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An update from Academic Standards, Instruction and Assessment
Vol. 3, No. 6: Feb. 3, 2025
New Tool to Support English Language Arts Standards Curriculum Alignment
The 2020 Minnesota Academic Standards in English Language Arts (ELA) will reach full implementation in school year 2025–26. According to Minnesota Statutes, all students must receive instruction and classroom-level assessment in standards and grade-level benchmarks. Districts and schools are required to ensure that all K–12 ELA curricula are aligned to the new standards, including adopted curricula and district-developed curricula.
Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) has developed the 2020 Minnesota ELA Standards Curriculum Alignment Tool to support this essential work. This tool identifies areas of alignment between the 2020 Minnesota ELA Standards, the 2010 Minnesota ELA Standards, and the Common Core State Standards in ELA. The goal of the tool is to support realignment of curricula currently aligned to the 2010 Minnesota standards as well as alignment of nationally published curricula, many of which are aligned to the Common Core. The tool identifies whether each 2020 grade-level benchmark is fully aligned to 2010 or Common Core—necessitating no supplements or adaptations—or partially aligned to 2010 or Common Core, necessitating some supplements and/or adaptations. Some 2020 Minnesota ELA benchmarks are unique and will need more significant alignment work.
When using the 2020 Minnesota ELA Standards Curriculum Alignment Tool, begin with the Introduction tab to fully understand the purpose and use. Email ELA Specialist Kristin Bauck at kristin.bauck@state.mn.us with any questions or to further discuss curricular alignment in your district.
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Minnesota Kindergarten Fall Assessment from the Division of Early Education
The Minnesota legislature tasked MDE with developing a Minnesota Kindergarten Fall Assessment (MnKFA) to create a statewide snapshot of what kindergarteners know and are able to do at the start of the school year. Earlier this year, MDE contracted with The Improve Group to gather community perspectives on the development of the MnKFA. This effort resulted in two reports under the Additional MnKFA Information expandable heading on the MnKFA website: a concise two-page summary highlighting key findings and a more comprehensive report providing a detailed analysis of the feedback received from families, educators, administrators and others with expertise working with young children. These reports offer valuable insights into community perspectives and priorities for the design and implementation of the MnKFA. Please direct questions to KFA.MDE@state.mn.us.
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Curriculum Director Meetings
MDE will host three virtual Curriculum Directors Meetings in 2024–25; there are two time slots for each session. The second upcoming 2024–25 Curriculum Director Meeting will take place in May. Please register to attend the meetings:
Curriculum Director Meetings are intended to provide Curriculum Directors with legislative updates, standards implementation and timeline guidance, READ Act updates, information around educational trends or topics, and technical assistance on various topics, as well as an opportunity to learn about other MDE divisions and supports. New and experienced Curriculum Directors are welcome to attend either session. Curriculum Director virtual sessions are not recorded and Continuing Education Units (CEU) will not be provided as these sessions are an additional support rather than a training. Curriculum Director Meetings are also an excellent opportunity to connect with specific MDE content specialists to discuss the tools available to districts for standards implementation.
MDE recognizes that districts may have experienced staff changes coming into the new year. Please share with staff that Curriculum Director Meetings are a great opportunity to network and meet other Curriculum Directors with less than five years of experience. Also, if your district experienced a Curriculum Director(s) change, visit Schools and Organizations (MDE-ORG). Within MDE-ORG, select Contact List from the left menu, then District Curriculum Leaders. There, you can verify and update the necessary contact information for your Curriculum Director(s).
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Alternate Assessment February Chat and Connect Series
What: Minnesota Test of Academic Skills (MTAS)/Alternate Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCA) test administrators and special education staff are invited to meet with MDE alternate assessment specialists to give feedback, ask questions and connect with other special education staff from across the state.
Why: Learn about the revisions to the Learner Characteristics Inventory (LCI), MTAS/Alt MCA 2025 updates to plan for the spring administration, and MTAS/Alt MCA Field Audit overview; share your feedback and have your questions answered.
When: Feb. 18, 4–5 p.m. The series will continue monthly, meeting the third Tuesday of each month. Upcoming dates for this year are March 18, April 15 and May 20 at 4 p.m. Register once for the entire series of monthly meetings.
