FY2024: Appleseeds Materials and Professional Development Grant

Fund Code: 208

Purpose:

In 2022, DESE released Appleseeds: Evidence-Based Foundational Skills for Massachusetts, a complete package of instructional materials for reading foundational skills in Kindergarten through Grade 2. Appleseeds is fully aligned to Mass Literacy and key features are:

• Comprehensive suite of materials including: hands-on phonics materials, lesson plans, student workbooks, decodable readers, assessments, and a curriculum-specific multilingual learner guide.
• An evidence-based scope and sequence that progresses from simple to more complex skill development, using a systematic and explicit instructional approach to teach the 150 spellings for the 44 sounds of English
• Updated materials that increase student engagement and provide a sense of connection through characters that are diverse and authentic, lesson activities and images that promote inclusion and belonging, and asset-based language to center each student's unique strengths and needs.

Appleseeds can be a great resource for schools and districts who do not have strong curricular materials for reading foundational skills. Educators can learn more about Appleseeds materials and implementation across the state by filling out this interest form.

This competitive grant will support LEAs to implement Appleseeds materials for reading foundational skills through one or more of the following activities:

• Purchase of comprehensive printed materials for Appleseeds: Evidence-Based Foundational Skills for Massachusetts in grades K–2
• Purchase of decodable texts for Appleseeds: Evidence-Based Foundational Skills for Massachusetts in grades K–2
• Professional development and support for educators, leaders, and literacy coaches from a DESE-approved Appleseeds PD provider

Priorities:

DESE seeks to award Appleseeds Materials and Professional Development grants to entities that:

• Are committed to prioritizing equity and excellence through commitment to evidence-based early literacy practices
• Are actively invested in cultural and linguistically sustaining practices in literacy for all learners
• Demonstrate favorable conditions and the resources, including time and commitment, necessary to make and sustain meaningful adoption and implementation, across multiple schools if applicable
• Are currently implementing literacy curricular materials that do not meet expectations for quality based on a third-party review and are planning to replace those with Appleseeds.

LEAs will commit to:

• Track 1: Full Appleseeds Adoption
  • This track supports schools and districts that want to use Appleseeds to replace or add a reading foundational skills component to their core literacy block.

or

• Track 2: Decodable Readers Adoption
  • This track supports schools and districts that want to supplement their existing reading foundational skills instruction with Appleseeds decodable texts to support students learning letter-sound correspondences and common spelling patterns.

Competitive Priorities:

1. LEAs which serve a population of students of which over 50% are identified as high needs.
2. Districts and schools in chronically underperforming status and the Strategic Transformation Region
3. LEAs applying for Track 1: Full Adoption of Appleseeds
4. LEAs that include professional development in their proposal

Eligibility:

Public school districts, charter schools, collaboratives, and approved special education programs that serve students in grades K–2 are eligible to apply.

Funding Type:

State Line Item 7010-0033

Funding:

A total of approximately $1,200,000 is projected to be available across FY24 (upon approval through 6/30/2024) and FY25 (upon approval no earlier than 7/1/2024 and through 8/31/2024) based on the number of quality proposals submitted and the total cost of the training and support packages chosen.

This RFP is the governing document for these grant funds. Funding is contingent upon availability. All dollar amounts listed are estimated/approximate and are subject to change. If more funding becomes available, it will be distributed under the same guidelines that appear in this RFP document.

Pending appropriation and the meeting of grant requirements, awarded grantees may be eligible for continuation grant(s) in Fiscal Year 2025 for FC208. Though this funding is not guaranteed by this grant, applicants should submit a proposal for FY25 (no earlier than 9/1/2024–6/30/2025) in their Part 3 narrative and in their PD Provider proposal if intending to apply for the continuation grant.

Fund Use:

This grant will provide funding for materials as well as hands-on support from Appleseeds specialists for recipients to accomplish the activities listed under either Track 1 or Track 2. Recipients can choose to purchase materials with or without professional development support. Following the grant period, recipients are expected to continue implementing the materials and practices initiated by this grant.

Track 1: Full Adoption of Appleseeds: Evidence-Based Foundational Skills for Massachusetts in grades K–2	Track 2: Decodable Readers Adoption of Appleseeds: Evidence-Based Foundational Skills for Massachusetts in grades K–2
Funding Activities for Track 1: Purchase and ship all Appleseeds curricular materials for grades K–2 Up to 100% of spring/summer of 2024 professional development with a cap of $100,000 for teachers and leaders to support skillful and culturally sustaining implementation of all Appleseeds materials	Funding Activities for Track 2: Purchase and ship all Appleseeds decodable readers for grades K–2 Up to 100% of spring/summer of 2024 professional development with a cap of $100,000 for teachers and leaders to support skillful and culturally sustaining implementation of Appleseeds decodable readers

For more information on the fund use and PD Providers, download this document: Appleseeds Materials and Professional Development — Fund Use

Project Duration:

School Year: FY2024: Upon approval through 6/30/2024
Summer (if applicable): FY2025: upon approval (no earlier than 7/1/2024 – 8/31/2024) — summer portion of grant award may require submitting application in GEM$

Depending on district-determined timelines, the Appleseeds program grant activities will run an additional year. A continuation will be available for funding in FY25 (Upon Approval (anticipated September 1, 2024) – June 30, 2025) to enact the Appleseeds program. Continuation funding is not guaranteed.

