(a)(1) For each grade and subject assessed, a State's academic assessment system must—

(i) Address the depth and breadth of the State's academic content standards under § 200.1(b);

(ii) Be valid, reliable, and of high technical quality;

(iii) Express student results in terms of the State's student academic achievement standards; and

(iv) Be designed to provide a coherent system across grades and subjects.

(2) A State may include in its academic assessment system under § 200.2 either or both—

(i) Criterion-referenced assessments; and

(ii) Assessments that yield national norms, provided that, if the State uses only assessments referenced against national norms at a particular grade, those assessments—

(A) Are augmented with additional items as necessary to measure accurately the depth and breadth of the State's academic content standards; and

(B) Express student results in terms of the State's student academic achievement standards.

(b) A State that includes a combination of assessments as described in paragraph (a)(2) of this section, or a combination of State and local assessments, in its State assessment system must demonstrate in its State plan that the system has a rational and coherent design that—

(1) Identifies the assessments to be used;

(2) Indicates the relative contribution of each assessment towards—

(i) Ensuring alignment with the State's academic content standards; and

(ii) Determining the adequate yearly progress of each school and LEA; and

(3) Provides information regarding the progress of students relative to the State's academic standards in order to inform instruction.

(c) A State that includes local assessments in the system described in § 200.2(b) must—

(1) Establish technical criteria to ensure that each local assessment meets the requirements of paragraphs (a)(1) and (c)(2) of this section;

(2) Demonstrate in its State plan that all local assessments used for this purpose—

(i) Are equivalent to one another and to State assessments, where they exist, in their content coverage, difficulty, and quality;

(ii) Have comparable validity and reliability with respect to groups of students described in section 1111(b)(2)(C)(v) of the Act; and

(iii) Provide unbiased, rational, and consistent determinations of the annual progress of schools and LEAs within the State;

(3) Review and approve each local assessment to ensure that it meets or exceeds the State's technical criteria in paragraph (c)(1) of this section and the requirements in paragraph (c)(2) of this section; and

(4) Be able to aggregate, with confidence, data from local assessments to determine whether the State has made adequate yearly progress.

(d) A State's academic assessment system may rely exclusively on local assessments only if it meets the requirements of § 200.4.