I don't believe it's local but does have a permanent office in Tampa. Bachelor degree is required. The first day of the project is orientation of all who have passed the initial screening for qualifications. The next two days are practice scoring sessions with prototype tests and substantial time devoted to explanation of how the scoring rubric works and why it works that way. At the end of the two days, those who are not able to master the concept of the scoring rubric are paid for the three days and excused.
Every paper is read by one scorer in each of two teams.
If the scores assigned to any paper by the two scorers differ by more than a full point, then the two team leaders negotiate and, if they can't agree on a score, the decision is made by the staff member coordinating the project. None of the papers scored in the Tampa facility are from schools in any of the Bay Area counties. Of course, none are identified with either a student name or school identification. Direct writing assessment applies many of the principles used by exemplary teachers to develop effective writing. The strength of large-scale assessment is that all student papers are scored against a common standard.