While federal law does allow flexibility for assessments in high schools, assessments other than the Mississippi Academic Achievement Program (MAAP) assessment must meet federal requirements in the same manner as the MAAP assessment. These requirements include
- assuring that the assessment is properly aligned with and addresses the breadth and depth of the state's academic standards;
- provides coherent and timely information about student attainment of state academic standards at a student's grade level;
- is equivalent in its content coverage, difficulty and quality as compared to the state's other assessments;
- produces individual student interpretive, descriptive, and diagnostic reports regarding achievement on the assessments that allow parents, teachers, principals, and other school leaders to understand and address the specific academic needs of students;
- provides disaggregated results for the state, district, and school by each major racial and ethnic group; economically disadvantaged students compared to students who are not economically disadvantaged; children with disabilities compared to children without disabilities; English proficiency status; gender; migrant status; homeless children and youth; status as a child in foster care; and status as a student with a parent who is a member of the Armed Forces on active duty;
- provides unbiased, rational, and consistent differentiation between and among schools in the state; meets ESSA's requirements for assessments as outlined in Section 1111(b)(2), including technical criteria and accessibility, except the requirement that all students in a state take the same assessment; and
- be approved through the federal peer review process as meeting all of the requirements.
While some states have tried to get approval to use ACT instead of statewide assessments, none have been successful. The MDE is monitoring the process in other states and nationally regarding the use of assessments other than the statewide assessment on academic achievement.