RFI-6-12 ELA Instructional Resources Revision.pdf

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION - HE125424RFI0002

Grades 6-12 English Language Arts

(ELA) Instructional Resources

1.0 Description

1.1 The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) seeks information on how an interested contractor could provide print and digital English language arts (ELA) instructional resources for grades 6-12 students, teachers, school-based support teachers, and subject matter experts (SMEs, above-school-level specialists) aligned to the DoDEA College and Career Ready Standards (CCRS), which may be found at the following URL: https://www.dodea.edu/curriculum/english-language-arts-ela/standards. Note: SMEs and school-based support teachers only require digital access to the instructional resources.

Table 1: Projected Middle School Enrollment and ELA Teachers for SY24-25 (rounded)

Grades 6 7 8 Total Students 5,050 4,625 4,150 13,825 Teachers 90 78 73 241

SMEs and School-based Support Teachers 225

Table 2: Projected High School Enrollment and

ELA Teachers For SY24-25 (rounded)

Grades 9 10 11 12 Total Students 3,625 3,325 3,000 2,625 12,525 Teachers 57 54 51 50 212 SMEs and School-based Support Teachers 175

1.2 This request for information (RFI) is issued solely for information and planning and does not constitute a request for quote (RFQ) or a promise to issue an RFQ in the future.

The Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI;

i.e., all costs associated with responding to this RFI are solely the responder’s responsibility.

Not responding to the RFI does not preclude a contractor from responding to a future RFQ/RFP. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized on the SAM.gov website. Potential responders are responsible to monitor the relevant site for additional information pertaining to this requirement.

2.0 Overview

2.2 Agency: For school year 2024-25, the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) will provide PK-12 instruction in 161 schools to approximately 67,000 dependents of active-duty military and civilian employees. In the Americas, DoDEA operates 50 schools located in seven states, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. In Europe and the Middle East, DoDEA operates 64 schools located in Germany, England, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Turkey, and Bahrain. In the Pacific, DoDEA operates 46 schools located in Korea, Japan (mainland and Okinawa), and Guam. DoDEA also operates a fully accredited virtual high school with teaching hubs in each DoDEA region.

DoDEA's curriculum, resources and student achievement scores on standardized assessments compare favorably to those of high-performing US public school systems.

2.2 Background: DoDEA’s current English language arts (ELA) program for grades 6-12 consists of print and digital resources that are aligned to our College and Career Ready Standards (CCRS), which are identical to the Common Core State Standards for ELA/Literacy. Per Federal regulations, the expiring contracts for the currently used ELA instructional resources must be recompeted.

2.3 Requirements: DoDEA requires print and digital instructional resources, product training, professional learning, an assessment suite, correlations to standards, and technical support for the life of the contract. DoDEA requires 5-year licenses with a 1-year option for the teacher and student digital resources but would prefer 6-year licenses. DoDEA requires the following:

2.3.1 Student textbooks (hardcover and digital access) for grades 6-12. Provide student digital interactive supplementary resources, including but not necessarily limited to adaptive or interactive readers, readers’ handbook, and audio/text (immersive readers). The textbooks shall possess the following features:

1) Aligned to the College and Career Ready Standards (CCRS) for English Language Arts (ELA) found at https://www.dodea.edu/curriculum/english-language-arts-ela.

2) Sequence or collection of texts that builds knowledge systematically through reading, writing, listening, and speaking about topics under study.

3) Selection of specific anchor texts of grade-level complexity (keystone texts) within a sequence or collection of texts.

4) One hundred percent of the texts accompanied by specific evidence that they have been analyzed with at least one research-based quantitative measure for (1) grade-band placement and (2) grade-level placement.

5) One hundred percent of the texts accompanied by specific evidence that they have been analyzed with at least one research-based qualitative measure for (1) grade-band placement and (2) grade-level placement.

6) Non-fiction material reflected in at least 50 percent of the text selections.

