Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care Request for Proposals

Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care – FY10 EEC Assessment RFP – Fund Code 513

PART I
PROCUREMENT INFORMATION
Proposal Due Date and Time:
January 27, 2010
4:00 p.m. / Number of Pages included in this RFP: 17 plus attachments
Procurement Officer:
Kelly Schaffer, Policy Analyst
617-988-7803
/ Issue Date: Monday, December 21, 2009
Issuing Agency: EEC
Funds Type: 2010 State Funds
INSTRUCTIONS TO APPLICANTS
Submit Proposal(s) to:
Jennifer Ahern
Department of Early Education and Care
51 Sleeper St., 4th floor
Boston, MA 02210 / Label Envelope/Package: “Assessment RFP”
RFP Title/Number: FY10 EEC Assessment 513
Proposal Due Date: Wednesday, January 27, 201
Special Instructions:
Applicants must submit one original and three copies of their complete Response package with all parts in numerical order (Part I, Part II…).
This is a competitive RFP bid. Any and all questions regarding this RFP must be submitted in writing to with the RFP Title/Number in the subject line. EEC expects to post responses to written questions on or around January 18, 2010 here: will be listed with this RFP posting.
APPLICANT INFORMATION
(fill in the information below and return with your RFP response)
Applicant Name/Address/Website:
Vendor Name
12345 Main St. 7th floor
Anytown, MA 00000 / Authorized Applicant Signatory:
Sample Name
X______
(please type name, and then sign in blue ink)
Applicant Contact Name for this RFP:Sample Name
Phone Number: 000-000-0000
Email:
Applicant Federal Tax I.D. Number:
00-0000000 / Indicate (circle) whether this proposal is:
Original Copy
Purpose
Purpose Cont… / The Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) provides services for children in Massachusetts through a mixed delivery system, which includes child care centers, out-of-school time programs, family child care homes, public preschool programs, private school preschool and kindergarten, and Head Start programs. EEC is responsible for licensing early education and care and out-of-school time programs throughout Massachusetts and for providing child care financial assistance to low-income families with children birth to 13 years of age. In addition, EEC provides support for information and referral services, inclusive programming for children with special needs, parenting and family support, and professional development opportunities for educators in the early education and out-of-school time fields. These efforts affect thousands of early education and out-of-school time providers, who serve more than 275,000 children each day. In its broadest role, EEC also serves as a source of information to the families of more than one million children in Massachusetts.
EEC is committed to helping ensure that all children have access to quality programs. The creation and implementation of a system to improve and support quality statewide is a key strategy in the EEC’s Board Strategic Five-Year Plan ( In its efforts to develop high quality early education and care programs, EEC will be implementing a Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS), which will define levels of quality for programs and requirements for moving up the four levels of the current system. An integral part to this program quality is providing teaching and learning experiences, based in a framework of birth to age 8, which addresses the individual and unique needs of children served by early education and care programs. The purpose of this Request for Proposals (RFP) is to award funding to one or more vendor(s) to provide specific theory, training, strategies and opportunities for reflective practice for programs from the mixed delivery system to develop skills in research-based child assessment and screening.
Child Assessment and Screening
Child assessment systems are used to capture information on children’s developmental progress through teacher observations of each child’s work and abilities. Results from the assessment can show an educator what children in their care know and need to learn, and where their own strengths and weaknesses as an educator lie. These tools, which are becoming increasingly regarded as a marker of high quality programming, can be used as a valuable method for educators to improve their instruction to meet the needs of individual children as well as inform their general program practice.[1]
Early education and care providers have a responsibility and opportunity to enhance their ability to identify unique needs of young children who are in their care through the use of screening tools. Identification, coordination of service provision and support of families in locating and obtaining needed services are valuable and necessary skills in the field. Early educators can benefit from support and training on how to use research-based screening tools and to communicate with families and ensure the needs of children are met.
Context for Request for Proposals
In fiscal year 2009, the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) contracted with Abt Associates, Inc. to conduct an evaluation of the level of quality in a statewide sample of early childhood settings that serve at-risk preschool children. The study used the CLASS observation measure to evaluate provider/child interactions in three primary domains (emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support) for licensed center-based programs, Head Start centers, public school programs and family child care providers. Programs from Massachusetts’ Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) and non-UPK programs were included within each program type. A final report prepared by Abt Associates found across program types programs scored high in emotional support and classroom organization, though performed significantly lower on instructional support.
Given the low results on instructional support, EECseeks to address this issueby supporting theimplementation andutilization of research- based comprehensive child assessment systems and screeningtools in preschool settings so that educators can individualize their instruction by child and improve program practice.
The use of child assessment systems and screening in preschool settings is an important method to support developmentally appropriate individualized teaching and is an integral piece of high quality programming. Through this competitive Request for Proposals (RFP), EEC will award grants to one or more vendor(s) who will provide training, professional development, and assessment tools to programs to support the implementation of assessment systems and screeningin settings serving preschool children across the Commonwealth. Ultimately, EEC seeks to make child assessment and screeningsustainable practices in the early education and care field.
Priorities
Priorities
Cont… / Through this grant opportunity, EEC seeks to gain:

