Educational Testing

For many states, the federal No Child Left Behind Act has resulted in the need to vastly expand statewide standardized tests.

Overview
For many states, the federal No Child Left Behind Act has resulted in the need to vastly expand statewide standardized tests. One concern is the inherent high costs associated with precision-printed standardized booklets and forms. A national leading provider of professional hand-scoring services that employs over 300 full-time staff and hundreds of seasonal workers came to us looking for help. They had been awarded a large state contract and needed to increase capacity while reducing processing costs.

Business Need
The client wanted to reduce processing costs while also evaluating the potential savings of using non-precision forms and booklets without compromising quality and accuracy. After contacting traditional providers of test booklet scanning equipment, they turned to CRI (BancTec reseller) and BancTec for an out-of-the-box solution.

CRI and BancTec’s Solution
Together we:

• Recommended purchasing four IntelliScan DS9000 scanners that were 85% faster than their current scanners, aiding capacity and labor issues.
• Developed technology that accommodated variations in the skunk mark location and size, making it possible to use non-precision forms. This resulted in a potential savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars in printing and expediting costs. Local printers can now be used.
• Preservation of booklet integrity (pagecount check and essay page insertion) by enhancing the scanner software so that the operator is alerted when pages are out of order.
• Improved erasure analysis that resulted in eliminating the need to buy a costly scoring software upgrade.

The Results

• The new scanners were 85% faster - immediately providing the needed increased capacity for the new contract.
• Immediately spent one-third less time on labor recovery.
• Now able to use local printers, saving hundreds of thousands on printing and expediting.
• Eliminated the need for costly software scoring upgrade.

In The Client’s Words
“BancTec and CRI did more than we ever could have imagined. They saved us money on labor, improved efficiencies, eliminated the need for specialty printing and we were amazed by the overall accuracy. We cancelled an expensive software upgrade we were considering. It was no longer necessary.”

Printable Version