States Face Limited Choices In Assessment Market

By Ulrich Boser

Harcourt Educational Measurement has not had a stellar year. California slapped the testing company with a $1.1 million fine for administrative errors committed last summer. Then this winter, Vermont received rebates from Harcourt because of mistakes in scoring state exams in 1998 and 1999.

Despite such problems, the San Antonio-based company recently landed a $76 million contract to direct Massachusetts’ assessment program next fall.

At a time when state officials are under increasing pressure to implement high-stakes assessments, they typically turn to the same pool of testing contractors again and again—regardless of some embarrassing glitches—because of the dominance of a few large companies. "The fact that we got three substantial bids was actually great. Some states face the problem of putting out proposals and not getting any," said Jeff Nellhaus, the...