Approve the Consultant Agreement for Dilocker Consulting, Inc. This Consultant is a part of the End-of-Course Exam (ECE) Clearinghouse Project Awarded to the District by the State Department of Education. The Project Application was Approved by the Board at the January 16, 2007 Meeting. (Information and Technology Division)

The End-of-Course Exam (ECE) Clearinghouse Grant was awarded by the state to the Hillsborough County Public Schools effective February 1, 2007. The purpose of the Clearinghouse is to support the Special Teachers Are Rewarded (STAR) program which will allow each district to access exams, particularly in the areas that are not FCAT relevant. The hiring of a consultant for the Department of Education is a required component of the approved budget and project guidelines. The consultant, recommended by the Department of Education (DOE), will work as a liaison between the District and the DOE and will monitor the ECE Clearinghouse implementation, collect data regarding the implementation, design a survey about the implementation, communicate with the Office of Assessment and School Performance at the Florida Department of Education, and will study and examine the feasibility of item bank development systems.

Goals 1-4 are applicable to this project and Critical Success Factors involving developing and administering assessments (1.c) and monitoring student achievement and use of data for the basis for instructional decisions (1.d, 2.c, 3d, 4.e) apply.

The grant specifically outlines and budgets funds for the requirement for including this consultant in the process in the amount of $75,000 for the first year.

The consultant will serve as a liaison for the DOE and will report evaluation findings to the DOE's School Performance Office and the District's Department of Assessment and Accountability. Assessment and Accountability and the School Performance Office will mutually agree upon tasks to be completed to fulfill the contract.