7) Student supplementary materials, including but not necessarily limited to adaptive or interactive readers, readers handbook, audio/text.

8) Language support options for multi-language learners, i.e., translation of key academic vocabulary and terms into languages that include at a minimum Spanish, German, Italian, Arabic, Japanese, and Korean.

2.3.2 Digital interactive teacher and student grammar, listening, and writing resources for grades 6-12 that possess the following features:

1) Grammar and language conventions at each grade level as specified by the CCRS.

2) Student writing tasks that require students to present information clearly, analyze carefully, and make claims or conclusions that are well-defended.

3) Written and oral tasks at all grade levels that require text dependent responses drawing on textual evidence to support valid inferences.

4) Tasks that focus on argument, informative/explanatory, and narrative writing.

5) Multiple practice opportunities with short, focused research projects.

6) Pathways to engage students in a range of conversations, collaborations, and oral presentations that respond to others’ ideas with clear and cogent responses/refutations.

2.3.3 Teacher editions (hardcover and digital access) for grades 6-12 that correspond to the proposed student editions and supporting digital resources. These resources shall possess the following features:

1) Sequence or collection of texts that builds knowledge systematically through reading, writing, listening, and speaking about topics under study.

2) Selection of specific anchor texts of grade-level complexity (keystone texts) within a sequence or collection of texts.

3) Opportunities for differentiated instruction to meet the instructional needs of all students.

4) Standards alignment correlation documentation of the Contractor’s materials to the CCSS for ELA/Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects, which may be found at https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/.

5) Scope and sequence/pacing documents that include opportunities for the incorporation of novel study/anchor texts.

2.3.4 Assessment Suite with the following minimum features:

1) Reading Proficiency Screener/Diagnostic Tool: Evidence-based reading proficiency screener and/or diagnostic assessment tool to identify student strengths and weaknesses in reading.

2) Bank of Formative Assessments: Customizable suite of formative assessment multiple-choice items which measure reading comprehension and text-based writing prompts (long and short response) by standard and text complexity that are machine and teacher scorable.

The suite shall allow teachers to select formative assessment items and prompts, customize the assessments, and create their own assessments.

3) Other Assessments: End-of-story/passage quizzes and end-of-unit tests that can be taken digitally or that teachers can print out. Provide options for digital and manual scoring.

2.3.5 Product Training and Professional Learning: DoDEA requires two sets of product training and professional learning, that is, one for grade 6-8 educators and one for grade 9-12 educators.

1) Product Training: Provide an overview of website navigation, overview of the resources, overview of the assessment suite, and related general information.

2) School Administrator Overview: Provide a 50–60-minute asynchronous webinar with the goal of enabling school administrators to perform informed classroom observations and walkthroughs.

3) Back-to-School Webinars: Present a more in-depth training on the instructional resources to DoDEA classroom teachers via a 2-hour synchronous webinar that shall be presented during the normal school hours per Table 5—a total of 18 hours in Year 1 and nine hours in Year 2 for the 6-8 educators and the same amount for 9-12 educators. See Table 5.

4) CCR Webinars: Provide four 50-60-minute-long asynchronous webinars on topics that will help teachers deliver instruction and improve student learning and achievement. Note: The Government in consultation with the Contractor will determine the exact topics post-award.

5) Choice Webinars: Provide a total of four hours of asynchronous webinars on topics that will help teachers deliver instruction and improve student learning and achievement. Note: The Government in consultation with the Contractor shall determine the exact topics post-award. The asynchronous webinars may vary from 30-90 minutes in length.

