Part II - Submission Requirements The online virtual school vendor shall be held to have read the Request for Proposals document that includes the public notice, instructions to bidders, and specifications. The representatives of the Awarding Authority will review all proposals, and identify any proposals that do not meet the Submission Requirements set forth in this section. Such proposals will be deemed non-responsive and will be rejected. Should it become necessary to revise any part of this RFP, an addendum will be provided to all who are known to have received the initial RFP. The Awarding Authority may cancel this RFP, in whole or in part, at any time for any reason. This document is a Request for a Proposal, not a request to contract. The Awarding Authority reserves the unqualified right to accept or reject any or all offers for the purpose of establishing a contract to perform the work described herein. The Awarding Authority is not liable for any costs incurred by potential providers in the preparation of this response or the delivery of responses to this RFP which includes travel as part of the selection process. The Awarding Authority will not reimburse any organization for the cost of the preparation of responses or product demonstrations. All proposals are to be delivered to the Richard W. Murphy, Ph.D., Executive Director, FLLAC Collaborative, 2 Shaker Road, Suite B210, Shirley, MA 01464 no later than the close of business on June 6, 2014. Every proposal must be submitted in two (2) separate, clearly marked, sealed envelopes: 1) Non-price submission, and 2) Price submission. Online virtual school vendors must submit ten (10) copies of all submissions. The following information must appear on each envelope: Name of online virtual school vendor Proposal for online content courses aligned to the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for students in grades 5-12 Non-price Submission and/or Price Submission The Non-Price Submission for every proposal must provide documentation to fulfill all Minimum Criteria. Any proposal that does not include documentation to satisfy all minimum criteria will be rejected as non-responsive. Documentation must be numbered/labeled to correspond with each criterion. Minimum Criteria: 1. The online virtual school vendor must be providing online core content courses aligned to the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for students in grades 5-12 to no less than ten (10) school departments/districts in the Common Core states. Vendor must identify all of their Massachusetts clients. Provide a one-page summary of your involvement in these departments/districts including the financial status of the program before your involvement and current status. Include the name, address and phone number of a primary contact that will be used as a reference to determine responsibility. 2. The online virtual school vendor must have a minimum of three (3) years favorable experience providing online core content courses aligned to the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for students in grades 5-12. Provide a brief history of your company s experience providing online virtual school core content. Be sure to include your company s website address. Part 2 Submission Requirements BID DOCUMENTS Page 1 of 5
3. Certification as an online virtual school vendor by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Submit a copy of your certificate as Form 2) 4. Certificate of Compliance with State Tax Laws, General Law 62C, Section 49A 5. Certification of Non-Collusion 6. Certification of Compliance 7. Letter of Transmittal signed by an individual authorized to bind the online virtual school vendor, certifying that the online virtual school vendor will, if accepted for a contract award, execute a copy of a contract in accordance with the terms of this Proposal within three (3) working days of the Notice of Award and further certify he/she will comply with the rules and regulations of the Department of Education and all other regulatory authorities governing the performance of this Contract. 8. All online virtual school facilitators and instructors must hold a Massachusetts license within the content area that they are facilitating or instructing. 9. CORI Checks. CORI checks on online virtual school employees as outlined in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Education Reform Law of 1994. Vendors will submit a suitability determination for their employees CORI background check. Each online educator servicing the Awarding Authority must send the Awarding Authority a copy of the results of the state and national fingerprint-based criminal background check, in compliance with Public Law 92-544. 10.Complete a Statement of work Your response should clearly address the following questions in the order and format listed below. Please be concise and complete in answering each question. A. Organization Profile 1. Contacts List detailed contact information for the person who will be the direct contact for this response. 2. Relevant experience Provide your experience and expertise as it relates to the delivery of online content courses for students in grades 5-12 3. List all accreditations and any state or national endorsements your organization has received. 4. Describe any outside evaluations of the finished digital content that would demonstrate the quality of Part 2 Submission Requirements BID DOCUMENTS Page 2 of 5
