Guidelines for evaluating responses to requests for proposals (RFPs) for state-level educational assessment programs are presented. The guidelines articulate key choice points, options, and considerations by state (and district) testing directors as they solicit services for large-scale assessment from commercial testing companies. Focus is on broadening the scope of issues and concerns that state and district testing officers consider in preparing RFPs for large-scale testing programs. Components that must be considered in dealing with the RFP process include: (1) planning approaches; (2) communications with bidders; (3) the RFP structure; (4) the review process; and (5) issues associated with equating portions of RFPs, item bias portions of RFPs, and content validity portions of RFPs. (TJH)