MCAP’s summative tests are available in grades 3-8 and high school (10-12). These assessments are taken in the springtime. The assessments include a performance-based component with longer questions that usually require multiple steps. It measures critical thinking, reasoning, and the ability to apply skills and knowledge in reading, writing, mathematics, and science.

• The MCAP English Language Arts and Literacy assessments focus on the content outlined in the Maryland College and Career Ready Standards for each grade level. Students read literary and informational passages and engage in multimedia such as video or audio pieces. Students demonstrate their reading comprehension and literacy skills by responding to text-based questions and writing prompts. In the early grades, students also demonstrate their literacy skills through a variety of oral response methods.
• The MCAP mathematics assessments focus on the content outlined in the Maryland College and Career Ready Standards for each grade level or course for 3rd to 8th grade and high school (Algebra 1). Students are asked to demonstrate their understanding of mathematics by solving real-world problems, making sense of quantities and their relationships, and reasoning mathematically.
• The Maryland Integrated Science Assessment (MISA) is administered to all students in fifth grade, eighth grade, and high school. The MISA is aligned to the Maryland Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The NGSS integrates three dimensions necessary to understand science and a set of interrelated items is required to assess the three dimensions of the NGSS. All items on the MISA are part of an item set. Each MISA item set presents a stimulus related to a real-world context, which students interact with through text, videos, charts, or simulations. Students then answer five selected or technology-enhanced questions and one constructed response question to assess their scientific literacy.
• The Multi-State Alternate Assessment (MSAA) is available for students in grades 3-8 and 11 with significant cognitive disabilities and cannot participate in the MCAP/MISA assessments, even with accommodations. This alternate assessment, based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS), covers English language arts, mathematics, and science. Additionally, the Science Alternate MSA (Alt-MSA) is offered in grades 5, 8, and 10 for students with significant cognitive disabilities and cannot participate in the Maryland School Assessment in science, even with accommodations.