Great Plains Assessment Windows and the Weeks Around Them

Quick answer: Know the five calendars before you plan one. Iowa runs ISASP through grade eleven, Kansas runs KAP in grades three to eight and ten, Nebraska's NSCAS covers grades three to eight and eleven, North Dakota now uses the ND A+ Summative, and South Dakota tests grades three to eight and sends juniors to the SD-ACT.

Who tests which grades across the region?

The Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress covers grades three through eleven, and the state has been gathering public input during 2026 on new achievement levels and a possible redesign. Kansas gives the Kansas Assessment Program in grades three through eight and ten, with science at five, eight and eleven. Nebraska's Student-Centered Assessment System covers grades three through eight and eleven.

North Dakota's test is now the ND A+ Summative, which replaced the NDSA name in spring 2025, at grades three through eight and ten. South Dakota tests ELA and math in grades three through eight, adds a science assessment, and since 2025-26 sends eleventh graders to the SD-ACT instead of a state summative. Five states, five calendars, one staffroom conversation every March.

Why do juniors take the hardest hit in a business classroom?

Grade eleven is tested in at least three of these five states, and grade ten in two more, which is precisely the cohort that fills business, marketing and career-readiness electives. Your seniors are usually safe; your sophomores and juniors are not. Plan the elective year so the heaviest project work happens before February, and keep a stack of standalone lessons for the weeks you cannot predict.

Financial Literacy Day 1 Lesson - Welcome & Course Overview - Slides, Workbook, Notes is a good example of the standalone kind: an opening financial literacy session with slides, a workbook page and notes, complete in one period and dependent on nothing that came before it. Keep four or five files like that ready. A testing schedule that changes on the Friday before stops being a crisis when the replacement lesson is already photocopied.

What is worth teaching in the testing weeks themselves?

Content that stands on its own and produces a markable page. Workplace data handling is a strong candidate for a business room, because every student has an opinion about who holds their information. Data protection and the GDPR at the workplace uses the GDPR as the case study, which gives a clear rulebook to reason from before students compare it with what their own employer does.

Mark it against your own state's standards, since the five sets differ in wording even where they cover the same ground. Kansas, for instance, ties accreditation to outcomes beyond test scores through its Kansans Can framework, which makes documented classroom evidence worth having. Regional material sits on Great Plains Teaching Resources (IA, KS, NE, ND, SD), sorted by grade band. Print the standard on the task sheet and the filing does itself.

How do I build a year that works in any of these states?

Anchor the long units in the two protected stretches, September to Thanksgiving and the weeks after the spring windows close, and fill the rest with material that can be reordered. A teacher who moves districts across a state line, which is common in this region, then keeps the same plan and changes only the standards column.

Nutrition, Health & Food Industry Bundle | High School Biology, Health Science & Business Teaching Resources fills those protected stretches with a term of food, health and industry material that crosses business, science and health rooms, which suits a small district where one teacher covers several subjects. Iowa teachers can start from the Iowa Teaching Resources & Worksheets (Grades K–12) and work outward. Everyone else can start from a state page and borrow from the neighbors. Nothing about a state line changes what a good lesson looks like.

Frequently asked questions

Are these connected to any of the five state education agencies?

No. They are independent teaching resources, not affiliated with or endorsed by any state department of education, any state assessment program or any exam authority. Matching a task to Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota or South Dakota standards is a judgment you make for your own course.

Why teach the GDPR in an American classroom?

Because it gives students a written rulebook to argue with. A rule set from somewhere else is often the clearest way into a discussion about what should happen here, and workplace data handling is a live question in any office a graduate walks into. Treat it as a case study, not as the law your students work under.

Can one purchase cover several teachers in a small district?

Check the license terms on each listing before assuming it does, since these are digital files rather than a site subscription. Previews and grade bands are on every product page, and everything downloads instantly. For order questions, see the store's refund policy.

Related reading

• Multi-Grade Rooms on the Great Plains: One Unit, Four Levels
• Being the Only Teacher in Your Subject
• Great Plains Teaching Resources (IA, KS, NE, ND, SD)