HHSC Assessments

The Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) is an assessment given in many school systems to provide a view into a student’s reasoning abilities and as a way to qualify students for a high ability program.

DIBELS ® (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) is a set of procedures and measures for assessing the acquisition of literacy skills. They are designed to be short (one minute) fluency measures that can be used to regularly detect risk and monitor the development of early literacy and early reading skills.

Indiana’s Alternate Measure (I AM) assesses student achievement and growth according to Indiana’s Content Connectors aligned to the Indiana Academic Standards. I AM is the summative accountability assessment for students with significant cognitive disabilities in grades three through eight and high school. It assesses English/Language Arts (Grades 3-8 and 10), Mathematics (Grades 3-8 and 10), Science (Grades 4, 6, and Biology), and Social Studies (Grade 5).

Indiana’s Learning Evaluation and Assessment Readiness Network (ILEARN) is the summative accountability assessment for Indiana students in grades three through eight and high school biology. ILEARN measures student achievement and growth according to Indiana Academic Standards for English/Language Arts for grades three through eight, Mathematics for grades three through eight, Science for grades four and six, and Social Studies for grade five.

Students are required to participate in the ILEARN Biology End-of-Course Assessment (ECA) upon completion of the high school biology course to fulfill a federal participation requirement. A student may only have one test attempt for any given ILEARN assessment. There are no retest opportunities available for ILEARN assessments.

The Indiana Reading Evaluation and Determination (IREAD) is a reading assessment developed in accordance with state legislation. IREAD is designed to measure foundational reading skills based on Indiana Academic Standards through grade three. Beginning in the 2024-2025 school year, all grade two students will participate in the spring administration.

NWEA MAP Growth is a nationally normed computer-adaptive assessment that helps teachers check student performance by measuring achievement and growth in reading and math.

The Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) is a standardized assessment administered by College Board and co-sponsored by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) in the United States. The State of Indiana provides funds to measure students’ college- and career-readiness, indicate student academic strengths and challenges, and provide additional support to students.

Indiana uses College Board’s SAT to fulfill requirements for high school accountability. Students may also use scores to fulfill some high school graduation requirements. SAT assesses high school Mathematics, Reading, and Writing standards in grade 11. The SAT replaced the ISTEP+ assessment beginning with the 2021-2022 school year.

WIDA provides the English language proficiency placement and annual assessments administered in Indiana. WIDA Screener assessments are used to identify and inform initial programmatic placement of ELs. WIDA ACCESS summative assessments are administered annually to determine an EL’s current level of English proficiency and to monitor students’ progress in learning academic English. WIDA ACCESS assessments are also used for accountability purposes.