26MACISMB5 - Attachment A - Final.docx

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Early Literacy Screening Assessments in Languages other Than English

Alternate ID #: 26MACISMB5 COMMBUYS Bid #: BD-26-1026-DOE02-DOE01-127668

Background:

Early literacy screening assessments provide data to identify students at risk for reading difficulty. Screening in grades K-3 is a practice supported by evidence according to the Institute for Education Sciences and is a requirement in Massachusetts as directed by the Early Literacy Screening amendment to Regulation 603 CMR 28.03 (1)(f).

The Massachusetts Early Literacy Panel (2018) and the MA Dyslexia Guidelines (2020) both call for schools to implement early literacy universal screening assessments that demonstrate reliability, validity, classification accuracy and usability. The Massachusetts Dyslexia Guidelines also recommend that early literacy screening assessments be administered in the form most likely to yield accurate information on what the student knows and can do, including in the student’s native language, when possible (MA Dyslexia Guidelines). Currently, there are no approved early literacy screening assessments in languages other than English. This bid seeks to identify high-quality, culturally and linguistically appropriate, valid and reliable early literacy screening assessments in each of the following languages: Spanish, Portuguese, and/or French. The purpose of administering screening tools in languages other than English is to ensure educators have the most accurate tools to determine if a multilingual student is at risk of reading difficulty, including risk of dyslexia.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (“DESE” or the “Department”) will approve vendors for a Master Agreement to provide early literacy assessment tools in Spanish, Portuguese, and/or French (additional languages may be added to this posting as deemed necessary by the Department) as well as support to inform data-based instructional decision making. The Department intends to approve several assessments for each language that sufficiently meet the criteria described herein and will publicize those assessments on a public list of approved assessments. Approved assessments will also be added to this Master Agreement to facilitate school and/or district purchasing. (DESE will not pay awarded vendors directly; vendors will enter into a contract with the district)

Scope of Service:

Through this bid, DESE will approve vendors for a Departmental Master Agreement (MA). Under this agreement, vendors will be prequalified to provide early literacy screening tools in languages other than English to Massachusetts schools (under a separate contract agreement with the school directly):

· Early literacy screening assessment tools in Spanish, Portuguese, and/or French (other languages may be added as deemed necessary by the Department) that:

· reflect current research and the goals of the Massachusetts Dyslexia Guidelines,

· measure the predictive literacy skills and meet technical adequacy requirements as identified in this BID,

· reflect principles of anti-bias,

· include progress monitoring tools, and

· provide supports and resources for assessment administration, data collection, data analysis and data-based instructional decision-making.

DESE will evaluate assessments for approval based on the Required and Preferred Qualifications as well as Additional Criteria included in this document. Approved assessments will be compiled and listed on the DESE website. Information gathered through this procurement process will also be shared with educators, including costs, strengths, and weaknesses of the approved assessment as evaluated by DESE during this procurement.

The Department is seeking technical consistency among DESE approved screening tools, so tools must align to the standards provided. The determination of risk is of particular importance and all tools approved by the Department must define significantly below relevant benchmarks as the 10-20th percentile.

The Department encourages bidders to respond as soon as possible to this posting to allow for an award in time for use during the 2026 – 2027 school year. Submissions will be reviewed periodically in cycles for each of the following school years.

Budget:

Approved vendors will be placed on a Departmental Master Agreement (MA) through June 30, 2031, to provide materials and services to schools.

Vendors must indicate the fee, if any, they will charge for each type of service to be delivered (assessment product, training, and support). The Department has an interest in keeping the cost of assessments affordable for schools, and vendors proposed cost structure will be an important criterion in the Department’s provider selection process. Vendor compensation will come through fees charged to schools. Cities/towns and school districts will enter into their own contracts with the vendor for services requested. The Department is not liable for any costs incurred by vendors.

If approved, costs named in the vendors’ responses will be incorporated into the MA and should remain in effect throughout the duration of the contract, i.e., until June 30, 2031. If necessary, vendors may submit a request to increase / update the cost of their approved product for Massachusetts public schools by submitting a request to the department. Prior approval to update cost is required by the department and will not be allowed until approval is granted. All request are subject to evaluation and approval prior to going into effect. DESE reserves the right to reject any request.

Required Qualifications:

For responses to be considered, bidders must first receive a “yes” on Criteria 1-7, (Required Qualification Criteria) section of the Evaluation Criteria Scorecard (for each language).

Required Qualification A: Constructs Measured (by Language) Note: BOY: Beginning of the school year; MOY: Middle of the school year; EOY: End of the school year.

Spanish: At a minimum, the assessment must measure the following constructs in the corresponding grades.

