We hope you all had a restful summer! There are several topics to share to prepare for the 2026-2027 school year.

We want to first apologize for the delays in posting testing windows for AASA, AzSCI, ACT Aspire, and MSAA. We are having very thoughtful conversations to ensure that we are meeting the requirements of HB2032 as well as minimizing potential impacts on data delivery timelines for the AASA, AzSCI, and ACT Aspire testing windows. For MSAA, we are waiting for the contract to be awarded so that we can confirm the preferred testing window. We appreciate your patience as we work through these considerations and will provide more information as soon as it is available. 

We have rolled out a new process for submitting the District Test Coordinator (DTC) Security Agreement Form. This process is now entirely online, making the process of collecting signatures from across the district more efficient. Please visit the District Test Coordinator Section of the Assessments website for a user guide and tutorial on the new process.

The Friday Focus Webinar series is expanding. Instead of our Assessments Conference this fall, we will be providing timely information on many assessment-related topics throughout the year. We will continue to record and post the webinars.

We are going to continue to offer Navvy for this school year. Please visit the Pearson Navvy Support Site for more information or to sign up.

Although we are still working toward virtual proctoring for online schools, this option will not be available for the Spring 2027 administration. We will provide updates as they are available.

All of our assessment Request for Proposals (RFPs) have been posted. AZELLA is excited to announce that Cambium is our new vendor. More information is available in the AZELLA section of this bulletin. The MSAA contract should be awarded later this summer and will apply to the Spring 2027 administration. The high school and AASA / AzSCI RFPs will be implemented for the Spring 2028 administration. There are no changes to our Achievement Assessment contracts this school year.

All districts and charters should have received paper copies of AASA, AzSCI, ACT Aspire, and ACT Individual Student Reports. Reports should be shared with teachers and parents as soon as possible.

Due to the passing of HB2032, the Spring 2027 test windows for AASA, AzSCI, and ACT Aspire are still pending. We understand that schools, districts, and charters need these timelines for planning purposes, and our teams are working hard to finalize the dates as quickly as possible. Achievement District Test Coordinators will be notified via email, and our webpages will be updated, as soon as the test windows are finalized within the next few weeks.

The test windows that have been published for ACT are finalized and will not be changing.

Schools may utilize both ACT test windows in order to assess all Cohort 2028 students. Schools are encouraged to administer ACT during the first test window and may also use the second test window, as needed, to complete any makeup testing. Any schools that choose to administer ACT during only the second test window will not have an additional ACT test window to use for makeup testing. Test Coordinators will select the ACT test window for each school in the district or charter in ACT's PearsonAccess Next system in November 2026.

Schools should plan testing schedules thoughtfully within the established statewide test windows and take into consideration students' individual needs, including cultural or religious observations. Local scheduling decisions should be made to ensure that all students are given the opportunity to test within the required window. Per Arizona state policy, test windows cannot be extended for any reason.

All statewide achievement tests (AASA, AzSCI, ACT Aspire, and ACT) are administered online by default. If any school wishes to switch to paper-based testing for any of the statewide achievement tests, a request must be submitted in the Achievement Testing Mode Application in ADEConnect, September 14 - October 9, 2026. A reminder email with further instructions will be sent to all Achievement District Test Coordinators when the application is open.

Please note the following additional information:

All of the statewide achievement tests, including AASA (Grades 3-8), AzSCI (Grades 5, 8, and 11 (Cohort 2028), ACT Aspire (Grade 9/Cohort 2030), and ACT (Grade 11/Cohort 2028), will utilize the PearsonAccess Next and TestNav platforms in Spring 2027.

There are three distinct PearsonAccess Next websites, linked below.

Dates that each PearsonAccess Next site will open for Spring 2027 test administration tasks will be published soon.

The new version of TestNav (Version 8.27) has been released. For the most up-to-date TestNav information, please visit and review the following Pearson webpages.

