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North Dakota is currently revising its standards and replacing its assessment.
North Dakota has been using Smarter Balanced, which was aligned to the state’s standards. But, as the state revises its standards and chooses a new assessment, many questions remain about process – especially ensuring that the new standards will be rigorous and aligned to college and career readiness, and that the new assessments will be aligned to the standards.
The state could also strengthen its plan by ensuring that it has a process in place to meet the 1 percent cap on alternate assessments for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities.
It also intends to allow local districts to administer a nationally recognized high school assessment.
However, it is not clear what process the state will use to approve assessments proposed by local districts and to ensure districts provide reasonable accommodations to English learners and students with disabilities.
