We have two committees coming up soon! We will be working with educators and stakeholders to review and approve AASA ELA passages for Spring 2025. The committee will confirm alignment and appropriateness for inclusion in the test, and we will also be working with community stakeholders to conduct a bias and sensitivity review for the AASA ELA passages. Please complete an Educator Committee Application form if you are interested in participating in our committees!

Please watch for communications from the Achievement Assessments team to increase in frequency over the coming weeks and months as we prepare for the Spring 2024 test windows. Communications will be sent to Achievement District Test Coordinators (DTCs) regarding any testing updates as well as reminders of deadlines and tasks to be completed in preparation for testing. These communications will also be posted on the Achievement District Test Coordinator webpage for quick reference. Please share these communications with other staff in your district or charter, as applicable. DTC emails will be organized as follows to assist you with finding the information you need for your sites.

ADE, Pearson, and ACT are working diligently to complete Test Coordinator's Manuals and Test Administration Directions for each of the Statewide Achievement Assessments. Look for each of these manuals coming soon!

Testing windows for the Spring 2024 Achievement tests are included in the table above, as well as in the Assessments Overview 2023-2024 and the Detailed Testing Calendar. The Detailed Testing Calendar also provides estimated times for each test unit of the AASA and AzSCI as well as time limits for ACT Aspire and ACT test sections.  

The Achievement Assessments Accommodations Manual has been updated and posted on our Accessibility webpage. Please remind your staff to review the Accommodations Manual as they work on IEPs and 504 Plans this school year. All instructional accommodations that will be routinely used should be included in the student's plan. Any accommodations selected for statewide testing must also be used throughout the year for instruction in class and must also be documented in the IEP or 504 Plan. Most accommodations used in the classroom can also be used for testing, so it is important to become familiar with the testing accommodations by using the Sample Tests.

Arizona offers three tests formats to meet the needs of students who cannot access the test content through computer-based testing: braille, large print, and regular print paper tests. Requests for Special Paper Version (SPV) tests for AASA, AzSCI, and ACT Aspire must be submitted to ADE for review and approval using this secure online form: https://www.azed.gov/assessment/spv24. Additional information is available in the SPV Request Process Quick Guide. SPV test requests must be submitted to ADE by February 23, 2024.

Requests for additional accommodations must be submitted to ADE for review and approval by February 23, 2024, using this secure online form: https://www.azed.gov/assessment/achievement_aa_fy24. Additional information is available in the Additional Accommodations Request Process Quick Guide.

The Additional Accommodations Request Form should be used to request the American Sign Language (ASL) form of the test; hearing devices requiring a Bluetooth connection; a computer-based test or technology needed when testing in a paper-based testing school; assistive technology needed by the student during testing if not included in the Achievement Assessments Accommodations Manual; or testing accommodations requested due to a student injury, as described in the Achievement Assessments Accommodations Manual.

Additional Accommodations requests should not include Universal Test Administration Conditions, Universal Tools, or other accommodations identified as allowable in the Achievement Assessments Accommodations Manual. 

AASA is the statewide achievement assessment for Grades 3-8 in ELA and Mathematics. 

All Grade 3 students will participate in an ELA Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) test unit. A decision has been made to gather additional information on the ORF items and the impact to the Move On When Reading (MOWR) indicator this year. The Grade 3 ELA ORF test items will not be included in a student's score for the Spring 2024 AASA test administration. 

Both computer-based testing schools and paper-based testing schools will administer the ORF test unit online in TestNav. The online ORF test unit may be administered in small groups with a maximum of six students testing simultaneously in a classroom or computer lab environment. Additional resources, linked below, are available on the AASA webpage under "Grade 3 Oral Reading Fluency". 

PearsonAccess Next (PAN), https://az.pearsonaccessnext.com/, will open for the Spring 2024 AASA test administration on December 20, 2023. On that date, Achievement District Test Coordinators will receive access and can begin the tasks of verifying their contact information and shipping address and adding other users in the district or charter to PAN. If any changes are needed to the contact information and shipping address listed in PAN, please send an email to AASA@azed.gov no later than February 16, 2024 to ensure that AASA materials are shipped and delivered appropriately. 

