Science and Technology/Engineering (STE) Test Design and Development

Additional Resources

Each STE MCAS question is aligned to a cognitive skill level, based on Revised Bloom's taxonomy, which are described on the Cognitive Skill Level Descriptions for STE MCAS Items webpage.

The science and engineering practices are sorted into three categories, as described on the MCAS Practice Categories webpage.

The Life Cycle of an STE Item outlines our item test development process.

Practice tests for all MCAS tests may be found on the MCAS Resource Center Science and Technology/Engineering Practice Tests webpage . The practice tests include examples of the various item types for both the paper-based and computer-based tests.

The Digital Item Library is a searchable database of computer-based MCAS questions.
The Released Items in the MCAS Resource Center provide access to released test questions from the MCAS computer-based tests.
The Released Item Documents provide access to released test questions from the MCAS paper-based tests.
The Student Work and Scoring Guides provide access to student work samples, including examples of MCAS questions, scoring guides, and student responses.

Equation Editor (EE) guides and a Student Tutorial are available on the the MCAS Resource Center Practice Tests and Other Resources webpage .

The Equation Editor (EE) guides are to help familiarize students with how to use the EE tool embedded in the MCAS computer-based Grade 8 STE and High School Introductory Physics tests.
The Student Tutorial is to help students become familiar with how to navigate the testing environment for the computer-based tests, (e.g., advancing, going back, tool bar, embedded supports, accommodations, and item types).

Last Updated: March 19, 2025