RD61 - Special Report: Department of Education Student Assessment Program Procurement


Executive Summary:
In September 2005, the Department of Education (DOE) awarded a six-year, nearly $140 million contract for student testing services, DOE‘s largest single procurement. The Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee subsequently requested that JLARC staff conduct a review of this procurement. The JLARC Chairman authorized the staff review and appointed a special subcommittee of members.

The JLARC staff review found several strengths of the student assessment procurement process, including that it was conducted by an evaluation committee of professional staff without outside pressure, the steps in the procurement process were completed, and the selected proposal was below budget. However, a weakness of the process was that the evaluation committee was not required to document or provide the rationale for its scoring by the procurement act, the Superintendent, or the Board of Education. Evaluation committee members had some difficulty after-the-fact clearly articulating the basis for their scoring, but it appears that the committee chose the vendor it thought had a more clear and detailed proposal; a fully-developed, proven online testing system; and better staffing and management—which DOE believed meant less risk of future problems with the student assessment program.