DLEARN-Provision of Standardised Assessment & Reporting Platform & Related Services

The Scottish Government intends to contract for the ongoing provision of national, online standardised assessments aimed at providing evidence of children's progress in aspects of literacy and numeracy. The contract will be designed to implement the third phase of the National Standardised Assessments for Scotland (NSA), which were introduced as part of the implementation of the National Improvement Framework for Scottish Education. The supplier will be required to provide a dual-language platform for the continuation of the online adaptive assessment service which has been made available to children in publicly funded education in Scotland since August 2017. The Scottish Government is also exploring whether this procurement provides the opportunity to bring elements of the assessment service in-house. This includes training design and delivery, content development, and service desk provision. A key aspect of development will include the migration of data from the current phase of the project, both in terms of assessment data, and assessment content, to ensure continuity of service and secure the long-term value of existing data and content. Assessments are aligned to Curriculum for Excellence and are undertaken by children and young people in P1, 4, 7 and S3. Development will take place during the 2026/27 school year with the assessments anticipated to come online from August 2027. Standardised assessments support the wider approach to assessment through the broad general education in Scotland, which is based primarily upon the professional judgement of teachers. The contract will be for the design and delivery of diagnostic, inclusive and online adaptive national standardised assessments, suitable for the Scottish school education system and capable of reporting progress in skills for reading, writing and numeracy, both in English and Gaelic.