Table 3: Grade 6-8

Professional Learning Year 1 Year 2 Hours Hours

School Administrator Overview 1 0 Back-to-School Webinar 18 9

CCR Webinars 4 2 Choice Webinars 8 2

Total 31 13

Table 4: Grade 9-12 Professional Learning

Year 1 Year 2

Hours Hours School Administrator Overview 1 0

Back-to-School Webinar 16 9 CCR Webinars 4 2

Choice Webinars 8 2 Total 31 13

Table 5: Back-to-School Webinar Presentations For Both Grades 6-8 and Grades 9-12

District (Locations) Tentative Dates Americas-Southeast 01 Aug

Americas-Mid-Atlantic (Puerto Rico) 07 Aug Americas-Mid-Atlantic (VA & NY) 14 Aug Americas-Mid-Atlantic (NC, VA) 15 Aug

Europe-East 14 Aug Europe-South 14 Aug

Europe-West (UK, Germany) 13 Aug Europe-West (Netherlands) 15 Aug

Pacific (All Districts) 14 Aug

6) General Professional Learning Requirements:

Process: Provide a dry run of each professional learning for the DoDEA staff at least

30 business days prior to the first presentation. Finalize the webinar five business days after receipt of written feedback from DoDEA.

Digital Modules (if required): Ensure digital modules are Sharable Content Object reference Model (SCORM®)-compliant, per https://adlnet.gov/policy/.

Recording and Archiving: Record all professional learning and archive them on DoDEA’s learning management system (LMS, Schoology).

2.3.6 Novels: The Contractor shall provide three classroom sets of novels in print and digital format per grade level with accompanying teacher resources. Note: The Government shall make the final selections post-award.

1) Novels shall include fiction/nonfiction selections aligned with the goals of CCSS and recommended by College Board and/or the American Library Association for students in grades 6-12.

2) Digital teacher resources for each novel shall help teachers differentiate instruction, facilitate discussions of sensitive topics effectively, facilitate literacy circles, and assess reading comprehension with quizzes, tests, and performance-based assessments such as projects.

Table 6: Schools by Grades, Set Size for One Novel, and Region

Region Americas Europe Pacific Set Sizes 20 30 60 90 20 30 60 90 20 30 60 90

Grades 6-8 Schools 1 2 4 7 1 13 6 1 0 7 4 3 Grades 9-12 Schools 1 2 4 0 1 13 6 1 0 7 3 2

Table 7: Total Novels by Grade (Est.)

Grades Novels Grades Novels

6th 7,200 9th 1,750 7th 6,570 10th 1,750 8th 6,450 11th 1,750

12th 1,750 Total 20,220 Total 7,000

2.3.7 General Requirements—The Contractor shall:

1) Technical Support: Provide industry-standard technical support for its digital resources for the life of the contract via telephone or email within one business day from the initial contact to include but not limited to assisting with service problems, product setup, upgrades, and troubleshooting.

2) Technical Requirements for Digital Resources—The Contractor shall:

Provide digital resources designed to run in DoDEA’s learning management system (LMS, Schoology), which operates within our virtual learning environment (VLE).

Deliver digital instructional resources in one of the following formats:

o Integrated via DoDEA’s LMS to the digital resources hosted by the Contractor.

o Hosted externally by the Contractor but accessible via DoDEA’s LMS to the digital assignments and assessments imported, hosted, and maintained in the LMS.

Ensure the course content meets the following specifications:

o Conforms to IMS Learning Global Consortium content packaging specifications.

o Uses imported content, if required, conforming to IMS content packaging specifications.

o Uses code that does not disable LMS features when digital resources are accessed.

o Requires single—not multiple—authentications to access content via our LMS.

o Incorporates, where applicable, assessments that are IMS Test and Question

Interoperability (QTI)-conformant.

o Uses content-hosted externally that conforms to any of the existing versions of

IMS Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI), per www.imsglobal.org.

Provide teacher and student access to the Contractor’s digital resources through a single sign-on platform that uses one username and password to access what is needed, specifically, via DoDEA’s identity, rostering, and management platform (currently, ClassLink).

3) Third-Party Programs, Software, and Applications: Ensure its own and its subcontractors’ (third-party) programs, software, and applications meet—at a minimum—the same technical requirements as the Contractor must meet, such as single sign on (SSO) and Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Level 2, etc. On a case-by-case basis, DoDEA may honor requests to waive the FedRAMP Level 2 requirement.