For Spring 2024 AASA, Achievement District Test Coordinators will enter participation counts in PAN and select the materials due-in-district window for the delivery of test materials. The participation counts entered in PAN for grades 3-8 during the January 8-19, 2024 window will determine the number of manuals (Test Coordinator's Manuals and Test Administration Directions) shipped for both computer-based testing and paper-based testing schools. It will also determine the number of paper-based test booklets shipped for paper-based testing schools. 

There are two delivery windows available for the initial shipment of AASA materials. Achievement District Test Coordinators will need to select the preferred window for their district or charter in PAN no later than January 19, 2024. Directions for making this selection will be included in the PAN User's Guide. 

The last day to revise student enrollments in AzEDS prior to ADE's upload of students for AASA is January 24, 2024. ADE will extract student information from AzEDS and upload the data to PAN. This upload will be visible in PAN on February 5, 2024. 

The AzSCI is a computer-based assessment and is comprised of three test units. Each test unit is estimated to take 60-90 minutes each. If more than one test unit is administered on the same day, there must be a significant break of 15-45 minutes between each test unit. 

PearsonAccess Next (PAN), https://az.pearsonaccessnext.com/, will open for the Spring 2024 AzSCI test administration on January 31, 2024. On that date, Achievement District Test Coordinators will receive access and can begin the tasks of verifying their contact information and shipping address and adding other users in the district or charter to PAN. Users who need PAN access for both the AASA and AzSCI test administrations will need to be added separately for the two assessments. 

The last day to revise student enrollments in AzEDS prior to ADE's upload of students is February 14, 2024. ADE will extract student information from AzEDS and upload the data to PAN. The upload will be visible in PAN on February 19, 2024.

While ACT Aspire has been discontinued at a national level, Arizona will continue to administer the ACT Aspire Early High School assessment to students in the 9th grade cohort for the life of our contract. In Spring 2024, ACT Aspire will be administered to students in Cohort 2027. 

Support for Arizona's ACT Aspire test administration has now transferred from ACT to Pearson. Pearson customer support can be contacted for ACT Aspire questions at the same phone number used for AASA and AzSCI customer support: 1-888-705-9421. Select option 4 for ACT Aspire.

For Spring 2024, the Arizona ACT Aspire webpage will continue to be the source for information and resources related to ACT Aspire. 

The ACT-managed PearsonAccess Next portal (aspire.act.org), which was used for the Spring 2022 and Spring 2023 test administrations, is now closed. A new Pearson-managed PearsonAccess Next portal (https://aspire.pearsonaccessnext.com/) will open on November 8, 2023 with the historical ACT Aspire student testing data. This new site will then open for the Spring 2024 test administration tasks to begin on January 22, 2024.

The last day to revise enrollments in AzEDS prior to ADE's upload of students is January 23, 2024. ADE will extract student information from AzEDS and upload the data to PAN. This upload will be visible in PAN on January 29, 2024.

Districts and charters with Grade 11 / Cohort 2025 students may utilize both published Arizona ACT test windows in order to assess all Cohort 2025 students. Schools are encouraged to administer ACT during the first test window and may also used the second test window, as needed, to complete any makeup testing.

There is only one ACT standard paper test date in each testing window. Additional online ACT test days have been added to each test window this year, for a total of nine online test days in each window. Schools administering ACT on paper may also use the online test dates for makeup testing. Any schools that choose to administer the ACT during only the second test window will not have an additional ACT test window to use for makeup testing. 

ACT's PearsonAccess Next (PAN) site will go live for the Spring 2024 administration on November 6, 2023. Achievement District Test Coordinators with Grade 11 / Cohort 2025 students will receive login information on that date and can then begin completing tasks in PAN.

The following tasks must be completed November 6, 2023 - December 8, 2023: select test dates, select materials shipping dates, and verify shipping address. More information is available in Step 1: Orientation on the ACT-hosted website for Arizona.

