AUGUSTA — The Maine Department of Education announced Thursday it has agreed to a $4.16 million contract with a New Hampshire company that will develop online standardized tests for public school students in 2016.
The contract with Measured Progress Inc. gives it the right to create math and English assessments for students required under state and federal law for students in grades three to eight and high school juniors, replacing the tests developed by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, which Maine withdrew from earlier this year.
Acting Education Commissioner Bill Beardsley called the test “a sound and statistically valid assessment” in a news release issued Thursday. Department and company officials were set to hold a news conference in Augusta at 11 a.m. to sign the contract.
Measured Progress has worked in Maine since 1985 and is the contractor for the state science assessment given to students in grades five and eight and high school juniors. Beardsley called the company “a valued, proven partner” in his statement.
The new assessments will follow Common Core standards that were adopted into the Maine Learning Results in 2011. The contract also includes administration of the SAT, which will become the state’s assessment for high school juniors. After the first year, the contract with the company can be renewed annually for nine years.
It comes after the Maine Legislature — without a roll call vote and with backing from the Maine Education Association, a teacher’s union — dumped the Smarter Balanced test after its debut year in 2015. Maine is one of three states dropping the test.
Students, parents and teachers criticized the test for technical glitches, unclear question wording and taking too long to finish. The new test is aimed at reducing testing time. It will take six hours in grades three to eight compared to 12 hours in past years, the department said.
Measured Progress manages similar assessments in 11 states, according to Foster’s Daily Democrat. But that New Hampshire newspaper has reported the company’s workforce has shrunk from 530 people in 2011 to 280 in June.
It has also had problems with testing in other places. In August, Nevada reached a $1.3 million settlement with the company after just 30 percent of 214,000 students were able to take the test because of technical problems, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Similar problems were reported in North Dakota and Montana, but the company told Foster’s that the testing issues have been fixed and that layoffs have been because of unrelated “turmoil” in the testing market.
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