Deconstruction and Analysis of RFPs
Jethro Jones
Assignment Directions
This assignment has three parts:
1) Selection of a funder’s Request for Proposal (RFP) that is relevant for your (and/or your group’s) project needs. I have included an RFP for a National Science Foundation initiative for STEM and Racial EquityLinks to an external site.but you are welcome to choose your own RFP for this task.
2) Deconstruction of the RFP, extracting the requirements that must be included in all proposals and those that are suggested or allow flexibility for project proposals.
3) Comparison of a list of proposal elements to a parallel list of project activities that link your interests to those of the funder.
This can be a group project or an individual project. If it is a group project, each group member should upload (a pdf or link to the RFP that you are using for the assignment) and the final list of RFP elements as compared to your project’s activities (#2 & 3 above). Additionally, each should add a short description of your individual interests in this project and how your interests informed the group work.
Assignment
The RFP I am choosing is From Seedlings to Scale Grants Program which can be found here.
| Required | Recommended | | ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— | ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————- | | incorporate the IES Standards for Excellence in Education Research | to contact NCER program officers during the application planning and preparation process. | | While not required at the time of application, all key personnel must have a persistent identifier (PID) | IES strongly encourages you to submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) on the IES Peer Review website | | Received and validated by Grants.gov no later than 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time on August 15, 2024 | their understanding of the problem being addressed, to evolve their solution’s theory of change | | Includes the required project narrative (see Part II) • Adheres to all formatting requirements (see Part III) • Adheres to all page limit maximums for the project narrative (see Part II) and optional appendices (see Part III). | gather evidence of how and how much the product improves students’ education outcomes | | Meets project narrative requirements | | | A living document, the solution’s theory of change, describes how the solution will work. | Strong applications will demonstrate understanding of the education system and the context(s) where the proposed solution will be implemented. | | provide a detailed budget justification that explains how the requested costs are allowable, allocable, and reasonable (see 2 CFR 200, Subpart E; https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/part-200/subpart-E) and reflect the proposed scope of work | Applicants to this program may not exceed the following limits on award duration and cost per year and should request the actual duration and amount of funding necessary to conduct the proposed scope of work, rather than the maximums allowable by IES. | | Identify the student education outcome(s) your solution is intended to improve. o Describe your proposed solution. o Describe the PreK-12 education setting and sample that is the focus of your project. Your proposed solution must be relevant to education in the United States and must address factors under the control of U.S. education systems. | Describe your project, recognizing that this application will include initial ideas that need to be refined during Phase One. Your responses here should reflect your current thinking and should highlight areas that you intend to confirm or refine in Phase One. | | (ii) Research and Development Strategy The purpose of this section is to describe your approach to carrying out the Phase One scope of work. • You must describe your team’s approach to carrying out the Phase One scope of work. | Strong applications will anchor the problem to be solved in data and other evidence that demonstrates that this is a need of educators, students, and/or communities. Strong applications will include an initial theory of change that draws on insights from the education sciences and/or other relevant research to identify the mechanisms through which the proposed solution could improve students’ education outcomes | | (iii) Team Capacity The purpose of this section is to demonstrate that your team has the capacity to carry out the R&D activities in Phase One. • You must describe your team. | Strong applications will detail the proposed scope of work, including specific activities planned to refine your understanding of the problem, iterate on the solution concept, develop an assessment of solutionmarket fit, and develop a prototype. | | Clearly articulate roles for each team member who will be involved in Phase One, what aspects of the scope of work they will contribute to, the amount of time they will devote to this project, and how their experience and training relates to their role. | IES encourages applicants to the S2S program to use the phased structure of the program to build out a multidisciplinary team that has experience in areas such as: solution development, human-centered design, learning engineering, organizational design, bringing solutions to market, learning and cognition, education policy and practice, and rigorous education research. | | 1.Page and Margin Specifications For all IES grant applications, a “page” is 8.5 in. x 11 in. on one side only with 1-inch margins at the top, bottom, and both sides. 2. Page Numbering Add page numbers using the header or footer function and place them at the bottom or upper right corner for ease of reading. 3. Spacing Text must be single spaced. 4. Type Size (Font Size) Type must conform to the following three requirements: • The height of the letters must not be smaller than a type size of 12-point. • Type density, including characters and spaces, must be no more than 15 characters per inch (cpi). For proportional spacing, the average for any representative section of text must not exceed 15 cpi. • Type size must yield no more than 6 lines of type within a vertical inch. | Applicants should identify the core team that is necessary to accomplish the Phase One scope of work. • For Phase One, only a subset of team capabilities are required, as the scope of work will focus on user and market research and solution design. | | | Strong applications will also describe a plan for how they would build out their multidisciplinary team in preparation for Phase Two, which includes an expanded scope of work that will involve a stronger emphasis on research and on developing and preparing a solution for scaling. The plan may involve training and professional development for the core Phase One project team. | | | As a practical matter, if you use a 12-point Times New Roman font without compressing, kerning, condensing, or other alterations, and use footnotes sparingly, if at all, the application will typically meet the requirements | | These are the only materials that may be included in Appendix A; all other material will be removed prior to review of the application. | 1. Appendix A (Optional) - In Appendix A, you may include figures, charts, or tables with supplementary information like a timeline for project activities, a diagram of the management structure of your project team, a visual representation of your initial theory of change, or examples of measures used to collect data for your project such as individual test items, tests, surveys, and observation and interview protocols. | | 1. Project Summary You must submit the project summary as a separate PDF