Amanda Jermyn Rhymer

The Office of Student Assessment administers all state and federally mandated assessments for students in Mississippi’s public schools.

Assessments tell you about students’ progress on the path to future success, whether that’s the next grade or the next course. They measure what students know and can do based on learning goals for the grade or course.

The ACT assessment is a curriculum- and standards-based educational planning tool that assesses students' academic readiness for college. The ACT is administered to all students classified as eleventh grade students during the academic year.  Ungraded students whose birthdays link them to the cohort of students identified as eleventh grade students will also be included. 

The CTB LAS Links Assessment System is a secure, large-scale, English language proficiency assessment administered to Kindergarten through 12th graders who have been officially identified as English learners (ELs). This assessment is administered annually to monitor English learners' progress in acquiring academic English. 

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) requires that the Local Education Agency (LEA) must assess all ELs using the annual English language proficiency assessment, including those students whose parents have declined to enroll them in, or had them removed from, Language Instruction Education Programs (LIEPs).  The federal regulations that govern the administration of this annual assessment are as follows:

Section 1111(b)(2)(G) of Title 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), requires that all English learners be assessed annually with an English Language Proficiency Test.

Section 612(a)(16)(A) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires that all students with disabilities be included in all general State-wide and District-wide assessment programs, including assessments described under section 1111 of the ESEA, with appropriate accommodations and alternate assessments, where necessary, as indicated in their respective IEPs.

Mississippi is required under the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA) to provide high-quality alternate assessments for students with significant cognitive disabilities (SCD).  These alternate assessments must be aligned to academic content standards that apply to all students in Reading, Writing, and Mathematics in grades 3-8 and once in high school. They must also align to content standards for Science in at least one grade in each of the 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12 grade ranges. 

Even when administered with accommodations, general assessments do not provide students with significant cognitive disabilities the opportunities to demonstrate their abilities.  Alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS) are designed to measure the knowledge and skills of these students in the respective content areas.  

State testing for students with significant cognitive disabilities changed during the 2016-17 school year.  Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM) were replaced by the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program-Alternate (MAAP-A).  Similar to MAAP, MAAP-A is  developed by Questar Assessment, Inc. and Mississippi educators.  DLM Essential Elements are used as the standards for English Language Arts and Math.  Mississippi Extended Science Frameworks (MESF) are used for the science alternate assessments. 

Accountability

The Office of Accountability supports the State Superintendent of Education and State Board of Education in providing leadership through the development of policy and accountability systems so that all students are prepared to compete in the global community. We are designed to support the State Board of Education’s vision of creating a world class educational system that provides students the knowledge and skills to be successful in college and the workforce.

https://www.mdek12.org/OA

The Office of Accreditation is a regulatory office charged with the primary responsibility of administering the state's performance-based accreditation system for public schools and the accreditation system for nonpublic schools electing to seek accreditation from the State Board of Education. The Office of Accreditation operates under the umbrella of the Mississippi State Board of Education and the Commission on School Accreditation.

Staff members in the Office of Accreditation continuously monitor school districts to verify compliance with applicable accreditation requirements through (1) investigative evaluations (complaints against school districts), (2) annual personnel data reports, and (3) reports from other state or federal programs.