Santa Clara, CA, June 9, 2025 — Today, Smarter Balanced, a member-led assessment consortium serving students in math and English language arts (ELA) in grades 3-12, has released a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) seeking organizations for a grades K-2 literacy and dyslexia screener collaboration. The effort aims to strengthen alignment between early learning and later-grade assessments while addressing growing member needs in foundational literacy and dyslexia screening.

“Our members asked us to support their educators by making available resources that help improve students’ early literacy” said Tony Alpert, Executive Director of Smarter Balanced. “By collaborating with other organizations, we can increase the breadth of information that is available to students, teachers, and families while continuing to ensure that the assessments that teachers use are of the highest quality and provide a coherent view of students’ learning.”

The RFQ seeks to establish one or more collaborations with organizations that offer K-2 literacy assessments that are research-based, developmentally appropriate, and instructionally relevant. This effort builds on national conversations around the early identification of reading difficulties, including dyslexia, and leverages the high-quality technical and content criteria that was established by California’s Reading Difficulties Risk Screener Selection Panel.

“We’re excited to identify an early literacy assessment tool or tools that can connect meaningfully with classroom instruction as we respond to member requests to build new K-2 instructional resources,” said Lynelle Morgenthaler, Executive Program Officer at Smarter Balanced. “A collaboration and associated research resulting from this RFQ will support districts in knowing how to interpret the data from the two assessments in a way that helps educators provide students with timely, appropriate instructional supports for reading success.” 

Qualified organizations will have the opportunity to collaborate with Smarter Balanced to support early literacy efforts across its multi-state consortium, with shared goals of alignment, co-research, and co-marketing to benefit educators and students alike.

The RFQ is now available to the public via this link. Responses are due by Monday, July 7, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. Pacific time. A description of the results of the RFQ will be communicated by Friday, August 8, 2025.

For more information or questions, contact Bobbi Ortega at  [email protected].