Alignment study of State assessments
The purpose of this Request for Proposals (RFP) is to solicit proposals and obtain quotations for an external independent alignment study (evaluation/analysis) of specified assessments in the
North Carolina Testing Program that are used in the Federal and State accountability programs to
determine the extent to which the State's system of assessments align with the State's system of
State-mandated academic content standards and academic achievement standards.
The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires that each State's system of standards and
assessments be aligned in order to provide useful information for valid accountability decisions
and educational improvement. State assessments are required to adequately measure the knowledge and skills specified in the State's academic content standards in order to make determinations about the extent to which students have achieved the intended knowledge and skills and in order to make the appropriate policy, program, and instruction decisions meant to improve students' achievement. Also, it is expected that the items on the state assessments cover the full depth and breadth of academic achievement standards in order to determine whether students have reached the level of proficiency the academic achievement standards describe.
According to the U. S. Department of Education (USED) (under the Standards and Assessments Peer Review Guidance April 2004) alignment encompasses several dimensions. Demonstrating that an assessment system is aligned with a State's standards requires more than simply determining whether all the items on the assessments can be matched to one or more standards or whether each of the academic content standards can be matched to one or more items in the assessments. Alignment is more than a two-way process. To ensure that its standards and assessments are aligned, a State needs to consider whether the assessments-
Cover the full range of content specified in the State's academic content standards, meaning that all of the standards are represented legitimately in the assessments;
Measure both the content (what students know) and the process (what students can do)
aspects of the academic content standards;
Reflect the same degree and pattern of emphasis apparent in the academic content
standards (e.g., if the academic standards place a lot of emphasis on operations then so
should the assessments);
Reflect the full range of cognitive complexity and level of difficulty of the concepts and
processes described, and depth represented, in the State's academic content standards,
meaning that the assessments are as demanding as the standards; and
Yield results that represent all achievement levels specified in the State's academic
achievement standards.
This contract will address the areas of alignment for the following assessments:
1. Grade 3 Pre-test of Reading Comprehension;
2. End-of-Grade Tests of Reading Comprehension Grades 3-8;
3. NCEXTEND2 End-of-Grade Tests of Reading Comprehension Grades 3-8;
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4. NCCLAS Tests of Reading Comprehension Grades 3-8;
5. End-of-Course Test of English I;
6. NCEXTEND2 Test of Occupational English I;
7. NCCLAS Test of English I;
8. North Carolina Grade 10 Writing Assessment;
9. NCEXTEND2 Occupational Course of Study Writing Grade 10; and
10. NCCLAS Writing Assessment Grade 10
11. End-of-Course Test of Civics and Economics
12. End-of-Course Test of U.S. History
