All required federal and statewide assessments will be administered to public-school students this school year, including the 3rd Grade Reading Assessment and high school assessments for Algebra I, English II, Biology and U.S. History.
The Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) has provided districts with pandemic-related flexibilities to make it easier to administer the assessments and to schedule in-person testing for virtual learners.
Schools are expected to provide safe testing accommodations to full-time virtual learners who are able go to their school campus to test. Virtual learners are strongly urged to be tested, though schools cannot require students to show up for testing.
“The assessments identify students’ strengths and areas for improvement to ensure they are on track for the next grade and eventually, college and career,” said Dr. Carey Wright, state superintendent of education. “This year’s statewide assessments will provide valuable information about the impact of COVID-19 on learning and will help identify where accelerated learning opportunities for students are most needed.”
Current 3rd graders are not required to meet a passing score on the reading assessment to be promoted to 4th grade for the 2021-22 school year. Students still must meet all other district requirements for promotion.
Current career and technical pathway students are not required to meet a passing score on the MS-CPAS3 assessment. However, Career and Technical Education (CTE) concentrators who are administered a national certification exam are required to meet a passing score for Perkins V accountability. At this time, the U.S. Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE), has not approved any waivers for career and technical education accountability for the 2021-2022 School Year. Therefore, the MDE is planning to compute local district summary reports for the 2021-2022 School Year, and each district will be evaluated on national certification performance.
This school year, high school students who take required end-of-course high school assessments including Algebra I, English II, Biology and U.S. History are not required to meet a passing score to meet high school graduation requirements. Students must meet all other state and district requirements to graduate.
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