FY2025: Playful Learning Institute, Preschool through 3^rd Grade

Fund Code: 0350

Purpose:

The purpose of this competitive grant program is to identify up to eight (8) school teams to participate in Cohort 2 of the Playful Learning Institute.

In the 2023-2024 school year, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's (Department's) shared an educational vision with school leaders and educators that called for all students to have learning experiences where they are known and valued; that are relevant, real world and interactive; and that include individualized supports so that they can excel at grade level and beyond. Additionally, the Department's Power of Presence initiative has prioritized the work of schools, families, and communities to facilitate the attendance of students. To support attainment of the educational vision and student attendance goals, the Department's Early Learning Team will host a Playful Learning Institute (Institute) beginning in the winter of 2025 (anticipated January 2025) and continuing through the 2025-26 school year to create playful, engaging environments for students at the early childhood and elementary grade levels that are intentionally designed to meet grade level learning standards.

The Institute will be designed for district and school administrators, Preschool through 3^rd grade (PK–3) inclusive classroom educators and Out-of-School Time (OST) program staff and administrators to provide them with the tools and strategies needed to intentionally design and embed playful learning across the course of the day. This approach to learning supports deep dives into content, creates equitable access to learning for all children, and creates many varied opportunities for authentic assessment, particularly during instructional blocks across the content areas.

Priorities:

The main priorities for this grant are to identify and engage with the eight (8) school teams representing diverse geographic regions of the state and which include educators working with historically marginalized students, including but not limited to multi-lingual learners, students on Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), students who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), newcomer students, students experiencing homelessness, in foster care and/or who are migratory.

Additionally, this RFP seeks to identify school teams with administrators and educators, PK–3, who are committed to the Department-sponsored 18-month Institute, including asynchronous professional development, a total of 15–20 hours of in-person professional development, creation of an action plan, participation in in-classroom and leadership-level coaching and participation in an evaluation of the Institute.

Priority will be given to teams of educators who work together in one building or, in the case of building configurations where PK–3 are served across multiple buildings, two buildings. Districts/schools are encouraged to invite community-based preschool and out-of-school time staff to participate in the professional development as well.

Competitive priority will be given to districts and schools:

1. in chronically underperforming status;
2. that currently receive a 21^st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) grant and have been piloting playful learning practices as part of their out-of-school time programs.
3. that are planning for, or implementing, High Quality Instructional Materials.

Eligibility:

Massachusetts public school districts (including charter schools) and educational collaboratives not currently receiving these supports from Boston Public Schools Early Childhood Department are eligible to apply for funding.

Only one team per district is eligible to apply. In cases where there are multiple school teams interested in the Institute, Districts must prioritize which team to include.

Small and rural districts with only one (1) classroom per grade or one (1) multi-age classroom covering more than one grade are eligible to apply.

Funding Type:

Federal CFDA 84.424*
Federal CFDA:84.027

Federal grant funds must adhere to:

• UGG (2 CFR 200)
• EDGAR As Applicable
• EDGAR General Fiscal Administration 34 CFR Part 76

*Only districts that meet the following criteria will be supported with this federal Stronger Connections funding: Massachusetts public school districts and charter public schools with an LEA Need Index of 80 or higher, and districts with eligible emergency expansion shelter sites, with at least 100 homeless students reported in school year 2022-2023 and/or with at least 100 newcomer students reported in October 2023 are eligible to apply. For the purposes of this grant program, a district's LEA Need Index equals the sum of the district's 2022 percent of high needs students, out-of-school suspension rate, and chronic absenteeism rate [missing 20 percent of days] for 2022.

Funding:

Approximately $1,200,000 is available across Fiscal Year 2025 (FY2025) and FY2026.

Applicants can apply for up to $175,000 to be used across school year 2024-2025 and school year 2025-2026.

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.

Fund Use:

DESE has approved vendors with which grantees will work to provide training and support for this project. Grantees must budget the following that will go directly to the selected approved vendor:

• $80,000 to Neighborhood Villages to deliver professional development (asynchronous and in-person) and coaching to school teams; and
• $25,000 to NORC at the University of Chicago for participation in evaluation of the Playful Learning Institute.

With the remaining $70,000, applicants should budget for:

• Substitutes and/or stipends for virtual and in-person professional development, planning time for educators and grade level teams and evaluation activities;
• Travel for in-person professional development;
• Copying costs, as needed; and
• Supplies and materials for the 10 participating classrooms represented on the school team.

