Worldbid International Trade Leads Import Export b2b Marketplace

Home / Trade Leads Homepage / Category Offers / List Offers / Offer Details

View Offers to Buy: Services - Testing/Monitoring

R -- Psychometrician Services (OB1866658) (2007-03-07)

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in
accordance with the format in FAR Subpart 12.603, as supplemented with
additional information included in this notice. This announcement requests
quotations and constitutes the only solicitation; a paper solicitation will
not be issued. The solicitation will be distributed solely through the
Government-Wide Point of Entry, www.fedbizopps.gov. Request for Quotation
number EDOFSA-07-000232 shall be referenced on any quotation.

This solicitation is being issued under the Simplified Acquisition Procedures
(SAP) as a Small Business Set-Aside. The NAICS code is 541618 with a small
business size of $6.5 million. All future information about this acquisition,
including solicitation amendments, will also be distributed solely through
this site. Interested parties are responsible for monitoring this site to
ensure that they have the most up-to-date information about this acquisition.
This contract action will result in multiple Firm Fixed Price Purchase Orders.
The Department of Education, Federal Student Aid, is seeking qualified
psychometricians to determine whether certain tests developed by test
publishers meet basic test standards. The tests to be reviewed will be used to
determine federal student aid eligibility for a student who does not have a
high school diploma or its equivalent. By law, such a student may still be
eligible for a grant or loan if he or she can demonstrate the "ability to
benefit" from the training offered by a postsecondary institution.

The Department will select experts in the field of education testing and
assessment, who possess appropriate advanced degrees and experience in test
development or psychometric research, to determine whether a test meets the
requirements for test approval. We are required to hire psychometricians to
review tests to ensure the tests meet the standards delineated in the
regulations--34 CFR 668, Subpart J. The Statement of Work at the end of this
notice has further information on the standards.

No travel would be required. Two psychometricians will review each test
separately. The two psychometricians will then confer (via telephone, email,
etc.) and submit a joint list of comments and questions to the Department of
Education representative (through email). The Department of Education
representative will forward this list to the test publisher for their
consideration and comments, and then return the publisher's response back to
both psychometricians to work through any remaining issues. Once all issues
have been resolved, the final deliverable is a statement from the
psychometricians indicating either the approval or disapproval of the test.
If disapproved, the psychometricians would need to provide a detailed
explanation for recommending denial, along with the specific steps the
publisher would need to take in order to obtain approval.

The tests the Department of Education needs to have reviewed average about 200
pages of test materials and supporting documentation. In the past, the
average time for the work involved has been about 18 hours per test. The
tests requiring review have been approved before - they are not new tests.
But in accordance with the regulations, every five years, they must be renewed
through another review process. The tests must be normed with a contemporary
population representative of persons who are beyond the age of compulsory
school attendance in the United States. The current approval for these tests
will not expire until this review process is completed.

The Government intends to issue multiple orders for the above services to the
responsible vendors whose quotes conform to this solicitation and is
determined to be the best value to the Government. The following factors shall
be used to evaluate quotes: (1) technical (qualifications, knowledge,
degrees/expertise), (2) past performance (test review experience), and (3)
price. Technical and past performance combined are more important than price,
but as technical and past performance evaluations converge price becomes more
important. The contracting officer will determine if any difference in
technical/past performance warrants a difference in price.

The evaluation will be based on information provided by the vendor in his/her
quote, which shall include pricing information. The Government is not
responsible for locating or securing any information that is not identified in
the quotation, but may do so at its discretion.

Quoters shall submit at least two references for evaluation of past
performance of same or similar services, which have been successfully
completed by the quoter within the past two (2) years.

Please carefully review the commercial item clauses for information about
requirements and instructions for submitting a quotation. The following
provisions and clauses apply to this procurement:

Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) provision 52.212-1, Instructions to
Offeror - Commercial Items (Sept 2006);
FAR provision 52.212-2, Evaluation-Commercial Items (Jan 1999)- Award will be
made to the responsible offerors whose offers are considered to be most
advantageous to the Government using the evaluation factors as referenced
above. The Government reserves the right to award without discussions;
FAR provision 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certification-Commercial
Items (Nov 2006) - all offerors shall include a completed copy of this
provision with their quote;
FAR clause 52-212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions - Commercial Items (Feb
2007);
FAR clause 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement
Statutes or Executive Orders-Commercial Items (Nov 2006) - in paragraph (b)
the following clauses apply: FAR 52.219-6 and 52.232-33.

Clauses incorporated by reference may be accessed in full text at
http://www.arnet.gov. All quotes from responsible sources will be considered.

Quotes will only be accepted electronically and are to be submitted to
[Please use the link below]. No other method of submission will be accepted. The
deadline for quotes is Monday, March 12, 2007 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
Quotes shall include pricing per test review.

Please note that awards can only be made to offerors who have an active
registration in the CCR database at the time of award. Offerors may obtain
information on registration and annual confirmation requirements via the
internet at http://www.ccr.gov or by calling 1-888-227-2423 or 269-961-5757.

