Alaska has established a Comprehensive System of Student Assessments to track students’ progress from kindergarten through twelfth grade, as well as how best to provide additional assistance. The Alaska Kindergarten/First Grade Profile is administered to kindergarten or first grade students entering the public schools for the first time. It asks the teachers of these students to record students’ developmental readiness in areas such as language development, motor skills, and personal/social abilities. Alaska Benchmark Assessments are given to students in grades 3, 6, and 8 to measure their performance in relation to statewide standards for reading, writing, and mathematics. Terra Nova, The Second Edition©, a norm-referenced test, is given to students in grades 4, 5, 7, and 9 to measure how well students compare with national averages in reading, writing, and math. The High School Graduation Qualifying Exam is first offered to students in the spring of grade 10. It is offered again twice a year in grades 11 and 12, and twice a year for up to 3 years after completion of high school. Students can continue taking the exam, or its separate tests in reading, writing, and math, until they pass all three sections necessary to qualify for a high school diploma.

Merit’s language arts and math software programs correlate to Alaska’s academic content standards and can help students prepare for the Alaska Benchmark Examinations. The content and format of Merit’s programs can help students develop and strengthen their test-taking skills as well as their reading, writing and math skills.

Merit reading software has been proven -- through rigorous, scientifically based research -- to increase both student reading comprehension and standardized test scores. Merit research study findings reveal that education software is an effective tool to improve test scores and academic performance.

Published: May 2005