The NWEA and New York State Education Department (NYSED) have issued an RFP to select a preferred supplier to act as a subcontractor with NWEA and NYSED to provide selection and training of raters (scorers) and quality-control procedures in regards to scoring. More information on the RFP is below.

Introduction

NWEA Company Background

NWEA, a division of NMSDC corporate member, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, is a research-based, organization that supports students and educators worldwide by creating assessment solutions that precisely measure growth and proficiency and provide insights to help tailor instruction. For 40 years, NWEA has developed Pre-K-12 assessments and professional learning offerings to help advance all students along their optimal learning paths. Its tools are trusted by educators in more than 9,500 schools, districts, and education agencies in 145 countries.

Objectives and Scope

This RFP is to select a preferred supplier to act as a subcontractor with NWEA and the NYSED to provide selection and training of raters (scorers) and quality-control procedures in regard to scoring.

The current scope of this RFP includes the following:

Within three months of the receipt of student responses from NYSED’s 3-8 ELA and Mathematics and Elementary-level (Grade 5) and Intermediate-level (Grade 8) Science Test development contractor(s), the audit contractor is responsible for hiring and training raters and conducting the rescoring audit. Raters hired by the contractor should have at least a bachelor’s degree AND a minimum of 15 college credits in the subject area of the test being rescored or teacher certification from any state to teach the subject area of the test being rescored. For raters rescoring elementary-level tests (Grades 3-6), teacher certification in elementary education may be substituted for up to six of the required college credits in the subject area. The contractor’s work plan must describe how qualified raters will be recruited and selected for hiring, how the raters will be trained, and what quality-control procedures the contractor will take to ensure that the raters meet quality standards during training and scoring. NYSED will provide the contractor with the training materials and scoring rubrics that are provided to the scoring consortia on the first day of the test administration period. The contractor should use these same materials as part of their scorer training process.

Subcontractor Requirements: For each RFP, the subcontractor shall, in a timely manner to enable NWEA to meet the Customer’s timing requirements: (i) prepare a proposal to NWEA that includes a description of the scope of services and deliverables under the RFP that the subcontractor and NWEA agree shall be subcontractor’s responsibility (“Subcontractor Services”), the fees and costs Subcontractor proposes to charge NWEA for the Subcontractor Services, and any personnel, if applicable, who will perform the Subcontractor Services; (ii) provide a description of how the Subcontractor Services fulfill the requirements of the RFP as it pertains to the Subcontractor Services; and (iii) provide any other material or data reasonable requested by NWEA including any exceptions to the RFP, additional license terms, or other additional terms that should be considered and/or added to the RFP prior to submission for NWEA’s review and acceptance (collectively, the “Subcontractor Proposal“).

Instructions on How to Participate

Suppliers interested in participating in this contract opportunity should email interest to Tina Lindberg (Tina.lindberg@NWEA.org) no later than September 18, 2023, at 3 p.m. CST. In your response, please provide a brief overview of your qualifications/experience as well as the primary contact’s name and email address to receive an RFP.