Alternate Assessment Service

The South Dakota Department of Education in Pierre, South Dakota, is seeking a vendor to provide an alternate assessment service for students. The agency needs to establish alternate academic achievement standards and a reliable system for testing, scoring, and reporting student performance in English Language Arts, Math, and Science. This project aims to ensure the state has a valid, ongoing alternate assessment system that delivers immediate, actionable data to educators. The scope of work spans five distinct components, beginning with the development of alternate academic achievement standards in English Language Arts and Math between October 2026 and March 2027. The vendor must then develop test items for English Language Arts, Math, and Science from May 2027 through September 2027, which is an ongoing annual requirement to maintain the validity of the test item pool. Additionally, the agency requires an assessment system to administer these tests annually from March through mid-May, starting in 2028. The selected vendor must score the test items in real time to provide immediate results during the testing window. District reports must also be delivered in real time, with all data in the reporting system finalized by the end of May and the final student data file delivered to the state by mid-June annually. The agency is issuing a contract period of one year for these services. Eligible bidders must perform all work onshore within the United States. The agency allows the performance of the work to be conducted offsite. The agency has not disclosed a specific budget and is looking for proposals to determine the cost of the services.