RFP26006576 Solicitation Specifications_REVISED 20260529.pdf

2023-1.v2.04222024 RFP – Agency Solicitation Specifications Page 1 of 5 Revised 4/22/2024

RFP26006576 - AGENCY SOLICITATION SPECIFICATIONS REVISED 20260529

TITLE: RI PRE-K ASSESSMENT SYSTEM

SECTION A. BACKGROUND

In response to President Obama’s call to expand access to high quality pre-school to every child in America, Congress appropriated $250 million for the Preschool Development/Expansion Grant in fiscal year 2014. In October of 2014, along with 34 other states, the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) submitted what is now recognized as a winning application. RIDE has continued to receive new iterations of the Preschool Development Grants to expand its high-quality Pre-Kindergarten Program (RI Pre-K) as well as state dollars. These funds have been invested in the program for continued year on year growth. As one of only six state preschool programs in the country that meets or exceeds the nation’s highest quality benchmarks as measured by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), the RI Pre-K is recognized as a national leader in the development of high-quality preschool programs.

Through a combination of high-quality design and program standards, competitive selection, regular monitoring, comprehensive support, and ongoing evaluation, Rhode Island actualizes its commitment to a High-Quality State Pre-K Program. The state’s long-standing efforts to create a coordinated early childhood system have positioned Rhode Island to significantly increase enrollment of four-year-olds in Pre-K in high need communities and to build and enhance the state Pre-K Program infrastructure.

Rhode Island’s Pre-K Program uses a mixed delivery system that includes public schools, Head Start programs and community-based childcare programs that operate in sixteen communities across the state. Rhode Island requires and supports all RI Pre- K funded classrooms to achieve the same high-quality standards, regardless of setting.

Rhode Island will operate a minimum of 150 classrooms, at an average student count of 2,840 children for FY’27. The expectation is that the number will grow in each subsequent year, throughout the length of the contract.

In order to ensure measurable outcomes of enrolled children and to recognize trends in teaching and facilitation in the State Pre-K program, using state allocated dollars, RIDE is seeking an Early Childhood Formative and Summative Assessment System.

SECTION B: SCOPE OF WORK AND REQUIREMENTS

PART 1: Summative Assessment

RI is committed to continuous quality improvement within our RI Pre-K program.

To this end we are looking for a summative assessment to measure child-level outcomes over their time in RI Pre-K. This data will also be used to inform program

2023-1.v2.04222024 RFP – Agency Solicitation Specifications Page 2 of 5 Revised 4/22/2024 quality improvements and professional development and technical assistance topics in upcoming years. This tool should:

1. Provide a statewide systematic means to monitor and report children’s learning and developmental gains in the RI Pre-K program using a pre-and post-assessment.

2. Be able to be administered in the Fall and Spring to measure child growth.

3. Be able to be easily administered within the classroom, taking minimal time away from instructional minutes.

4. Be available in a format that is accessible to young children.

5. Provide a system that does not solely rely on teacher observations, such as computer-based games, for the collection of data.

6. Align to the RI Early Learning and Development Standards with a primary focus on Literacy, Language, Cognitive Development, Math and Social and Emotional Development. Alignment to the Standards should be visible to users in reports, etc. to aid in the use of assessment to inform instruction and planning.

7. Be aligned to K – 3 RI Core Standards in English Language Arts and Mathematics.

8. Allow the state to provide input, and or modify what data is collected during summative assessment, review and modify reports as needed.

9. Have the ability for the state to access reports to both run the information, at the program and state level, that will summarize data collected and provide comparative and growth reports to inform continuous quality improvement.

10. Provide Professional Development, and training, on the platform for all users prior to 9/1 on each year of the contract.

11. Provide ongoing technical support at the program and state level.

12. The platform should be able to connect with RI Early Learning Data System (RISES) built on a salesforce platform, for annual classroom level data on child outcome growth in addition to year over year child outcomes in the RI Pre-K program.

PART 2: Formative Assessment

RI is looking to partner with a vendor to provide RI Pre-K programs with a formative assessment system to use within their programs. This platform should be available online with multiple modalities to input data. The platform should be user friendly and streamlined to support quick uploads of documentation by teachers in classrooms. This system should also:

1. Introduce a nationally recognized, valid and reliable early childhood assessment instrument aligned to Rhode Island’s Early Learning and Developmental Standards that includes Rhode Island’s Domains and Components.

2. Provide statewide systematic means to monitor and report children’s learning and developmental gains in the RI Pre-K program.

3. Provide a systematic means for Rhode Island Department of Education to remotely monitor and report child assessment compliance.

4. Provide an assessment instrument that allows for the documentation of observations of individual children and enables Educators to know what should come next in a child’s developmental progression and activities and suggestions to support appropriate learning and developmental gains toward that next step.

5. Allow for the Rhode Island Department of Education oversight and administration of the early childhood assessment system at both program and state level.

