Assessment plays a crucial role in schools by providing valuable information about student learning, informing instructional decisions, and promoting accountability.

• Measuring Student Achievement: Assessments help determine how well students have learned the curriculum, met learning targets, and whether they are meeting grade-level standards.  

• Providing Feedback: Assessments provide educators with opportunities to provide valuable feedback related to progress and growth to students and their families.

• Informing Instruction: Data from assessments plays a critical role in supporting teachers to identify areas where students need additional support or enrichment, allowing them to adjust their instruction accordingly.

• Evaluating Program Effectiveness: Assessments can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of curricular programs, teaching resources, and instructional methodologies.

• Accountability: Assessments are often used to measure school performance and accountability, ensuring that all students have equal access to a quality education. To learn more about the Maine Comprehensive Assessment System (MECAS) and its relationship to accountability, please visit the MECAS page of the MDOE website.

• Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS): Data from state and local assessments supports the identification of students who may benefit from additional academic programming and may be used in determining eligibility for additional services. To learn more about MTSS, please visit the MTSS page of the YSD website OR learn more on the Maine DOE MTSS page.

Please click here to view this year's Assessment Notification Letter.

Assessing student learning is an essential aspect of education, as it provides data that can lead to improved instruction and outcomes. The Maine Comprehensive Assessment System (MECAS) provides information about the academic progress of students, schools, the state, and the nation as a whole. The MECAS includes state assessments, known as the Maine Educational Assessments, as well as national and international assessments.

Maine Department of Education, 2024

All State-required assessments are administered online, and once made available publicly, they can be accessed in aggregate by visiting the Maine DOE ESSA Dashboard.  Student academic performance, as well as additional data that is used to determine our MDOE Performance Indicator scores, can be found on this page.  Please note that these assessments are required, and every student that does not take the assessment lowers our participation rate and impacts our ability to show improvement in academic achievement and progress.  Additionally, should you have any questions about the Parents Right-to Know requirement under the Every Student Succeeds Act specific to assessment requirements and teacher qualifications, please review this document or visit the Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment page on the YSD website. 

Transition from eMPowerME to NWEA MAP to the Maine Through Assessment

During the 2020-2021 academic year, Maine transitioned to the NWEA MAP Growth Assessment. (No assessments were required in 2019-2020.)  The NWEA MAP Growth assessment “was adopted as an emergency measure during the pandemic to meet schools’ needs for immediate, actionable data.  NWEA MAP Growth was an interim assessment solution while the Department of Education worked collaboratively with NWEA to develop a state assessment that meets all federal requirements.” (For more information regarding this transition or to know more about the NWEA Through-Year Assessment, please click here.) 

The required Spring 2023 assessment was the first administration of the adaptive, through-year assessment, the Maine Through Year Assessment, for grades 3-8. The 2nd year of high school assessment will be a fixed-form (not adaptive) through-year assessment in Spring 2023, changing to an adaptive assessment in future years as more question items are added. 

Maine Science Assessment

During the Spring of 2020-21, the Maine DOE administered a Science Field Test.  Because of the nature of this assessment, and its purpose to “ensure the assessment and items contained with the assessment function and provide the intended information,” items on this assessment were scored but not to produce information about student performance.  Beginning in the Spring of 2022, students in grades 5, 8, and 11 began taking the new Maine Science assessment.

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)

Some students in our schools make take the NAEP assessment in grades 4 and 8. (NAEP)is a measurement of student achievement over time in the United States. NAEP is the largest nationally representative assessment of what students in every state know and can do in specific areas tested. This assessment is a congressionally authorized project of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act legislation. Schools and students are selected to participate at random. NAEP does not report any results for individual students, schools, or school districts in Maine. The Maine DOE has developed an FAQ page, and more information about the NAEP can be found here.