Systems for State Science Assessment (2006) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix A Practical Tips
Appendix A Practical Tips
Pages 185-201
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Appendixes
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Citing a General Accounting Office study indicating that anywhere from $1.9 to $5.3 billion will be spent on test development and administration by 2010, Olson details the rapid growth in both the number of test publishers and in the number of contracts being let by states to testing companies and their subcontractors. In 2002, Matt Gandal (Achieve, 2002)
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This assumes that students receive multiple score reports for each tested subject. If there are sufficient state staff and capacity to manage multiple vendors, there may be several advantages: vendors with particular specialties would bid on the part of the program for which they are uniquely qualified, potentially offering a higher quality proposal.
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Applicable Laws, Rules, and Guidelines 1. What are the controlling state/federal laws or rules governing the testing program in the state?
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Background and Contextual Information The state should provide as much information as possible about expectations for the basic content of the assessment. If curriculum standards are very general or banded in multiple grade levels, a considerable amount of work will need to be done to make decisions about the content of the assessment, as the curriculum standards may be too general to assess directly.
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Is there an expectation to have a separate set of score reports, or will score reports be integrated with other subject area score reports?
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Note: If an augmented norm-referenced test is planned, an alignment study of the "base" test items should be required. The RFP should re quire a test design, including how many items will be provided for each curriculum standard and the anticipated blueprint.
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What are the expectations for "sealing" sections of the test booklets? What oversight or review is expected by state staff or outside reviewers prior to final production?
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2. Consider overall data collection needs: coordination with existing state collections, coordination with any other vendors, and coordination with other state assessments.
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g. What are the quality control procedures, including internal tracking procedures, to ensure that the correct score is transferred to the cor rect student's score report?
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11. Identify any current amounts allowed or expected for specifications that may be helpful, for example, current square footage of warehouse space, number of toll-free customer service phone lines, meeting space require ments, location, and amount of office space, if required.
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GETTING THE BEST FROM TEST CONTRACTORS Test contractors are key to getting a state testing program into operation. Even states that plan to design their own unique assessment systems often work with test contractors or consultants who are responsible for many aspects of test design.
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Look at who is on the project and what their credentials are and pay close attention to the time allocations. If they have put a well-known person in the staffing plan (e.g., to do the equating)
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. If the contractor is out of state, consider asking them to maintain office sites in your state, so they can easily run item writing, item reviewing, and scor ing sessions in the state.
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20. There are crucial times during test development when states need to pay close attention to the contractors' work, i.e., during the initial stages of getting a program up and running.
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b. Establishing a process by which prospective bidders can access all of the questions that are asked by other bidders and that are answered by state assessment officials.
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Key Terms
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