REQUEST FOR INFORMATION K-12 Mathematics & PK-12 English Language Arts Curriculum Adoptions PURPOSE The Department of Defense Activity (DoDEA) is issuing this request for information (RFI) to (1) inform vendors about our proposed FY2016 K-12 Mathematics and 6-12 English Language Arts and our proposed FY17 PK-5 English Language curriculum adoptions and (2) gain information in order to better craft our solicitations. This notification is to inform potential vendors about this opportunity and to elicit their intent to respond to the future solicitations once issued. DoDEA requests responses to this RFI by 10:00 am EST on Friday, June 26, 2015 by email to Nina Lin at
[email protected] . BACKGROUND DoDEA serves the educational needs of the dependents of military and civilian employees by providing PK-12 instruction to approximately 76,000 students in seven states, twelve foreign countries, Guam, and Puerto Rico. The number of students varies based on the deployment of military troops worldwide. DoDEA is divided into three administrative areas. DDESS (Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools) covers seven states, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. DoDDS (Department of Defense Dependent Schools) is divided into DoDDS-Europe and DoDDS-Pacific. In FY 2016 the former consists of England, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, and Bahrain. The latter consists of Korea, Japan, and Guam. DoDEA also operates a fully accredited Virtual School with its main office in Virginia and with teaching hubs in Germany and Okinawa. For specific school locations, refer to www.dodea.edu/aboutDoDEA/districtsAndSchools.cfm. MATHEMATICS In FY 2016 DoDEA intends to make three awards: K-5 Mathematics, 6-8 Mathematics, and 9-12 Mathematics. The latter will consist of Algebra I, Algebra II, and Geometry, which may be presented as separate courses or as an integrated series of three one-year courses. There are currently no Advanced Placement® requirements. DoDEA has begun the process of implementing the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, which we refer to as College and Career Ready Standards for Mathematics. We require student and teacher print and digital materials to address them. We require that lessons be integrated with the Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMP). DoDEA is particularly interested in materials that assist teachers in making sound instructional decisions around all populations of students and in materials that have a strong digital presence. Please see Attachment A for the associated DRAFT Statement of Work (SOW). ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS In FY 2016 DoDEA intends to make up to six awards: 6-8 English Language Arts, 9-12 English Language Arts, Journalism, Speech, Advanced Placement® English Literature, and Advanced Placement® English Composition. As mentioned, the PK-5 requirement is planned for FY 2017. DoDEA will soon begin the process of implementing the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects, which we refer to as College and Career Ready Standards: English Literacy. In FY 2016 we require student and teacher print and digital materials to address the 6-12 requirement and to determine what print and digital resources are available in support of the other four requirements. Please see Attachments B and C for the associated DRAFT Statements of Work (SOW). QUESTIONS The purpose of this RFI is to allow vendors to view a draft of DoDEA's upcoming requirements and for DoDEA to understand changes in the marketplace. Please respond to the following list of questions, which have been organized into generic questions, questions specific to Mathematics and questions specific to English Language Arts. If you believe that DoDEA failed to ask an important question, please add any pertinent comments. Generic 1. If consumable texts are offered, how can changes in DoDEA school enrollments be accommodated? Background: Because DoDEA has no warehouses, curriculum materials are typically sent directly to the schools. Occasionally DoDEA has materials mailed to the district offices; however, this practice is not cost-effective for large shipments of materials. 2. If DoDEA opts for hardback student textbooks, would vendors with consumable texts be able to provide them with hardback texts-at an increased unit cost? 3. What are vendor recommendations regarding the length of the online subscription? Background: With sequestration and DoD budget cuts, DoDEA has not been able to purchase curricular materials every six years. DoDEA is grappling with the best way to determine the contract length. One idea is to require a digital subscription for six years (paid for in the first year) with four one-year options (paid for when they occur) that extend the contract length to a total of ten years. 4. What is the vendor's pricing policy in terms of providing access to the digital materials for its Special Education, English as a Second Language, and Gifted & Talented instructors as part of an award? Background: DoDEA requires that SPED, ESL, and GT instructors have access to the teacher's edition of materials at a minimum and believes digital access would be the most cost-effective vehicle. 5. How, if at all, has the Publishers' Criteria for the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics been utilized/addressed? 6. How is professional development-book and website walk-throughs-delivered? Background: DoDEA requires virtual professional development for this requirement with either vendor-hosted or DoDEA-hosted modules or archived webinars for new teachers to access in the option years. If webinars are required in synchronous time, then they need to be delivered a minimum of three times for the US, Europe, and Pacific time zones. 7. What is the plan for ongoing updates of materials? That is, are materials corrected or updated when errors are found or when recent data/problems/text passages are available? Mathematics 8. Would it be feasible to allow DoDEA to supplement existing manipulatives with only those that are new or additional to the curriculum? Please refer to each grade level. Background: DoDEA teachers have many manipulatives from past curriculum adoptions. 9. In terms of math literacy, what materials, if any, are available, especially at the K-2 level? 10. What materials are available for Response to Interventions (RtI)? 11. How do the assessments align to the expectations (e.g. format, question type, levels of Webb's Depth of Knowledge, etc.) of the two Common Core assessment consortia and/or other widely used CCSS assessment systems? 12. How do the curricular materials support teachers as they move students towards productive struggle in mathematics and increased student discourse? 13. What are the design principles of your lessons and units? What is the flow of a typical lesson and how does it support and fully integrate the SMPs? 14. What web-based learning environment, if any, do you offer to support blended learning classrooms? Does the environment offered align only to publisher's materials, or can they be integrated in classrooms using different texts? English Language Arts 15. How can leveled libraries be delivered, i.e., print only, digital only, or hybrid? If print, how many copies per title? If digital, are downloads unlimited? 16. What qualitative and quantitative measures/indexes are used to determine text complexity? 17. What manuscript instruction, if any, is present in the ELA materials? 18. What writing program is featured in your materials? How is writing instruction organized? 19. Is citation instruction present in ELA materials? If so, what style is used, e.g., MLA, Chicago? 20. What is the most recent copyright dates do you have for Journalism and Speech? Reference Attachments: A) Draft Statement of Work: K-12 Mathematics Curriculum B) Draft Statement of Work: Secondary English Language Arts Curriculum C) Draft Statement of Work: Journalism and Speech Curriculum