4) Delivery of Print and Digital Resources—The Contractor shall:

Deliver digital materials with instructions detailing how teachers, students, and above-school-level educators can access the resources.

Ship all print/physical materials to the Americas by commercial carrier or USPS and to Europe and the Pacific only by commercial carrier. Delivery orders use door-to-door addresses. Provide, upon shipment of materials, a digital shipment notification that includes the following information:

o Contract number and delivery order number o Contract line-item number indicating materials and quantities being shipped o Destination and date of shipment o Shipping carrier name and the tracking number of each shipment o Estimated date of arrival of shipment and, if applicable, shipping slip

2.4 Anticipated Period of Performance: 21 Jan 25 – 20 Jan 31

3.0 Responses

3.1 Interested parties are requested to respond to this RFI using Microsoft Word or a compatible format which includes PDF documents. We fully realize that you will be able to give a much more refined answer once the solicitation is released, but we hope you can provide some general information in this regard based on your experience. In that regard, please include the following information:

3.1.1 Administration & Subcontracting

1) Company name, DBA name (if applicable), mailing address, and CAGE code

2) Company’s North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes

3) Designated point of contact name, title, phone number, and email address.

4) Business type based upon the NAICS codes your business uses to provide the requested services, e.g., large business, small business, 8(a)-certified business, etc. (Refer to Federal Acquisition Regulation 19 for additional information on small business size standards.)

5) Describe, if applicable, any subcontracting possibilities. Note: The prime must perform at least 51 percent of the work.

3.1.2 Capability: Briefly describe your organization’s capability to provide all or a subset of the PK-12 print and digital student and teacher resources and the related professional learning. Include the copyright date of your materials. Note: DoDEA would prefer to make one award but is prepared to make multiple awards, most likely by grade band such as 6-8 and 9-12.

3.1.3 Assessment Suite: Describe the suite, especially the banks of formative and “other assessments”.

3.1.4 Novels: Describe your solution to providing three quality novels and their related teaching resources for each grade level.

3.1.5 Professional Learning: Please provide a link to relevant professional learning examples for educators and school administrators.

3.1.6 Pricing: Provide a non-binding price estimate or estimated range—that will be kept confidential.

See the attached Excel spreadsheet template, which you may modify to fit your solution.

3.1.7 Recommendations: Please provide any recommendations you believe might improve the Government’s performance work statement.

3.2 Please limit responses—not including pricing information—to a maximum of ten pages for grade 6-8 instructional resources and ten pages for 9-12 instructional resources.

3.3 Proprietary information, if any, should be minimized and be clearly marked. Please segregate the proprietary information. Note: All submissions become Government property and will not be returned.

4.0 Industry Discussions

DoDEA representatives may or may not choose to speak with potential offerors. Such discussions would only be intended to obtain greater clarification on such things as capability and pricing.

5.0 Questions

Submit questions regarding this announcement by email to both Mr. Malik Brown, Contract Specialist and Mr.

Alim Koroma, Contracting Officer at malik.brown@dodea.edu and alim.koroma@dodea.edu, respectively.

Verbal questions will not be accepted. The Government does not guarantee that questions received after COB, Monday, June 25 will be answered.

6.0 Summary

This RFI is issued solely for information and planning and does not constitute a RFQ/RFP. The information herein is subject to change and not binding on the Government. Release of this RFI is not a commitment that DoDEA will issue an RFQ/RFP in the future or that it authorizes costs to be incurred for which reimbursement would be required or sought. All submissions become Government property and will not be returned.

SUSPENSE: Submit your RFI response no later than 1PM EST on Friday, June 28. Email your response to both Malik Brown, Contract Specialist and Alim Koroma, Contracting Officer at malik.brown@dodea.edu and alim.koroma@dodea.edu, respectively.