Using the October 1, 2017 enrollment counts, the Maine Department of Education will calculate the percentage of students in each district that have been identified as students eligible to take Multi-State Alternate Assessment (MSAA), Maine’s MEA Alternate Mathematics and English language arts/literacy assessment.
Districts are encouraged to use the participating guidelines http://www.maine.gov/doe/alternate/resources.html to ensure all students identified meet the criteria to participate in alternate assessments. All districts with more than one percent of their students identified in the testing grades, 3 – 8 and third year high school will be notified by the Department as being above the current Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) 1% cap and given an opportunity to reassess their numbers.
The final date for resubmission of student identification or justification for a district above the 1% is November 15th.
Assistance to look at student’s achievement levels in MAARS, identifying a student’s status in Synergy and an overview of the participation criteria for the alternate assessment will be given at the MADSEC conference on Friday, November 3, 2017.
For more information on participation in alternate assessments contact Sue Nay at sue.nay@maine.gov or 624-6774.