Where: Via Zoom
How: Register for the Alt Assessment Chat and Connect
Contact: Alt.Assessment.MDE@state.mn.us
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Centering Muslim Student Identity in Arts Education
What: MDE’s Arts Curriculum Leaders Meeting for February will explore transformative approaches and mindsets for fostering deep engagement with students, families and communities. MDE Arts Specialist Alina Campana and MDE Multilingual Support and Outreach Consultant Saadia Mohamed will highlight strategies and best practices for uplifting and amplifying Muslim youth voices in arts education. Participants will gain actionable tools and resources to create inclusive and empowering experiences for Muslim students in the arts.
Who: This session is designed for anyone leading or involved in arts curriculum development in their school or district, including curriculum directors, teacher leaders and anyone else dedicated to advancing cultural responsiveness in arts education.
When: Feb. 26, 9–10:30 a.m.
Where: Zoom (links provided via email)
How: Register for the Feb. 26 Arts Curriculum Leaders Meeting. To be added to the contact list for Arts Curriculum Leaders, email alina.campana@state.mn.us.
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Gifted Education Virtual Open Office Hours
What: Office hours are an informal opportunity to ask any question related to Gifted Education.
Who: Educators, administrators, community members.
When: Join MDE’s Gifted Education office hours the second Wednesday of the month, 3:30–4:30 p.m., during the school year.
How: Visit the Gifted Education page of the MDE website for session links.
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Save the Date: Hormel Symposium
What: The 2025 Hormel Gifted and Talented Education Symposium provides an opportunity for educators, counselors, administrators and parents to gain greater understanding of the needs of gifted and high potential learners. Participants attend in-depth sessions focusing on foundational knowledge, creativity, curriculum strategies and social/emotional needs of gifted and high potential learners provided by the field’s finest regionally and nationally recognized presenters. All are welcome to register and attend the symposium.
Who: Educators, administrators, school counselors and advisors
When: June 10–12
Where: Austin, Minnesota
How: Save the dates. Registration begins in mid-February.
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National Youth Science Camp
What: Applications are now being accepted from high school juniors and seniors in the classes of 2025 and 2026 to represent Minnesota at the 2025 National Youth Science Camp (NYSCamp).
Who: High school juniors and seniors in the classes of 2025 and 2026
When: Applications open Jan. 27 and are due Feb. 28.
Where: Two students from each state, Washington, D.C., and select countries will attend the all-expenses-paid program, which will be held from July 10–Aug. 2, in West Virginia and Washington, D.C.
How: Applications must be submitted at the NYSCamp website by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Feb. 28.
Contact: Angela Kolonich, NYSCamp State Coordinator
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Performance Level Descriptors and Their Uses
When a new assessment is developed, Performance Level Descriptors (PLDs), previously known as Achievement Level Descriptors (ALDs), are written by content specialists and educator committees. The new Science MCA-IV, which will first be taken by students in Spring 2025, has been developed to assess the 2019 Minnesota Academic Standards in Science. PLDs have been written for the Science MCA-IV and are posted on the MDE website.
PLDs are also being developed for the Mathematics and Reading MCA-IVs and will be released in the coming years.
What the PLDs Are
PLDs describe the knowledge and skills typically demonstrated by students on the assessment at each of the reporting levels. The Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments Series-III (MCA-III) used reporting levels of Does Not Meet, Partially Meets, Meets and Exceeds Standards. For MCA-IV assessments, reporting levels will be Beginning, Intermediate, Meets Standard and Advanced, showing a more positive and growth-centered focus. The MCA-IV Science PLD statements show a learning trajectory of student knowledge and skills in the three dimensions of the science standards (Science and Engineering Practices, Core Ideas and Crosscutting Concepts) throughout the reporting levels.
