25MASFSKM1 - Attachment A - Amendment I - UPDATED.docx

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Attachment A

Alternate ID #: 25MASFSKM1 COMMBUYS Bid #: BD-24-1026-DOE02-DOE01-98286

Background:

Through this Departmental Master Agreement (“MA”), the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (“DESE” or “The Department”) Office of Student and Family Support seeks bids from vendors with a demonstrated capacity to successfully support schools, districts, their community-based partners and state efforts to support high-quality, safe and supportive learning environments for students and their families. This BID will replace the list of pre-qualified vendors approved under Master Service Agreement 19MASFSKR1. This bid is open for use by DESE, districts, and schools.

Purpose:

The purpose of this MA is to provide a resource for schools, districts, their community-based partners and DESE in efforts to support efforts to design and deliver high-quality, safe and supportive learning environments that address the whole child and deeper engagement in learning. Inclusion on the list signifies that the vendors (i.e., organizations or individuals) have undergone a thorough vetting process by DESE and that the services and/or products that have been approved offer the potential to add value to schools, districts, their community-based partners and state improvement efforts, support rigorous instruction, and/or related state and federal funding opportunities.

The list of pre-qualified vendors may be used for multiple purposes by multiple stakeholders:

· DESE expects to issue competitive contracts for specific pieces of work through the Requests for Quotes (RFQs) process posted to COMMBUYS. Some contracts will involve providing direct services to DESE staff, other contracts may involve providing direct services to districts and schools requiring support on behalf of DESE. Only vendors approved under this BID will be eligible to bid on this contracted work.

· The list of pre-qualified vendors approved under this BID will be made available to Massachusetts schools and districts in order to support their selection of providers. When contracting for educational services, DESE may recommended that districts and schools select providers from DESE’s pre-qualified vendor lists. This contracting takes place directly between the vendor and the district, school and/or community partner.

· In some instances, DESE may require that recipients of certain grant awards use a portion of the awarded funds for contracted services provided by organizations on DESE’s pre-qualified list of vendors. While funded by the grant award, the contract for services would be directly between the pre-qualified vendor and the district.

Please note that being pre-qualified under this BID does not guarantee that an organization will automatically be awarded a contract to conduct work with schools, districts, their community-based partners and DESE utilizing this list; nor does this BID carry an award of state or federal funds.

Priorities of this Master Service Agreement:

This MA serves priorities across the Office of Student and Family Support and other DESE offices and initiatives. DESE is committed to:

· Supporting continuous improvement of schools, districts, their community-based partners and DESE to ensure safe, equitable learning environments for all students, with a specific focus on students and families who have been historically marginalized.

· Helping schools, districts and their community partners build capacity to engage all students in learning to meet rigorous expectations.

· Supporting districts, schools and their community partners with implementing plans required under state and federal law, regulations, policy, funding opportunities, etc.

One of DESE’s foremost goals is to dismantle the inequities that exist for many students in the Commonwealth. DESE has a particular focus on and commitment to dismantling institutional racial inequities that exist in schools. This is a central priority for this MA.

DESE wants to ensure that every student, Preschool through 12th grade, in Massachusetts has access to a high-quality, safe and supportive school environment that cultivates academic curiosity and confidence, deeper engagement, and empowerment; and that honors their identity and sense of connectedness. Instruction is most powerful when educators have strong content knowledge and access to high-quality instructional materials and professional learning that promote inclusive practice accessible to all students, including multi-lingual learners and students with disabilities; support authentic, engaging, and interdisciplinary student learning experiences; and support student and family engagement.

Scope of Service:

The Office of Student and Family Support (SFS) seeks individuals/organizations for this Departmental Master Agreement (MA) to offer professional development, coaching; training and technical assistance; development of guidance, materials and other resources; communications and public relations; grant reviews; program and/or initiative evalatuion; site visits; and project management that contributes to furthering our mission and fosters continuous program improvement and implementation of best practices to support racial equity, youth development, student health, and academic achievement.