Effective child assessment training for educatorsserving preschool children in the mixed delivery system (Head start, private center-based programs, independent and system-affiliated family child care providers, and public and private schools), including those new to providing assessment as well as those skilled in assessment but needing additional support for using assessment information toindividualize teaching and target learning strategies
Technical assistance and consultation for educators related to child assessment and screening
Widespread availability of child assessment and screening tools and materials

Activities funded through this grant must lead to the following for programs receiving services from the selected vendor(s):

Improved individualized instruction for children
Informed program practice and targeted professional development

Enhanced communication and engagementwith families about their children’ s developmental progress and improved ability to provide anticipatory guidance

Ongoing support and reflective supervision for educators in using child assessment and screening systems
Enhanced capacity of program staff to train their colleagues and ensure successful assessment practices are implemented over time

Eligibility / This is a competitive grant that is open only to the following entities (non-profit or for-profit): public school districts, private schools, charter schools, educational service agencies, institutions of higher education, faith-based and community-based organizations, training and technical assistance providers, and private businesses. All vendors able to meet and carry out the requirements of this grant are eligible to apply. EEC expects to award funds to one to three vendors which are able to provide services to either the entire Commonwealth or large portions of the state (portions of the state to be determined by applications that come in).
Vendors who intend to apply to serve the entire state, the following benchmarks are expected:

A minimum of 400 early educators will be trained
At least 50 percent of the persons trained will be working in a program with 50% or more subsidized children
A minimum of100 programs serving 50% or more subsidized children will receive assessment and/or screening tools
A minimum 200 programs will develop a plan for integrating assessment and screening into their early education and care program and advancing individualized teaching and learning strategies

If multiple vendors are selected, these benchmarks will be broken up across the vendors TBD based on applications
Funding
Funding Cont… / There is $800,000 available for these grants, which may be awarded to one vendor or divided amongst three vendors depending on the number of quality bids and the coverage across the Commonwealth. One half of the available funding, or $400,000 must be used for training and technical assistance to programs implementing or enhancing the use of child assessment systems and screening tools. The remaining 50%, or $400,000, must be used by the vendor to purchase EEC-approved child assessment systems, screening tools and supporting materials (on behalf of the providers to then distribute these materials to providers) for the purpose of meeting vendor-defined benchmarks in implementation of child assessment systems and screening tools.
Required Services / Applicants must provide the following services with the grant funds they are awarded:

Training and technical assistance/consultation with Early Education and Care programs
Purchase child assessment and/or screening systemsand/or supporting materials

Prioritize services to all programs serving three and four year old children that have at least 50% of their enrolled children receiving subsidized child care services.

Vendors who intend to apply to serve the entire state, the following is expected:

A minimum of 400 early educators will be trained
At least 50 percent of the persons trained will be working in a program with 50% or more subsidized children
A minimum of100 programs serving 50% or more subsidized children will receive assessment and/or screening tools
A minimum 200 programs will develop a plan for integrating assessment and screening into their early education and care program and advancing individualized teaching and learning strategies
If multiple vendors are selected, these benchmarks will be broken up across the vendors TBD based on applications

Fund Use
Fund Use Cont…
Fund Use Cont…
Fund Use Cont… / Training and Technical Assistance/Consultation with Programs
With 50% of the allocated amount, the selected vendor(s) will support the field through three primary means:

provideinformation on the theory related tochild assessment practices for children birth to age 8 ;
target specific strategies for assessment implementation and sophisticated use in programs serving preschool children; and
provide intentional professional development with hands-on guidance and ongoing technical support for beginning and advanced learning.

Training
Vendor(s) must provide at least 3-4 training sessions to address the varying needs of programs implementing or continuing to expand use of child assessment systems and screening tools. Topics to be addressed include, but are not limited to, the following:

Selecting and beginning to implement a child assessment system
Selecting and effectively using screening tools
Observation and data collection
Documenting and recording developmental progress
Assessing English language learners
Assessing children with special needs
Analyzing and interpreting data
Using assessment data to inform program practice and target professional development
Using assessment to implement differentiated/individualized teaching and learning strategies for children
Using assessment data to communicate with and engage families and provide anticipatory guidance
Using technology to support child assessment
Aligning assessment practice with curriculum, standards and guidelines (i.e. EEC’s Guidelines for Preschool Learning Experiences -

Trainings offered must enhance the capacity of participating staff to implement practices learned at their program site. Additionally, training opportunities must provide two tracks;

one for programs in the beginning stages of using an assessment system, and
one for programs who have been using assessment systems but need assistance with gaining more sophisticated use of the tool and assessment data.