Arizona offers three paper test formats (braille, large print, and regular print) to meet the needs of students who cannot access the test content through computer-based testing. Requests for Special Paper Version tests must be submitted to ADE for review and approval September 14, 2026 - February 5, 2027. Submissions must include pages of the student's current IEP or 504 Plan that indicate the need for a Special Paper Version of the test or documentation of a parent's request for the student to take a paper test. Additional information about Special Paper Version requests will be sent to District Test Coordinators prior to the request window opening.

Requests for the additional accommodations listed below must be submitted to ADE for review and approval September 14, 2026 - February 5, 2027. Requests should not be submitted for Universal Test Administration Conditions and Universal Tools, as described in the Achievement Assessments Accommodations Manual. An updated 2026-2027 Achievement Assessments Accommodations Manual will be published on the Accessibility page of our website soon.

ACT and ADE have scheduled the following webinars for test coordinators in preparation for Spring 2027 testing. All District Test Coordinators with Cohort 2028 students are expected to attend each webinar or view the webinar recording after it is posted on the ACT-hosted website. Any updates for 2026-2027 testing will be presented. Webinar registration links are included below.

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

If you have any questions about Alternate Assessments, please contact us at AlternateAssessment@azed.gov.

Welcome to the new year of AZELLA! We appreciate your patience and understanding while AZELLA was under construction. Now that we are up and running, we anticipate a few speed bumps, but the road will become smoother as we move forward and learn the new systems together. ADE's Assessment AZELLA Team appreciates your dedication and advocacy for the EL students in your schools and across the state. We understand what the job entails, and we are ready to provide you with guidance and assistance throughout the school year as the AZELLA is a year-round assessment with two (2) separate test administrations this school year.

The AZELLA Test Administration Calendar for School Year 2026-2027 is available on the AZELLA DTC website.

This document includes important dates and tasks for each AZELLA test administration. It also includes the AZELLA Placement Test Cycle Calendar which helps DTCs identify when a student's EL services will pass integrity based on an AZELLA Placement - Dynamic Screener test record. We encourage all AZELLA DTCs to print these pages for reference throughout the school year. This calendar will be updated regularly. Please ensure you are viewing the most current version as noted on the website. 

The first day of school is when the AZELLA Placement - Dynamic Screener testing is required to begin.

Eligible students will be administered the AZELLA Placement - Dynamic Screener which is a Kindergarten through Grade 12 online assessment.

EL Group 8 students are students who have previously been identified as having an EL need but do not have an English language proficiency (ELP) record that identifies their current EL program eligibility status. These are students identified as EL Group 8 on the EL73 - EL Student Need Report and those with a red font message on their EL70 - ELP Student Test History Report. The EL Group 8 students have their own Placement test and must be identified as Group 8 in TIDE with their test registration.

Please refer to the Eligibility for the AZELLA Placement - Dynamic Screener document for a detailed description of the students who require the administration of the Placement - Dynamic Screener.

The AZELLA Placement - Dynamic Screener Logic Flow Chart is a quick, at-a-glance resource for identifying students who need to be tested.

The AZELLA Placement - Dynamic Screener Administration Compliance Time Frames explain when students must be administered the AZELLA Placement - Dynamic Screener and the parents notified of the results.

Cambium Assessment, Inc (CAI) provides a suite of independent and interconnected web-based programs and tools for AZELLA through a Single Sign On (SSO) system. AZELLA District Test Coordinators and other authorized personnel will require a login and password. Those who have had access to Cambium's Test Information Distribution Engine (TIDE) in a prior school year may be able to use their same credentials to gain access. ADE and Cambium are responsible for establishing the AZELLA District Test Coordinators' accounts, and then the DTCs must create their AZELLA staff accounts so that they can complete AZELLA ELPA21 training, access TIDE for test administration, and be able to view reports at the district -and school-level entities.