Important Note: all FY24 grant funded goods and/or services must be provided and/or received by June 30, 2024.

* Grant start date cannot be prior to DESE receiving a substantially approvable Application Submission as directed in this RFP's Submission Instructions. Goods and Services cannot be procured prior to Grants receiving and approving an application submission. Funds cannot exceed the project duration end date.

Program Unit:

Office of Literacy and Humanities,
Center for Instructional Support

Contact:

Linda Sewnarine

Date Due:

Wednesday, February 14, 2024**

Complete proposals must be received at the Department by 5:00 p.m. on the date due. A confirmation of receipt will be sent.

**All responses must be received by the due date and time listed in this RFP. All responses must be submitted as directed in the Submissions Instructions section of this RFP. Responses not submitted on time will not be reviewed and will be disqualified.

Required Forms:

• Part I — General Program Unit Signature Pages (Standard Contract Form and Application for Program Grants)
  • Part I for FY24 School Year — General — Program Unit Signature Page
  • Part I for FY25 Summer (If applicable) — General — Program Unit Signature Page
  
  
• Part II — Budget Workbook
  • Please read the "START HERE" section to create cost estimates for materials. Please note that there are separate budgets for School Year and Summer.
  
  

• Part III — Applicant Required Program Information and Narrative Responses

• Part IV — School Assurance from each participating school principal

• Part V — School District Assurance

Important: Vendor Scope of Work — If your proposal includes funds used for services from an external PD provider, please submit a scope of work that includes that organization's planned activities and costs, on that organization's letterhead. Those costs should correspond to the budget submitted (Part II).

Note on Budget Details.
Please use the provided Budget template to calculate each budget. This budget will allow us to determine the number of grants that may be awarded. This does not necessarily represent your final award amount. Costs for some items, like materials printing purchases, cannot be accurately budgeted until the printing vendors finalize the amount. In those cases, the Budget template provides estimates to be used in the application. Recipients will be able to seek budget amendments after award to reflect accurate costs.

Additional Information:

Please submit questions to Linda.Sewnarine@mass.gov by February 1, 2024. Responses posted on February 12, 2024: FC208 Appleseeds Questions and Answers .

Information Session on this RFP will be held via Zoom:

• January 26, 2024 from 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM | Registration for Zoom Meeting
• January 28, 2024 from 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Registration for Zoom Meeting

Curriculum Data Collection: In order to be eligible for this grant, districts must have completed their LEAs Curriculum Data Collection. The data should be viewable and up to date here: Curriculum Data. Directions about the expectations and how to provide the data can be found here: Curriculum Data Collection.

Early Literacy Universal Screening: LEAs receiving this award for ELA/Literacy will be required to participate in future research efforts related to early literacy assessment, including providing student-level assessment data from any approved early literacy screening assessment that is administered in the recipient schools during the award period. DESE will request that data be submitted by June 30 of each year awarded. DESE will analyze the statewide data collected for research purposes. Analyses will only be reported in the aggregate (e.g., by grade-level, region, etc.) in order to meet state and federal confidentiality laws. The identities of districts and schools will not be reported. All reporting will protect the identities of students, educators, schools, and districts.

Submission Instructions:

Please email the required documents as listed above, attached to a single email, to CISgrants@mass.gov using the subject line FC208 Appleseeds Application — [LEA Name]. Please use the provided filetypes (word and excel). Signature pages should be sent as word or pdf documents.

Applicants will receive a confirmation when the materials are received. Early submission is strongly encouraged to ensure the complete application is received and confirmed by 5pm on the due date.

Awarded Recipients: Upon award, recipients will be required to enter the approved budget, Part I and required documents into EdGrants. Once selected, recipients will be contacted with further instructions on the process.

Important Note on School Year (FY2024) and Summer (FY2025) funds:
Applicants must complete the Application Submission in EdGrants by entering the School Year (FY2024) budget and attach all other required forms listed in this RFP for FC208 to the Attachments List formlet of the Application Submission. These applicants must also attach the Summer (FY2025) proposed budget in the Attachments List. Applicants will be notified in Spring of 2024 when to enter in the Summer (FY2025) portion of the budget, if applicable. Please note that the summer portion of grant award may require submitting application in GEM$.

Last Updated: February 12, 2024