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6. Include early childhood assessments that span children’s birth through Grade 3

7. Include reporting functionality to allow Rhode Island Department of Education to track child level data and measurable outcomes of children enrolled in the RI Pre-K program for use with federal reporting guidelines.

8. Vendor should have the ability to separate, and keep confidential, RI Pre-K children from other LEAs that have purchased the assessment system.

9. Provide an online data entry system to record the documentation/data collected in the process of educators’ formative assessment. Educators should be able to access systems through mobile devices and on most browsers with little wait time, even during peak usage hours.

SECTION C: PROPOSAL

1. Technical Proposal Narrative and format: Vendors must submit a technical proposal which addresses each of the following elements and is limited to 10-20 pages (this excludes any appendices and as appropriate, resumes of key staff that will provide services covered by this request):

A. Contractor Understanding of the Issues – Provide a clear demonstration of the vendor’s understanding of the key challenges, priorities, and needs of the RI Pre-K Assessment System. Describe relevant context, nuances, and potential barriers and explain how the proposed solution addresses these issues effectively.

B. Capability, Capacity, and Qualifications of the Vendor – Provide evidence of the organizational capacity, including staffing levels, staff qualifications, prior experience on similar projects, and internal systems that support successful project management and execution. Describe the organization’s ability to manage timelines, communication, reporting, and coordination with RIDE and program partners.

C. Work Plan – Outline a comprehensive work plan describing the approach, methodology, and project structure for delivering the scope of work. Include timelines, key milestones, deliverables, staffing roles, and processes for quality assurance. The work plan should reflect a realistic and well-organized path toward implementation.

D. Ability to Maintain the System and Respond to Technical Issues –

Explain the vendor’s strategy for maintaining the assessment system, including technical infrastructure, software updates, hosting stability, and data security. Describe help desk protocols, average response times, staffing for technical support, escalation procedures, and historical records of system uptime and service reliability.

2. Cost Proposal

Detailed Budget and Budget Narrative:

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Vendors must submit a completed version of Attachment A – Cost Proposal Sheet as part of their response. The cost proposal must include:

• A per‑child cost based on an estimated 3,000 students for the required services.

• An hourly rate for Professional Development and Training required to onboard new users.

For proposal purposes, vendors should assume ten (10) hours of Professional Development and Training per cohort, with each cohort consisting of 25 teachers, and approximately eight (8) cohorts over the three‑year base term of the contract.

Cost proposals will be evaluated based on the combined total of the per‑child cost and the Professional Development and Training hourly rate. Actual student counts and required training hours may vary over the course of the contract.

3. Supplemental Bidder Attestation Form

See Appendix A on the “Overview” tab in Ocean State Procures™ for information. Vendors are required to complete, sign and submit this form with their overall proposal.

4. ISBE Proposal

See Appendix B on the “Overview” tab in Ocean State Procures™ for information and the MBE, WBE and/or Disability Business Enterprise Participation Plan form(s). Vendors are required to complete, sign and submit these forms with their overall proposal. Please complete separate forms for each MBE, WBE, and/or Disability Business Enterprise subcontractor to be utilized on the solicitation.

SECTION D: EVALUATION AND SELECTION - SOLICITATION SPECIFIC

Technical proposals must receive a minimum of 60 (85.7%) out of a maximum of 70 points to advance to the cost evaluation phase. Technical proposals scoring less than 60 points shall not have the accompanying cost or ISBE participation proposals opened or evaluated; such proposals shall not receive further consideration.

Technical proposals scoring 60 points or higher shall have the cost proposals evaluated and assigned up to a maximum of 30 points bringing the total potential evaluation score to 100 points. As total possible evaluation points are determined, vendor ISBE proposals shall be evaluated and assigned up to 6 bonus points for ISBE participation.

Proposals shall be reviewed and scored based upon the following criteria:

Criteria

Possible Points

Contractor Understanding of the Issues 10 Points

Capability, Capacity, and Qualifications of the Vendor

20 Points

Work Plan 20 Points

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Ability to Maintain the System and Respond to Technical Issues

20 Points

Total Possible Technical Points

70 Points

Cost proposal

30 Points

Total Possible Evaluation Points 100 Points ISBE Participation 6 Bonus

Points

Total Possible Points

106 Points

Additional evaluation criteria can be found at:

• For those with an OSP account, see the “Requirements” tab of this solicitation in OSP for additional information on the evaluation and selection process in the “RFP Standard Specification” section.

• For those without an OSP account, public access to the full bid can be found at https://ridop.ri.gov/vendors/bidding-opportunities. Search for this solicitation, open the record, click on the “Print/Download Solicitation Summary” button in the upper right corner for all the solicitation requirements and supporting documents are found at the bottom of the page in the “Solicitation Attachments” section.

https://ridop.ri.gov/vendors/bidding-opportunities

SECTION D: EVALUATION AND SELECTION - SOLICITATION SPECIFIC