Assessment Opt Out Info

At Farmington Area Public Schools, we are committed to providing our students with personalized learning experiences. To best achieve this, we regularly assess students’ growth. Various classroom and standardized assessments aid teachers in providing for individual instructional needs and identifying class trends. We strive to consider the whole picture when serving our students. Having multiple types of assessments helps provide a fuller picture of each student's needs.


Farmington Area Public Schools administer two sets of large scale standardized assessments: the Minnesota State Accountability tests and the NWEA MAP tests. We highly encourage you to read more about what each assessment provides for your student(s), and have provided a chart for this purpose.


Parents and guardians do have the right to request their student(s) not participate in a scheduled assessment. If you wish your child not to take one or more of the planned assessments, please make sure you understand the role of the assessment and complete the appropriate form.

 

 

MCA/MTAS

NWEA Measures of Academic Progress (MAP)

Why is the assessment administered?

  • Federally mandated
  • Shows school and district accountability

 

  • Provides diagnostic instructional data for individual students and groups of students

How are the results used?

  • Report student progress toward Minnesota's academic standards
  • Provides a state-wide comparison

 

  • Instructional decision-making
  • Monitor individual student growth
  • Course placement
  • Projection to College/Career Readiness for middle grades
  • Provides a national comparison

When are results available?

  • Official results released in August
  • Individual results are available immediately
  • Summary reports are available to staff within 24 hours

What is the impact of not participating in the assessment?

  • The school/district will be regarded as under-performing as untested students are not considered “proficient” for federal calculations of Adequate Yearly Progress unless the students have COVID-19 health/safety-related reasons for avoiding in-person testing.  Please see the MDE's Parent/Guardian Guide for Student Participation in Statewide Testing for more information on this topic.
  • If you choose to not participate in State Accountability testing for your child this year please complete the MCA/MTAS Non-Participation Form and return it to your child’s school by March 1.
  • While there is no public impact of not participating in the NWEA assessment, this will limit the information available to students and teachers regarding student growth in math and reading.
  • If you choose to not participate in NWEA MAP testing for your child this year please complete the NWEA Non-Participation Form and return it to your child’s school before testing begins.

Please note:  Anytime a student is withheld from participating in an assessment by parent request, there will not be any instructional programming provided for the student while the rest of the class is taking the test(s).