State of Missouri Awards Questar Assessment, Inc. Missouri Assessment Program Online End-of-Course Assessment Contract

APPLE VALLEY, Minn., Dec. 16, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Questar Assessment, Inc. (www.QuestarAI.com), a leading educational assessment provider for states, school districts, and higher education institutions, has announced a contract award from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for the Missouri Assessment Program Online End-of-Course Assessments. This assessment program measures students' progress toward mastery of the Show-Me Standards, Missouri's educational standards, and includes required subject area End-of-Course assessments in Algebra I, Algebra II, Biology, and Government, along with optional assessments in English I, English II, Geometry, and US History.

Questar's initial two-year contract for the End-of-Course assessments begins with the 2011–2012 school year, with possible contract extensions through 2016. Questar will provide program management, online administration, scoring, and reporting for an estimated 400,000 tests to be administered annually during three test administrations for students in grades 9–12 across the eight content areas. Missouri may opt later in the contract to pursue the development, field testing, and implementation of additional End-of-Course assessments in Physics, Chemistry, World History, and English III. Questar has been a subcontractor supporting Missouri's End-of-Course program since 2007 and implemented Missouri's Statewide English Language Learning Assessment from 2003 to 2008.

Questar has extensive experience in providing End-of-Course assessment services across the country and currently develops, administers, and scores both paper-and-pencil and online administrations for the Arkansas and Indiana End-of-Course programs. Questar is also a subcontractor for the Louisiana End-of-Course program, providing handscoring services.

"We are pleased to select the Questar team for delivery of our Online End-of-Course program. Questar has proposed well-qualified program management and key staff," said Jane VanDeZande, Director of Assessment for the state department. "Missouri has previous experience with Questar and has found them to be accommodating and able to accomplish goals under tight timelines. Questar also has demonstrated an ability to identify challenges and provide innovative solutions."

"Questar is a leader in large-scale assessment and has extensive expertise in the development and implementation of EOC assessments." said Roy Lipner, President and Chief Executive Officer of Questar. "We look forward to using our experience in online test administration to ensure a smooth transition from Missouri's current dual mode of paper-and-pencil and online test administration to 100 percent online test administration."

About Questar Assessment, Inc.

Questar Assessment, Inc., is a leading educational assessment provider for states, schools, and school districts. Headquartered in Minnesota and New York, Questar offers comprehensive custom assessment services—from large-scale statewide assessment programs to alternate, modified, and English language proficiency assessments. Questar provides complete, end-to-end services designed to address all aspects of assessment from test design, development, and psychometric services to print production, distribution, scanning, scoring, reporting, and data analysis. Questar also offers customized online testing services to schools and educational entities in the K–12 market. For further information, visit www.QuestarAI.com or call 952-997-0724.

SOURCE Questar Assessment, Inc.