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An update from Academic Standards, Instruction and Assessment
Aug. 27, 2025
Important Dates
Aug. 29: Public release of final assessment and accountability results on MDE website; ISRs arrive in districts (Reading and Mathematics MCA and MTAS; ACCESS and WIDA Alternate ACCESS)
Sept. 5: Deadline to submit reimbursement requests in GRR
Quick Links
Assessment and accountability results for Reading and Mathematics MCA/MTAS and ACCESS and WIDA Alternate ACCESS will be released to the public on Friday, Aug. 29. To accommodate the release of the 2025 results, the Minnesota Report Card will be unavailable as of tomorrow, Aug. 28, until Aug. 29 at 8 a.m. Note: Due to additional steps required for a new assessment, reporting for Science MCA and Alternate MCA is delayed for this fall.
After results are released publicly, assessment results information will be available in two places on the MDE website for families, educators, and community members to access.
- The Minnesota Report Card allows users to create graphs and tables to view results for various groups of students across the state as well as within districts and schools. The Minnesota Report Card User Guide (located on the Minnesota Report Card in the Using the Report Card menu choice) provides information on interpreting and using the data on the Report Card.
- The Assessment Files (MDE website > Data Center > Data Reports and Analytics) provide summary assessment data for the state, counties, districts, and schools and are available as Excel (.xlsx) files. The Assessment Files User Guide (linked in the overview paragraph located at the top of the Assessment Files page) provides information about the content of the files; information is also available on the last tab of the files.
For general information about the public release, contact MDE’s Communication division at mde.communications@state.mn.us. For more information about accountability results or calculations, visit MDE’s School and District Accountability page, or contact Michael Diedrich at mde.essa@state.mn.us with any questions.
The following resources are also available to help districts use and understand the public release of statewide assessment results:
- Chapter 11 of the Procedures Manual provides guidelines for using assessment data.
- The recording of the New DAC Reporting Training 2, which is available in the Learning Management System (LMS).
- A Posttest Editing Discrepancies report is available in Test WES. This contains a list of any discrepancies that remained for your district after the close of Posttest Editing. If questions arise about a student’s results (for example, reason for invalidation), this report may be helpful. To review the report, select Posttest Discrepancies under File Transfer on the Test WES Dashboard. The discrepancies on the report cannot be resolved.
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Final Individual Student Reports (ISRs) for Reading and Mathematics MCA/MTAS and ACCESS and WIDA Alternate ACCESS are scheduled to arrive in districts on Friday, Aug. 29. Note: Due to additional steps required for a new assessment, reporting for Science MCA and Alternate MCA is delayed until this fall.
Since ISRs contain private student data, it is important for districts to ensure someone is available to receive the reports and secure them until distribution. The final reports shipment will be sent to districts, and each school will have its own box labeled with the school name. For nonpublic schools, final reports will be packaged and shipped directly to each school.
ACCESS and WIDA Alternate ACCESS Reports Shipment
The boxes will include the following reports for ACCESS and WIDA Alternate ACCESS:
- Individual Student Reports (ISRs)
- Student Roster Reports
- District and School Frequency Reports
The following resources for families are available on WIDA’s website:
The following resources for district and school staff are available on WIDA’s website:
If you have any questions regarding your shipment, contact DRC Customer Service at WIDA@datarecognitioncorp.com or 855-787-9615.
Reading and Mathematics MCA/MTAS Reports Shipment
The boxes will include the following:
- Packing list of contents and cover memo (in box 1 for each school)
- ISRs for MCA and MTAS
- All subjects will be provided as separate ISRs rather than combined as in past years. ISRs will continue to be separated as we transition to the new assessments (reading in 2025-26 and mathematics in 2027-28).
- Reports will be sorted by grade, student demographics, test subject, and test administration (MCA or MTAS).
- To assist with the sorting, each ISR is marked with a color tab according to grade, subject, and assessment. The packing list indicates the sort order and corresponding color tabs.
With the transition to new assessments, the following describe changes to ISRs and related resources in addition to the separate ISRs by subject as noted above:
- PDF rosters posted to PearsonAccess Next Published Reports that have accompanied the ISRs in the past will no longer be provided.
- Student results labels will continue to contain results for all three subjects on one label; as a result, labels will arrive with the Science ISRs (in a separate shipment) for districts that chose to receive paper copies.
- Personalized video ISRs will continue to be provided for reading and mathematics. For science, a generic ISR video describing changes to the new assessment will be provided.
The following resources for district and school staff are available on MDE and Pearson’s websites:
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MCA and MTAS Reading and Mathematics ISR Quick Guides: These quick guides provide a high-level overview of how to read the ISRs and will soon be posted on MDE’s Assessment Results page for students and families. Translated versions of these resources will also be available under Translated Documents; a future Assessment Update will confirm availability. (Note: ISR Quick Guides are also posted on the District Resources page under Test Score Interpretation Resources.)
- Samples of MCA and MTAS ISRs on the Individual Student Reports (ISRs) Resources page on the Minnesota Assessment Hub.
If you have any questions regarding your shipment, submit a Pearson help desk request or call the Pearson help desk at 888-817-8659. If you have any questions about the data reported on the ISR, contact mde.testing@state.mn.us.