your online content. 5. Please include a statement regarding any current or previous litigation for providing similar services as requested within this RFP. 6. Describe any key technical considerations that the Awarding Authority will need to consider in order to successfully access online core content. 7. What learning management systems will the courses be compatible with? 8. Identify any unique features or additional information about your company s experience, expertise or any other information you believe important and has not been cited in previous questions. B. Qualifications and Staffing 1. Describe the qualifications and experience of the course instructors, including how many have Massachusetts certification to teach in the areas to which they are assigned. Please list instructors minimum required qualifications. 2. Describe the online instructor to student ratio. 3. Describe the technical support that is available? 4. What professional development/training opportunities are available to staff and students who will be using the online platform? Design and describe the professional development/training plan and availability of online content for member districts of Awarding Authority to be implemented and completed by August 1, 2014. C. Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment 1. Provide a Curriculum Scope and Sequence for each content area at each proposed grade level and confirm alignment with Massachusetts standards in the Attachments. Include a sample curriculum map for a grade 10 English language arts or mathematics course. 2. Describe the curriculum and instructional resources that each school will need and how they align with the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks. Note that high school students (grades 9-12) should be offered courses sufficient to meet MassCore requirements (see http://www.doe.mass.edu/ccr/masscore/?section=general). What additional resources will students need to participate in the on line courses? Textbooks? Any additional digital resources? Lab supplies? Art supplies for electives? 3. Describe the proposed instructional methods and how they will support high standards of achievement and are appropriate for all students. Include whether the online curriculum is accessible to students with disabilities, who may be using assistive technologies. Part 2 Submission Requirements BID DOCUMENTS Page 3 of 5
4. Describe the course management system and instructional methods that will be used to implement the curriculum. Cite the research to design the instructional methods used. 5. Describe how a course is developed, assembled and published within the LMS. The course must include discussion boards, chat, text documents, audio files and short video/flash clips. 6. Describe the online features to monitor and assess students progress in completing the online course in order to identify areas of difficulty. Describe the methods for direct teacher annotation and feedback to students. 7. Describe the assessments that are used to monitor and assess students competency based on the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks. 8. Describe how the online educator will ensure that all enrolled students will be fully engaged in learning and will have opportunities to thrive in the virtual learning environment. 9. Describe how the software will monitor student attendance, including how it will verify that each student is actively engaged and participating in classes. 10. What is the frequency of the synchronous learning opportunities and/or the percentage of the instruction that will occur synchronously? 11. Describe how students participation in the online program can be monitored based on date, time and length of log-in and activity within the log in time. 12. Describe how the school can track student learning time. D. Technical Specifications 1. Identify all required browser plug-ins; external resources that require a login id for students (ex. E- Textbook or any third party websites); media or lab kits that are to be physically delivered to the student s home or school; third party vendors whose copyrighted materials are included in the course; and any other user environment requirements that are not addressed elsewhere in the response. 2. Identify the process for routine course updates and the process for reporting and resolving errors within the course content. 3. The vendor is responsible (at their own cost) for assisting FLLAC, district staff with any installation or content delivery issues associated with the vendor s technical environment. Describe the technical infra-structure and support that is available. 4. All flash media must be operative in Flash versions 7 and higher, including the current full release (non-beta) version at the time of the deployment. Must have non-flash versions for use on an ipad. All Flash or other materials must be able to be delivered via one of the browsers listed below. 5. Vendor s content must be fully functional in Mac OS X 10.9, Windows 7, 8, 8.1, ios7 ipads, Chrome OS and Android devices. Operational on all the following browsers (including later versions) is required depending on each operating system: IE 11, Chrome 33, Firefox 28, Safari 7 as well as Part 2 Submission Requirements BID DOCUMENTS Page 4 of 5
mobile platforms. Describe the venues where online content may be fully operational. 6. Describe the online content components that are hosted by the vendor or a third party solution. 7. Described any proposed LMS components that would require the Awarding Authority to host. Provide an estimate of the hard drive space required on the web server(s), content (NAS) server (if used), and SQL database servers. Vendors may be required to provide load-testing scripts for use to load test content prior to production deployment. Part 2 Submission Requirements BID DOCUMENTS Page 5 of 5