· Letter Sound Knowledge (grades K, 1 BOY)

· Letter combination or syllable sounds (grades K,1)

· Blending (grade K, 1)

· Segmenting (grades K, 1)

· Word reading (Grade 1 BOY)

· Passage Reading (grade 1 MOY; grades 2, 3)

· Reading Comprehension (grades 2, 3)

· Receptive Vocabulary (grades K,1,2,3)

· Expressive Vocabulary (grades K, 1, 2, 3)

· Listening Comprehension (grades K,1)

Portuguese: At a minimum, the assessment must measure the following constructs in the corresponding grades.

· Letter Sound Knowledge (grades K, 1)

· Letter Naming (grade K)

· Onset and rime (grades K, 1)

· Syllable matching (grades K, 1)

· Syllable production (grades K, 1)

· Phoneme segmentation (grades K, 1)

· Word Reading (grades 1,2)

· Passage Reading (grades 1 (MOY), 2, 3)

· Reading Comprehension (grades 2, 3)

· Receptive Vocabulary (grades K, 1)

· Expressive Vocabulary (grades K, 1)

French: At a minimum, the assessment must measure the following constructs in the corresponding grades.

· Letter Naming (grade K)

· Onset and Rime Awareness

· Phoneme Deletion

· Syllable Awareness

· Phoneme Segmentation

· Passage Reading (grade 1 MOY, EOY; grades 2,3)

· Receptive Vocabulary

· Expressive Vocabulary

· Listening Comprehension

Required Qualification B: Technical Adequacy B1. Classification Accuracy (Minimum Thresholds)

· Sensitivity: greater than or equal to 0.70

· Specificity: greater than or equal to 0.70

· Area under the Curve (AUC): greater than or equal to 0.70

Required Qualification C: Scoring, Risk Determination, and Reporting

· Provides a composite percentile rank as part of the reported score

· A Risk Level (e.g., at risk/requires intervention) is identified for each student

Required Qualification D: Technical Manual

· Provides a Technical Manual which includes, at a minimum, detailed information about test development, scoring, norming, reliability and validity of the assessment

· For Technical Manuals that are not available in English, the following translated sections must be available in English:

· Classification accuracy

· Reliability

· Validity

· Norming

· Test Development

· Scoring and assessment of risk (how risk is determined) Required Qualification E: Administration, Usability, and Support:

· Assessment is designed to be administered at least twice per year in kindergarten and three times per year in grades one, two and three at a minimum (fall, winter, spring)

· Offers professional development, technical support and customer service to public school educators using the assessment

· Provides a user-friendly parent report of the student’s results.

Preferred Qualifications:

Preferred Qualifications A: Additional Constructs to Measure (By Language) On the Evidence Form, provide specific requested information for the language of the screening assessment.

Spanish: Preferred Additional Constructs

· Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN): Grades K-3

· Encoding/Spelling: Grades K-3

· Listening Comprehension: Grades K-3

Portuguese: Preferred Additional Constructs

· Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN): Grades K-3

· Listening Comprehension: Grades K-3

French: Preferred Additional Constructs

· Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN): Grades K-3

· Listening Comprehension: Grades K-2

Preferred Qualifications C: Additional Information - Administration, Costs, Progress Monitoring, and Supports On the Evidence Form, provide specific requested information related to the following topics.

· Time considerations for the screening assessment

· Progress monitoring tools

· Supportive resources to guide school- based administrators and educators

Submission Requirements:

Please respond to the following:

1. Organization and Assessment Information: In a narrative submission that does not exceed 2 pages, provide a brief overview in English of your organization and the assessment product being proposed for approval.

2. Technical Manual: Submit a Technical Manual which provides, at a minimum, detailed information about test development, scoring, norming, reliability and validity of the screener. If the technical manual is not available in English, the following sections must be translated:

· Classification accuracy

· Reliability

· Validity

· Norming

· Test Development

· Scoring and assessment of risk (how risk is determined)

· Additional components as requested by the Department

3. Evidence Form: Complete the Evidence Form in which the vendor provides evidence of specific criteria. Review results are included in the Scorecard.

4. Costs: As a separate document, submit the following costs, including the availability of volume discounts, if available:

a. Screening tool(s) and accompanying progress monitoring tools

b. Support Materials, if any

c. Professional Development

i. Specify if costs reflect, in-person, virtual, webinar or other mode os training

Please note: Note: The costs submitted in your response will be incorporated into a Departmental Master Agreement with DESE, if your submission is approved. This agreement allows MA public schools and districts to purchase your product(s) at the prices stated until the contract expires (June 30, 2031).

This is a Rolling Enrollment Departmental Master Agreement. Responses can be submitted on a rolling basis from the posting date until December 31, 2029, 12:00PM ET.

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

To respond to this bid, please register on the COMMBUYS website. If you need assistance contact the OSD Help Desk at OSDHelpDesk@mass.gov or (8am - 5pm ET Monday – Friday) at 1-888-627-8283 or 617-720-3197.

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