SFS works in partnership with educators, schools, students, families, and other agencies and organizations across the Commonwealth to advance the Department's mission. Programs and initiatives aim to ensure access to high-quality, student-centered, and culturally responsive pre-K-grade 12 education and strengths-based supports to help further the Department's Educational Vision.

Examples of SFS program strategies that cultivate student achievement and success include, Preschool through 12th grade:

· making data-informed decisions to address proficiency, access, and opportunity gaps,

· infusing service-learning, multi-disciplinary programming, and/or meaningful project-based learning into curricula,

· providing professional development and technical assistance on evidence-based practices for continuous program improvement,

· engaging families/guardians in supporting student outcomes including social and emotional learning, health and wellness, and other educational outcomes

· creating safe and supportive learning environments,

· promoting the inclusion and affirmation of all students and ensuring that they have access to public school education free from discrimination,

· fostering positive behavioral health and substance use and misuse prevention,

· fostering access to adolescent health promotion and disease prevention education, programs, and services,

· improving access to nutritious foods, physical activity and education, and chronic disease case management,

· supporting smooth transitions between grades and schools,

· promoting interagency and school/community collaboration,

· utilizing evidence-based best practices,

· developing and disseminating medically accurate, data-informed program promotion and marketing materials through multiple media modalities, and

· providing policy education and implementation support to stakeholders.

Areas of Content Expertise and Service Categories Given these strategies, this BID is looking for vendors who provide a range of service types and areas of content expertise for DESE, districts, schools and their community partners serving children and youth grades PK through 12.

Areas of Content Expertise For the purposes of this BID, DESE is seeking vendors with content expertise in at least one of the following areas:

1. Academically enriching OST and/or ELT programming;

2. Adolescent Sexual Health;

3. Assessment

4. Civic Engagement, Service and Volunteerism, and Civic Preparation;

5. Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program;

6. College & Career Readiness/Connecting Activities;

7. Coordinated School Health (included but not limited to nutrition, physical activities and education and chronic disease case management);

8. Cultural Competency, Proficiency and Responsiveness;

9. Design, Dissemination, and Marketing of Program Materials;

10. Development of School Health and Wellness Advisory Councils;

11. Early Learning;

12. Effective Use of Data for Continuous Program Improvement;

13. Family Engagement/Dual Capacity Frameworks;

14. Facilitating Referrals to Health Services;

15. Financial Literacy;

16. Health and Wellness;

17. Inclusive Programming and Indicators of High-Quality Inclusion (including children and youth with disabilities);

18. Implementation of the Comprehensive Health and Physical Education Curriculum Framework;

19. LGBTQ Youth Services and Supports;

20. Media Technology/Media Literacy/Arts Based Literacy;

21. Multi-Tiered Systems of Support;

22. Playful Learning/Play as an Instructional Strategy;

23. Policy Education and Implementation Support;

24. Program Evaluation and/or Research;

· Please note below the additional required criteria for individuals/organizations applying under this area of content expertise;

25. Project-Based Learning and Service-Learning;

26. Rethinking Discipline;

27. Safe and Supportive Learning Environments, including Bullying Prevention and Intervention, Emergency Management Planning;

28. Social Emotional Learning, Behavioral Health and Mental Health;

29. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics);

30. STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics);

31. Student Agency, Leadership, Voice;

32. Sustainability of Efforts and Initiatives;

33. Universal Design for Learning

34. Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model

35. Working with Multi-Lingual Learners; and

36. Youth Development

In order to help vendors organize and describe the services they provide within each area of content expertise, this BID outlines the service types needed in the following categories, all necessary to build high-quality, safe and supportive learning environments. Note: We recognize some of the service categories can be provided without specific-content area expertise, which can be noted in the vendor application, i.e. “project management.”

Service Categories:

A. Development of Guidance and Other Resources and Materials;

B. Grant Reviews;

C. High-Quality Professional Development, including training, technical assistance and coaching;

D. Program and/or Initiative Evaluation;

· Please note below the additional required criteria for individuals/organizations applying under this category;

E. Project Management (which may include strategic planning, etc.);

F. Site Visits;

G. Subcontracting related to agreed upon trainings, TA, and strategic meetings for trainers/ session leaders, and/or rental of space and related costs; and H. 21st Century Community Learning Centers Supports

· Updating and enhancing the 21st CCLC Program Evaluation (tools). Please note if applying under this category individual/organization must have extensive experience with and knowledge of the Survey of Academic & Youth Outcomes (SAYO) and Assessment of Program Practices Tools and their development.

