Student Assessment Program
Federal and state law, as well as State Board of Education regulations, mandate Arkansas’ testing for public school students. All students are expected to participate in state assessments. The laws and regulations require that criterion-referenced tests (CRTs) and norm-referenced test (NRT) be give to students.
In Arkansas, items on the CRTs are based on the academic standards in the Arkansas Curriculum Frameworks and are developed by committees of Arkansas teachers, with support from the Arkansas Department of Education and the testing contractor. CRTs are administered at Grades 3- 8 (Benchmark Exams), End-of-Course Exams in Algebra I and Geometry, and a Literacy Exam at Grade 11.
The Arkansas Alternate Portfolio Assessment System is designed to evaluate the performance of students with disabilities.
The NRT is not developed at the state level, but is purchased from a company. The test provides information that compares the performance of students against the performance of a sample of students from across the country. In Arkansas, students in Grades K-8 are given the Iowa Basic Skills Test, and students in Grade 9 are given the Iowa Test of Educational Development.
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