CARS TIMELINE 

In an effort to make the Cognitive Assessment for Rural Students (CARS) more manageable for your districts, we have developed a timeline to illustrate when these assessments should be administered. A copy of the timeline is posted below.

HIGHLIGHTS:

• The CARS will no longer be administered to 3rd grade.

• The CARS will only be administered in the Fall, not the Spring. (Exception: Any new students who move into your District who qualify for CARS may take it whenever convenient.)

• For the Fall 2025 semester we will administer CARS to all students, grades 4-8, who score 75%-94% on the ELA, Math, or Reading or Science sections of MAP, or the ELA, Math, or Reading Sections of NSCAS (using Spring or Fall 2025 data), who have not previously been identified as G-T/HAL and have not already taken the CARS at their current grade level (students may not be tested more than two times total: once in CARS 4-5, and once in CARS 6-8).

• Regarding the question "should our students take the CARS immediately when they reach the 75-94% threshold, or is it ok to wait a year?": The decision of when a student should take the CARS is at the discretion of each district. There is a significant difference between 75% and 94%, and you may choose, for example, to hold back your 4th grade students on the lower end of that range, and have them take the CARS in 5th grade,  to increase their odds of qualifying. You know your kids, and we trust your judgement on that.
• Exception for Fall 2025: ALL 4th grade students who score 75%-94% on the above MAP or NSCAS sections will take the CARS, even if they took it in 3rd grade.
• New for 2025-26: the CARS is now available in Spanish.  
• REMINDER: once a student qualifies, that student will remain in your G-T/HAL program for the duration of their schooling. A student who qualifies in 4th grade, for example, automatically qualifies until graduation, and will never need to take the 6-8 CARS.

The RESTORE staff will take care of administering the CARS on site at your school however works best for your District (all students at once or “chunked” however you wish). Just let us know your preference, and we’ll get your CARS date(s) on the calendar.