Narrative: III. b. 5. B. i.

Adult Education and Literacy eligible providers approved under Workforce Investment Act of 1998 requirements will continue to receive funding through June 30, 2017, as long as they adhere to state and federal grant expectations, as measured through annual applications, financial reports, and program performance reports.

During grant year 2016-17, the Minnesota Department of Education will implement a new competitive application process for all federal AEFLA funding that will determine what local providers will be grantees starting July 1, 2017. The local AEFLA program grant process will rate responses to the 13 considerations in Title II of WIOA and include additional state ABE priorities and context.

TIMELINE The following steps will be taken in the WIOA AEFLA competition:

In November 2016, an announcement will be posted on the Minnesota Department of Education website requesting letters of intent from interested applicants by December 2016. The letters of intent will ask for basic identifying and contact information from the applying organization. Any organization that submits a letter of intent will receive direct announcements of the application posting and technical assistance from the Minnesota Department of Education.

February 2017 MDE publishes and promotes WIOA-aligned federal AEFLA grant application request for proposals (RFP) February 2017 - ongoing MDE provides technical assistance to inquiries from eligible providers February-March 2017 MDE recruits reviewers to score and rate WIOA-aligned federally-funded AEFLA grant applications March 2017 Due date for WIOA-aligned federally-funded AEFLA grant applications March-April 2017 Reviewers to score and rate WIOA-aligned federally-funded AEFLA grant applications April 2017 MDE decides which applicants will be approved as providers based on reviewer scores and ratings and application’s response to the conditions and criteria in the RFP April-May 2017 MDE announces WIOA-aligned federally-funded AEFLA grant applicants that will receive funding July 1, 2017 WIOA-aligned federally-funded AEFLA grant providers begin grant cycle, programming and funding

ELIGIBLE PROVIDERS An eligible local provider is an organization that has demonstrated effectiveness in providing adult education activities to eligible individuals and may include: • A local education agency; • Community-based or faith-based organization; • Volunteer literacy organization; • Institution of higher education; • Public or private nonprofit agency; • Library; • Public housing authority; • Nonprofit institution with the ability to provide adult education and literacy services; • Consortium or coalition of agencies, organizations, institutions, libraries, or authorities described above; and • A partnership between an employer and an entity described above.

APPLICATION PROMOTION AND PUBLICATION In February 2017, the grant competition for the 2017-18 grant year will be publicized in compliance with federal law, Minnesota statute, and Minnesota Department of Education policy in order to ensure that all eligible providers have direct and equitable access to apply and compete for grants. A fair and equitable process will be followed for the federal AEFLA grant funding that follows other federal grant procedures. The Minnesota Department of Education publishes and promotes all grant opportunities on its website. Any eligible entity (described above) can submit a proposal.

ALLOCATIONS The Minnesota Department of Education will dedicate 82.5 percent of the state allocation of federal AEFLA funding to grants to eligible providers. This amount will be divided based on scope of service (number of prior year contact hours for eligible service), accountability aid, and regional aid to help local programs implement AEFLA initiatives.

In addition, 12.5 percent of the state allocation to Leadership Activities to provide support for activities such as: professional development; volunteer recruitment and training; technology; serving students with disabilities; distance learning and digital literacy; program quality support; assessment training; and career pathway and other transitions-related collaborations.

13 CONSIDERATIONS

The Minnesota Department of Education will use the considerations specified in Section 231(e) of WIOA and listed below as the criteria for selecting and funding eligible providers. As part of the RFP process, agencies will be required to provide narrative detail describing how they will meet each consideration.

1. Needs Assessment: The degree to which the provider is responsive to (A) regional needs as identified in the local plan under Section 108; and (B) serving individuals in the community who are identified in such plan as most in need of adult education and literacy activities, including individuals who have low levels of literacy skills and who are English language learners.
2. Individuals with Disabilities: The degree to which the provider is able to serve eligible individuals with disabilities, including eligible individuals with learning disabilities.
3. Past Effectiveness: The degree to which the provider demonstrates past effectiveness in improving the literacy of eligible individuals, to meet State-adjusted levels of performance for the primary indicators of performance described in Section 116, especially with respect to eligible individuals who have low levels of literacy.
4. Alignment with One-stop Partners: The degree to which the eligible provider is responsive to, and demonstrates alignment between, proposed activities and services and the strategy and goals of the local plan under Section 108 as well as the activities and services of the one-stop partners.
5. Intensity, Quality, and Instructional Practices: The degree to which the eligible provider’s program is of sufficient intensity and quality, and based on the most rigorous research available so that participants achieve substantial learning gains; and uses instructional practices that include the essential components of reading instruction.
6. Research Based Educational Practices: The degree to which the eligible provider’s activities including reading, writing, speaking, mathematics, and English language acquisition instruction, are based on the best practices derived from the most rigorous research available and appropriate, including scientifically valid research and effective educational practice.
7. Effective Use of Technology: The degree to which the eligible provider’s activities effectively use technology, services, and delivery systems, including distance education in a manner sufficient to increase the amount and quality of learning and how such technology, services, and systems lead to improved performance.
8. Integrated Education and Training: The degree to which the eligible provider’s activities offer learning in context, including through integrated education and training, so that an individual acquires the skills needed to transition to and complete postsecondary education and training programs, obtain and advance in employment leading to economic self-sufficiency, and to exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.
9. Qualified Staff: The degree to which the eligible provider’s activities are delivered by well-trained instructors, counselors, and administrators who meet any minimum qualifications established by the state, where applicable, and who have access to high quality professional development, including through electronic means.
10. Partnerships and Development of Career Pathways: The degree to which the eligible provider’s activities coordinate with other available education, training, and social service resources in the community, such as by establishing strong links with elementary schools and secondary schools, postsecondary educational institutions, institutions of higher education, local workforce development boards, one-stop centers, job training programs, and social service agencies, business, industry, labor organizations, community-based organizations, nonprofit organizations, and intermediaries, for the development of career pathways.
11. Flexible Schedules and Coordination with Support Services: The degree to which the eligible provider’s activities offer flexible schedules and coordination with Federal, State, and local support services (such as child care, transportation, mental health services, and career planning) that are necessary to enable individuals, including individuals with disabilities or other special needs, to attend and complete programs information management system that has the capacity to report measurable participant outcomes (consistent with Section 116) and to monitor program performance.
12. Information management system: The expectation will be that the eligible provider will use the State-administered designated MIS for all grant-related data collection and reporting; and
13. English Language Acquisition and Civics Education: The degree to which the eligible provider has a demonstrated need for additional English language acquisition programs and civics education programs.

