The Alaska Dept. of Education and Early Development (DEED) recently announced a new approach to statewide assessments that better reflects learning throughout the school year, and helps educators target instruction to students' needs.  The new Alaska Innovative Assessment System will:

• Streamline testing and maximize efficiency, providing a more seamless experience between interim and summative assessments.
• Increases coherence across interim and end-of-year summative tests so educators can drive students toward consistent, challenging learning targets.
• Help amplify student learning by giving educators, students, and families meaningful insights on student strengths and areas to support students in reaching their highest academic potential.
• Increase opportunity for students and schools to show growth.  

Under the new Alaska Innovative Assessment System, the FNSBSD test schedules will follow this layout:

• 2021-22 school year:  MAP Growth (interim assessments) in the fall, winter, and spring, and AK STAR (summative assessment) in the spring.
• 2022-23 school year and beyond:  MAP Growth (interim) in the fall and winter, and AK STAR (summative) in the spring.

The Alaska System of Academic Readiness (AK STAR) is the new state summative assessment.  It is replacing the Performance Evaluation for Alaska's Schools (PEAKS) for the English Language Arts and Mathematics assessments starting in the spring of 2022.  AK STAR uses a testing platform developed by Northwest Evaluation Association.  This assessment is administered to students in grades 3-9, and assesses their understanding of the Alaska English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematic Standards adopted in 2012.