• Admission to ACCESS Academy is by application and lottery. 

    The ACCESS Lottery for the 2025–2026 school year closed on March 12th, 2025. The lottery will open on February 18th, 2026 for the 2026–2027 school year. You can find more information here.

    Portland Public Schools (PPS) uses a set of nationally- normed assessments to determine student eligibility for the
    ACCESS Academy lottery. Students must demonstrate performance at the 99th percentile or above in Reading, Math,
    and/or Cognitive Ability on one of the assessments listed below.

    • Applicants must have a composite (not sub-test) score at the 99th percentile or higher in Reading,
      Math, or Cognitive Ability.
    • Scores from any academic year may be considered.
    • To qualify, assessments must meet the following requirements:
      • The test must be proctored by an independent, qualified professional.
      • Submitted documentation must include a full score report generated by the assessment
        vendor (summaries from psychologists or other professionals cannot be accepted without the
        score report).

     

    Predetermination of Eligibility

    Families of students currently enrolled in 1st through 7th grades who have a qualifying score on a
    district-administered assessment (marked with an asterisk (*) below) will be notified of their eligibility to apply
    in time for the ACCESS Lottery. Those families will not need to submit additional eligibility documentation,
    should they decide to submit an application for the lottery.


    Families of students applying for the ACCESS lottery whose students are not predetermined as eligible must
    submit documentation of a qualifying assessment score.

    Assessments Accepted for ACCESS Academy Eligibility:

    • Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT)
    • Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS)
    • iReady Math Diagnostic*
    • Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement
    • MAP Growth (NWEA)* – note: this differs from
      MAP Fluency
    • Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT)*
    • Naglieri General Ability Test (Verbal, Nonverbal, or
      Quantitative)*
    • Otis-Lennon School Ability Test (OLSAT)
    • Stanford-Binet Achievement Test
    • Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT)
    • Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)
    • Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of
      Intelligence (WPPSI)
    • Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities

    Neither the ACCESS nor the district team are able to provide information about private testing. 

    Applicants must be currently enrolled PPS students or reside within PPS boundaries. For an out-of-district student to apply to a criteria-based lottery in PPS, they must first be approved in the inter-district lottery which opens in early May.  After enrolling in an approved neighborhood school or non-criteria-based program, students can then apply to criteria-based programs (such as ACCESS) where they meet eligibility.