Adopted: MSBA/MASA Model Policy 618
Revised: Rev. 2023
618 ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT
ACHIEVEMENT
I. PURPOSE
The purpose of this policy is to institute a process for the
establishment and revision of assessments to measure achievement toward meeting
the Minnesota Academic Standards, track academic progress over time, and
provide Minnesota graduates information related to career and college
readiness.
II. GENERAL
STATEMENT OF POLICY
The school district has established a procedure by which
students shall complete Graduation Requirements. This procedure includes the adoption of
performance assessment methods to be used in measuring student
performance. The school district strives
to continually enhance student achievement of Graduation Requirements.
III. DEFINITIONS
A. Academic standard” means a summary description of student learning
in a required content area or elective content area.
B. “Benchmark”
means the specific knowledge or skill that a student must master to complete
part of an academic standard by the end of the grade level or grade band.
C. “Career and college ready,” for
purposes of statewide accountability, means a high school graduate has the
knowledge, skills, and competencies to successfully pursue a career pathway,
including postsecondary credit leading to a degree, diploma, certificate, or
industry-recognized credential and employment. Students who are career and
college ready are able to successfully complete credit-bearing coursework at a
two- or four-year college or university or other credit-bearing postsecondary
program without need for remediation.
D. “Cultural
competence,” for purposes of statewide accountability, means the ability and
will to interact effectively with people of different cultures, native
languages, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
E. “Elective
standards” means a locally adopted expectation for student learning in
career and technical education and world languages.
F. “Experiential
learning” means learning for students that includes career exploration through
a specific class or course or through work-based experiences such as job
shadowing, mentoring, entrepreneurship, service learning, volunteering,
internships, or other cooperative work experience, youth apprenticeship, or
employment.
G. “Required standard” means (1) a
statewide adopted expectation for student learning in the content areas of
language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, physical education, and
the arts, and (2) a locally adopted expectation for student learning in health.
IV. ESTABLISHMENT
OF CRITERIA FOR ASSESSMENT
A. The Schoolboard shall establish criteria by which student
performance of local academic standards and elective standards are to be
evaluated and approved. The criteria
will be submitted to the school board for approval. Upon approval by the school board, the
criteria shall be deemed part of this policy.
B. The
superintendent shall ensure that students and parents or guardians are provided
with notice of the process by which academic standards will be assessed.
C. Staff
members will be expected to utilize staff development opportunities to the
extent necessary to ensure effective implementation and continued improvement
of the implementation of assessments under the Minnesota Academic Standards.
V. STANDARDS
FOR MINNESOTA ACADEMIC STANDARDS PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENTS
A. Benchmarks
The school district will offer and students must achieve all benchmarks for an academic
standard to satisfactorily complete that state standard. These benchmarks will
be used by the school district and its staff in developing tests to measure
student academic knowledge and skills.
B. Statewide
Academic Standards Testing
1. The school
district will utilize statewide assessments developed from and aligned with the
state’s required academic standards as these tests become available to evaluate student progress toward career and college
readiness in the context of the state’s academic standards.
2. The school
district will administer annually, in accordance with the process determined by
the Minnesota Department of Education, the state-constructed tests aligned with
state standards to all students in grades 3 through 8 and at the high school
level as follows:
a. computer-adaptive
reading and mathematics assessments in grades 3 through 8;
b. high school
reading in grade 10, mathematics in grade 11, and a high school writing test,
when it becomes available; and
c. science
assessments in one grade in the grades 3 through 5 span,
the grades 6 through 8 span, and a life science assessment in the grades 9 through
12 span (a passing score on high school science assessments is not a condition
of receiving a diploma).
3. The school
district will develop and administer locally constructed tests in social
studies, health and physical education, and the arts to determine if a student
has met the required academic standards in these areas.
4. The school
district may use a student’s performance on a statewide assessment as one of
the multiple criteria to determine grade promotion or retention. The school district also may use a high
school student’s performance on a statewide assessment as a percentage of the
student’s final grade in a course, or place a student’s assessment score on the
student’s transcript.
5. For students in grade 8 in the 2012-2013 school year and
later, the school district must record on the high school transcript a student’s progress
toward career and college readiness. For
other students, this record of progress must be made as soon as practicable. In
addition, the school district may include a notation of high achievement on the
high school diplomas of those graduating seniors who, according to established
school board criteria, demonstrate exemplary academic achievement during high
school.
6. Students who
do not meet or exceed the Minnesota Academic Standards, as measured by the
Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments administered in high school, must be
informed that admission to a public school is free and available to any
resident under 21 years of age. The
school district will determine how this notice is given.
C. Student
Participation
1. The Minnesota
Commissioner of Education must create and publish a form for parents and
guardians that:
a. explains the
need for state academic standards;
b. identifies
the state assessments that are aligned with state standards;
c. identifies
the consequences, if any, the school or student may face if a student does not
participate in state or locally required standardized assessments;
d. states that
students who receive a college ready benchmark on the high school Minnesota
Comprehensive Assessment are not required to take a remedial, noncredit course
at a Minnesota state college or university in the corresponding subject area;
e. summarizes
the provisions in Minnesota Statutes section 120B.301(a) and (c); and
f. notifies a
parent of the right to not have the parent’s child participate in the state and
locally required assessments and asks a parent that chooses to not have a child
participate in the assessments the basis for the decision.
2. The school
district must post the form created by the Commissioner on the school district
website and include it in the school district’s student handbook.