The budget will primarily include stipends and/or substitute costs for participation in professional development, travel to in-person professional development; initial coaching meetings, evaluation and any local professional learning/planning time that may be created as a result of the Playful Learning Institute. Supplies and materials will be purchased in the summer of 2025 after review and approval from the awarded school team's coach.

Funds cannot be used for equipment, building/construction projects and our curricular programs.

Project Duration:

Upon Approval (anticipated January 2025) – 06/30/2026

Program Unit:

Student and Family Support

Contact:

Donna Traynham

Phone Number:

(781) 338-6372

Date Due:

Wednesday, December 11, 2024*

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

*All responses must be received by the due date listed above. Failure to do so will result in disqualification. Responses not submitted 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 Submissions 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.

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.

Additional Information:

The Institute will include professional development for approximately eight school teams that include district and school administrators as well as two (2) educators each in Preschool through 3^rd grade. Professional development is planned to take place in the spring of 2025; asynchronous professional development will likely take place in March of 2025 and awarded schools teams will be required to select of the following 2-day in-person professional development sessions as a full team: April 3^rd and 4^th from 9–3 or June 5^th and 6^th from 9–3. Districts will share their preference for which two-day session they want to send their team and the Department will do its best to meet the preferred session. These PD sessions will result in coordinated grade level action plans for each team to implement in the 2025-26 school year.

The grade-level action plans will focus on implementation at each grade level of:

• Implementation of two or more of the playful learning instructional practices inspired by Boston Public School's Early Childhood Department (Community Meeting; Read Alouds, Center/Studios, Writing, Storytelling/Story Acting, and Thinking and Feedback); and/or
• other playful learning strategies learned through the professional development.

Teams will be able to decide which path they want to follow.

Additionally, coaches will be assigned to work with educators, PK–3, for 3–5 hours per month, as well as to coach district/school leaders for 1–2 hours per month; monthly coaching will begin in the fall of the 2025-2026 school year. This in-classroom/school coaching model will be aligned with and support implementation of the action plan created by the district/school team.

1. Additionally, grantees are expected to participate in an evaluation of this pilot initiative in collaboration with the Department and an approved evaluation vendor.
2. While not required, the Department asks districts interested in applying to submit a Letter of Intent to Apply no later than Friday, November 22, 2024. This letter should be emailed to achievement@mass.gov with the subject heading reading Playful Learning Institute LOI. This letter of intent is not binding and does not commit the district to submit an application; instead, it will help the Department to plan for the review process.
3. As part of the application, districts must consult with eligible private schools in their community and complete the Private Schools Consultation form (found in the Related Documents Section of the grant in GEM$. Additional resources can be found at DESE's Private School Equitable Services under ESSA webpage.
4. Districts with school teams that currently receive the FY25 FC0347 Continuation funds are eligible to apply for this competitive opportunity in order to bring additional educators on to the initial school team or to engage a new school team in the work of the Playful Learning Institute. In the event that current grantees would like to expand their school team to include additional educators within the same school building as the original team members but don't have at least 2 educators from each grant level, the amount applied for can be prorated to reflect the number of educators joining the team. Please note: in this scenario, the set aside for the coaching and professional development vendor should be prorated but the amount for the evaluation vendor should remain at $25,000.

Submission Instructions:

The FY2025 Fund Code 0350 Playful Learning Institute, Preschool through 3rd Grade will be submitted in our new Grants for Education Management System (GEM$). See below for submission instructions. The following will be required to be submitted or uploaded directly into GEM$:

• Assurance Statement

• Budget: will be entered into the GEM$ Budget Form.

• Program Narrative

• Private School Equitable Services under ESSA resources

This Application Planning Template contains the questions asked in the Program Narrative. While it may be used as a planning and organizing tool, responses to the questions in Part III must be submitted through GEM$ in order to be reviewed.

Questions and Information Webinars
Questions regarding this competitive application must be submitted by Friday, November 22, 2024 to achievement@mass.gov . Responses will be posted weekly to questions submitted.

An Information Session is scheduled for interested applicants. If interested in participating, please register.

GEM$ Submission Instructions:

The FC0350 Playful Learning Institute, Preschool through 3rd Grade grant will be submitted in our new Grants for Education Management System (GEM$). GEM$ is a cloud-based fiscal and program management grant 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$. Entities that do not have an organization established in GEM$ 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: November 5, 2024