Questions and Answers: Test Administration
This document is for District Assessment Coordinators to use as a resource when discussing the 2020-21
statewide tests with students, families, educators, staff and their broader communities.
What are the statewide assessments?
There are different assessments that make up the Minnesota Assessments, the standards-based accountability
assessments and the English language proficiency accountability assessments.
The standards-based accountability assessments taken by most students are the Minnesota
Comprehensive Assessments (MCA). Students who receive special education services and meet the
Minnesota Test of Academic Skills (MTAS) eligibility requirements may take the MTAS. The MCA and
MTAS are available in mathematics, science, and reading.
The English language proficiency accountability assessments taken by most English learner students is
the ACCESS. Students who receive special education services and meet the participation criteria may
take the Alternate ACCESS.
What is the purpose of the statewide assessments?
The Minnesota assessments support the Minnesota Department of Education’s (MDE’s) commitments to an
equitable education system for all students and families. The statewide assessments are designed to measure
achievement towards meeting the Minnesota Academic Standards (for the standards-based accountability
assessments) and to measure progress towards meeting the WIDA English Language Development Standards
(for English language proficiency accountability assessments). The results provide a window into equitable
learning opportunities across the state or a district for students to show mastery of the standards.
For the standards-based accountability assessments, refer to the Academic Standards page and the
Frequently Asked Questions about Minnesota’s K-12 Academic Standards for more information about
the Minnesota Academic Standards (MDE website > Districts, Schools and Educators > Teaching and
Learning > Academic Standards (K-12)). In addition, the test specifications indicate which strands, sub-
strands, standards, and benchmarks will be assessed on the test and in what proportions (MDE website
> District, Schools and Educators > Teaching and Learning > Statewide Testing > Test Specifications).
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For the English language proficiency accountability assessments, refer to the English Language
Development (ELD) Standards page for information about how to connect language development and
academic content (WIDA website > Teach > Teaching with Standards > English Language Development
Standards).
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Test specifications provide information on how the academic standards are addressed on a test. They are not meant to be used as the
basis for curriculum and instruction. Instead, test specifications guide test developers on what must be included in each test. Some
concepts in the academic standards can only be assessed in the classroom and not on a standardized statewide assessment.
Why are the statewide assessments being administered this year in the midst of a pandemic?
MDE joins educators in prioritizing student physical and mental health, and the agency wants to advance the
academic success for all Minnesota students. Statewide assessments provide a snapshot of information on
where Minnesota’s students are academically, and can be used to identify inequities and inform decision-
making, including ensuring supports get to the students who need them. This is critical this year as Minnesota
begins to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the 2020–21 school year, students across Minnesota have experienced significant and profound changes
to their learning environments, while teachers and school administrators accessed widely divergent tools and
resources to continue engaging students in K–12 public education. Within the context of the pandemic, MDE
understands students are experiencing significant shifts in learning; experts and lawmakers agree that the
pandemic will have the most severe impact on traditionally underserved populations.
Will the results from statewide assessments be valid this year?
Yes. The rules, regulations, procedures and industry best practices that are used every year have been used to
develop the 2020–21 statewide assessments. The 2020–21 statewide assessments, like every year, are designed
to measure achievement towards meeting the Minnesota Academic Standards (for the standards-based
accountability assessments) and to measure progress towards meeting the WIDA English Language
Development Standards (for English language proficiency accountability assessments). The same test blueprint
was used to create the 2020–21 statewide assessments as was used in previous years.
The 2020–21 assessments have been developed following all of Minnesota’s statewide assessment processes.
Statistical checks and validations that are used every year after the administrations and prior to official reporting
activities are planned for the 2020–21 statewide assessments. All completed statewide assessments will reliably
measure what each assessment is designed to measure, and the scores will still represent a valid and accurate
snapshot of student learning of the grade-level content standards or proficiency in academic English (for English
learners) at the time students test.
Opportunities to learn have changed based on learning models and focus on social-emotional learning and
relationships have been prioritized. MDE is aware of the concerns about the impact of the pandemic on learning,
and is expecting student performance to look different from previous years. MDE is currently discussing ways to
support districts and provide additional guidance about using the results as an opportunity to support students
and families, and not negatively impact students or schools.
How will the results from this year’s statewide assessments be used?
This year’s statewide assessment results will continue to serve as a “system check,” which means they are
meant to be evaluated at the state or district level. The results provide a window into equitable learning
opportunities across the state for students to learn the content standards in reading, mathematics and science.
They also provide a general sense of strengths and growth areas in relation to the English language development
standards across the state. The greater the participation across the state the more complete picture the state
will have regarding the impact of the pandemic on student learning; MDE is also especially interested in
examining student group performance this year.