VI. RIGOROUS
COURSE OF STUDY WAIVER
A. Upon
receiving a student’s application signed by the student’s parent or guardian,
the school district must declare that a student meets or exceeds a specific
academic standard required for graduation if the school board determines that
the student:
1. is
participating in a course of study, including an advanced placement or
international baccalaureate course or program; a learning opportunity outside
the curriculum of the school district; or an approved preparatory program for
employment or post-secondary education that is equally or more rigorous than
the corresponding state or local academic standard required by the school
district;
2. would be
precluded from participating in the rigorous course of study, learning
opportunity, or preparatory employment or post-secondary education program if
the student were required to achieve the academic standard to be waived; and
3. satisfactorily
completes the requirements for the rigorous course of study, learning
opportunity, or preparatory employment or post-secondary education program.
B. The school
board also may formally determine other circumstances in which to declare that
a student meets or exceeds a specific academic standard that the site requires
for graduation under this section.
C. A student
who satisfactorily completes a post-secondary enrollment options course or
program or an advanced placement or international baccalaureate course or
program is not required to complete other requirements of the academic
standards corresponding to that specific rigorous course of study.
VII. CAREER EXPLORATION ASSESSMENT
A. Student assessments, in alignment with state academic
standards, shall include clearly defined career and college readiness
benchmarks and satisfy Minnesota’s postsecondary admissions requirements.
Achievement and career and college readiness in mathematics, reading, and
writing must also be assessed. When administering formative or summative assessments used
to measure the academic progress, including the oral academic development, of
English learners and inform their instruction, schools must ensure that the
assessments are accessible to the students and students have the modifications
and supports they need to sufficiently understand the assessments.
B. On an annual basis, the school district
must use the career exploration elements in these assessments, beginning no
later than grade 9, to help students and their families explore and plan for
postsecondary education or careers based on the students’ interests, aptitudes,
and aspirations. The school district
must use timely regional labor market information and partnerships, among other
resources, to help students and their families successfully develop, pursue, review,
and revise an individualized plan for postsecondary education or a career. This process must help increase students’
engagement in and connection to school, improve students’ knowledge and skills,
and deepen students’ understanding of career pathways as a sequence of academic
and career courses that lead to an industry-recognized credential, an
associate’s degree, or a bachelor’s degree and are available to all students,
whatever their interests and career goals.
C. All students, except those eligible for
alternative assessments, will be encouraged to participate in a nationally
normed college entrance exam in grade 11 or 12.
A student under this paragraph who demonstrates attainment of required
state academic standards on these assessments, which include career and college
readiness benchmarks, is academically ready for a career or college and is
encouraged to participate in courses awarding college credit to high school
students. Such courses and programs may
include sequential courses of study within broad career areas and technical
skill assessments that extend beyond course grades.
To the extent state funding for college entrance exam fees
is available, the school district will pay the cost, one time, for an
interested student in grade 11 or 12, who is eligible for a free or
reduced-priced meal, to take a nationally recognized college entrance exam
before graduating. The school district
may require a student who is not eligible for a free or reduced-priced meal to
pay the cost of taking a nationally recognized college entrance exam. The school district will waive the cost for a
student who is unable to pay.
D. As appropriate, students through grade
12 must continue to participate in targeted instruction, intervention, or
remediation and be encouraged to participate in courses awarding college credit
to high school students.
E. In
developing, supporting, and improving students’ academic readiness for a career
or college, the school district must have a continuum of empirically derived,
clearly defined benchmarks focused on students’ attainment of knowledge and
skills so that students, their parents, and teachers know how well students
must perform to have a reasonable chance to succeed in a career or college
without need for postsecondary remediation.
Legal References: Minn. Stat. § 120B.018 (Definitions)
Minn.
Stat. § 120B.02 (Educational Expectations and Graduation Requirements for
Minnesota’s Students)
Minn. Stat. § 120B.021 (Required Academic Standards)
Minn. Stat. § 120B.022 (Elective Standards)
Minn. Stat. § 120B.023 (Benchmarks)
Minn. Stat. § 120B.11 (School District Process for Reviewing
Curriculum, Instruction, and Student Achievement; Striving for the World’s Best
Workforce)
Minn. Stat. § 120B.30 (Statewide Testing and Reporting
System)
Minn. Stat. § 120B.31 (System Accountability and Statistical
Adjustments)
Minn. Rules Parts 3501.0640-3501.0655 (Academic Standards
for Language Arts)
Minn. Rules Parts 3501.0700-3501.0745 (Academic Standards
for Mathematics)
Minn. Rules Parts 3501.3520 (Academic Standards for the
Arts)
Minn. Rules Parts 3501.0900-3501.0960 (Academic Standards in
Science)
Minn. Rules Parts 3501.1300-3501.1345 (Academic Standards
for Social Studies)
Minn. Rules Parts 3501.1400-3501.1410 (Academic Standards
for Physical Education)
20 U.S.C. § 6301, et seq. (Every Student Succeeds Act)
Cross References: MSBA/MASA Model Policy 104 (School
District Mission Statement)
MSBA/MASA Model Policy 601 (School District Curriculum and
Instruction Goals)
MSBA/MASA Model Policy 613 (Graduation Requirements)
MSBA/MASA Model Policy 614 (School District Testing Plan and
Procedure)
MSBA/MASA Model Policy 615 (Testing Accommodations,
Modifications, and Exemptions for IEPs, Section 504 Plans, and LEP Students)
MSBA/MASA Model Policy 616 (School District System
Accountability)