When special education students participate in district-wide, state, or graduation assessments, they must receive the same accommodations that they receive when participating in everyday classroom assessments. 

Whenever assessment accommodations are described in the IEP, be sure to include the conditions under which they apply. This is particularly important because some standardized assessments have built-in accessibility features that may not be made available to the student during classroom assessments. For example, a student with reading needs might have their classroom assessments read to them by a person. However, text-to-speech software is incorporated into the math and science MCA tests, and under these circumstances the student may not need a person reading the test to them. Specifying conditions in the accommodation helps us to account for these variations and avoid the need for amendments later on. Here are a few examples:

• "When given an assessment where all students are not provided with the opportunity to have the material read aloud, assessment administrators will provide XXX with the opportunity to have the assessment read to them by a person, audio recording, or screen reading software."

• "When given timed assessments where rate of performance is not integral to obtaining a meaningful score, assessment administrators will provide XXX with extended time (specify: time and a half/double time/triple time/extended over multiple days)." (NOTE: This is designed to not apply to timed CBM probes.)

• "When given timed assessments without opportunities to take breaks, assessment administrators will provide XXX with stop-the-clock breaks, upon [his/her] request, during the testing session."

• "When given an assessment that is administered to all students in a large group, assessment administrators will provide XXX with the option of completing the assessment in a small group setting."

Prior to the administration of standardized assessments, district testing coordinators work with case managers to obtain updated information about students' needed accommodations. Materials must be ordered, test settings organized, and staff scheduled in order to facilitate provision of all needed accommodations.

Standards-Based Accountability Assessments

The Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) and alternate assessment Minnesota Test of Academic Skills (MTAS) are the state tests that help districts measure student progress toward Minnesota’s academic standards and also meet federal and state legislative requirements. Students take one test in each subject. Most students take the MCA, but students who receive special education services and meet eligibility requirements may take the alternate assessment MTAS instead.

The list below shows tests by subject and the grades they are given:

• Reading: MCA or MTAS (grades 3-8, 10)

• Mathematics: MCA or MTAS (grades 3-8, 11)

• Science: MCA or MTAS (grades 5, 8, and once in high school)

What is the MTAS? The Minnesota Test of Academic Skills (MTAS) is an alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. It is part of the Minnesota assessment program. The MTAS measures reading, mathematics, and science skills that are linked to the general education curriculum. These skills represent high expectations for students with significant cognitive disabilities, but tasks to measure these skills are considerably less difficult than the items on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCA). 

What is the purpose of the MTAS? The MTAS is one of the tests used to meet federal and state legislative requirements that may be taken in place of the MCA. Schools are responsible for meeting the educational needs of all students. Some students are unable to achieve grade-level proficiency due to their disability, and the MTAS helps ensure that schools provide access to reading, mathematics, and science instruction that is linked to the Minnesota Academic Standards at the student’s grade level to the extent appropriate. Your child’s Individualized Educational Program (IEP) may indicate a need for specialized instruction in both functional and academic skills. The MTAS is designed to measure student progress on academic skills.

MTAS Eligibility Requirements

The IEP team is responsible for making annual decisions about student participation in the statewide assessment program. The MTAS, an alternate assessment for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities, is one component of that program. The MTAS is designed to appropriately measure progress toward state standards for students who meet each of the criteria listed below.

The MTAS may be appropriate for a student with a significant cognitive disability if all of the following requirements have been met:

1. The IEP team first considered the student’s ability to access the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA), with or without accommodations.

2. The IEP team reviewed the student’s instructional program to ensure that the student is receiving instruction linked to the general education curriculum to the extent appropriate. If instruction is not linked to the general education curriculum, then the IEP team must review the student’s goals and determine how access to the general curriculum will be provided.

3. The IEP team determined the student’s cognitive functioning to be significantly below age expectations. The team also determined that the student’s disability has a significant impact on his or her ability to function in multiple environments, including home, school and community.

4. The IEP team determined that the student needs explicit and intensive instruction and/or extensive supports in multiple settings to acquire, maintain and generalize academic and life skills in order to actively participate in school, work, home and community environments.

5. The IEP team documented, in the IEP, reasons the MCA would not be an appropriate measure of the student’s academic progress and how the student would participate in statewide testing.

The careful use of this document will help IEP teams ensure that MTAS participation decisions are not made based on the following factors:

• Student’s disability category

• Placement

• Participation in a separate, specialized curriculum

• An expectation that the student will receive a low score on the MCA

• Language, social, cultural or economic differences

• Concern for accountability calculations 

Districts have a number of requirements to fulfill for students’ career and college planning for students first enrolled in grade eight in 2012-13 and later. This includes offering students in grades 11 and 12 an opportunity to participate in a nationally recognized college entrance exam (ACT or SAT) on a school day.

MCA or MTAS: The annual statewide assessments (i.e., the MCA or MTAS) also function as graduation assessment requirements. However, students are not required to achieve a specified score or level of proficiency on any statewide assessment in order to graduate from high school.

Civics Test: Is no longer required for students to take. 

College Entrance Exam: Finally, to the extent that state funding is available, districts must pay the cost, one time, for students in grade 11 or 12 to take a nationally normed college entrance exam at the student’s high school during the school day (e.g., the ACT or ACCUPLACER). Students are not required to complete a college entrance exam in order to graduate from high school.

ACT approves accommodations for students with disabilities in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Refer to the ACT Accommodations webpage for more details. Accommodations requests must be submitted by the late registration deadline, and because ACT frequently rejects initial applications and requests additional documentation, it is highly recommended that school teams and families begin collaborating on this task well in advance of the school's annual ACT testing date. The most frequently accessed ACT-approved accommodations are: 

• Extended time (either double or time and one half)

• Standard time with stop the clock breaks

• Alternate test format (braille, audio, reader)

Only tests taken without accommodations or with ACT-approved accommodations are eligible to be submitted to colleges as part of the application process. Locally-decided non-ACT-approved accommodations result in test scores that cannot be submitted to colleges.

The ACCESS and Alternate ACCESS for ELLs are the assessments developed by the WIDA consortium and administered to English learners in order to measure progress toward meeting Minnesota’s standards for English language development, developed by the WIDA consortium. Most English learners will take the ACCESS for ELLs, but English learners who received special education services and meet the participation guidelines may take the Alternate ACCESS for ELLs. Link to WIDA website: https://wida.wisc.edu/