Statewide Assessments

Minnesota's Statewide Assessments support an equitable education system for all students.

The assessment results provide a window into equitable opportunities for students across the state to demonstrate:

• Learning of the Minnesota Academic Standards (MCA and MTAS).
• Progress towards meeting the WIDA English Language Development Standards (ACCESS and Alternate ACCESS).

MCA and MTAS results represent a snapshot of student learning of grade-level content standards.

The results represent a valid measurement of the extent students have mastered the academic standards at the time they test. However, these results alone do not illustrate the whole picture of what a student has learned that school year.

Statewide assessment results should be used with additional evidence of student learning.

Minnesota's statewide assessments function as one part of a balanced, comprehensive assessment system that works in coordination to provide information about student learning of the standards. The results should be considered with additional, more fine-grained evidence of student learning, like projects and classroom assessments.

Minnesota Assessment Lifecycle Course, Module 1: Minnesota Assessments Overview