Technical Assistance and Consultation
The vendor(s) will offer technical assistance to programs on an as needed consultation basis. There should be a communication system set up where the vendor(s) must be available to respond to programs inquiries regarding the implementation of child assessment systems. Vendors should seek to set up peer learning communities for ongoing support from the providers who are trained.
Purchase of Child Assessment Systems and Supporting Materials
The remaining 50% of funds allocated must be used to support programs purchasing one of the four EEC-approved child assessment systems and supporting materials. The EEC-approved child assessment systems include:

Ages & Stages*,
Creative Curriculum Developmental Continuum,
High Scope Child Observation Record (COR), and
Work Sampling System.

Conduct outreach to programs as a means to providing services
Fund planning time for implementation of training sessions

Pay qualified consultants/contractors, or vendor staff to conduct assessment training
Pay stipends to staff attending trainings from programs serving 50% or more subsidized children
Secure reasonably priced rental space and technology for training sessions
Production of instructional materials for training sessions
Other reasonable expenditures as needed (i.e. Grant Administration – see Appendix A for more information on Grant Administration funding.)

Selected vendor(s) may use the Child Assessment System and Supporting Materials portion of these funds (50% of the amount allocated) for the following purposes:

Purchase the four EEC-approved child assessment system toolkits and/or screening tools for programs serving 50% or more subsidized children. See Fund Use section above for detail on EEC-approved child assessment systems.
Purchase of and supporting materials for programs serving 50% or more subsidized children, for example:
Manuals
Technology
Digital cameras
Online licenses: EEC has worked with the publishers of the Creative Curriculum Developmental Continuum, High Scope Child Observation Record (COR), and the Work Sampling System to establish a Massachusetts licensing agreement for their online systems, which offers a discounted price to programs. Individual child costs for the online systems are as follows:
Creative Curriculum: $11.75
High Scope COR: $11.10
Work Sampling: $12.45

Please note, EEEC does not currently have a licensing agreement in place with Ages & Stages, though an online data management system for the tool does exist.

Other reasonable expenditures as needed (i.e. Grant Administration – see Appendix A for more information on Grant Administration funding.)

Vendor(s) are encouraged to leverage resources and utilize additional sources of funds when available.
Outcomes and Measures
Outcomes and Measures Cont… / The following data outcomes will be collected from the vendor(s) receiving this grant:
Number of educators who received training through this grant

Number of educators from programs whose enrollment consists of at least 50% of families receiving subsidized child care services

Number of programs that received technical assistance/consultation through this grant

Number of programs serving 50% or more subsidized children

Number of programs serving 50% or more subsidized children that received the following through this grant:

EEC-approved child assessment system
Research-based screening tool
Supporting technology or materials

For vendors applying to serve the entire state, the following benchmarks are expected:

A minimum of 400 early educators will be trained
At least 50 percent of the persons trained will be working in a program with 50% or more subsidized children
A minimum of100 programs serving 50% or more subsidized children will receive assessment and/or screening tools
A minimum 200 programs will develop a plan for integrating assessment and screening into their early education and care program and advancing individualized teaching and learning strategies

Training through a selected vendor or vendors must be available across the Commonwealth and be provided in a minimum of three to four sessions. Training must include and be relevant to the four EEC-approved child assessment systems:

Ages & Stages*,
Creative Curriculum Developmental Continuum,
High Scope Child Observation Record (COR), and
Work Sampling System.

*Please note that EEC recognizes Ages & Stages is a screening, rather than assessment tool. Programs currently using Ages & Stages as an assessment tool are encouraged to transition to one of the three child assessment systems listed above for the purpose of ongoing assessments of children’s developmental progress.
The vendor(s) must define a set of recommended screening tools on which to train programs.
Project Duration / February 15, 2010 – June 30, 2010
Required Forms to be Submitted / See the Appendix B-Required Forms Checklist for Applicant for all forms required with this submission. EEC reserves the right to discardincomplete submissions.
Additionally, a grant outcomes from will be required of the selected vendor(s) within 30 days of the completion of the grant (project duration February 15, 2010 – June, 30, 2010).
Please note: If your application is selected for funding EEC will emailyou a Standard Contract Form which you will need to print, sign (in blue ink), and return to EEC. Directions on how to submit that signed form to EEC will be explained when you receive the form.
Additional Info / Timeline:
RFP Release/Posting: December 20, 2010
Submission of Written Inquiries: January 13, 2010
Applicants must submit written inquiries to with
“Assessment RFP” in the subject line.
Response to Written Inquiries: January 18, 2010(Estimated)
Submission Deadline: January27, 2010
Responses Reviewed at EEC: February 1, 2010 (Estimated)
Bidders are Notified of Awards: February 3rd – 4th 2010 (Estimated)
Grant Start Date: February 15, 2010
EEC reserves the right to adjust the timeframe laid out above. It is the responsibility of the applicant to keep up to date on changes to this RFP by checking the EEC Website.

(Part II Budget Detail is a separate attachment in the web posting)
Part III – Budget Narrative