NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee has entered a contract with Pearson Education to have it score the TNReady assessments this year after the previous vendor was fired this spring.

News outlets report that the Tennessee Department of Education gave Pearson the $18.5 million job, avoiding a competitive bidding process because of a law that allows for the state to enter into non-competitive bidding in cases of emergencies arising from unforeseen causes.

The state is still looking for a testing vendor who will administer the state's standardized tests next year after the state announced in April that it had terminated its five-year contract with Measurement Inc., following repeated failures earlier this year.

This was the first year of TNReady assessments replacing the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program tests, which Pearson had administered from 2003-14.