Ellington

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Minnesota-based Questar Assessment will provide most of the standardized tests for Mississippi beginning next year.

The state Board of Education voted Thursday to award a one-year contract worth $12.3 million to Questar. Mississippi has options to continue the contract for nine more years after that, with a total 10-year cost of at least $111 million.

Other bidders included Pearson PLC and Data Recognition Corp.

Pearson has written Mississippi's tests for years and authored the multistate test Partnership for Assessment of Readiness of Colleges and Careers test that Mississippi students are taking this year.

Not picking Pearson could ease political pressure on the board over testing issues. Some local superintendents dislike the PARCC test and wanted Mississippi to adopt tests from the ACT organization. That Iowa-based testing group declined to bid.