DESE selects Cambium to build new Arkansas student assessment, plans first run in spring 2024

DESE officials told the Senate Education Committee they launched a procurement after ACT Aspire signaled limited future development, and selected Cambium Assessment Inc. as the partnering vendor to develop an Arkansas‑aligned summative assessment for grades 3–10.

Tiffany Bridal, assistant commissioner of learning services, said DESE conducted statewide stakeholder outreach last summer—including teacher focus groups and parent interviews—and drafted an RFP that required vendor support for summative, interim and classroom assessments tied to Arkansas State Standards. Bridal said the new system will also include college‑ and career‑readiness measures and national comparison scores such as Lexile and Quantile.

Hope Worsham (DESE) described the procurement and timeline: "We finally, chosen Cambium Assessment Incorporated as the vendor that we would prefer to partner with to provide this new assessment for us." DESE staff said the first administration is anticipated in spring 2024 and that results would be released in fall 2024; standard‑setting and teacher‑committee work are scheduled for the summer following the first administration.

Committee members pressed DESE on assurance of rigor, accommodations for English learners and students with disabilities, and whether the test bank would include items in languages other than English; DESE said Arkansas educators will review every item and a separate bias‑and‑sensitivity review will take place. Officials said decisions such as offering tests in other languages are policy choices for the state.

DESE described next steps: convene educators for item‑bank review, finalize a blueprint that aligns items to Arkansas standards, write items to fill gaps in Cambium’s bank and communicate the design to districts to reduce disruption to accountability systems during the transition.