Student Assessment Update
June 8, 2026
Special Edition
News from DESE Student Assessment Services
Contents:
MCAS Updates for All Schools
1. Launch of the MCAS Family Portal
2. New DropBox Central Files: Growth to Standard
MCAS Updates for All Schools
1. Launch of the MCAS Family Portal
DESE is pleased to announce the upcoming launch of the MCAS Family Portal, which will provide MCAS results earlier in the year and allow parents and caregivers to access them online.
Preliminary results are anticipated to be provided by the end of June (ELA) and in August (Mathematics, Science, and Civics; exact date to be announced). In September, official results, including Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs) and comparisons to school, district, and state results, will be provided and will replace the preliminary results.
Below are details related to the availability of results, steps districts and schools will need to take, and information about a webinar on June 12 that will provide district test coordinators and other administrators with a walk-through of the family portal.
a. Availability of Results in the Portal
Results will be provided in the MCAS Family Portal on a rolling basis as they become available:
Initial Launch: Friday, June 26 (Anticipated), and no later than June 30
- Preliminary student-level spring 2026 MCAS/MCAS-Alt ELA results
- Official Spring MCAS/MCAS-Alt results from past years (2023–2025), November 2025 MCAS Retests, February 2026 MCAS High School Science
Please note that spring 2026 school, district, and state results will not be provided during this period, and a small number of students’ results may be updated after the August discrepancy period.
August 2026
September 2026
- Official spring 2026 MCAS results, including SGPs and comparisons to school, district, and state-level results
Note: Students’ preliminary results will be replaced with their official results, and their Individual Student Reports (ISRs) will be loaded.
b. How Families Will Access the Portal
Families will need their students’ unique registration code and date of birth to set up an account. DESE will post registration codes in Edwin Analytics on DESE's Security Portal on June 18 in report PE622. Districts will have the option to use a pre-filled registration letter or an Excel file to distribute registration codes to families. The Edwin registration letter will be organized by school, grade, last name, and first name. DESE will also post a template letter that districts can customize if they wish.
The MCAS Family Portal will be in English, with a Spanish translation available within the application. Families speaking other languages will have access to translations listed below into the 15 most common first languages spoken by English learners in Massachusetts, as well as translations of Individual Student Report (ISR) shells in fall 2026 (i.e., Albanian, Arabic, Cape Verdean, Traditional Chinese, French, Gujarati, Haitian French Creole, Hindi, Khmer, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Telugu, Twi, Vietnamese).
DESE will post the following resources in English and in 15 translations to a new MCAS Family Portal webpage:
- Commissioner’s letter
- Template registration letter
- One-page Quick Start Guide
- Help Guide
In the meantime, please view these FAQs for answers to common questions about the MCAS Family Portal.
Please contact DESE’s Office of Student Assessment Services with questions about the family portal (see contact information in the footer of this update).
2. New DropBox Central Files: Growth to Standard
DESE has launched an additional measure of student growth called growth to standard. Growth to standard was developed to complement the existing growth measure (student growth percentile, SGP) and to support DESE’s educational vision that “All students in Massachusetts, particularly students from historically underserved groups and communities . . . are held to high expectations with targeted support . . . [and] excel at grade level (or beyond).” Growth to standard is intended to help monitor the progress of all students towards attaining an achievement level of Meeting or Exceeding Expectations in grade 8 ELA and mathematics. The Growth to Standard webinar is now available on the MCAS Resource Center.
Schools and districts can now find the following growth to standard materials in their 2025 MCAS DropBoxes.
- DESE Growth to Standard Announcement.pdf – A guide intended to describe growth to standard, its relation to SGP, and implementation.
- Growth to Standard_2025 FileLayout.xlsx – A file layout defining the variables included in data files.
- Growth to Standard_2025_XXXXXXXX.csv – School or district specific data files including 2025 MCAS official results and growth to standard measures.
CONTACT
MCAS Service Center
for logistical support, including tech support
Email: mcas@cognia.org
Phone: 800-737-5103
TTY: 888-222-1671
Live chat is available at the link on the bottom of the page at the MCAS Resource Center
WIDA ACCESS Testing
Email: access@mass.gov
Phone: 781-228-3625
Student Assessment Services
for policy questions, including student participation
Email: mcas@mass.gov
Phone: 781-338-3625
TTY: 800-439-2370
MCAS-Alt
Email: mcas@mass.gov
Phone: 781-338-3625
