The KAP Balanced Assessment System cultivates learning by providing actionable information to educators and students. It incorporates classroom-based, interim, and summative assessments and offers a revitalized reporting suite to provide ongoing feedback on student progress.
Designing effective lessons and units centered on Kansas learning standards.
Identifying school-wide trends and developing targeted interventions.
Tracking student growth over time and identifying where additional support is needed.
Tailoring teaching strategies to the unique needs of each student.
Helping students to better understand their own learning patterns, set goals, and take pride in their accomplishments.
Helping students celebrate progress and helping educators set goals and identify professional learning needs.
The KAP Balanced Assessment System's revitalized reporting suite, we are ensuring multiple measures of specific learning targets scoped and sequenced by the local curriculum. Data flexibly reported at the cluster and topic level helps teachers focus instruction on the most important skills and knowledge for their specific classrooms.
Build student confidence and stamina in answering assessment items while gaining insight into student learning. With our enhanced Instructional Mini Tests, teachers can build small, classroom-based assessments aligned to Kansas standards that provide data about student growth and learning.
Building, assigning, and administering mini tests has never been easier! Use the new KAP Instructional Mini Test Guide and get started today!
Mini Tests have been transformed for 2025 and include math, English language arts, and now Science! Not only have we expanded the offerings to provide a broader range of content, the Instructional Mini Tests themselves are:
New Instructional Mini Tests will be released every 2 – 3 weeks!
For Instructional Mini Test resources and further information, visit our interim page.
The KAP Balanced Assessment System provides interim assessments in English Language Arts (ELA), mathematics, and science two times during the school year. Interim assessments are aligned to state curriculum standards but measure fewer of those standards than are assessed on Kansas summative assessments. Interim assessment scores can be used to evaluate students’ knowledge and skills and inform decisions at the classroom, school, or district level.
The KAP Interim Test Administrator Manual contains everything you will need to administer the Interim assessment. Interim assessments are available during two two-week testing windows for ELA and math in grades 3-8 and 10 as well as for science in grades 5 and 8.
Fall: 10/14/24 to 11/1/24
Spring: 1/20/25 to 1/31/25
The KAP Interim Assessments now incorporate more engaging item types by increasing the use of technology-enhanced items while reducing the number of multiple-choice items. Students will encounter more drag-and-drop, ordering, drop-down menus, matching, and other interactive item types.
In recent years, assessment developers from the University of Kansas have collaborated with KSDE content specialists to develop new assessment content, including reading passages, science phenomena, questions, and responses. Kansas educators reviewed and refined this content for grade-level appropriateness, bias, and fairness. Any questionable content was flagged, refined, or discarded. Following field testing, KU psychometricians analyzed the results for content difficulty across all sub-groups. If necessary, Kansas educators further refined the content to ensure the highest quality of assessment. The thorough review process supports the excellence of the content.
New for the 2024-25 school year, the following enhancements have been made to the KAP Balanced Assessment System Interim Assessments:
For interim resources and further information, visit our interim page.
The KAP summative assessment suite includes assessments, resources, and reports in English Language Arts (ELA), Math for grades 3-8, and 10, and Science for grades 5, 8, and 11.
Covering a range of content standards for a grade and subject, the assessments require sufficient items for valid inferences and are monitored by psychometric analysis for reliability across test administrations.
KAP summative assessments serve as a cornerstone in both state and federal accountability frameworks, holding significant weight in meeting legislative requirements such as those outlined in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
Brick and mortar: 3/24/25 to 4/25/25
Virtual: 4/28/25 to 5/9/25
KAP summative assessments are administered over five weeks each spring, with a two-week testing window for remote students.
*Please note that cut scores for the 2024-25 assessment will be established during standard setting in summer 2025.
In recent years, assessment developers from the University of Kansas have collaborated with KSDE content specialists and Kansas educators to develop new assessment content tightly aligned to the standards in each subject area. This content includes high-quality informational and literary reading passages, engaging science phenomena, and a variety of types of questions, many with rich graphics and text-to-speech capabilities. Universal Design for Assessment principles are applied to ensure a student-centric and widely accessible assessment experience for Kansas students.
KAP summative assessments across each subject area have incorporated more engaging item types by increasing the use of technology-enhanced items while reducing the number of multiple-choice items. With a concentrated focus on developing reading passages across a range of text complexities and genres as well as engaging science phenomena, the assessments intend to elicit strong student engagement.
KAP summative assessment suite offers enhanced and refreshed content, a variety of item types, and powerful new reporting capabilities.
KAP summative assessments still:
Looking for summative resources? Check out our summative page.