What ATLAS Looks Like: Format and Item Types
Arkansas replaced its old state test, ACT Aspire, with a new one built specifically for the state: ATLAS, which stands for the Arkansas Teaching, Learning and Assessment System. This was not a rename. It is a different test with a different design, a different scoring scale, and a fresh baseline, developed with the vendor Cambium Assessment and aligned to Arkansas Academic Standards. ATLAS is online and adaptive, meaning the questions adjust in difficulty in real time based on how your child is answering. It is also untimed, so your child works at their own pace within the school’s schedule.
One mechanical detail is worth knowing before test day, because it generates complaints every year. On ATLAS, a student cannot skip an item and come back to it the same way a paper test allows. They must answer to move forward, and they can review within a session, but after a pause longer than 20 minutes they generally lose access to items they already answered. If your child needs frequent breaks or has accommodations for pacing, raise this with the school ahead of time so the plan accounts for it.
The Grade-by-Grade Testing Map
Grades 3 through 8 carry the full load: ATLAS in English language arts, math, and science. Grades 9 and 10 take ATLAS English language arts, and layered on top are the end-of-course exams. Any student enrolled in Algebra I, Geometry, or Biology takes the matching end-of-course test, and an accelerated seventh or eighth grader taking Algebra I or Geometry sits that end-of-course exam in place of the grade-level math test. Grade 11 is the ACT. Along the way, Arkansas also requires students to pass the Arkansas Civics Exam with at least 60 percent before receiving a diploma, and English learners take ELPA21 or Alt ELPA for language proficiency. Students with the most significant cognitive disabilities take the DLM alternate assessment, which is an IEP-team decision.
The item counts give you a rough sense of length. English language arts runs about 40 to 42 scored items across reading fundamentals and vocabulary, literary text, informational text, and writing and language, and it includes one writing task. Math runs 35 scored items in grades 3 through 5, 38 in grade 6, and 36 in grades 7 and 8. Algebra I is 47 items and Geometry is 46. Science is a leaner 16 scored items in grades 3 through 8, and Biology is 18.
Third-Grade Reading Now Carries Promotion Stakes
This is the change that matters most for younger families. Third-grade ATLAS English language arts is now consequential for promotion in a way that other tested grades are not. A third grader generally needs to reach Level 2 or higher on the grade 3 ATLAS English language arts test, or qualify for a good-cause exemption, to be promoted. A Level 1 result does not by itself hold a child back on the spot: it starts a decision process, and the state says the score should be considered through a team review with parent communication, not treated as a single automatic gate.
Good-cause exemptions cover specific circumstances: students with significant cognitive disabilities who take the alternate assessment, certain students with disabilities documented through an IEP or 504, English learners with fewer than three years of English instruction, students already retained, students receiving intensive intervention, and students who show reading skill through portfolio evidence. There is also an optional grade 3 retake for promotion eligibility, held after the main window closes. That retake is only about promotion, and it does not replace the official score used for accountability.
Why You Cannot Compare ATLAS Scores to the Old Test
If you kept your child’s old ACT Aspire results, set them aside. Arkansas treats ATLAS as a new baseline, and the state has been direct that ATLAS scores should not be compared to prior ACT Aspire scores. The tests use different designs, different item pools, and different score scales, so a lower or higher number this time does not mean your child slipped or jumped relative to the old test. It means the ruler changed. This is the single most common source of parent alarm, so it helps to know it going in: you are looking at the start of a new trend line, not a continuation of the old one.
Because the scale reset, you should also be cautious with anyone who claims a specific “passing score” number they read somewhere. Arkansas reports a scale score and one of four achievement levels, and the level is what carries meaning for promotion and reporting. Focus on the level and the reporting categories under it rather than chasing a single cutoff figure.
Understanding Levels 1 Through 4
ATLAS reports four achievement levels. Level 4 means a student is exceeding grade-level expectations. Level 3 means meeting grade-level expectations and consistently demonstrating mastery, and it is the “proficient” mark the state points to as being on track. Level 2 means partially meeting expectations, with some support likely needed. Level 1 means not yet meeting expectations and needing significant support. For statewide reporting, Levels 3 and 4 are counted as proficient, and Levels 1 and 2 are below that line.
Here is the confusion to guard against. A level is not a course grade. Arkansas parents have publicly read low Algebra I proficiency figures and concluded that most students “failed algebra,” which is not what the numbers say. A student can pass the class and still land at Level 2 on the state test, because the test measures performance against grade-level standards, not the teacher’s gradebook. When you read your child’s report, treat the level as a standards checkpoint and look at the reporting categories underneath it to see which skills are strong and which need work.
Opt-Out and Refusal in Arkansas
Arkansas is blunt on this point, so there is no gray area to manage. State policy says all public school students must participate in statewide summative assessments, and there is no opt-out from them. Arkansas law requires public school district students to take the statewide tests.
You may hear that a “refused” code exists, and it does, but do not read it as an opt-out right. That code is administrative record-keeping for a student who did not test. It results in no valid score rather than a recognized exemption, and it does not change the state’s position that participation is required. If refusal is on your mind, talk to your district about how it handles nonparticipation, since the practical consequences are managed locally.