· Providing coaching, mentoring and technical assistance to new and existing 21st CCLC grant funded programs. Please note if applying under this category individuals must have extensive knowledge of MA 21st CCLC program practices and methodologies.

· Coordinating 21st CCLC regional networks.

· Updating and managing 21st CCLC website.

Each pre-qualified vendor will be asked to provide expertise in at least one area specific to supporting child and youth development, student health, and academic achievement (related to the categories above) for grades PK through 12.

Through this MA, DESE is trying to gauge how organizations can help support schools, districts, their community-based partners and DESE with continuous program improvement and rigorous instructional practice and in what areas of expertise. While some vendors might provide a very discrete and specific service within one content area, others provide services that are interconnected and bundled together for schools, districts, their community partners and state agencies. The goal of this MA is to provide high quality services that meet the outlined needs and help improve student outcomes. This BID’s questions are designed to learn about each vendor’s comprehensive model, services, and supports, and how those services can meet the needs of schools, districts, and DESE moving forward.

Budget:

This pre-approved list will be available from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2029 and will include 2 renewals for two years each (July 1, 2029 through June 30, 2031; and July 1, 2031 through June 30, 2033). If the Department has not worked with a pre-qualified vendor during the initial timeframe (7/1/24-6/30/29), their pre-qualification will not be renewed during this first renewal period. Similarly, if the Department has not worked with a pre-qualified vendor during the first renewal period (7/1/29-6/30/31), their pre-qualification will not be renewed during the second renewal period.

Bidders must submit sample budget(s) that are deliverables-based and/or based on hourly/daily rates for each main offering for each proposed service category. The rates proposed must be inclusive of all expenses and indirect costs (such as travel, supplies, telephone and cell phone charges, fringe benefits, etc.).

Actual rates (not to exceed submitted rates) and contract parameters, including specific deliverables and due dates, will be established when a work order or contract, as appropriate, is negotiated with the Department. The work order or contract process, which takes place after an approved vendor responds to an RFQ and is the successful bidder, is when the specific scope of services and total budget for a project are developed.

Required Qualifications:

The required qualifications and experiences for this BID are summarized below:

· Demonstrated track record of providing local and/or national expertise in area/subject matter for which they are proposing services/supports.

· Demonstrated track record of providing high-quality services that utilize evidence-based or evidence-informed practices;

· Demonstrates some evidence that they have examined and are working to improve their practices and supports (internal and/or external) from a racial equity lens.

· Staff members with the requisite experience, expertise, and skills to deliver the services proposed;

· Evidence that their work with state agencies, districts, schools and community partners have contributed to successful outcomes in those settings;

· Expertise in delivering the identified service category(ies) and areas of content expertise from the scope of service section; and

· Commitment to educational equity and dismantling structural racism.

Note Bidders on either Program Evaluation and/or Research (Content Expertise #24) or Program and/or Initiative Evaluation (Service Category D) will also be assessed on the following required qualifications (see the Research Scorecard Posted with these bid materials):

· The vendor must demonstrate it is an academic institution, an independent, nonpartisan research organization, or an individual researcher affiliated with one of the above.

· The vendor and its individual researchers must demonstrate they are not in an advocacy role with respect to the topics they propose to study or have a stake in the research's outcome.

· The vendor and its individual researchers must demonstrate they have a reputation of impartiality and must demonstrate they have no known affiliations that would undermine, or may appear to undermine, credibility and impartiality.

Preferred Qualifications:

The preferred qualifications and experiences for this BID are summarized below:

· Ability to assess progress frequently and adapt through making mid-course corrections as necessary; and

· Ability to communicate and work with a wide array of education stakeholders including, where relevant, constituencies within all levels of state and district administration, principals, teachers, community partners, families, and other providers in a coordinated effort to meet education improvement priorities.