ADDITIONAL CRITERIA

In addition to the above considerations, the grant application will require description of applicants:

• Location, service area, the scope of the program, a description of the population to be served, fiscal management procedures, and audit history;
• Capacity to offer day, evening, and distance education programming including evidence of the organization’s AEFLA-eligible activity services in the prior year.
• Budget, as well as programmatic information regarding statutory requirements;
• Coordination with other service providers to provide wrap-around services to participants (e.g., child care, transportation);
• A description of how the program will align activities to the Local Plan for WIOA providers and supportive services; and
• The ability to match federal funding with other funding from state, local, organizational or other sources that would directly go to providing AEFLA-eligible activities.

ADDITIONAL CRITERIA In addition to the above considerations, the grant application will require description of applicants: • Location, service area, the scope of the program, a description of the population to be served, fiscal management procedures, and audit history; • Capacity to offer day, evening, and distance education programming including evidence of the organization’s AEFLA-eligible activity services in the prior year. • Budget, as well as programmatic information regarding statutory requirements; • Coordination with other service providers to provide wrap-around services to participants (e.g., child care, transportation); • A description of how the program will align activities to the Local Plan for WIOA providers and supportive services; and • The ability to match federal funding with other funding from state, local, organizational or other sources that would directly go to providing AEFLA-eligible activities.

DEMONSTRATING EFFECTIVENESS As part of the federal competitive application, each applicant will be required to respond to questions about demonstrating effectiveness in increasing academic literacy and transitions to employment and postsecondary education. Increasing academic literacy: The questions on demonstrating effectiveness will require all applicants to provide data demonstrating their ability to improve skills of low-literate adults. This can be done in one of two ways: 1. Prior recipients will use data from the Adult Education student data management system to show how they met State-negotiated performance measures for all student levels, both ABE and ESL. 2. New organizations will be provided reporting tables to show numbers of adult students served, demonstrated student learning gain, including low-literacy level and English language learners. Applicants will need to demonstrate how those numbers were calculated and/or verified. Transitions to employment and postsecondary education: An applicant also will be required to demonstrate its record of: secondary diploma completion for adults served; improved knowledge needed to transition successfully to postsecondary education or training; and skills needed to obtain and retain employment. Review: Each application will be reviewed to determine whether it meets the standard of demonstrated effectiveness. Applications that do not provide sufficient evidence of demonstrated effectiveness will be eliminated from the competition. Technical assistance will be provided to applicants by the Minnesota Department of Education both through reporting templates, Q and A documents, and assistance upon request. REVIEW PROCESS Proposals are rated and scored by teams of reviewers approved by the Minnesota Department of Education Grants Office, which will be completed in April 2017. The review process for selecting successful applicants includes formally scoring applications on their responses to each of the 13 considerations of WIOA, the programming proposed and its alignment to the four instructional components, the articulated use of funds, and additional criteria listed above. The Minnesota Department of Education will select applicants for federal AEFLA funding based on proposals with the highest scores, noting also the additional criteria listed above. Applicants selected for federal AEFLA funding that is WIOA-aligned will be notified in May-June 2017 and will be eligible to start programming July 1, 2017.

APPLICATIONS BEYOND 2017 Beyond 2017, all approved and potential new providers will be required to comply with all state and federal regulations, policies and expectations for AEFLA grantees with routine reporting. This routine reporting includes: 1. Reporting and use of the state AEFLA database system; 2. Annual reporting requirements with performance data; 3. Reauthorization every five years with an updated description of programming, articulated implementation of accountability procedures and policies, performance analysis, and plans for continuous improvement; and 4. Additional requirements or reporting upon request by state and local agencies.