History

 

Throughout our 30+ years in business, Questar Assessment, Inc. has evolved from essentially a one-product business into a multi-dimensional, service-oriented firm focused on fulfilling the needs of the educational assessment market. We established a mission of cultivating our core business through a combination of new product development, selective acquisitions, and a dedication to the highest level of customer service.

Founded in 1976 as Touchstone Applied Science Associates, Inc. (TASA), the company’s first order of business was to develop an “effectiveness measure” in reading for the state of New York. Our well-respected Degrees of Reading Power^® (DRP^®) Program was the result of that development. Other company-developed proprietary products followed, including The MAC II Test of English Language Proficiency^®, Signposts^® Early Literacy Assessment System, Reading Power Essentials™, and most recently, the SSSMART™ Content Area Reading assessment program.

In the late 1990s, our management foresaw the need for a new area of concentration—custom test products and related services—and acquired one of the most respected firms specializing in custom assessment, Beck Evaluation and Testing Associates (BETA), Inc.

In early 2005, Questar (as TASA) created a second subsidiary with the acquisition of Assessment and Evaluation Concepts (AEC). AEC provides in-depth assessment and evaluation services to state boards of education and to individual school districts.

In mid-2005, the company secured another growth opportunity through the acquisition of Achievement Data Inc. (ADI), already a well-known and well-respected business in the field of online assessments.

Finally, in 2006, Questar Educational Systems—with its state-of-the-art distribution, collection, and processing abilities for large-scale assessment programs, and its experienced project management and handscoring staff—became the company’s newest subsidiary.

In order to better integrate our company’s several operating units, our management decided to unify TASA, BETA, ADI, and Questar Educational Systems under a single, highly recognizable brand. On March 22 of 2007, we announced our new name: Questar Assessment, Inc.

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