MAST

Montana Aligned to Standards Through-Year

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MAST Vision & Overview

In the 2024-2025 school year, MAST is the operational statewide assessment in grades 3-8 in the areas of math and ELA for all general population students. After a year of piloting in 2022-2023, a large-scale field test with over 30,000 students across Montana was completed in 2023-2024. MAST will be operationalized in the first testing window starting October 2024. Score reports will be provided to parents throughout the year and summative scores will be reported and used in the federal accountability system for identifying TSI, ATSI, and CSI for small schools after standard setting in the summer of 2025.

The U.S. Department of Education has responded to a request from Montana's Office of Public Instruction (OPI) for a waiver under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). OPI sought to waive the requirement to identify schools for targeted support and improvement (TSI) and additional targeted support and improvement (ATSI) using 2024-2025 statewide assessment data.

While the Department had previously granted a one-year waiver for the 2023-2024 school year, allowing flexibility in the accountability system for schools participating in the MAST field test, the request to extend these flexibilities was denied. The Department emphasized the need for an accountability system based on the 2024-2025 MAST statewide operational administration data to ensure appropriate support for schools and student groups in need. This data will be critical for identifying schools requiring improvement, especially in the context of ongoing academic recovery efforts.

Federal School Identification Waiver Response

The Through-Year Assessment design benefits students, teachers, parents, and administrators by providing actionable data at the beginning of the school year and by providing a meaningful model of student performance over the academic school year. Another goal for the design feature is to allow districts to flexibly align math testing with local scope and sequence offering coherence with the taught curriculum.

As the first year of MAST concluded, Supt. Arntzen asked the Federal Department of Education for a one-year double-testing waiver to remove the summative test for those students, schools, and districts that participated in the MAST Pilot Program for the 2023-2024 school year. On August 10, 2023, the United States Department of Education granted Montana a one-year flexibility waiver, allowing the state to transition to a through-year assessment model, specifically aimed at alleviating the requirement of double testing for schools participating in the MAST program.

Federal Testing Waiver

On May 4th, 2022, the OPI in partnership with the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment (Center for Assessment) convened a task force with the purpose of investigating the research phase of the Montana Aligned to Standards Through-Year (MAST) Pilot Program. A diverse group of education stakeholders were chosen using criteria such as geographic location, school and community experiences, district size, grade levels served, and cultural perspectives.

Theory of Action

2024-2025 MAST Overview

The Assessment Unit's April Focused Webinar features information regarding 2024-2025 MAST implementation. The April "Gearing Up for 2024-2025 MAST" recording, slide deck, and links document are available on the MontCAS Stay Informed webpage.

MAST Long Term Timeline

MAST Engagement

Professional Learning Opportunities

Click on the images to access the Zoom Link.

Scheduler Tool Training Recording

MontCAS Stay Informed webpage: MAST Focused Support Videos

Montana Educator MAST Contributions

Montana educators and leaders are playing a crucial role in the development and enhancement of the MAST assessment. A team of highly dedicated teachers from diverse backgrounds across the state has joined forces in various MAST Educator Cadres, actively engaging in tasks such as test item creation, review, and rangefinding. The expertise and valuable insights provided by Montana's educators have been essential in ensuring the MAST assessment's quality and relevance. Furthermore, Montana stakeholders' feedback, gathered through user feedback cycles conducted during the MAST Pilot years, has played a crucial role in the ongoing refinement of the assessment.

Summer 2025 MAST Standard Setting

Montana educators are invited to participate in Standard Setting for the MAST Assessment in the Summer 2025. In collaboration with subject matter experts, educators will help draft and refine performance-level descriptors (PLDs) to ensure these descriptors accurately reflect the competencies students must demonstrate at each performance level. Please express initial interest by filling out the linked MAST Standard Setting Recruitment Form.

MAST Development

MAST Year 1 (2022-2023)

Beginning the school year Fall of 2022, the MAST Pilot began with grades 5 through 7 and involved math and English Language Arts (ELA). Participating students completed math and ELA testlets during 4 testing windows, utilizing a through-year assessment model.

MAST Year 2 (2023-2024)

For the 2023-24 school year, the MAST Pilot expanded to grades 3 through 8 in both math and English Language Arts (ELA). Participating students completed math and ELA testlets during 5 testing windows, including an ELA performance assessment in window 4. Testlets were aligned to districts' individual curricular scopes and sequences.

OPI Staff are here to help:

Tressa Graveley, MAST Assessment Specialist

Cedar Rose, State Assessment Director

Krystal Smith, Operations Manager

mast@newmeridiancorp.org

MAST Portal OPI Statewide Assessment webpage