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<p>26/JAN/2011 RESPONSES TO VENDOR QUESTIONS RFI11061 RFI11062 RFI11063 RFI11064 ADOPTION SAMPLES REQUESTED second round of questions Good afternoon WOATRA executives McNaughton, McCrain and prospective vendors, . To WOATRA/ McNaughton, McCrain, Please post this on your WOATRA members site and also forward via your e-mail list serve. As expected, our inquiry has generated several questions from the vendor community. Below, we are responding to the second round of questions. If your questions are not answered with the below communication, we are still awaiting a response from our Adoption Coordinators. We will forward additional responses as we receive replies. . RFI11061 SCIENCE HIGH SCHOOL VENDOR QUESTION What are the bar coding requirements for these adoptions? DISTRICT RESPONSE Bar coding requirements will be addressed during the next RFP stage of the process. VENDOR QUESTION Will I be able to come in and set up the materials? DISTRICT RESPONSE At this time the District is not inviting any vendors/reps etc. to participate with set up of materials. Please deliver your materials to our warehouse address previously provided. . VENDOR QUESTION We would like to retrieve the materials once the adoption closes. I have been able to do so in the past. Can I do so again this time? DISTRICT RESPONSE No, the District is not planning on returning materials to vendors/publishers. Below is excerpt/language from the original communication on this subject. “All materials delivered will be at the expense of the prospective vendor/publisher. Sample materials will not be returned by the District and will become the property of the District.” VENDOR QUESTION Is Seattle Public Schools able to consider online resources outside of the traditional textbook, but material directly related to the support of the curriculum being adopted?(This question came up other occasions so we are replying for each curriculum category, now) DISTRICT RESPONSE From the point of view of science, yes, we want to consider on-line options. ************************************************************************************************************** RFI11062 MUSIC ELEMENTARY VENDOR QUESTION What are the bar coding requirements for these adoptions? DISTRICT RESPONSE Bar coding requirements will be addressed during the next RFP stage of the process. VENDOR QUESTION Will I be able to come in and set up the materials? DISTRICT RESPONSE At this time the District is not inviting any vendors/reps etc. to participate with set up of materials. Please deliver your materials to our warehouse address previously provided. . VENDOR QUESTION We would like to retrieve the materials once the adoption closes. I have been able to do so in the past. Can I do so again this time? DISTRICT RESPONSE No, the District is not planning on returning materials to vendors/publishers. Below is excerpt/language from the original communication on this subject. “All materials delivered will be at the expense of the prospective vendor/publisher. Sample materials will not be returned by the District and will become the property of the District.” VENDOR QUESTION Is Seattle Public Schools able to consider online resources outside of the traditional textbook, but material directly related to the support of the curriculum being adopted?(This question came up other occasions so we are replying for each curriculum category, now) DISTRICT RESPONSE Music will also consider online options. ****************************************************************************************************************** RFI11063 LANGUAGE ARTS/LITERACY MIDDLE SCHOOL VENDOR QUESTION What are the bar coding requirements for these adoptions? DISTRICT RESPONSE Bar coding requirements will be addressed during the next RFP stage of the process. VENDOR QUESTION Will I be able to come in and set up the materials? DISTRICT RESPONSE At this time the District is not inviting any vendors/reps etc. to participate with set up of materials. Please deliver your materials to our warehouse address previously provided. . VENDOR QUESTION We would like to retrieve the materials once the adoption closes. I have been able to do so in the past. Can I do so again this time? DISTRICT RESPONSE No, the District is not planning on returning materials to vendors/publishers. Below is excerpt/language from the original communication on this subject. “All materials delivered will be at the expense of the prospective vendor/publisher. Sample materials will not be returned by the District and will become the property of the District.” VENDOR QUESTION Is Seattle Public Schools able to consider online resources outside of the traditional textbook, but material directly related to the support of the curriculum being adopted?