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Eligibility Requirements for the

Minnesota Test of Academic Skills (MTAS)

The current reauthorizations of both the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the Individuals

with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) require that students with disabilities participate in statewide assessment

systems designed to hold schools accountable for the academic performance of all students.

The Individualized Education Program (IEP) team is responsible for applying the criteria outlined in this

document when determining how a student with a disability will participate in statewide testing. Under ESEA,

there is no limit on the number of students in a school or district that may be eligible to participate in an

Subject Grades

Mathematics 3–8 and 11

Reading 3–8 and 10

Science 5, 8 and High School

Appropriate Assessment Selection

The purpose of this document is to help IEP teams determine the most appropriate assessment option for a

student with a significant cognitive disability. These are the initial steps in the IEP team’s decision-making

process:

• Consider the MCA: IEP teams must first consider student participation in the MCA, with or without

accommodations, before considering student participation in an alternate assessment.

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skills of the general education curriculum. For students participating in the MTAS, access means

instruction linked to the general education curriculum to the extent appropriate. It is likely that th

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eneral education curriculum will be substantially simplified for this group of students.

The IEP team is responsible for making annual decisions about student participation in the statewide assessment

program. The MTAS, an alternate assessment for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities, is one

component of that program. The MTAS is designed to appropriately measure progress toward state standards

for students who meet each of the criteria listed below.

instruction linked to the general education curriculum to the extent appropriate. If instruction is not

linked to the general education curriculum, then the IEP team must review the student’s goals and

determine how access to the general curriculum will be provided.

The team also determined that the student’s disability has a significant impact on his or her ability to

function in multiple environments, including home, school and community.

supports in multiple settings to acquire, maintain and generalize academic and life skills in order to

• Placement

• Participation in a separate, specialized curriculum

• An expectation that the student will receive a low score on the MCA

• Language, social, cultural or economic differences

• Concern for accountability calculations

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the MTAS. The IEP team considers

Review the student’s goals and revise the

The IEP team selects the MCA,

environments?

age expectations?

The student is appropriately assessed with the

MTAS. Document reasons the MCA is not an

appropriate measure of academic progress for

the student and the decision to administer the

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Glossary of Alternate Assessment Terms

Active engagement in learning the content and skills of the general education curriculum.

Changes in assessment administration such as setting, scheduling, timing, presentation format, response mode,

A device or service that is used to increase, maintain or improve the functional capabilities of a student with a

disability.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) specifies 13 disability categories: mental retardation, hearing

impairment (including deafness), speech or language impairment, visual impairment (including blindness),

serious emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairment, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health impairment,

specific learning disability, deaf-blindness, multiple disabilities and developmental delay.

During explicit instruction, skills are taught sequentially and directly. No assumptions are made about what

students might acquire on their own. Intensive instruction is most often achieved in an individual and/or small

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