STATEMENT OF WORK

The U.S Department of Education is seeking qualified psychometricians to
determine whether certain tests developed by test publishers meet basic test
standards. The tests to be reviewed will be used to determine federal student
aid eligibility for a student who does not have a high school diploma or its
equivalent. By law, such a student may still be eligible for a grant or loan
if he or she can demonstrate the "ability to benefit" from the training
offered by a postsecondary institution.

The Department will select experts in the field of education testing and
assessment, who possess appropriate advanced degrees and experience in test
development or psychometric research, to determine whether the test meets the
requirements for test approval.

A. In reviewing the tests, experts selected by the Department will review the
applications submitted by test publishers to ensure the tests --

1. Assess secondary school level basic verbal and quantitative
skills and general learned abilities;

2. Sample the major content domains of secondary school level
verbal and quantitative skills with sufficient numbers of questions to
adequately represent each domain; and permit meaningful analyses of item-level
performance by students who are representative of the contemporary population
beyond the age of compulsory school attendance and have earned a high school
diploma;

3. Require appropriate test-taking time to permit adequate sampling of the
major content domains;

4. Have all forms (including short forms) comparable in reliability;

5. If the test is revised, have new scales, scale values, and scores that are
demonstrably comparable to the old scales, scale values, and scores;

6. Meet all primary and applicable conditional and secondary standards for
test construction provided in the 1985 edition of the Standards for
Educational and Psychological Testing, with amendments dated June 2, 1989,
prepared by a joint committee of the American Educational Research
Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Council
on Measurement.

7. Have publisher's guidelines for retesting, including time between test-
taking, be based on empirical analyses that are part of the studies of test
reliability.

B. Before recommending approval test experts must verify the publisher's
application:

1. Includes a test booklet or package with clear, specific, and complete
instructions for test administration, as well as information for test takers
on the purpose, timing, and scoring of the test; and sample questions
representative of the content and average difficulty of the test;

2. Contains two or more secure, equated, alternate forms of the test;

3. Provides tables of distributions of test scores which clearly indicate the
mean score and standard deviation for high school graduates who have taken the
test within three years prior to the date on that the test is submitted to the
Secretary for approval;

4. Displays the distribution of test scores for each edition, form, level,
sub-test, or partial battery, for which approval is sought, to ensure the
passing score is one deviation below the mean for students with high school
diplomas who have taken the test within three years before the date on which
the test is submitted to the Department of Education.

5. Norms the test with groups that were of sufficient size to produce
defensible standard errors of the mean and were not disproportionately
composed of any race or gender; and a contemporary population representative
of persons who are beyond the usual age of compulsory school attendance in the
United States; and

6. If test batteries include sub-tests assessing different verbal and/or
quantitative skills, a distribution of test scores as described in paragraph 3
that allows the Secretary to prescribe either a passing score for each sub-
test; or one composite passing score for verbal skills and one composite
passing score for quantitative skills.

C. Test experts must also verify an application contains sufficient
documentation to support the test publisher?s claims. The test experts will
verify and review:

1.Documentation of test development, including a history of the test's use;

2. Norming data and other evidence used in determining the distribution of
test scores;

3. Material that defines the content domains addressed by the test;

4. For tests first published five years or more before the date submitted to
the Secretary for review and approval, documentation of periodic reviews of
the content and specifications of the test to ensure that the test continues
to reflect secondary school level verbal and quantitative skills;

5. If a test has been revised from the most recent edition approved by the
Secretary, an analysis of the revisions, including the reasons for the
revisions, the implications of the revisions for the comparability of scores
on the current test to scores on the previous test, and data from validity
studies of the test undertaken subsequent to the revisions.

6. A description of the manner in which test-taking time was determined in
relation to the content representativeness requirements in paragraph A.1
above, and an analysis of the effects of time on performance;

7. A technical manual that includes an explanation of the methodology and
procedures for measuring the reliability of the test; evidence that different
forms of the test, including, if applicable, short forms, are comparable in
reliability; other evidence demonstrating that the test permits consistent
assessment of individual skill and ability; documentation of the level of
difficulty of the test; unambiguous scales and scale values so that standard
errors of measurement can be used to determine statistically significant
differences in performance; and additional guidance on the interpretation of
scores resulting from any modifications of the tests for persons with
documented disabilities.

8. The technical manual must also include evidence that the test was normed
using groups that were of sufficient size to produce defensible standard
errors of the mean and were not disproportionately composed of any race or
gender; and a contemporary population representative of persons who are beyond
the usual age of compulsory school attendance in the United States;

9. An analysis of the item-content of each edition, form, level, and (if
applicable) sub-test to demonstrate compliance with the required secondary
school level criterion.

10. The description of retesting procedures and the analysis upon which the
criteria for retesting are based.

Company Reports

Get the Dun & Bradstreet Report for Department of Education, Federal Student Aid