(This question came up other occasions so we are replying for each curriculum category, now) DISTRICT RESPONSE I (we) will have a middle school subcommittee be looking at Open Source materials. OSPI has worked on this also and we will tap into what they found out about this area. VENDOR QUESTION We are unclear as to what \"student discourse\" consists of. Any help would be greatly appreciated. DISTRICT RESPONSE This is very broad, but one stipulation of the Board was to engage students in discussion of text. So, in light of this we want a range of text that have interesting themes which explore topics near and dear to the students. In this way the teacher can then engage students in great discussions. VENDOR QUESTION Should we only include titles with paperback editions suitable for rebinding? DISTRICT RESPONSE We should look at hardcover. This will have a huge impact on price and so we will need to most likely adjust the number of books per collection. VENDOR QUESTION Can you clarify that you want 50 titles suggested for each of the guided reading levels from L through Z, a total of 750 titles? DISTRICT RESPONSE We are looking at research regarding the number of books needed at each level and it indicates that we need at least 40-50 books. VENDOR QUESTION Do you only want titles that have been issued a GRL ranking? Or, just titles for those reading at or below grade level 8? (the GRL tops out at 8th grade, with Z being used for both 7th &amp; 8th grades. L&amp;M are both rated for 2nd grade reading level. 4th grade starts at Q, so if there were equal numbers of titles per GRL, the largest portion of the titles would be far below the grade level of the students.) DISTRICT RESPONSE We of course need to cost out the collection of titles as we have a finite amount for the adoption. We will be looking for more books at the higher levels, U and up. In order to support the more proficient readers, we will also want books that are above Z, in other words, more complex novels and informational books, but we want to make sure they do not duplicate the high school titles (available on our website). VENDOR QUESTION Is there access to information about the district’s Middle School Social Studies curricula? To properly tie the titles into the social science units, it would be helpful to know what they’re studying in history, etc. DISTRICT RESPONSE The middle school S. St. units are: Sixth grade is Ancient Civilization, Eastern Hemisphere Seventh grade is U S History from Revolution through Reconstruction (1877) Eighth grade is one semester of World Geography and one semester of Washington State History At our first adoption meeting the committee agreed that we need some text sets, books that explore similar nonfiction topics at a range of reading levels. VENDOR QUESTION Is there a list of mentor texts for the Writing Units? DISTRICT RESPONSE I am attaching a link that will take you to the site where mentor texts are listed and discussed. http://www.google.com/cse?q=mentor+texts+for+readers+workshop+&amp;cx=007286276677556501598%3A-rqpa_0szni&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;x=11&amp;y=6 VENDOR QUESTION Wanted to clarify, since Seattle SD has a Readers Workshop model, are you just looking at core literacy programs for Gr. 7-8, or are you also looking at programs to support (i.e. a reading comprehension program)? DISTRICT RESPONSE In light of the fact that we are using the pedagogy of Readers Workshop, the committee is interested in text collections (classroom libraries) that support a wide range of readers. It would not be a core program as this would not support the workshop model. Teachers will be engaging students in group discussions and Book Clubs in order to deepen comprehension of text. Since many teachers currently incorporate the Comprehension Toolkit into the workshop, there is no need to examine a reading comprehension program. VENDOR QUESTION Does the District have a recommended list of middle school class novels? DISTRICT RESPONSE We do not have a recommended list of middle school texts. The text collections the committee is interested in looking at will include a broad range of texts, including classics. VENDOR QUESTION Are there district guidelines or could you be more specific of what the district means by “text to support current social issues”? DISTRICT RESPONSE Regarding current social issues, we would want text that examine themes of adolescent life as well as contemporary world issues like child labor, immigration and others. VENDOR QUESTION Does the district have a list of “books that are listed as mentor texts in the Writing Units”? DISTRICT RESPONSE For the list of mentor texts related to Writers and Readers, publishers can go onto the Teachers College website and get copies of these texts. http://www.google.com/cse?q=mentor+texts&amp;cx=007286276677556501598%3A-rqpa_0szni&amp;ie=UTF-8 VENDOR QUESTION How long is your Language Arts &amp; Social Studies adoption cycle? DISTRICT RESPONSE The adoption cycle for LA materials will be completed by May 4th when I make my recommendations to the Board. Board Action will then take place on May 18th. Historically, the District adoption cycle runs 7 years +/- VENDOR QUESTION Are the novel purchases separate from the classroom libraries? DISTRICT RESPONSE The classroom