If your child attends a North Dakota public school, the state test they take now is the North Dakota Academic Progression of Learning and Understanding of Students, known as ND A+. It behaves differently depending on the subject: the reading and math sections are computer-adaptive, so the questions shift to match your child’s answers as they go, while writing and science use fixed, linear forms. North Dakota also gives you a formal, state-law process for directing your district not to test your child, something most states never write into statute.
What ND A+ Looks Like: Format and Item Types
This is the detail that surprises most parents, so it helps to know it going in. In reading and math, ND A+ is computer-adaptive. As your child answers, the test selects the next question based on how they are doing, so two children in the same room can see different questions. In writing and science, the test is linear, meaning every student sees the same fixed set of items. That is why the test can feel different from one subject to the next.
ND A+ is untimed. Your child can take breaks as needed, and there is no clock forcing them to stop. In practice, most students finish an individual subject in roughly 50 to 100 minutes, with writing tending to take the longest in the elementary and middle grades. Because it is untimed, a slower, careful test-taker is not penalized for pacing.
What ND A+ is and who takes it
ND A+ replaced the older North Dakota State Assessment, or NDSA. The state built ND A+ as a new system with a new provider, a new online platform, a new bank of questions, and new cut scores, and it tests North Dakota’s current ELA and math standards. Because so much changed at once, the state cautions that ND A+ results are a fresh baseline and should not be lined up against old NDSA numbers as if they were the same test.
Your child takes ELA and math every year in grades 3 through 8 and again in grade 10. Science is added in grades 4, 8, and 10. ELA is made up of two parts, reading and writing. The test runs online through Pearson’s TestNav platform, and paper, large-print, and braille versions exist only as accommodations for students who need them, with staff entering those responses into the system afterward.
North Dakota’s parental directive
North Dakota gives you a specific legal tool called a parental directive, set out in state law at North Dakota Century Code section 15.1-21-08.1. As the custodial parent, you may direct your district not to administer a state test to your child. The directive has to be filed on the standardized state form, it is valid only for that one school year, and it is kept in your child’s education record. The district is not required to provide instruction or an activity during the testing time covered by the directive.
Two practical points matter here. First, you file a separate directive for each child and for each individual assessment, so ND A+ ELA, math, and science each need their own form. Second, a parental directive works under state law but is not a federally allowed exemption. A child who does not test still counts as a non-participant in the school’s participation-rate calculation. It is also worth knowing that “attempted” is defined narrowly: math counts as attempted after five items, reading after four, science after one, and writing counts as attempted the moment a student logs into the writing test, even with a blank response.
How ND A+ is scored
ND A+ reports a scale score and a performance level. Currently, scale scores run from 850 to 1150 across ELA, math, and science, with each grade and subject setting its own bands. The four performance levels are Level 1 Novice, Level 2 Approaching Proficient, Level 3 Proficient, and Level 4 Advanced. Proficient means your child regularly performs at the grade-level standard, and Approaching Proficient means they are generally slightly below it and can reach grade-level content with some support.
The score report also breaks performance into reporting categories so you can see relative strengths, and it includes a Lexile measure for reading and a Quantile measure for math to help you match books and materials to your child’s level. Those reading and math measures are not reported for science.
When testing happens and when results arrive
Testing takes place in a spring window, generally from mid-March into early May, with your district setting the exact days. Because the state test is not a single statewide day, your child’s building will publish its own schedule.
Results reach you through the Family Portal, generally in the summer after testing. Math and science scores can be ready for schools faster because they are machine-scored, while ELA usually lags because the writing is hand-scored and gets extra quality checks. When results are ready, you can view a printable Individual Student Report and, in some cases, a short video version that walks through the report.
What the scores mean for your child
Here is the reassuring part: North Dakota tells families that ND A+ performance does not affect a child’s classroom grades. The state describes the results as one piece of evidence about how your child is doing, used mainly to compare achievement and growth across students, schools, and districts, not as a standalone verdict on your child.
There is no statewide rule that automatically promotes or retains a child based on an ND A+ score. That said, districts set their own promotion and support policies, so if you have a specific worry about grade placement, ask your child’s school directly rather than assuming the state test settles it. Treat the score as useful information about grade-level skills, read alongside report-card grades and what your child’s teacher tells you day to day.