For 21st Century Community Learning Centers Supports, it is preferred that contractors proposing services related to Out-of-School Time (OST) and/or Extended Learning Time (ELT) have familiarity or be willing to become familiar with the work of the programming supported by the Department. This may include, but not limited to the 21st CCLC Program and the Survey of Academic Youth Outcomes and the Assessment of Program Practices Tool (see 21st CCLC TA website for more details);

Contractors must also be willing to become familiar, if not already, with the Department’s High Quality Professional Development Standards. High-Quality Professional Development (HQPD) offers a set of coherent learning experiences that is systematic, purposeful, and structured over a sustained period of time with the goal of improving practices and student health and academic outcomes.

Please note: at times, other offices/programs at DESE may utilize this RFR to address specific needs. Contractors that propose to provide services to other programs/offices at DESE must be willing to become familiar (if not already so) with their program requirements, tools, and approaches.

All contractors should have relevant expertise and be able to provide programmatic support and services utilizing proven effective strategies. Additionally, vendors creating materials for DESE’s website and/or as part of training and professional development should be able to make them web accessible (508 compliant).

Submission Requirements:

This section provides an overview of the required application materials and detailed application instructions. The responses for each service category can include multiple areas of content expertise based on the applicant’s experience.

A. General Organization Information:

1. Contact Information Please provide complete contact information (i.e., Name, Title, Organization, Address, Telephone, and e-mail) for each of the following:

· A representative from your organization who is an authorized signatory. An authorized signatory is a person or group of people who have the authority to sign legal documents on behalf of their organization.

· A representative from your organization to whom substantive questions on this submission should be addressed (if different from 1).

· If relevant, a local representative from your organization who would be the first point of contact for work being conducted for DESE and districts.

2. Organizational Narrative (Recommended length: 2-4 pages) Please provide an overview that describes: a brief organizational narrative and background, your organization structure and financial capacity, your lead staff, including name, title/role, brief bio (please include staff resumes in an appendix), and an overview of your organizational capacity (what is the depth and breadth of your supports). While this section lists a maximum of 4 pages, additional information such as resumes and supporting organizational documents can be included in an appendix.

B. Commitment to Equity (Recommended length: 2-4 pages)

One of DESE’s foremost goals is to dismantle the inequities that exist for many students in the Commonwealth.

· Describe your organization’s commitment to and actions taken to ensure equity for all students, with a specific focus on dismantling institutional racial inequities in schools, districts, and state agencies.

· DESE is interested in an organization’s internal commitment to anti-racism. This can include examples of how your own organization has taken steps to adjust hiring/staffing practices, engages in professional development and training as a staff, examines internal organizational systems and practices, and conducts ongoing reflection, takes action around internal practice, etc.

· Finally, DESE is interested in your organization’s current challenges with and ongoing efforts to ensure your organization is working towards building anti-racist mindsets, practices, services/offerings, and skills in order to support both adult practice and equity for all students. Please be detailed and concrete in your responses.

DESE is also interested in how anti-racist approaches and practices are reflected in an organization’s service offerings. In evaluating this section, reviewers will be looking not only at the statements made in this commitment to equity section, but also for evidence of culturally responsive and anti-racist approaches throughout an organization’s service offerings.

C. Area(s) of Content of Expertise: Please refer to the list areas of content expertise outlined above (and in the service matrix in Appendix A)

For each content area for which you are applying, respond to the following:

· Experience/Knowledge: (Recommended Length: 1 page per Content Area of Expertise) Summarize of your organization’s related experience and knowledge.

· Staff: Attach a current resume(s) for all staff proposed to provide expertise in each respective content area.

D. Service Description: Please refer to the list of service categories outlined above (and in the service matrix in Appendix A)

We recognize many vendor offerings are bundled together and support one another. For each service category, respond to the following to describe each of your unique and distinct main offerings using one or more of your areas of expertise as an example(s) with an eye on being clear and concise.

