Approve the 1st Amendment to the Agreement Between NCS Pearson, Inc. and Hillsborough County Public Schools (Information and Technology Division)

The proposed assessment contract between Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) and NCS Pearson, Inc. is an extension of the July 1, 2005 contract. NCS Pearson, Inc. is the sole provider of the Stanford Achievement Test, Tenth Edition (Stanford-10). This amendment would extend the present contract for a one-year period of time through June 30, 2011.

This amendment was previously submitted to and approved by the Board on August 10, 2010, as Item A 5.11. However, since that date the integrity of the data received from state testing programs has become questionable and the district, at the request of the Superintendent, has begun to explore the possibility of testing students through grade 10 with the Stanford 10.

At present, the Stanford is administered to students in grade 1, 2, and 3. Consumable booklets are used at these grade levels. However, students in grades 4-10 will need to use answer sheets. For this reason, section 2.b. from the original contract is being reactivated in this one-year extension. This clause allows HCPS to reproduce customized answer documents for use by students in grades 4-10.

It should be noted that the Stanford Achievement Test, Tenth Edition (Stanford-10), is a series of norm-referenced, objective-based tests designed to measure achievement in the skills commonly found nationally in state and district curricula. Students are tested using the Total Reading and Total Mathematics batteries and their scores are reported in National Percentile Ranks. The results of these tests allow for comparison of the performance of district students with those tested nationally at the same grade levels.

* Demonstrate consistent and effective teaching methods

There would be an approximate cost of $100,000 a year for the purchase of these tests.

The data retrieved from the administration will be used as an evaluation of the effectiveness of the instrument.