When selecting test dates in PAN, online or paper testing will also be selected. This selection in PAN must match what was submitted to ADE through the ADEConnect Testing Mode Selection Application, which closed October 13, 2023. Do not select ACT paper testing in PAN if you did not submit a paper testing request in ADEConnect. The information in the ADEConnect Testing Mode Selection Application will be the official testing mode for the school. 

Beginning November 6, 2023, Achievement District Test Coordinators can create user accounts for others in the district or charter. Achievement District Test Coordinators are encouraged to add a School Test Coordinator for each site. ACT will send communications to School Test Coordinators that have been added in PearsonAccess Next as well as to Achievement District Test Coordinators. 

ACT has scheduled three webinars specifically for Arizona test coordinators. Both District and School Test Coordinators should plan to attend each webinar or view the recording afterwards. Each webinar recording will be posted on the ACT-hosted website for Arizona. 

Test Administration #1 - November 8, 2023, 9:00am - 10:00am (Registration Link)

Accommodations - November 15, 2023, 9:00am - 10:00am (Registration Link)

Test Administration #2 - February 21, 2024, 9:00am - 10:00am (Registration Link)

ACT accommodations requests must be submitted directly to ACT through ACT's Test Accessibility and Accommodations (TAA) system. The TAA system is now open for accommodations requests for Spring 2024. The initial deadline for submitting ACT accommodations and support requests is February 2, 2024. Please note this is a firm deadline, so please submit all requests early.

ACT has provided the Parent Consent to Release Information form, which should be utilized to obtain parent consent for submitting ACT accommodations requests. However, please do not miss the initial February 2nd deadline to submit ACT accommodations requests. If you have not yet obtained the signed parent consent form prior to the February 2nd initial submission deadline, you can continue working to obtain the signed parent consent form even after the initial request has been submitted to ACT, but you cannot receive a deadline extension past February 2nd for initial requests. If you have questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact us via the Testing inbox. Not submitting and providing identified accommodations can be considered denial of FAPE (Free Appropriate Public Education).

More information about ACT's accommodations request process can be found on the ACT-hosted website for Arizona (Step 3: Accommodation). In addition, ACT has scheduled a series of Accommodations Office Hours beginning November 14, 2023. Please visit the Accommodations Office Hours registration page for additional information. 

ADE will upload students for ACT testing in PearsonAccess Next (PAN). The last day to revise enrollments in AzEDS prior to ADE's extraction of student data is January 23, 2024. ADE's upload of students will be visible in PAN no later than January 29, 2024.

All sites administering the online ACT test are encouraged to complete a mock administration. If performed under conditions similar to test day, a mock administration provides an indication of how your technical infrastructure and testing devices will interact with the testing software during a live administration. This task can be completed beginning December 18, 2023 and should be completed no later than February 14, 2024 to prepare for online testing. More information is available in Step 2: Configuration on the ACT website. 

The Arizona State Board of Education has approved a process whereby an ACT score replacement request may be granted for highly performing students who demonstrate competency prior to the statewide test window. When a Cohort 2025 student has an ACT test score obtained on a national test date within their Junior / 11th grade / Cohort 2025 school year that meets or exceeds Arizona's ACT cut scores for the content areas of ELA and Math, the national test date score report may be used to replace the statewide ACT assessment. 

The ACT score replacement request is intended for students with high scores who are concerned that an additional test score would have an impact to their post-secondary opportunities and should be used sparingly. The score replacement allows the student to use the score obtained on a national test date rather than Arizona's statewide assessment date for accountability purposes, subject to ADE's review and approval, using the following criteria: 

The deadline for schools, districts, or charters to submit ACT score replacement requests to ADE is March 22, 2024. Requests must be submitted using the secure online form, and a copy of the student's ACT score report (either the student or the high school copy) must be uploaded with the request. A signed parent consent form must also be uploaded with the request. ADE's Assessment team will confirm the score report with ACT and will respond to the Achievement District Test Coordinator regarding the final decision.  

For questions about AASA, please contact us at AASA@azed.gov.

For questions about AzSCI, please contact us at AzSCI@azed.gov.

For questions about ACT or ACT Aspire, please contact us at Testing@azed.gov.