Assessment Design

The 2021–2022 academic year was the first year that students participated in Alaska’s connected interim and summative assessment system known as the Alaska System of Academic Readiness (AK STAR) for English language arts (ELA) and mathematics in Grades 3–9. This solution administers MAP® Growth™ in the fall and winter and an end-of-year summative test in the spring, offering coherence across the interim and summative assessments and reducing the number of yearly test events.

DEED committed to a multi-year approach to develop AK STAR. Several key steps ensure that the AK STAR test design and processes for setting expectations for student performance for the statewide assessment are well planned. DEED’s intentional work with Alaska educators, educational leaders, and other key stakeholders aims to ensure the results from AK STAR are accurate, aligned, and inform schools, teachers, partners, and students of where they are in their learning towards the Alaska ELA and Math Standards.

Annually, NWEA produces a Technical Report that provides information and a data analysis that supports the validity and reliability of the AK STAR assessments. The technical report is available upon request.  

• Alaska Summative Blueprints – ELA, Math
• AK STAR Item Types
• Math Standards Assessed