ACTION ITEM:

1.

RFP #CHR-2016-12 Formative Assessment

Superintendents Recommendation:

It is recommended that the Christina School Board approve RFP # CHR-2016-12

providing Formative Assessment Services district wide (Grades 1-10 ELA and
Mathematics) to Curriculum Associates.
2.

Brief Description of Services:

Curriculum Associates I-Ready is an online, computer-adaptive, norm-referenced,

scale-based ELA and Math assessment package designed to facilitate the RTI process
and measure student academic growth. The assessment package includes a quarterly
screener/diagnostic assessment, with the option of administering shorter monthly
progress-monitoring assessments and weekly standards-based mini-tests for Tier 2 and
Tier 3 students. All assessments generate a series of informative, user-friendly reports
which provide important information to teachers and administrators about which skills
students have mastered and which skills they are ready to receive instructionally. These
reports enable teachers and administrators to more accurately place students into
appropriate intervention groups based on similar instructional needs and target
instruction at the individual level. The reports also include PDFs with instructional
resources, lessons, etc., that teachers can use in their intervention groups. Lastly, the
assessment package includes the option to adopt an online intervention instructional
program which can be used with Tier 2 and/or Tier 3 students. Adoption of this
assessment package will enable the District to discontinue two different assessments
products used during the 2015-16 academic year, with no net increase in assessmentrelated costs to the district in SY 2016-17.
3.

Background/Analysis:

Starting in January 2016, Dan Weinles, Supervisor of Assessment, Research &

Evaluation, recruited District and Building Administrators, Instructional Coaches,
Curriculum Specialists, and Teachers across all school levels, both city and suburb, to
participate in formative assessment planning for the 2016-17 school year. The
committee was comprised of 23 individuals (though not all attended each of the seven
scheduled meetings) which included four District Administrators, five school
Administrators, five Curriculum Specialists, four Instructional Coaches, four Teachers
(though not all had direct classroom roles), and one Teacher on Special Assignment at
the District level. Eight members represented the elementary level, two were from the

BOARD OF EDUCATION

middle level, three were from high schools, four had roles which were secondary in
general (middle and high combined), and six had K-12 roles. Of the 13 members who
were school-based (including Instructional Coaches), five had roles in city schools and
eight were in suburban schools.
The Assessment Planning Committee met on seven occasions from February through
April, 2016, reviewing formative assessment options, defining optimal test package
characteristics, exploring different assessment products on the market, and inviting a
number of vendors to present information on their products to the group. At the end of
the exploratory process, a Request for Proposal (RFP) was developed and posted. A
voluntary subset of the Assessment Planning Committee, with both elementary and
secondary members represented, convened on May 19, 2016 to review formal
proposals. The proposal review committee received four proposals, all of which were
qualified. The committee of eleven members evaluated each proposal on six general
evaluation criteria and selected the top ranking company receiving the highest
evaluation score (see attachment). I-Ready was selected in this proposal review
process.

4. Fiscal Impact: District wide $200,000. Local Funds. Cost $181,200.00. Increased
amount provides the District the option to expand assessment package to a greater
number of students.

5.

Program Director/Manager : Dr. Dan Weinles

Prepared By: Gaurang P. Pathak
Manager, Financial Services and Internal Controls

6. Board Meeting Date: June 14, 2016

Attachment

BOARD OF EDUCATION

General Evaluation Criteria CHR-2016-12

EVALUATION CRITERIA
Basic Functionality:

15

Optional paired instructional program or curriculum for RTI Tier 2 and 3

students to get targeted instructional opportunities based on assessment
results.

Training Specifications:

15

Varied, actionable, intuitive summary reports at both the group and

student levels that are easy for teachers and administrators to interpret
and act upon.

Paired Intervention Curriculum/Program

35

Evidence of appropriateness and effectiveness for use in the RTI

process including a diagnostic/screener and a progress-monitoring tool
in both Math and Reading/ELA.
Research evidence that substantiates the assessments validity,
reliability, and impact on student achievement.
Adaptive computer-based administration.
Large bank of test items that are aligned with the Common Core
Standards and preferably with the Smarter Balanced assessment.
Evidence of time-efficiency (brevity of test administration)
Flexibility of test scheduling (frequency of test administration).
Vertical scaling and availability of normative information about student
performance and growth over time.

Reporting Specifications:

WEIGHT

General ease of use test administration and interpretation of reports.

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15

Degree of vendor-provided training that is necessary and additional

costs associated with that training.

Technical Specifications:

10

Web-based / hosted by vendor.

Data export capability.
Capacity to automate nightly exports to the districts third party data
integration system.
Capacity to accept and incorporate limited data elements (e.g.,
intervention group data) from districts data integration system into the
products report features.
Meets the districts required hardware and software specifications.

Price

10
Pricing must include at least one viable option below $200,000.

TOTAL

100

Evaluation CHR-2016-12

Vendors

Assigned
Points

Total
Score

Average
Score

Rank

Curriculum Associates
1 (I-Ready)

100

962

87.45

2 NWEA

100

761

69.18

Renaissance Learning

100

745.5

67.77

McGraw Hill

100

624

56.72

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