Education Curriculum Consultant, PBS Books

Project Title: “Visions of America: All Stories, All People, All Places”

Detroit Public Media (d.b.a. Detroit PBS) is issuing this request for proposal (RFP) to develop educational materials in support of a new digital series called “Visions of America: All Stories, All People, All Places.”

This is a fully remote/virtual consultant position and would be an estimated 10-15 hours/week starting November 2023 through May 2024.

The contact person regarding this RFP is Matt Hamilton, Program Director, Michigan Learning Channel and can be reached at mhamilton@detroitpbs.org

DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT

Approaching and celebrating the semiquincentennial anniversary of America’s independence, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and PBS Books join together to produce “Visions of America: All Stories, All People, All Places,” a digital-first series of videos and virtual conversations that explores our post-pandemic nation with a renewed interest in the places, people, and stories that have contributed to the America we live in today.

“Visions of America: All Stories, All People, All Places” will consist of new and edited video segments made available as screeners suitable for classrooms and community conversations. This RFP invites educators, curriculum designers, and content-area experts to propose a method for creating standards-aligned educational guides for use alongside these teachable segments.

All materials, including video content, curricular resources, and additional community viewing guides and learning materials, will be made widely available to classroom teachers to enhance their students’ learning experiences and will also be made available digitally at no cost to museums, libraries, educators at all levels, and the public.

PROJECT SCOPE

Proposals are invited that offer a plan for the development and design of curricular content in support of “Visions of America: All Stories, All People, All Places.”

The digital video collection will include between twenty and thirty (20-30) excerpts edited from the video series and virtual conversation series selected around ten to twelve (10-12) significant topics. These excerpts will create accessible, topic-focused videos that can more easily be used in a classroom setting or by library and museum educators. Each topic will need a curricular “unit” which will include lesson plans, learning activities, supplemental resources, and other points of entry for secondary school-based and community educators across a variety of content areas. Each “unit” will need to be accessible across multiple platforms including the PBS Books website and PBS Learning Media, and all materials included as referential and/or supplemental must be open source with unlimited rights for use across learning spaces.

All curricular materials should be aligned with a widely-accepted set of educational standards for social studies learning and ideally would connect to sets of standards from other disciplines (ELA, arts education, etc.). Given that these materials are intended for use in schools as well as libraries, museums, and other community organizations, efforts should be made to be inclusive across subject areas and innovative with learning opportunities that rely on interdisciplinary and 21st- century learning frameworks.

CONTRACTOR RESPONSIBILITIES

Preview all media content and work with project team to determine 10-12 topics for resource creation; work with project team to determine calendar and timeline for resource curation and lesson design.
Identify state and national standards sets to inform curricular connections for all lessons and teaching resources.
Work with project team to consult with and seek feedback from teams local to each program’s region to ensure accurate and culturally-responsive representation in all materials.
Seek out and evaluate secondary source materials for student learning and professional development materials to support effective implementation in classrooms.
Collect all resources and lesson plans into a format that is accessible for educators and usable on PBS Learning Media (use PBSLM template).

PROPOSAL GUIDELINES

Proposal format may be flexible, but should include the following sections:

Individual or organization resume, indicating levels of education, credentials, and experience creating and implementing educational and instructional content, ideally content that is grounded in and driven by media, ideally content developed in collaboration with community organizations, historical sites, etc.
Project methodology, briefly indicating a plan for how one might collect videos according to topics, essential questions, and points of inquiry which align with widely accepted educational standards, learning pathways, and pedagogical best practice. Existing content for reference exists at visionsofamerica.org.
References to 1-2 existing open-source educational projects that this project can be modeled off of to help capture the vision, ideally but not required to be projects designed by the individual preparing the proposal.
Project rate indicating what compensation will be expected for the work indicated in this RFP.
Any additional information which would be helpful in identifying a stellar proposal.

TIMING

This project will be ongoing beginning ASAP with a due date for all materials in March 2024. Individual collection due dates will be determined during the planning phase and will likely follow a monthly cadence from November 2023 through May 2024.

METHOD OF EVALUATING PROPOSALS

Proposals will be evaluated with a strict emphasis on quality and alignment with the educational values of the program. Furthermore, the public is expecting quality stewardship of all available resources. Our evaluation process will focus on the areas of the proposal, as noted above.

Once all proposals have been evaluated, the individual that is most qualified and reasonable in cost will be selected.

OTHER

The response due date for this RFP is December 1, 2023.
The proposals should be addressed to: Matt Hamilton, Program Director, Michigan Learning Channel mhamilton@detroitpbs.org
We anticipate the successful bidder will be notified by November 17, 2023.
Confidentiality — By accepting to take part in this RFP you agree to keep in confidence all information imparted to you in relation with the proposal process; not to disclose it to third parties; and not to use it for any other purpose than for proposal.
Right to reject — Detroit Public Media reserves the right to reject any and all proposals submitted and to request additional information from all proposers. Any contract awarded will be made to the firm who, based on evaluation of all responses and applying all criteria and interviews, if necessary, is determined to be the best qualified to do the work.