NYSED / P-12 / Competitive Procurement Contracts / 23-015 Elementary, Intermediate (Middle), and High School Level New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test (NYSESLAT)

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RFP #23-015

Elementary, Intermediate (Middle), and High School Level New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test (NYSESLAT)

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Recent Updates Last Updated on March 21, 2023: Questions and Answers – Posted 3/21/23 PLEASE NOTE – The following aspects of RFP 23-015 have been revised: Corrected formatting issue in Cost Proposal. See Q&A #11-13 for additional information. Added page counts to Attachment D. Updated Kindergarten Reading Test Design. See Q&A #1 and 6 for additional information.

RFP Documents

Application in PDF | Application in Word – Revised 3/21/23
Cost Proposal Worksheet – Revised 3/21/23
Submission Documents
Questions and Answers – Posted 3/21/23

The New York State Education Department (NYSED)’s Office of State Assessment (OSA) is seeking proposals from highly qualified respondents with expertise in the development and administration of statewide English language proficiency assessments to implement the New York State (NYS) English as a Second Language Achievement Test (NYSESLAT). Services must provide for the printing, shipping, collection, and return and secure destruction of printed test forms that will be administered on paper for the spring 2024 and 2025 administrations. The contractor will administer Stand-Alone Field Tests (SAFTs) for grades K-12 and will also provide the accommodated versions of the NYSESLAT for those students with disabilities. Services include development, research, scoring, and score reporting of operational and SAFTs for grades K-12 field tests.

The NYSESLAT is a secure test that is designed to annually assess the English language proficiency of all English Language Learners (ELLs) enrolled in Grades K–12 in NYS schools. The NYSESLAT is aligned to the Linguistic Demands of grade-level instruction delivered to ELLs based on the NYS learning standards. The NYSESLAT measures the Linguistic Demands necessary to meet the discipline-specific standards at the corresponding grade band. The NYSESLAT will be developed by the contractor in the following grade bands: K, 1, 2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-12.

The NYSESLAT is currently offered to schools exclusively on paper for students in grades K-12. The contractor must provide the services necessary for the continued administration of the paper-based operational NYSESLAT that includes the ongoing development and administration and Stand-Alone Field Tests for grades K-12.

The primary purpose of the NYSESLAT is to measure annual student progress in achieving English language proficiency and ascertain when students can appropriately exit ELL status. In NYS, ELLs are students who, by reason of foreign birth or ancestry, speak or understand a language other than English and speak or understand little or no English, and require support in order to become proficient in English. NYS Commissioner’s Regulations (CR) Part 154-2.3 (l) stipulates that each school district with ELLs shall annually assess the English language proficiency of each such student using such assessment as prescribed by the Commissioner for this purpose. The NYSESLAT is used to assess the English language proficiency of students in kindergarten through grade 12 who are ELLs. The results of the NYSESLAT measure English language proficiency relative to the linguistic demands of ELA Standards in grade-level classrooms and prescribe the provision of ELL services as per CR-Part 154-2 for the following academic year.

According to 2018-19 school year data, of the approximately 2.6 million public school students in NYS, more than 238,000 students (9.15%) are ELLs. The linguistic diversity of ELLs and their families consists of more than 200 languages. ELLs are a diverse group of students with various backgrounds, cultures, and academic experiences.

Subcontracting will be limited to thirty percent (30%) of the total contract budget. NYSED reserves the right to approve all subcontractors. Subcontracting is defined as non-employee, direct, personal services and related incidental expenses, including travel.

Bidders are required to comply with NYSED’s Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (M/WBE) participation goals for this RFP through one of three methods. Compliance methods are discussed in detail in the Minority/Women-Owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE) Participation Goals section below.

NYSED will award one contract pursuant to this RFP for a term of two (2) years and three (3) months. The contract resulting from this RFP will be for a term anticipated to begin August 1, 2023, and to end October 31, 2025, with the option for annual renewals for up to three years (November 1, 2025 – October 31, 2028).

Statewide

Components contained in RFP Proposal #23-015 are as follows:

1. Description of Services to Be Performed
2. Submission
3. Evaluation Criteria and Method of Award
4. Assurances
5. Attachments
6. Submission Documents (separate document)

• Questions and Answers – Posted 3/21/23

Questions regarding the request must be submitted by e-mail to AssessmentRFP@nysed.gov no later than the close of business on March 13, 2023. Questions regarding this request should be identified as Program, Fiscal or M/WBE. A Questions and Answers Summary will be posted here no later than March 20, 2023.

The following are the designated contacts for this procurement:

Program Matters	Fiscal Matters	M/WBE Matters
McKenzie Johnson	Adam Kutryb	Brian Hackett
AssessmentRFP@nysed.gov

Bidders are requested to submit their bids electronically. The following documents should be submitted by email as detailed in the Submission section of the RFP, and must be received at NYSED no later than March 30, 2023 by 3:00 PM Eastern Time:

1. Submission Documents labeled [name of bidder] Submission Documents RFP #23-015
2. Technical Proposal labeled [name of bidder] Technical Proposal RFP #23-015
3. Cost Proposal labeled [name of bidder] Cost Proposal RFP #23-015
4. M/WBE Documents labeled [name of bidder] M/WBE Documents RFP #23-015

The email address for all the documentation is cau@nysed.gov.

Instructions for Submitting an Electronic Bid: 

1. The technical and cost proposal documents should be submitted in Microsoft Office. PDF files that are editable and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) searchable are acceptable. Please do not submit the technical or cost proposal as a scanned PDF. 
2. Submission documents requiring a signature must be signed using one of the methods listed below and may be submitted as a Microsoft Office, PDF, or JPG document. A scanned PDF is acceptable for these documents.
3. The following forms of e-signatures are acceptable:
1. handwritten signatures on faxed or scanned documents
2. e-signatures that have been authenticated by a third-party digital software, such as DocuSign and Adobe Sign
3. stored copies of the images of signatures that are placed on a document by copying and pasting or otherwise inserting them into the documents 
4. Unacceptable forms of e-signatures include:
1. a typed name, including a signature created by selecting a script or calligraphy font for the typed name of the person “signing”
5. To identify the signer and indicate that the signer understood and intended to agree to the terms of the signed document, the signer will sign beside or provide by email the following attestation: "I agree, and it is my intent, to sign this document by [describe the signature solution used] and by electronically submitting this document to [name of recipient individual or entity]. I understand that my signing and submitting this document is the legal equivalent of having placed my handwritten signature on the submitted document and this attestation. I understand and agree that by electronically signing and submitting this document I am affirming to the truth of the information contained therein."
6. In order to ensure the timely receipt of your bid, please use the subject line "BID SUBMISSION RFP 23-015" - failure to appropriately label your bid or submitting a bid to any email address other than the one identified above may result in the bid not being received by the deadline or considered for award.
7. Bids received after the due date will be disqualified. 

Application in PDF | Application in Word – Revised 3/21/23
Cost Proposal Worksheet – Revised 3/21/23
Submission Documents
Questions and Answers – Posted 3/21/23

Last Updated: March 21, 2023