· Background: (Recommended Length: 4-6 pages per Main Offering) Please describe:

· to whom your organization provides these supports (districts, schools, state agencies);

· who is involved in receiving these supports (teachers, administrators, students, etc.);

· over what (general) length of time do you provide support;

· what are the intended outcomes from this support/service/model;

· experience working with diverse populations and/or economically disadvantaged districts/communities;

· how professional development (PD) offerings will support the Department’s High Quality Professional Development Standards (if applicable);

· examples of materials that you have developed or trainings that you have conducted specific to the area(s) of expertise;

· if applying to be a grant reviewer, describe previous experience reviewing competitive grants, including reference to experience with applicable area(s) of content expertise and/or specific grant programs; and

· if applying to conduct site visits for 21st CCLC, describe previous experience with conducting either OST and/or ELT visits, process for providing feedback, and any experience utilizing the APT observation tool.

· Staff: Attach a current resume(s) with relevant references for all staff proposed to provide services for this service category.

· Budget: (Recommended length: 1 page) Please include a sample budget(s) that is deliverables-based and/or based on hourly/daily rates for this offering. The rates proposed must be inclusive of all expenses and indirect costs (such as travel, supplies, telephone and cell phone charges, fringe benefits, etc.).

· Evidence of Effectiveness (Recommended length: 2-3 pages) Describe the value-added of this offering. To the extent possible, provide specific evidence of the influence or impact of the work in helping schools, districts, and their community partners, and/or state agency to advance and/or achieve its goals, including:

· Information about DESE, district, school, or their community-based partners’ context, the timeframe in which you engaged in this work and the nature/intensity of services provided;

· How the services you provided built capacity that contributed to sustainability at DESE, schools, districts, and their community partners; and

· When relevant, include evidence of effectiveness that can be credibly correlated to the assistance provided. This can include quantitative data (e.g., school-level or student level pre-test/post-test results) and qualitative data (e.g., from participant surveys, case studies). Note: if evidence from external evaluations conducted by an independent evaluator is available, the Department asks that those reports be made available upon request.

· If your organization has evidence that meets the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) “evidence-based’’ criteria, meaning an intervention that demonstrates a statistically significant effect on improving student outcomes or other relevant outcomes, please include this evidence and description as an appendix to this section.

· District/School/State Agency Readiness: (Recommended length: 1 page) Describe the state agency, district, school, and/or their community partners readiness factors you take into consideration before starting this work/offering. What should your client(s) have in place and be prepared to commit to for your services to be most impactful? If there are certain preconditions or readiness factors you take into account before agreeing to offering this work with a state agency, district, school and/or community partner, please indicate what those factors are in this section.

· Recent or Current Engagement: (Recommended length: 1-2 pages) Briefly describe any recent or current engagements with state agencies, schools, districts and/or community partners related to the offering.

E. Alignment with Service Matrix (See Appendix A for service matrix) Complete the Service Matrix in Appendix A, indicating all areas of content expertise and service categories aligned with your work.

F. References: (Recommended length: 1 page) Provide the names, titles/roles, and contact information for at least two clients who can speak directly to the services outlined in your service description(s).

G. Supplier Diversity Program Plan Form H. Prompt Payment Discount Form

Information to Keep in Mind as You Prepare your Submission We recognize that vendors provide a variety of services across areas of content expertise. Please approach and complete the application by describing your holistic offerings, rather than completing the application for each and every service you provide.

If vendors apply and are not approved for specific areas of content expertise and/or service categories, vendors may submit additional evidence or information as requested. Vendors do not need to resubmit a completely new application to reapply for categories previously not approved OR new categories they would like to add after an initial approval.

This is a Rolling Enrollment Departmental Master Agreement. Responses can be submitted on a rolling basis from the posting date until December 31, 2027 – 12:00 PM ET.

Responses not posted to COMMBUYS will not be considered for evaluation. Do not Email and/or mail responses to the department.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Be sure to check off “no charge” when uploading your files / response to COMMBUYS (do not select “no bid” this will block the response from being available for download).

In order to respond to this bid, please register on the COMMBUYS website. If you need assistance with registering please contact the COMMBUYS helpdesk at: COMMBUYS@state.ma.us or (888) 627-8283 or (617) 720-3197.

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