Grants and Other Financial Assistance Programs

FY2027: Early Literacy Consortium Grant

Fund Code: 0726

Purpose:

The purpose of this competitive grant program is to fund the development, launch, and continuation of partnerships between eligible sponsoring organizations and PK–12 districts to promote improved teacher preparation and development in evidence-based early literacy instruction and improved early literacy outcomes for PK–3 students. All students deserve access to high quality instruction, and it will take collaborative and innovative efforts on the part of both districts and educator preparation programs to ensure that PK–3 educators have the pre-service training as well as the ongoing professional development needed to well-serve Massachusetts students. The goal of this grant program is for both districts and sponsoring organizations to benefit from collaboration through multi-year consortia developed to impact early literacy teaching and learning through preparation of candidates and ultimately hiring and employment of effective Elementary, Early Childhood, and Moderate Disabilities PK–2/PK–8 teachers.

Priorities:

DESE seeks to award Early Literacy Consortium grants to entities that:

  • Are committed to prioritizing literacy equity and excellence, and want to collaborate with districts and sponsoring organizations in their region to make this a reality
  • Demonstrate favorable conditions and the resources, including time and commitment, necessary to make and sustain meaningful partnerships that have the potential to improve student outcomes in early literacy
  • Bring together a diverse coalition of stakeholders committed to the activities articulated in the grant proposal, including but not limited to classroom educators, PK–12 administrators, higher education faculty and leadership, program supervisors, teacher candidates, and students where appropriate
  • Are actively investing in equity, inclusion, and culturally and linguistically sustaining literacy practices for all learners

Competitive priority will be given to:

  • Partnerships established in FY23, FY24, FY25, or FY26 that have a proven track record with DESE of working towards the grant’s priorities and goals and can provide positive evidence of impact
  • Partnerships that include districts that have implemented or will be implementing high quality instructional materials for early literacy instruction
    • Limited to early literacy curricular materials that meet the Department’s definition of high quality as defined by CURATE at the time of application. Additionally, if the district’s core instructional materials do not include a foundational skills component but does meet the criterion listed above, evidence-based foundational skills curricular materials must be in use as well.
  • Partnerships that include districts with systems and structures in place to run a Multi-tiered System of Support (MTSS) for early literacy in grades PK-3.
  • Partnerships that include districts and schools in chronically underperforming status and the Strategic Transformation Region
  • Partnerships whose mission and strategic plan includes intentional, targeted actions to diversify the teacher workforce
  • Partnerships that leverage the Professional Standards for Teaching and 2024 Model Teacher Evaluation Rubric to promote culturally and linguistically sustaining instructional practices
  • Partnerships whose action plan explicitly addresses training and support for program supervisors and/or supervising practitioners responsible for overseeing Elementary, Early Childhood, or Moderate Disabilities teacher candidate’s field-based experiences
Eligibility:

For the purposes of this grant, an "applicant" is defined as the organization (Local Education Agency or sponsoring organization) who is applying for the grant on behalf of a "consortium," defined as a group of organizations working together to improve early literacy teaching and learning. Applicants may apply within one of the following three categories.

Category 1 — Districts or Sponsoring Organizations in the Visioning Stage of Launching a Consortium
Applicants in this category are at the very beginning stages of planning and have not firmly established multiple partnerships. To be eligible, an applicant must represent a consortium that includes:

And be committed to:

  • Outreach with other potential partners with the goal of building a regional consortium that includes at least four organizations
  • Convening all partners at least once before June 30, 2027
  • Regular touchpoint meetings with DESE staff

Category 2 — Newly Established Consortia in the Planning Stage of Launching Early Literacy Programming
Applicants in this category have an established partnership with multiple sponsoring organizations and public school districts (four or more organizations in total) in their region and are designing and planning to implement programming that will advance effective early literacy instruction. To be eligible, an applicant must represent a consortium that includes:

And be committed to:

  • Convening all partners at least twice before June 30, 2027
  • Sharing outcomes of conventions and a strategic plan for the consortium’s future work
  • Regular touchpoint meetings with DESE staff

