The Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments Series II & III (MCA-II’s & III's) are reading, mathematics, writing and science tests that help schools and districts measure student progress toward the state’s academic standards. MCA’s are administered in:
The Graduation-Required Assessments for Diploma (GRAD) are reading, mathematics, and writing tests that students must pass to receive a diploma from a public high school. The writing test is first administred in 9th grade. The reading test is administered in 10th grade and the math test in 11th grade. Students who need to re-take any of these tests can do so three times each year and four times in 12th grade.
Graduation-Required Assessment for Diploma (GRAD) measures the reading, writing, and mathematics proficiency of high school students. Students must reach a specified level on each of these assessments in order to receive a high school diploma.
ACCESS for ELLs--Minnesota has joined the World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) Consortium. As a member of the WIDA consortium, Minnesota districts will be administering the ACCESS for ELLs® assessment to all Limited English Proficient (LEP) identified students in grades K–12. Starting in the spring of 2012, the ACCESS for ELLs® will replace the Test of Emerging Academic English (TEAE) and the Minnesota Student Oral Language Observation Matrix (MN SOLOM) in fulfilling the Title III requirement for assessing English language proficiency.
ACCESS for ELLs® stands for Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State for English Language Learners. This large-scale test addresses the academic English language proficiency (ELP) standards at the core of the WIDA Consortium's approach to instructing and evaluating the progress of English language learners.