Grants and Other Financial Assistance Programs: FY2010

The purpose of this federal grant program is to provide a solution to school districts struggling to keep up with rapidly expanding and increasingly frequent state data collections through the implementation of the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF). In March 2009 the Department was awarded a Longitudinal Data Systems (LDS) grant from the US Department of Education. The major component of the Massachusetts LDS grant is to support the implementation of SIF to streamline the exchange of student and staffing data between local school districts and the Department. The Department intends to contract with a vendor in order to design and assist with the implementation of SIF solutions in an estimated 40 districts; a Request for Response (RFR) was published on October 1, 2009. The pilot rollout of these SIF solutions in districts will begin during spring 2010. The statewide SIF vendor selected by the Department will be required to work with grantees and their Student Information System (SIS) vendors to support Massachusetts SIF implementation. Successful applicants for a grant under this Request for Proposal (RFP) will receive funding to support the establishment of Zone Integration Servers (ZISs), SIF agents that will be compatible with state ZISs and state-approved district SISs, and appropriate training for grantee staff.

Goals of the Department to streamline the data collection process:

1. To support the automated and more frequent exchange of student and staffing data from school districts to the Department through the implementation of the SIF framework and related technology.

2. To build upon and continue support of existing state-approved SIS or human resources systems as the source for streamlined data collection.

3. To include districts that will undertake the process of providing staffing data using SIF.

4. To demonstrate that vertical SIF implementation can be successfully implemented in districts that have already implemented SIF to support the horizontal exchange of information in their district.

5. To identify, develop, and/or modify any SIS and/or human resources systems that are particularly well suited to Massachusetts implementation of SIF and that could be replicated in other interested districts.

Priority will be given to districts that form partnerships with other school districts that have common student information management system software in use in their respective districts.

Also, priority will be given to proposals from districts that include the following components or characteristics.

1. Participation of the district contributes to inclusion of as many state approved SISs and staffing/human resources systems in the pilot as possible, including district developed SISs.

2. Establishment of a District Data Coordinator role responsible for the management of the district's data systems including the implementation of this grant.

3. Establishment and demonstration of effective implementation of district-wide data management policies and practices with well defined support from district leaders.

4. A demonstrated track record in submitting the Student Information Management System (SIMS) and Education Personnel Information Management System (EPIMS) collections with a high level of accuracy and in a timely manner.

5. Districts that already have a SIF zone integration server in place to support exchange of data between local systems.

Approximately $800,000 is available to be distributed over the next three years. Funding for the 2009-2010 school year has been received. Funding for 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 will be made available subject to the US Department of Education's annual release of funds.

Grants awarded will be for FY 2010 and renewable at the Department's discretion for FY 2011 and FY 2012. To qualify for funding beyond FY 2010, the district must demonstrate significant progress towards the objectives of this grant program. The Department may re-grant the unexpended balance of a grant from a prior fiscal year and/or may provide additional funding into the second or third year in order to bring the project to successful completion.

• Year One - $300,000 (approximately 15 districts)

• Year Two - $300,000 (approximately 15 districts)

• Year Three - $200,000 (approximately 10 districts)

Grant awards given to successful applicants will range from $10,000 - $20,000. The Department reserves the right to grant larger awards for district proposals that would significantly advance accomplishments of the Department's goals as outlined above.

1. Funds received shall be used to support the implementation or expansion of the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) methodology and technology.

2. Funds may be used to support the implementation of a Department- compliant SIS to help a group of school districts. The SIS could be hosted by one district, a collaborative, or a vendor. The system must support the exchange of student and staffing information via SIF to meet the Department's collection requirements.

3. Funds may be used to upgrade an established SIS to the SIF certified version supported by the Department.

4. Funds may be used to support the development of comprehensive specifications for an SIS for any Massachusetts school district. The goal would be to use these specifications to create a statewide contract for SIS purchasing that Massachusetts districts could choose to use for future SIS purchases. These specifications must support the SIF architecture, must meet SIF certification standards, and must support all SIMS requirements.

5. Funds may be used to augment existing district and school staff so that resources can be devoted to support SIF implementation with the Department's vendor.

6. Funds may be used to purchase equipment with the advance written approval of the Department.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Proposals must be received at the Department by 5:00 p.m. on the date due.

1.     Part I - General - Program Unit Signature Page - (Standard Contract Form and Application for Program Grants)

2.        Part II Budget Detail Pages (Include both pages.) - Instructions

3.     Part III - Required Program Information

4.     Letter of Assurances

5. Letters of commitment from partnering districts or organizations

1. Prior to developing proposals for this program, districts should refer to the following items.

   Technical Assistance Workshops:

   • November 3, 2009

   • November 6, 2009

   To participate, please register online: http://www.doe.mass.edu/forms/.

2. When developing proposals for this program, districts should refer to the following resources.

   1. National Center for Education Statistics Publications (http://www.nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/)

   2. Schools Interoperability Framework website (http://www.sifinfo.org/us/index.asp)

   3.     Scoring Rubric

   4. The SIF RFP Q&A: All answers to questions raised during technical assistance, by phone or by email will be posted to the Q&A site at: http://www.doe.mass.edu/infoservices/data/sif/.

3. Grant recipients must send a minimum of 1 technical staff per district, 2-10 non-technical staff at the district level, and 1-2 staff members from each school to the SIF training sessions.

4. Grant recipients must send at least 1 staff member to participate in each grantee meeting.

5. Grant recipients are responsible for ongoing expenses related to the SIF server and agents as appropriate upon completion of the grant.

6. Districts must provide a letter of commitment from their SIS vendor to cooperate with the Department's selected SIF implementation vendor.

Submit 4 sets, each with an original signature of the Superintendent/Executive Director. Mail to: