Montana school districts and the OPI work in partnership to ensure that all students are afforded the opportunity to participate in state assessments. School Leaders (Administrators), System Test Coordinators, Educators, and Families are critical partners to ensure all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging academic content standards. Expand each accordion to read more about the topic as it relates to district roles.

What is test security and whose role is it?

  • The OPI publishes guidance, provides technical assistance, and provides ‘just-in-time’ training to support school districts with the responsibilities for ensuring student achievement data are valid, reliable, and fair for the purposes for which state assessments are used. OPI’s test security requirements ensures that these state assessments are comparable for each purpose required under ESEA-ESSA and consistent with the relevant professional and technical testing standards (see 34 CFR 200.2(b)(4) and (5)).
  • MontCAS Test Security Manual: Describes the standardized test administration and test security procedures to be used by each accredited school.
  • Administrators, educators, families, and the public can learn more about this topic on the Test Security Guidelines page.
  • System Test Coordinators (STC) can access the STC Corner Site on the Test Security page to learn more about this topic.

What are the test administration guidelines and who administers the test?

What are the accessibility guidelines and how do we include students?

  • The OPI publishes guidance, provides technical assistance, and provides ‘just-in-time’ training to support school districts with the responsibilities for ensuring all school staff with a responsibility to administer state assessments are properly trained and know how to administer assessments, including, as necessary, alternate assessments, and know how to make use of appropriate accommodations during assessment for all students (see 34 CFR 200.6(b)(2)(ii)).
  • The OPI uploads student information for test delivery purposes from the State student information (SIS) database (i.e., AIM/Infinite Campus) to the Testing Portal.
  • AIM Data Collection Schedule 2021-22: This collection schedule describes the OPI’s required collections for each state and federal program.
  • MontCAS Policies and Procedures for Participation in State Assessments: This guide explains the participation policies and procedures to register and include students in each of the state assessments.
  • Administrators, educators, families, and the public can learn more about this topic on the Accessibility Resource page.
  • System Test Coordinators (STC) can access the STC Corner Site on Accessibility & Inclusion Guidelines and Participation Policies to learn more about this topic.

What are the data and reporting district requirements?

  • The OPI publishes guidance, provides technical assistance, and provides ‘just-in-time’ training to support school districts with the responsibilities for notification of individual student reports to families, teachers, and school leaders as soon as practicable after each test administration (see 34 CFR 200.8(a) and ARM 10.55.909).
  • District, school, and Individual Student Reports (ISR) available in the Testing Portal. 
  • Districts are responsible for providing the ISR to parents/families no later than Fall Parent-Teacher Conferences or as soon as practicable after the assessment. 
  • Resources to support notice of score reports to parents/families can be found on the Parent Corner page.
  • AIM Data Collection Schedule 2021-22: This collection schedule describes the OPI’s required collections for each state and federal program.
  • Administrators, educators, families, and the public can learn more about this topic at Montana’s longitudinal data warehouse (GEMS).
  • System Test Coordinators (STC) can access the STC Corner Site on the Data and Reporting Guidelines page to learn more about this topic.

  • Montana Technical Report Empirical Standard Setting for ACT

What training and quality assurance activities are required to ensure data quality?

  • The OPI publishes guidance, provides technical assistance, and provides ‘just-in-time’ training to support school districts with the responsibilities for ensuring all school staff with a responsibility to administer assessments are properly trained and know how to administer assessments (see 34 CFR 200.6(b)(2)(ii)).
  • Administrators, educators, families, and the public can learn more about this topic at Testing Portals.
  • System Test Coordinators (STC) can access the STC Corner Site on the Training and Certification Guidelines page to learn more about this topic.

Training and Events

  • The OPI provides technical assistance and training to support school districts with the various test administration, test accessibility, test security, and training responsibilities.
  • Administrators, System Test Coordinators, educators, families, and the public can learn more about training opportunities on the Training and Events page.