Dear Parent or Guardian,
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education recently launched an MCAS Family Portal that will allow families to access their child’s state test results. You should receive information from your district about how to access the portal using a special registration code. The portal provides your child’s initial results from the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests they took in spring 2026. Even though these results are preliminary and could change slightly, DESE is sharing them with families early this year in response to feedback and to help families prepare for the start of school in the fall.
At this time, preliminary English language arts results are available. Preliminary math results, as well as science and civics results for students who took those tests, will be available in August. Final results, including student growth information and comparisons to school, district, and statewide results, will be available in late September. The portal will also include results from previous years.
I encourage you to review your child’s results. While MCAS scores are only one piece of insight into your child’s learning experience, they can provide helpful information about your child’s progress and strengths and where additional support may be helpful.
Basic information about the test is included below and in the portal, but if you have questions about your individual child, please contact your child’s school.
About your child’s results:
MCAS scores fall into one of four achievement levels:
Exceeding Expectations
Meeting Expectations
Partially Meeting Expectations and
Not Meeting Expectations.
The results show where your child scored, which can be a good starting point for conversations with your child’s teacher. Note that if your child took the MCAS Alternate Assessment (MCAS-Alt), their results are reported with different achievement levels (Progressing, Emerging, Awareness, or Incomplete).
About the content that MCAS measures:
MCAS measures the knowledge and skills included in the Massachusetts state learning standards. Teachers and other experts designed these standards to help prepare students for success in the next grade level and beyond. More broadly, Massachusetts learning standards are designed to help students build the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in school, career, and civic life.
Massachusetts teachers and other experts use those learning standards to review and develop MCAS questions.
About the MCAS:
The results you see are from MCAS tests given this spring. Students in grades 3-8 take English language arts and mathematics tests each year, and students also take those tests once in high school. Science tests are given in grades 5, 8, and once in high school. Civics tests are given in grade 8. Some of the tests are required by state and federal laws.
MCAS results are not part of the state graduation requirement, but the tests remain an important source of information for families, educators, and policymakers. In addition, high school students’ MCAS scores may qualify them for scholarships to state colleges and universities and can fulfill part of the requirements for the State Seal of Biliteracy.
MCAS results are included in our state’s accountability system (download), which identifies which schools and districts need assistance. In other words, MCAS results help show you how your child is doing, and they help show me how our state’s public school system is doing. MCAS results help us identify trends and see where schools and districts might need help.
Our goal is for every student to feel supported and be prepared for the many opportunities available in Massachusetts and beyond.
Additional information:
More information about MCAS is available on DESE’s website.
Sincerely,
Pedro Martinez
Commissioner