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Invitation to Bid

Assessment Builder Item Writing: Social Studies

Term: Upon final approval through May 1, 2017

Overview

The Assessment Builder in the SAS portal is a rich resource for Pennsylvania educators. While assessment items have been updated in Mathematics and English Language Arts, there are few if any high quality items for World History, Geography, and Economics.

PDEseeks to add new World History, Geography, and Economics items to refresh the Assessment Builder and begin to build a robust site to assist Pennsylvania educators in building assessments in Social Studies. The Assessment Builder ( is one aspect of the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Standards Aligned System.

Contractor Qualifications *

PDE requires that the contractor have prior experience with item development and evidence of writing items aligned to specific content standards as follows:

  • A minimum of five multiple choice and two constructed response items (including scoring rubric/guidelines) aligned to Pennsylvania Academic Standards in World History.
  • A minimum of five multiple choice and two constructed response items (including scoring rubric/guidelines) aligned to Pennsylvania Academic Standards in Geography.
  • A minimum of five multiple choice and two constructed response items (including scoring rubric/guidelines) aligned to Pennsylvania Academic Standards in and Economics.
  • All items should include standard reference, Depth of Knowledge level, and a scoring key.

* Note: Pennsylvania Standards may be accessed at

PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS

PDE seeks to select a contractor(s) who has the ability to create standards aligned assessment items and describe how it will accomplish that task by including the following:

  • An overall item development plan with an editorial process; process to address bias, sensitivity, and fairness, as well as implementation of principles of universal design
  • A batch delivery schedule that permits PDE to review a portion of items periodically in order to expedite the review process and allow time for edits/modifications
  • A schedule for completion of the work by May 1, 2017 or such later date as is agreed to by PDE
  • 200World History items, 200 Geography items and 225 US Economics items (see item specific requirements below).
  • A mix of multiple-choice and open-ended response items aligned to the content and rigor that reflect the cognitive complexity of the respective PA Academic Standards. (For constructed response (CR) items contractor will provide scoring guidelines.)

In addition, PDE’s specific requirements related to the items are as follows:

  • Items will be formatted for paper/pencil use; audio scripting will not be necessary.
  • The items are not to be field tested prior to delivery.
  • Items will be written for instructional purposes, not for large-scale assessment purposes (e.g., items will not be written to hit specific performance targets).
  • Items are to be submitted to PDE for review prior to final delivery.

Deliverables

The contractor will deliver one PDF per grade and content area. This PDF will include all items for that grade/content area with each item taking up one or more pages. The contractor will work with PLS (the SAS online provider) to deliver files in a format compatible for uploading into the SAS portal. Files will be named according to PLS naming conventions, to include Subject and Grade.

Note to Item Developers: Items will typically be printed in black and white by end users; therefore, colors should not be used in charts, graphs, maps, etc.

The contractor will create items, per the following:

Social Studies Item Order
Grade/Subject / # of Items / Proposed Development Plan
Stand-Alone / Total Items
Multiple Choice / Constructed Response
World History (MS) / 100 / 90 / 10 / 100
World History (HS) / 100 / 90 / 10 / 100
Geography (Elem) / 100 / 90 / 10 / 100
Geography (MS) / 100 / 90 / 10 / 100
Economics (Elem) / 50 / 45 / 5 / 50
Economics (MS) / 75 / 70 / 5 / 75
Economics (HS) / 100 / 90 / 10 / 100

World History items should be aligned to Middle School (6-8) and High School (9-12) standards.

Geography items should be aligned to Elementary (K-5) and Middle School (6-8) standards.

Economics items should be aligned to Elementary (K-5), Middle School (6-8) and High School (9-12) standards.

Additionally, the following metadata must be provided for each item:

  1. Unique Item ID
  2. Subject
  3. Grade
  4. PA Academic Standard
  5. Item Key
  6. Depth of Knowledge
  7. Item Type
  8. Max Score Points
  9. Scoring rubric/guidelines for constructed response items
  10. Keyword (key words that allow SAS users to search by content, e.g., Julius Caesar, Indian Ocean, supply-side theory)

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12/19/16