OKLAHOMA CITY — The state is one step closer to having a new testing vendor for its end-of-instruction assessments, as well as for its science and social studies assessments for fifth, seventh and eighth grades.
The State Board of Education on Thursday unanimously approved recommending the awarding of the contract to one of the three bidders.
The vote was based on an evaluation by Department of Education administrators, which considered several factors before determining the best vendor. Board members voted without knowing the name of the vendor, which Assistant State Superintendent Lisa Chandler said is the policy until the final contract is in place.
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The Oklahoma Department of Central Services is the state agency that would award the final contract. Chandler said she expects the contract to be awarded soon.
The Board of Education this summer decided not to renew the contract of testing vendor CTB/McGraw-Hill after the company’s computer server problems shut down testing for Oklahoma students in two consecutive years.
Board member Amy Ford said she understood that the vote had to be a blind vote, but asked whether CTB was again considered.
“I can assure you that past performance was taken into consideration,” Chandler said.
Two separate requests for proposals were put out for the assessments — one for the EOI exams and one for the science and social studies exams. Two vendors submitted bids for both assessments, and one only submitted a bid for the end-of-instruction exams.
The recommendation is for the same vendor — identified as Company A — to be awarded both contracts.
The company received the highest overall summary evaluation score, based on six categories: pricing, online system components, quality of products, quality of service, program management and staffing resources, and experience and corporate capacity.
The contract for the EOI assessments for 2015 would be worth $4.8 million. The science and social studies assessment contract for the year would be worth $2.8 million. Both contracts can be renewed for four more years, which would total $32.4 million for the EOI testing and $15.6 million for the science and social studies testing.
Chandler said the department went through a “comprehensive” process to determine which company would provide the best service and product to state schools.
