General Assessments

Students with disabilities, English learners, and English learners with disabilities participate in state and districtwide general assessments of academic content. Some students with the most significant cognitive disabilities who are unable to show what they know and can do on the general assessment, even with accommodations, take an alternate assessment based on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS) instead.

Federal laws require that the state general assessment measures student achievement of grade-level academic content standards in reading and mathematics each year in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school, and in science once in each grade band 3-5, 6-8, and high school. Scores show how well students have learned the knowledge and skills contained in the standards for their grade-level. Aggregated scores show how well schools and districts are helping all students with their learning.