Depending on participation by student group, to gain a general sense of strengths and growth areas, and discuss
how to support students’ learning MDE will be examining the data to answer:
Are the students that completed the assessment representative of the total student population of the
state?
What percent of students are proficient? How does this compare across student groups?
What percent of students are not yet proficient? How does this compare across student groups?
Are there other instructional changes that could provide additional context (i.e., learning mode- hybrid,
in-person, remote, or emphasis on a certain content strand)?
In addition, for English language proficiency accountability assessments, schools also use these scores to
determine if a student is ready to exit an English language program.
MDE takes seriously our responsibility to evaluate K–12 student outcomes to remediate where there are
shortfalls in student opportunities for rigorous coursework and to identify and scale-up best practices to end
education disparities. The agency collects statewide student assessment data as part of efforts to do so.
Statewide assessment data are essential for evaluation of student learning loss during the pandemic, because
Minnesota’s statewide student assessments generate important data that reflects students achieving rigorous,
high achieving expectations.
Statewide assessment results will be reporting publicly this year, and MDE understands that it will be important
to provide clear information on how to appropriate interpret and use results. More details about reporting and
use of results will be provided by MDE.
What additional flexibilities are available for districts to administer statewide assessments this year?
Based on guidance from the U.S. Department of Education (ED), MDE is offering the following flexibilities:
Longer testing windows. The MCA and MTAS testing windows will be extended through Friday, May 21.
This extension allows for more flexibility in scheduling testing, while balancing the need to receive
results prior to the start of the next school year. The testing window for ACCESS and Alternate ACCESS
has already been extended to April 16.
More flexibility in the requirement for administering make-up tests. If a student is unable to participate
or finish testing when originally scheduled, districts will determine the level of effort they will make to
reschedule a make-up time. As appropriate for the situation, this may be no attempts for make-up
testing, one attempt, or multiple attempts.
In addition, flexibility for administration is already described in the 2020–21 Minnesota Assessments Guidance
during COVID-19 in regards to scheduling (e.g., larger groups are allowed and multiple subjects/domains/grades
may be tested together if health and safety can be maintained; students who are not testing are allowed to be
present), and staffing (e.g., larger ratio of students to Test Monitors/Test Administrators allowed). This guidance
will be updated to reflect the additional flexibility offered by ED.
What about other options for flexibility provided by ED or other stakeholders?
The following options for additional flexibility cannot be implemented for the following reasons:
Eliminate certain subjects or sample students/grades across districts. All required assessments in all
grades must be administered to all eligible students this year. ED did not approve flexibility in this
area.
Shorten tests and remove field test items.
o The Reading and Mathematics MCAs are adaptive, which shortened the assessments when
they were transitioned from fixed forms to adaptive. Although not adaptive, the Science
MCA has been constructed so that only the necessary number of items are included in order
to meet the test specification requirements.
o Removing field test items after test session set up has begun introduces significant risk that
could lead to test administration issues. While field test items may not provide the full scope
of data needed to make decisions on future content, it still provides some information to
guide future development, especially for Science MCA-IV. Similarly, for MTAS, test materials
have already been sent to districts and score entry requirements have been set; removing
items would introduce risk for misadministrations and scoring procedures.
o Note: It is proposed in legislation to shorten the length of the assessment by removing the
off-grade requirement for Reading and Mathematics MCA. If passed, the items would not be
able to be removed this year.
Offer a remote administration. A remote option for MCA was previously evaluated and it was
determined that this is not feasible as it could not be a secure administration (i.e., could not be
monitored remotely). Because a remote administration would not be secure, results from remote
and in-person administrations could not be combined and therefore requirements outlined in the
letter from ED could not be met.
The flexibility to have families who have chosen distance learning to “opt-in” to participating in
statewide assessments, and if no response, allow EXC to be indicated. ED did not approve flexibility
in this area. For families who have chosen distance learning, the following policy is still in place.
o Students are expected to participate unless the student or family indicates they will not be
testing. Choosing distance learning as a learning model is not the same as indicating that the
student will not participate in testing.
o If there is no communication from the family, the absent (ABS) test code must be indicated.
o If the family communicates about health and safety concerns, then the EXC test code is
indicated. If the family is refusing testing based on the test itself, then the parent/guardian
refusal (REF-P) test code is indicated.
Extend the testing window into the summer or fall. MDE has determined that in order to best utilize
information from statewide assessments, it is important that results are received and be used by
districts and charter schools prior to the start of the 2021–22 school year. It is also important that
assessments are administered in similar timeframes so results can be compared consistently year to
year.
Remove district requirement to provide Individual Student Reports (ISRs) to families. ISRs are still
required to be provided to families. ED did not approve flexibility in this area.
