NWABSD assessment calendar: 2023-2024 Assessment Calendar
For more information on any Alaska assessments, visit the State of Alaska Assessments webpage.
Parents, please contact your school principal for more information on any assessments mandated by the state or district or to opt out of any assessment.
Alaska's Department of Education and Early Development (DEED) has partnered with NWEA to implement a creative approach to balanced statewide assessment that better reflects learning throughout the school year and helps educators target instruction to student's individual needs. The Alaska System of Academic Readiness (AK STAR) is designed to streamline the testing experience for grades 3-9 in the areas of English language arts (ELA) and mathematics.
This balanced approach connects fall and winter MAP Growth interim assessments and the Alaska spring summative assessment to provide a comprehensive assessment system that improves efficiency and cohesion and drives student outcomes by prioritizing teaching and learning. A robust and customized approach to professional learning accompanies the new assessment system, expanding Alaska educators' assessment literacy and knowledge of strategies for data-informed decision-making and formative instructional practices.
Student score reports are available in the fall but may be available earlier as the state refines the reporting process.
For more information about the AK STAR assessment, you can visit the state's website.
The Alaska Science Assessment is a summative assessment designed to measure a student's knowledge of the K-12 Science Standards for Alaska, adopted in June 2019. The K-12 Science Standards for Alaska provide a new foundation for defining what students should know and be able to do in terms of scientific knowledge and skills.
The K-12 Science Standards for Alaska support learning and understanding through sense making and investigations associated with scientific phenomena in life science, physical science, earth and space science, and engineering and technology. Crosscutting concepts, an organizational framework for connecting knowledge from the diverse science disciplines into a coherent and scientifically based view of the world, are included in the standards. Science and engineering practices, Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive Schools, and evidence-based reasoning are also included.
The science assessment is administered to students in grades 5, 8, and 10.
Student score reports are available in the fall but may be available earlier as the state refines the reporting process.
For more information about the AK Science assessment, visit the state's website.
In the Fall and Winter, students in grades 3-10 take the MAP Growth assessment in Reading, Language Use, and Math. Scores are immediately available for teachers to use when planning instruction and show students' progress over time and how they perform when compared to other students in the nation. Fall and Winter MAP testing will be required by the state of Alaska starting in the 2023-2024 school year.
MAP Growth student score reports are available after the test window closes and are sent home with the next report card or progress report. This usually happens in October for Fall MAP and January for Winter MAP.
For more information on MAP testing, visit the Family Toolkit webpage.
The Alternate Assessment is administered to students with significant cognitive disabilities who are instructed and assessed on alternate achievement standards (Essential Elements). A Student's IEP team makes the determination if a student qualifies for the alternate assessment.
The Alternate Assessment is untimed and individually administered. The assessments are comprised of selected response items and modified constructed response items.
Student score reports are available in the fall.
For more information on the Alternate Assessment, visit the State of Alaska's webpage or the view the parent brochure.
WIDA ACCESS for ELLs is a secure large-scale English language proficiency assessment for students who have been identified as English Learners (ELs). ACCESS for ELLs is aligned with the WIDA English Language Development (ELD) Standards and assesses each of the four language domains of Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing.
Alaska has adopted the 2007 WIDA ELD Standards (Alaska Regulation 4 AAC 04.155). ACCESS for ELLs is given annually in WIDA Consortium member states to monitor students' progress in acquiring academic English. ACCESS for ELLs must be administered to all identified ELs in the State of Alaska anytime during the test administration window of February 1 - March 31 (Alaska Regulation 4 AAC 34.055(c)).
Student score reports are available at the end of May and sent home over the summer or early fall when school begins.
For more information on the WIDA ACCESS for ELLs assessment, visit the State of Alaska's WIDA webpage or the WIDA webpage.
Alaska Developmental Profile (ADP)
Purpose: To identify, record, and summarize the skills and behaviors students demonstrate upon entry to school, based on teacher observations.
Student skills and behaviors are defined by whether students are consistently demonstrating 13 goals and indicators in the following 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
There are no individual student score reports for this assessment.
For more information about the ADP, visit the State of Alaska's ADP webpage.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as "the Nation's Report Card," is the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas. Its two major goals are to measure student achievement and to report change in performance over time.
The Alaska profile is available on the NAEP website. This profile presents key data about Alaska's student and school population, NAEP testing history, and results. The profile also contain links to the most recent state report cards for all available subjects.
There are no individual student score reports for this assessment.
For more information about NAEP, visit the State of Alaska's NAEP webpage