libraries should include the classroom novels and the exact titles have not been determined, but should of course connect directly to the mentor texts suggested by Teachers College. The TC website has very extensive lists of texts that should help publishers as they put together the collections. VENDOR QUESTION How many class novels per grade are your looking for? DISTRICT RESPONSE The important piece for publishers to remember is that when we say classroom novels, we are not talking about every student reading the same book. Part of the workshop model is getting away from having the whole class read the same novel and instead having students form Book Clubs to examine common themes, topics, issues, do writing about these and have deep discussions while citing evidence from the texts. VENDOR QUESTION Are you looking for teacher support for the leveled libraries and/or the classroom novels? DISTRICT RESPONSE We are not looking for teacher support with the classroom libraries as teachers will use the collection of units from TC that they received through their training in workshop. What did come up was around professional development for teachers on how to teach reading to students below grade level and we are looking at that through interventions such as a double dose class in reading. ***************************************************************************************************************************************** RFI11064 SOCIAL STUDIES HIGH SCHOOL VENDOR QUESTION What are the bar coding requirements for these adoptions? DISTRICT RESPONSE Bar coding requirements will be addressed during the next RFP stage of the process. VENDOR QUESTION Will I be able to come in and set up the materials? DISTRICT RESPONSE At this time the District is not inviting any vendors/reps etc. to participate with set up of materials. Please deliver your materials to our warehouse address previously provided. . VENDOR QUESTION We would like to retrieve the materials once the adoption closes. I have been able to do so in the past. Can I do so again this time? DISTRICT RESPONSE No, the District is not planning on returning materials to vendors/publishers. Below is excerpt/language from the original communication on this subject. “All materials delivered will be at the expense of the prospective vendor/publisher. Sample materials will not be returned by the District and will become the property of the District.” VENDOR QUESTION Is this a textbook-only adoption, or would the Seattle District be interested in reviewing textbook alternatives such as hands-on history programs which address the needs of underachieving students? Will any supplemental materials such as atlases or wall maps be purchased as a part of this social studies adoption? DISTRICT RESPONSE This may be primarily a textbook adoption (online and digital versions included). I would love to include other resources such as primary source readers, atlases, etc, but don\'t believe there is enough in the budget. We could however review such materials if there is budget, and the committee decides to go that direction. VENDOR QUESTION Can you please tell me what types of educators make up the adoption committee? In other words, are they mostly social studies department heads, teachers, etc...? DISTRICT RESPONSE The SS adoption committee is composed of 9-12 SS teachers from core high schools and one alternative high school some are department heads, some regular classroom teachers, and one high school principal. VENDOR QUESTION Is Seattle Public Schools able to consider online resources outside of the traditional textbook, but material directly related to the support of the curriculum being adopted?(This question came up other occasions so we are replying for each curriculum category, now) DISTRICT RESPONSE This may be primarily a textbook adoption (online and digital versions included). VENDOR QUESTION Is the District looking at Supplemental Social Studies Resources, or is a core text book desired for this adoption? DISTRICT RESPONSE Social Studies is looking at both Core Textbooks and Supplementary resource. The final recommendation for the SS adoption is introduced at the May 4th school board meeting, with board action occurring on May 18th. VENDOR QUESTION How long is your Language Arts &amp; Social Studies adoption cycle? DISTRICT RESPONSE The final recommendation for the SS adoption is introduced at the May 4th school board meeting, with board action occurring on May 18th. Historically, the District adoption cycle runs 7 years +/- . Since final questions for Science and Music were due January 20, 2011 . And . Final questions for Social Studies and Language Arts are due January 28, 2011 we expect to have any remaining questions responded to by the first part of the week of Jan 31, 2011. . We look forward to continuing to work thru/complete this question/response process. . Regards, CRAIG MURPHY, PURCHASING MANAGER SEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 cemurphy@seattleschools.org</p>
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