Online Summative Assessments Provided By Seven Testing Companies

Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Title 1, Part A
(a)(1) Each State, in consultation with its [local educational agencies] LEAs, must implement a system of high-quality, yearly student academic assessments that includes, at a minimum, academic assessments in mathematics, reading/language arts, and science.
§200.5(a) A State must administer the assessments annually in each of grades 3 through 8; and at least once in grades 9 through 12. [link to full text]

When the Every Student Succeeds Act was signed into law it authorized the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grant (SSAEG) program in the amount of $1.65 billion. Although the final amount is in jeopardy, for states to be eligible, they must comply with ESSA Title 1, Part A as summarized above and clarified in a Fact Sheet. That is, each state must implement annual student assessments.

Where do these standards and assessments come from? The ESSA bill makes clear that they will not come from the federal government. Per SEC. 8526A, “No officer or employee of the Federal Government shall … mandate, direct, or control a State, local educational agency, or school’s specific instructional content, academic standards and assessments, curricula, or program of instruction …  including any requirement, direction, or mandate to adopt the Common Core State Standards.” However, there is nothing preventing states from using the assessments they had developed with the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced), originally funded by the Race to the Top Assessment program and the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA).

The most recent task has been implementing the standards into on-line tests. The political challenges associated with the Common Core State Standards has fragmented this project, leaving states to choose from seven companies to provide their state-wide testing. The task of implementing the assessments online requires coding a range of questions that include multiple choice, graphical manipulation, and free-form writing; all on a wide variety of student devices. The testing servers must be capable of handling thousands of students simultaneously. Ideally the tests are scored instantly, to provide administrators with realtime data alerting them to any potential cheating or overloaded servers or networks. Not all the companies that set out to deliver online testing were equipped to handle the task – leading to several debacles, notably in Tennessee, Alaska, and Kansas.

Current Snapshot of State Assessment Dance Cards

At this writing, these are the firms providing online assessment platforms to the states: American Institute of Research (AIR), Data Recognition Corporation (DRC), Questar, Pearson, Measured Progress, Educational Testing Services (ETS), and Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation (CETE) at University of Kansas. AIR and Pearson are the two largest testing providers.

Below is the summary of which vendors have been chosen by each state. In most cases, the states have provided a way to try out sample test questions to get a feel for the online tests and make sure the technology is functioning properly. The links under the “Practice Exams” heading takes you to the actual server, if available, and lets you log in as a guest. For up-to-date information about your state assessments, click the link under “State Testing Info Pages”.

 

State	Name of Test	Testing Vendor	State Testing Info Pages	Practice Exams
Alabama	ACT Aspire	Pearson	info page	practice test
Alaska	Alaska Measures of Progress	CETE	Info Page	Practice Test
Arizona	AzMERIT	AIR	Info Page	Practice Test
Arkansas	ACT Aspire	Pearson	Info Page	Practice Test
California	CASPP	ETS	Info Page	Practice Test
Colorado	CMAS	Pearson	Info Page	Practice Test
Connecticut	Connecticut Smarter Balanced Assessment, Connecticut SAT day	AIR/College Board	Info Page	Practice Test
Delaware	Smarter ELA & Math, Delaware SAT day	AIR/College Board	Info Page	Practice Test
Florida	FSAs	Air	Info Page	Practice Test
Georgia	GMAS	DRC	Info Page	Practice Test
Hawaii	HSA	AIR	Info Page	Practice Test
Idaho	ISAT	AIR	Info Page	Practice Test
Illinois	Illinois Learning Stds. 3-8 PARCC; Grade 11 SAT	Pearson/College Board	Info Page	Practice Test
Indiana	ISTEP	Pearson	Info Page	Practice Test
Iowa	ITP Iowa Testing Programs	Info Page	Practice Test
Kansas	KITE	CETE	Info Page	Practice Test
Kentucky	K-Prep	Pearson	Info Page	Practice Test
Louisiana	LEAP	DRC	Info Page	Practice Test
Maine	MeCAS, SAT day	Measured Progress/College Board	Info Page	Practice Test
Maryland	MSA	Pearson	Info Page	Practice Test
Massachusetts	MCAS	MCAS out for bid (March 2016)	Info Page	Practice Test
Michigan	M-Step	Measured Progress/DRC	Info Page	Practice Test
Minnesota	MCAs	Pearson	Info Page	Practice Test
Mississippi	MAP, ACT	Questar	Info Page	Practice Test
Missouri	MAP	Questar	Info Page	Practice Test
Montana	MontCAS	Measured Progress	Info Page	Practice Test
Nebraska	NeSA	DRC	Info Page	Practice Test
Nevada	CCR/ACT	DRC	Info Page	Practice Test
New Hampshire	Smarter Balanced 3-8, Grade 11 SAT	AIR/College Board	Info Page	Practice Test
New Jersey	PARCC	Pearson	Info Page	Practice Test
New Mexico	PARCC	Pearson	Info Page	Practice Test
New York	NYSTP	Questar	Info Page	Practice Test
North Carolina	NC Test	Info Page	Practice Test
North Dakota	NDSA	AIR	Info Page	Practice Test
Ohio	OAA	AIR	Info Page	Practice Test
Oklahoma	OCCT	Measured Progress	Info Page	Practice Test
Oregon	OAKS	AIR	Info Page	Practice Test
Pennsylvania	PSSA	DRC	Info Page	Sample Questions
Rhode Island	PARCC	Pearson	Info Page	Practice Test
South Carolina	SC Ready	DRC	Info Page	Sample Questions
South Dakota	Smarter Balanced	AIR	Info Page	Practice Test
Tennessee	TCAP	Questar	Info Page	Practice Test
Texas	STAAR	ETS	Info Page	Practice Test
Utah	SAGE	AIR	Info Page	Practice Test
Vermont	VCA	AIR	Info Page	Practice Test
Virginia	VMAST	Pearson	Info Page	Practice Test
Washington	WCAP	AIR	Info Page	Practice Test
West Virginia	WVGSA	AIR	Info Page	Practice Test
Wisconsin	Wisconsin Forward Exam	DRC	Info Page	Practice Test
Wyoming	PAWS	ETS	Info Page	Practice Test

 

This blog was written by Bob Nilsson with research help from Lisa Yeaton.