Category 3 — Established Consortia Implementing Early Literacy Programming
Applicants in this category represent an established partnership with multiple sponsoring organizations and school districts with a clear, strategic plan for the consortium’s work. To be eligible, an applicant must represent a consortium that includes:

And be able to provide:

  • A description of the consortium’s mission
  • An outline of the consortium’s scope of work to date
  • The consortium’s strategic plan

And be committed to:

  • Convening all partners at least twice before June 30, 2027
  • Sharing outcomes of conventions and plans for the consortium’s future work
  • Regular touchpoint meetings with DESE staff
Funding:

A total of approximately $800,000 is projected to be available across FY27 (Upon approval through 6/30/2027) and Summer FY28 based on the number of quality proposals submitted and the total cost of the grant activities.

Category 1 applicants may apply for up to $10,000 total.

Category 2 applicants may apply for up to $20,000 total.

Category 3 applicants may apply for up to $200,000 total.

Funding will be awarded based on the proposed grant activities and budget presented in the application.

Pending appropriation, funding for grant may continue competitively in Fiscal Years 2028 and 2029 for FC 0726.

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.

Funding Type:

State Line Item 7010-0033

MBTA Communities Act Compliance:

Grant awards under this program are contingent upon the municipality being able to certify that it will comply with all applicable laws, including the Massachusetts General Laws. If the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities has determined that a district is out of compliance with G.L. c. 40A, § 3A, the MBTA Communities Act, the district is not eligible to participate in FC 0726 until they are able to remediate this noncompliance.

Fund Use:

Funding will be distributed across three categories (applicants developing a consortium, applicants launching a consortium, and applicants continuing a consortium), and eligibility requirements are set accordingly. Some grant funds will go toward development of consortia, and therefore may be awarded to single organizations (e.g., a PK–12 district, sponsoring organization, or other legal entity) committed to networking and establishing partnerships with other organizations in service of improved early literacy teaching and learning. Some grant funds will be awarded to established consortia committed to launching early literacy initiatives across partnering districts and sponsoring organizations. Other grant funds will be awarded to established consortia committed to continuing early literacy initiatives across partnering districts and sponsoring organizations. The intent is for this to be multi-year grant program designed to support consortia at various stages of development.

Funds must be used to support the costs of grant activities including staff salaries, stipends, staff planning time as it relates to the grant, contracts, high quality instructional materials, costs related to professional development and training activities, and other expenses associated with implementing grant funded programming.

Grant activities may include but are not limited to:

  • Strategic Planning Activities (e.g. conventions that bring together PK-12 educators with educator preparation faculty to discuss early literacy, committee meetings to collaboratively determine mission, etc.)
  • Professional Development Activities (e.g. professional development or professional learning communities for supervising practitioners, program supervisors, educator preparation faculty, and district instructional leaders to improve the quality of teacher candidates’ preparation in early literacy instruction)
  • Early Literacy Initiatives (e.g., high-dosage early literacy tutoring program for PK-3 students; the development of a resource library to support teacher candidates’ understanding of evidence-based, culturally and linguistically sustaining early literacy instruction; an Early Literacy Task Force focused on building systems to support innovative staffing models; implementation of the Early Literacy Observation Tool)
  • Other (a model proposed by the applicant for collaboration that meets the needs of districts and sponsoring organizations)

Unallowable Expenditures:
Out-of-State travel, food, current transportation costs or other currently funded costs, or any expenditures not directly related to grant activities.

Project Duration:

School Year: FY2027: Upon Approval (no earlier than 9/1/2026) through 6/30/2027 *

Summer: FY2028: Upon Approval (no earlier than 7/1/2027) – 8/31/2027

*This funding can be spent throughout the 2026-2027 school year and through the summer of 2027. To allow access for Summer FY28 spending, grantees must reduce their School Year grants in the spring of 2027 to free up funding which will be rolled into FY28. Grantees who wish to use any grant funding during Summer 2027 will need to reapply for a summer continuation in May/June of 2027 for a 7/1/2027 start date, ending on 8/31/2027.

