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Assessments

The District Assessment Calendar provides information on dates, grades, and duration of each assessment that MPS administers to students. You can also find assessment descriptions, how tests are administered, and the source of and rationale for each required assessment. Districtwide surveys administered on a regular basis are also included as part of the summary.
 

 

Information from the Minnesota Department of Education can help parents, caregivers, and students understand about testing in Minnesota schools. The link below also includes translated documents for families.
 

MDE | Statewide Testing Info

District Assessments 

District assessments are those required by Minneapolis Public Schools for the purposes of universal screening, progress monitoring, and tracking of student growth.

  • FastBridge: Administered three times per year to students in grades K-9 to assess students’ reading and math skills. The assessments are aligned to Common Core Standards and MN K-12 Standards. Assessment results can be used as part of the process of identifying students in need of additional instructional support or advanced differentiation.
  • Naglieri (NGAT): Administered to all students in 2nd grade, and as needed for students in grades 3-5. Results are used as part of the Advanced Learner Identification process. 
  • STAR Spanish: Administered to elementary students enrolled in an MPS Dual-Language program, STAR assesses math and reading skills in Spanish.
  • iReady Diagnostic: Used in conjunction with district math curriculum as a disagnosic tool to identify areas of greatest need for students.
  • ACT: Offered to high schoolers in MPS at no cost, the purpose of the ACT test is to measure a high school student's readiness for college and provides colleges with one common data point that can be used to compare all applicants.

Statewide Assessments

Statewide assessments are those required by the state of Minnesota. 

  • Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA): Administered once per year in the spring to students in grades 3-8 and once during high school for both reading and math, and in grades 5, 8, and once in high school for science. These assessments show how well students are learning Minnesota's Academic Standards.
  • Minnesota Test of Academic Skills (MTAS) / Alternative MCA: Administered once per year in the spring. Similar to the MCAs but for students who meet alternate assessment eligibility. These assessments show how well students are learning Minnesota's Academic Standards.
  • WIDA ACCESS / WIDA Alternate ACCESS: Administered once per year for students in grades K-12 who are identified as English learners to determine their progress toward proficiency. Students who also receive special education services may quality for the alternate ACCESS. This assessment measures progress in English reading, writing, listening, and speaking. 
  • Capti ReadBasix: Administered to students in grades 4-12 if their fall reading scores on FastBridge fall below a certain percentile to screen for characteristics of dyslexia as required by the Minnesota READ Act (MN Stat 120B.12, subd. 2)

Student Participation in Statewide Assessments

Information about the importance of participating in statewide assessments and how schools, the district, and the state use student the resulting data are included in the documents below. The form for parent/guardian refusal is located at the bottom of the document. Parent/guardian refusal forms must be completed annually.