attachment in the application package. If your project is recommended for funding, IES will use this summary as the basis for the online abstracts that we post when new awards are announced. We recommend that the project summary be one page long and follow the format used for IES online abstracts (https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/). a) Title • Title: Distinct, descriptive title for the project. b) Project Summary The purpose of the project summary is to provide a high-level overview of the project activities that will take place. This section should use short, active sentences to briefly describe the significance of the project, project activities, and the intended outcomes. • Purpose: Include a brief description of the purpose of the project, the problem to be solved, the student outcomes you intend to address, and the significance of the R&D. • Project Activities: An overview of the project activities. | 2. Appendix B (Optional) There is no recommended page length for Appendix B. You may use this appendix to provide copies of letters of agreement from consultants or partners who will be a part of the Phase One R&D activities. Letter of agreement should include enough information to make it clear that the author of the letter understands the nature of the problem and proposed solution, the time commitment and timing of participation, and the unique point of view they can bring to the R&D process | | 2. Bibliography and References Cited You must submit the bibliography and references cited as a separate PDF attachment in the application package. There is no recommended page length for the bibliography and references cited. You should include complete citations, including the names of all authors (in the same sequence in which they appear in the publication), titles of relevant elements such as the article/journal and chapter/book, page numbers, and year of publication for literature cited in the project narrative. As a reminder, you should use the author-date style for citations in the project narrative (see Part III.B.5 Citations for more information). | The biographical sketch for the principal investigator, each co-principal investigator, other key personnel, and consultants (if included) should show how members of the project team possess training and expertise commensurate with their specified duties on the proposed project, for example, by describing relevant publications, grants, and research experience, including experience working with the study population as applicable. | | 3. Human Subjects Narrative If you are proposing to carry out any R&D with human subjects as part of your proposed Phase One activities, you must submit an exempt or non-exempt human subjects narrative as a separate PDF attachment in the application package. | We do not recommend a page length for the human subjects narrative. | | 4. Biographical Sketches for Key Personnel You must submit a biographical sketch for each person named as key personnel in your application. You may also submit biographical sketches for consultants (optional). Each biographical sketch (an abbreviated CV plus current and pending support information) must be no more than five pages in length, and this five-page limit includes current and pending support information | strongly encourages applicants to use SciENcv (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sciencv/) where you will find an IES biosketch format. | | Provide a list of current and pending grants for the principal investigator, each co-principal investigator, and other key personnel, along with the proportion of their time, expressed as percent effort over a 12month calendar year, allocated to each project. | If you or any key member of your project team does not yet have a PID, IES encourages you to establish one as soon as possible, | | Part VI: Required Codes for Item 4b of the SF 424 Cover Sheet Applications to the From Seedlings to Scale Grants Program (ALN 84.305J) are submitted under a single topic, Seamless Personalized Education Experiences Delivered at Scale (SPEED at Scale). You must enter the appropriate topic code in Item 4b of the SF 424 Application for Federal Assistance form (see the IES Application Submission Guide https://ies.ed.gov/funding/submission_guide.asp for more information about this form). S2S Program Topic Codes SPEED at Scale Phase One NCER - SPEED P1 | |
List of Proposal Elements linked to My Interests
| Proposal Elements | My Interests & Activities |
|---|---|
| If students could seamlessly receive personalized education that is responsive to their unique constellation of strengths and needs, would it result in dramatically improved education outcomes? | For the last several years, I have been focusing on Student-Driven Learning and how to scale personalized learning experiences. This is right up my alley! (See more at https://jethro.site/sdl) Activity: Use AI to personalize learning for students. |
| SPEED at Scale seeks to develop and test the efficacy of innovative products, processes, and/or policies that allow teachers to seamlessly provide personalized instruction for prekindergarten (pre-K)—grade 12 students. | I’ve been doing a lot of work around AI lately, and AI really provides the opportunity to personalize learning at scale in a way that has never been this seamless Activity: Use AI to personalize learning for students. |
| Solutions should be seamless in that they minimize technological, human, or systemic frictions-such as non-interoperable data, time constraints, or policy barriers-that might otherwise impede personalization. |
One of the things I’ve harped on many times is that students should get “credit” for learning regardless of where it happens. Using an AI tool, it can not only give students credit, but recognize their skills from one area and share that evidence with a teacher in a different content area. Activity: incorporate AI in a safe and manageable way that helps teachers see skills across content areas. |
| Personalization should be responsive to both a student’s strengths (i.e., opportunities for enrichment) and their needs (i.e., opportunities to build knowledge, skills, or abilities). |
AI tools can dynamically adjust to students’ skill levels. An 18 year old with Down syndrome can access the same text and have it leveled for them at their third grade reading level, but still be involved in the broader conversation and experience as the rest of her class. Activity: Create a tool that allows a student to have ownership of their own learning, that is not hidden behind an LMS. |
| IES expects that solutions will be grounded in rigorous research and encourages applicants to draw insights from a wide range of scientific fields that includes but is not limited to the education sciences. | I have seen first hand how my systems work, but I don’t have the data and research to support that they can work at scale, yet. Activity: Research-based evidence of successful implementation |
| IES expects that, taken together, the projects funded through this program will make meaningful progress toward providing personalized learning experiences to all students. | As I have been passionate about this for years, I’m excited to further develop my ideas that I wrote about here in 2018. Activity: Bring all my years of experience together. |
Questions I still have:
- How do I find the right partners for this opportunity?
- How do I manage the budget?
- How do I conduct effective research in this area?
- How do I develop this in an effective manner?
- How do I make this something that will provide a great opportunity for students to learn, but that will also be something that support my family?