The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) is seeking responses from bidders with the capacity to deliver a computer-based and/or paper-based high school equivalency assessment that is aligned with the College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education, a subset of the Common Core State Standards. The test battery will include assessments in ELA (reading and writing), mathematics, science, and social studies and will be used to measure the knowledge and skills of adults and out-of-school youth to determine whether they qualify for the Massachusetts High School Equivalency Credential. The test battery must be available at over 30 test centers across the state to approximately 10,000 examinees annually. The Department will award a four-year contract with renewals to deliver high school equivalency tests from January 2017 through December 2020 with an opportunity to renew for additional two years. Responses must show how all costs associated with this testing program will be covered by the fees paid by those taking the tests. The Department reserves the right to contract with more than one vendor (select either a single or multiple tests).
All costs associated with test development, registration, administration, training, materials, scoring, reporting, and any other program activities, including retests, must be covered by fees collected from examinees. The estimated amount of funding to be spent on this contract is 3,150,000.00 from approval until December 31, 2022. Massachusetts is committed to keep the test fee low for test takers. The response must show how the fee schedule will support testing program costs.
Budget information must be submitted in task format with a budget narrative showing/explaining cost breakouts. The budget information will be used to help determine whether the proposed fees are reasonable and adequate for the program requirements. Budget should be provided for each Fiscal Year of this bid: FY17 (Approval – June 30, 2018), FY18 (July 1, 2018 – June 30, 2019), FY19 (July 1, 2019 – June 30, 2020), FY20 (July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021), FY22 (July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2022) and FY23 (July 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022).
The contractor must keep and make available records and accounts of project expenditures and income for the purpose of audit by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and its agents, as authorized by law or regulation to conduct such audit.