Important Notes:

  • All FY27 grant funded goods and/or services must be provided and/or received by June 30, 2027.
  • * 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 DESE receiving and approving an application submission. Funds cannot exceed the project duration end date. The Grant Award Notice (GAN) issued in GEM$ is the official award notice for grant funds.
Program Unit:

Office of Educator Effectiveness,
Teaching and Learning Unit

Contact:

Siobhan Allen

Date Due:

Wednesday, July 22, 2026

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

DESE Competitive Grant Submission Policy

Competitive grant applications are considered submitted when the grant application is submitted by the Superintendent or their designee through the "LEA Superintendent / Chief Executive Approved" step in GEM$. In order to be considered for competitive funding, applicants must submit a grant application through the LEA Superintendent Approved stage by the due date and time listed in the RFP.

All responses must be submitted through proper steps and received by the due date/time listed above. Failure to do so will result in disqualification. Responses not received on time will not be reviewed. Applicants applying after the due date may be notified their application was received late and will not be reviewed. Applications must be submitted as directed in the Submission Instructions below. Failure to do so may result in disqualification. If you need assistance with submitting your application, please reach out to the contact person listed on this funding opportunity.

Additional Information:

Please submit questions to Siobhan.m.allen@mass.gov by July 15, 2026. Responses will not be sent directly to the questioner. Responses will be posted to the Early Literacy in Educator Preparation website.

DESE Information Sessions on this RFP will be held via Zoom:

DESE Curriculum Data Collection: To be eligible for this grant, districts must have completed Curriculum Data Collection for ELA/literacy, Mathematics, STE, and History/Social Science. The data should be viewable and up to date at: Curriculum Data. Directions about the expectations and how to provide the data can be found at: Curriculum Data Collection

Universal screening data sharing
LEAs receiving this award will be required to participate in research efforts, including providing student-level assessment data from the approved early literacy screening assessment that is administered in all schools during the award period. DESE will request that data be submitted by June 30 of each year awarded. DESE will analyze the data collected for research purposes, including evaluation of this program. Analyses will comply with state and federal confidentiality laws.

GEM$ Submission Instructions:

The FY27 FC 0726 will be submitted in our new GEM$ system.

New organizations that do not have an established LEA with DESE skip to Step 3.

Step 1: Establish and assign proper roles before the grant due date/time. Grant Submission at the LEA level requires roles to be established for Grant writer for the specific fund code, LEA fiscal for financial review/approval, and Superintendent/Chief Executive sign off.

All roles should be established prior to the grant due date and all appropriate forms should be either uploaded to GEM$, maintained at the LEA level or sent in to the DESE RFP contact as described on the individual forms. The user guidance documents and forms are found on the GEM$ homepage under DESE Resources. These forms can be accessed without logging in to the system.

Step 2: Submit the grant through all LEA steps in GEM$. There are three LEA steps a competitive grant must be submitted through by the due date and time to be considered for funding:

  • Grantwriter Submitted
  • LEA Fiscal Representative Approved
  • LEA Superintendent / Chief Executive Approved

Competitive grant applications are considered submitted once the grant application is submitted by the Superintendent or their designee through the "LEA Superintendent / Chief Executive Approved" step in GEM$. In order to be considered for competitive funding, applicants must submit a grant application through the LEA Superintendent Approved stage by the due date and time listed in the RFP. Please plan accordingly.

The Superintendent / Chief Executive Approved Step allows for the organization lead to review and approve the grant application. Removing the requirement for the Part I Standard Contract Form, this step signifies Superintendent /Chief Executive sign off. Any grant budget changes requiring signature, will re-execute this step when amended signifying the organization lead is approving these changes.

Step 3: (If applicable) New organizations request temporary organization access. New organizations are entities that have not been established as an LEA in GEM$. Entities that do not have an organization in GEM$ must contact the DESE Program Unit issuing this grant at a minimum 5 business days prior to the grant due date for temporary organization access.

Temporary Access will need to be created by DESE before you can then assign the proper roles and submit the grant as outlined in Steps 1 and 2.

Failure to provide DESE with GEM$ Temp Organization Access Request at least 5 business days prior to the due date may result in not meeting the submission due date listed above. DESE cannot accept or review applications after the due date.

Last Updated: June 22, 2026

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