How the PLDs Were Developed
The Science MCA-IV PLDs were developed by Minnesota teachers, working with the MDE Assessment team. First, teachers drafted PLDs addressing the Practices dimension of the standards for each grade band: 3–5, 6–8 and 9–12 Life Science. They looked closely at the 2019 Minnesota Science Standards language also using the learning progressions from A Framework for K–12 Science Education and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Appendix F to determine what students should know and be able to do at grade level. This anchored the Meets level of the PLD. Using their professional experience and knowledge of their students, they adjusted the statements to the levels below and above the Meets expectations level. The first row of each grade in the Excel spreadsheet version of the Science PLDs shows the progression for the Science Practices portion.
Next, benchmarks were grouped into one of 11 core ideas (Physical Sciences [PS]1, Earth and Space Sciences[ESS]1, Life Sciences [LS]1 …), or content areas. Each core idea grouping represents up to nine benchmarks. The grade level expectations from the Framework and NGSS Appendix E were applied to these groups of benchmarks and summarized to create the “Meets” expectations level of PLD for each core idea. Notice that these statements are succinct and do not contain all elements of the benchmarks represented. The levels above and below Meets were then written to reflect the learning trajectory of complexity and increased sophistication moving up the performance level for each core idea. Table 1 shows the PLD for science Grade 5 Core Idea Physical Science 3 as an example.
Table 1
MCA-IV Performance Level Descriptors for Grade 5 Core Idea Physical Science 3
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Grade
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Content
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Beginning
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Intermediate
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Meets
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Advanced
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5
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Physical Science 3
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Observe that speed is related to the energy of an object. Identify data that show that different forms of energy move between objects.
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Collect evidence used to show the relationship between speed and energy of an object. Describe data that show the transfer of energy from place to place and between objects.
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Use evidence to explain that the relationship between the speed and energy of an object can be measured. Analyze data that show that energy can change from one form to another.
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Using evidence, predict the relationship between speed and energy and associated forces. Interpret data to show that energy can be stored, released and transferred.
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After editing and input from various educational partners, along with a public review and comment period, the draft Science MCA-IV PLDs were posted to the MDE website and are ready to be used by the Standard Setting Committee. After the standard setting process is completed in Summer 2025, the PLDs will be finalized and used for the life of the MCA-IV science assessments to ensure the validity of score interpretation and reporting for these assessments.
Purpose of PLDs
PLDs are developed to support valid inferences about student content knowledge and skill as it relates to the academic standards measured on a large-scale assessment. They are used in a process called standard setting. The standard setting for the Science MCA-IV will happen in July 2025, after the first administration of the test. During standard setting, teachers and policymakers use the PLDs alongside student data to determine the “cut scores,” or minimum scores required on each assessment for each performance level reported (Beginning, Intermediate, Meets and Advanced). The PLDs are critical to guide the standard setting committee members as they decide what performance level best represents the responses gathered from students on the first administration of the new assessment. PLDs are also used as a foundational document to assist writing the statements that summarize a student’s test performance on Individual Student Reports.
Try It
Figure 1 below is a released Grade 5 Science MCA-IV item from the Minnesota Questions Tool. Table 1 above, “MCA-IV Performance Level Descriptors for Grade 5 Core Idea Physical Science 3” corresponds with the item in Figure 1. While reviewing the item below, identify what knowledge and skills from the PLD (Table 1) a student would need to correctly answer the item. Then, ask yourself what performance level best matches the knowledge and skill needed to answer this item correctly: Beginning, Intermediate, Meets Standard or Advanced? This process is similar to what the Standard Setting Committee will be helping to determine.
Figure 1
 Other Ways to Use PLDs
The PLDs can be helpful in the item development process for the MCAs, where questions can purposefully be written to cover the learning trajectory of students’ knowledge and skills of the science standards. This will help ensure a good representation of items at all performance levels on the MCAs. While the main purpose of PLDs is the development and reporting on large scale assessments, many states have used PLDs as a guidance document to show the overall continuum of learning of their content standards. PLDs can also help teachers differentiate instruction to maximize individual student outcomes and create formative assessments targeting performance levels for individuals or groups of students. Students could use them to self-assess their own performance levels.
In Minnesota, we hope that educators will find creative and helpful ways to use the PLDs in their classrooms and schools to benefit all students. What ways can you think of to use the PLDs in your work?
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Division of Academic Standards, Instruction and Assessment
Minnesota Department of Education
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