• MAP Growth also provides information that can be used to predict performance on AK STAR, SAT and ACT testing

Reading and Mathematics

MAP Growth Student Readiness and Practice Opportunities: MAP Growth Practice Tests Quick Sheet

• The Quick Sheet provides links to Practice Tests, Tutorials, Assessment Design and all readiness resources and may be accessed by students and families

Fall and Winter

Spring MAP Growth is included as a combined assessment with AK STAR

ASD Assessment and Survey Calendar

• mCLASS is a universal screener that measures the development of reading skills of all students in grades K-5 through two main assessments: Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) 

• These combined tests help teachers determine how students are performing on the important reading skills that children must develop in order to become proficient readers

Reading

• Fall, Winter, Spring

• ASD Assessment and Survey Calendar

• The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the largest nationally representative assessment of what the nation’s students know and can do in core subjects such as mathematics, reading, science and writing.

• The results of NAEP are released as The Nation’s Report Card, and are available for the nation and states.

Grades 4, 8 and 12—Subjects selected by NAEP, most often reading and mathematics

NAEP uses a carefully designed sampling process to ensure that the schools and students selected are representative of all students across the United States. Students selected in the sample only receive a subset of the questions.

Online—Most students

Every other year in winter/spring (odd years, e.g. 2019, 2021); specialty NAEP assessments may be required on off years and seasons

ASD Assessment and Survey Calendar

US Dept of Ed. NAEP website

Alaska DEED NAEP website