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Districts that have received assessment results for the college entrance exam they administered (ACT or SAT) should enter requests for reimbursements in the Graduation Requirements Records (GRR) system for eligible students no later than Sept. 5.
If a district has not previously received reimbursement for a grade 11 or 12 student, districts will be reimbursed for students eligible for free/reduced-price meals (FRP) who are entered into GRR. If funding allows, districts may also be reimbursed fully or on a prorated basis for students who are unable to pay for the exam. Districts must determine the criteria for unable to pay and enter those requests in GRR.
More information is in the Graduation Requirements Records (GRR) User Guide and in the recorded GRR training posted to the Learning Management System (LMS).
Reimbursement Reports
After districts enter reimbursement requests in GRR, they must confirm that the students they expect reimbursement for are included in the reimbursement reports; these reports are refreshed each morning. It is important to confirm student information is entered correctly to avoid incorrect reimbursements made to the district. Two reports are available: The Claimed Student Detail Report and the Estimated Student Amount Report. The Claimed Student Detail Report details what records will be reimbursed (or the reason records will not be reimbursed). The Estimated Student Amount Report gives an estimate of the amount to be received.
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The 2024-25 MCA Benchmark Reports will be available on Sept. 3 in PearsonAccess Next under Reports > Published Reports for DAC and Assessment Administrator (AA) user roles (login required). Note: Only Reading and Mathematics MCA Benchmark Reports are available for 2024-25. Science MCA benchmark reports are not available due to the transition to a new assessment. Science MCA benchmark reports for 2019 and 2021-24 can still be downloaded from Pearson Access Next for previous test administrations.
Benchmark reports are generated at a school or district level for each grade and subject. They may be helpful as an additional resource for understanding school or district MCA performance on each benchmark assessed from the grade-level standards. The reports also provide summarized information about student performance on each strand or substrand from the standards. Educators should always consider additional information about student learning and instruction when reviewing benchmark reports. Educators may find the report helpful as one piece of information when making decisions that are larger in scope, such as curriculum alignment or scope and sequence planning. Before digging in and making inferences from the benchmark reports, review the 2024-25 Benchmark Report “How To” Quick Guides for Reading and Mathematics posted on the Additional Reporting Resources page of the Minnesota Assessment Hub.
Note: Take your district’s standards implementation plan into consideration when discussing and using benchmark data.
For the technical details of the benchmark report calculations, refer to Appendix A: Benchmark Report Calculations Resource of the Technical Manual for Minnesota’s Statewide Assessments posted on the Technical Reports page of the MDE website (under the Technical Manual expandable header).
For questions about the benchmark reports, please contact mde.testing@state.mn.us. If DACs or AAs have questions about accessing the benchmark reports, contact Pearson at 888-817-8659 or submit a Pearson help desk request.
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Early student-level results for ACCESS and WIDA Alternate ACCESS will be available for download in Test WES until Sept. 1. The final results were included in the embargoed District and School Student Results (DSR and SSR) files released on July 29.
Please note that early student-level results do not reflect any changes made during Posttest Editing. Districts that wish to retain this preliminary data (for example, for a student whose score was invalidated because the student was not designated as EL in enrollment data) must download and save these results by Sept. 1.
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MDE is currently finalizing the Performance Level Descriptors (PLDs) that describe grade-level learning expectations set by benchmarks or extended benchmarks in the Minnesota Academic Standards in English Language Arts. In addition to describing what it means to be proficient on the Reading MCA-IV and Reading Alternate MCA (Alt MCA) following the first administration in Spring 2026, PLDs have several purposes or uses, including:
- Facilitating interpretation of student test scores by educators and families
- Identifying classroom instructional changes that best support a student’s learning progression
- Supporting educators in the implementation of new standards and in the analysis of the depth of their curriculum, instruction, and classroom assessments
As part of the drafting process, MDE is holding a public review period to collect feedback from district staff, educators, and community members on the latest draft of the Reading MCA-IV/Alt MCA PLDs. This feedback will ensure that multiple perspectives throughout Minnesota are considered in the development of the final version of the documents.
Draft versions of the Reading MCA-IV and Alt MCA Performance Level Descriptor documents are located on the Performance Level Descriptors page of MDE’s website along with a survey link. MDE will be taking feedback until Sept. 8. If you have any questions, contact Dawn Cameron (dawn.cameron@state.mn.us).
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September WIDA Assessment Webinars
WIDA and DRC will be hosting the following webinars in September:
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Welcome Back: What’s New in 2025-2026, Sept. 2, 1-2 p.m.
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WIDA ACCESS for New Test Administrators, Sept. 9, 1-2 p.m.
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WIDA ACCESS for New District Coordinators, Sept. 11, 1-2 p.m.
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Ordering Materials in WIDA AMS, Sept. 23, 1-2 p.m.
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WIDA ACCESS Software Updates and Tech Readiness Checklist, Sept. 30, 1-2 p.m.
More information, including the webinar link, can be found in the WIDA Secure Portal on the Webinars page. The recordings for WIDA Assessment Webinars are posted on the Webinars page within a week of the presentation.
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Academic Standards, Instruction and Assessment
Minnesota Department of Education
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