Professional DevelopmentAccountability Programs :

The Research and Assessment division provides professional development opportunities related to state assessments such as advisory panels, conferences, workshops and specialized training. District Assessment Coordinators as well as other educators may find these resources of interest.

The following On-demand Training Resources are provided to enable you to view information on a variety of topics at a convenient time and place. The following recorded training sessions and narrated presentations are now available:

Embedded Questioning Strategy. This session explains and demonstrates the methodology and application of the embedded questioning strategy to the MCA-II Reading Samplers and general education curriculum. The embedded questioning strategy increases reading comprehension by heightening students’ metacognition (38 minutes). You may download and print the accompanying PowerPoint file if you wish to take notes while viewing the presentation.

Parent Guide to the Minnesota Test of Academic Skills (MTAS).  A narrated presentation of information for parents about the MTAS, Minnesota's alternate assessment for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities (37 minutes).  You may download and print the accompanying PowerPoint file if you wish to take notes while viewing the presentation.

Technical Training for Online Testing. This recording covers the content in the August and November 2007 training sessions for technology staff. Topics include an overview of Pearson's online testing system, initial software installation and configuration, proctor caching setup, and troubleshooting. (25 minutes)  The PowerPoint file, plus additional training resources for online testing can be found in the Resources section of the * MN Online Assessments Website.

* Links to third-party sites are provided as a service to Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) Website visitors. See our disclaimer regarding these sites in our copyright information linked at the bottom of this page. Links will open in a new browser window.