There is a plethora of valuable resources available in the AZ Portal. Time-sensitive announcements are included on the homepage and should be reviewed regularly. Information for Test Administrators and Technology Coordinators is at the forefront of this website. Technology Coordinators will also find the Secure Browsers important information. The ClearCourse Learning Management System plays a key role for AZELLA training and is available in the AZ Portal.

TIDE is the all-in-one secure control center for all test registration and administration tasks that users are required to prepare for student testing. TIDE is the main hub for managing entities in the test administration process, including users, students, rosters, and organizational components, such as districts and schools.

TIDE's interface includes administrative tasks that must be performed before testing begins and the tasks performed while tests are being administered to students. 

Cambium provides a secure test environment that strictly controls access to test materials and protects testing data throughout transmission and administration. The TDS is a full web-based application that supports secure delivery of online tests to students. 

The Centralized Reporting System (CRS) is an online reporting portal that provides districts and schools with access to student results such as the Individual Student Reports (ISR), summary reports, aggregate reports, and downloadable Student Data Files (SDF). Two printed copies of the ISR for the AZELLA Placement - Dynamic Screener and the Spring 2027 AZELLA Reassessment - Summative will be sent to districts. One copy must be kept in the students' cumulative files, and the other copy must be provided to the parent or guardian. The electronic ISR may be printed in English or in one of the other 15 languages that the CRS provides. 

There are four parts to the AZELLA training. All AZELLA DTCs, STCs, and TAs are expected to complete their training and sign the 2026-2027 AZELLA Test Security Agreement prior to the administration of any AZELLA tests. These parts are explained in more detail on the AZELLA DTC website. 

All students, regardless of disability, who have a non-English/non-ASL Home Language Survey require an AZELLA test. There are no provisions, in either state or federal law, which would allow the exemption of English language proficiency testing for students enrolled in special education programs and who require an AZELLA test.

Accommodated Forms for the Placement - Dynamic Screener and the Spring Reassessment - Summative

The AZELLA Additional Accommodations Request Form must be submitted to request an accommodated form, additional accommodations, or a domain exception for a student who has a documented sensory disability (for example: deafness or blindness) that precludes assessment in one or more domains of AZELLA prior to administering the AZELLA. DTCs must wait for ADE's response to the request and further directions from the AZELLA Team prior to administering the AZELLA. Each request form may take up to 4 weeks to process as communication between ADE and the district transpires. 

A separate accommodation request form must be used when an eligible student's only additional accommodation is to have additional time to administer the AZELLA. This form is submitted by the school and can accommodate up to 15 students in one submission.

Please note: For students who are eligible for Alternate Assessments and need an AZELLA, the AZELLA District Test Coordinator must contact their district's Alternate Assessment District Test Coordinator because these students must be administered the Alt ELPA, not the AZELLA.

The EL Reports available through the Assessments section of the ADEConnect include:

PLEASE NOTE: Districts will be able to access a student's EL70 report within two (2) calendar weeks prior to their school enrollment date provided the school enrollment has been processed through AzEDS and passed Integrity. The date on which access to the student's EL70 Report is granted is 100% dependent on when the district's Student Information System has synchronized the student's school enrollment to AzEDS.

All the 2025-2026 AZELLA Placement Test and Spring 2026 AZELLA Reassessment Test published reports and Student Data Files from PearsonAccess Next (PAN) (district- and school-level entities) must be downloaded and saved by September 30, 2026. After this date, these reports and Student Data Files will not be available as Pearson nor ADE keep these. Please refer to the PAN User's Guide document for detailed instructions.

The most efficient way to communicate with the AZELLA Team (Gabbie, Sandra, Karen, and Brenda) at ADE is by email. The AZELLA Team strives to respond to emails within one business day unless further research is needed.

When e-mailing AZELLA@azed.gov, please:

If you have any questions about AZELLA, please contact us at AZELLA@azed.gov.

Arizona-specific data can be found here: https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/.

If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Gary McIlvaine, AZ Director of NAEP and International Assessments.

602-364-1583