[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 230 (Friday, December 1, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56969-56971]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-25913]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


Notice Inviting Statements of Interest From Nonprofit 
Organizations Interested in Partnering To Expand the #GoOpen Network

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, Department of Education.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Department through the Office of the Secretary's Office of 
Educational Technology (OET) created the #GoOpen Network in October of 
2015, to support the use of openly licensed educational resources, by 
establishing a network of mentoring relationships with experienced 
districts and States providing support to those districts that were new 
to the use of open resources. To support this work, OET is seeking to 
select and partner with a nonprofit organization or a consortium of 
nonprofit organizations to further expand and enhance the network. 
Thus, this notice outlines the criteria to be used for selecting 
partner organizations; invites statements of interest from nonprofit 
organizations interested in partnering to build on and expand the 
#GoOpen network; and

[[Page 56970]]

announces the date by which organizations must submit these statements 
of interest in order to be considered for selection.
    A call for statements of interest was first published in the blog 
post #GoOpen: More than a Hashtag on May 10, 2017. We are publishing a 
new request for statements of interest through this Federal Register 
notice in order to more widely publicize the call and reach a broader 
group of interested stakeholder organizations. Respondents to the 
previous call through the blog are encouraged to reapply by submitting 
a statement of interest in accordance with this notice; prior 
statements will not be considered.

DATES: Deadline for transmittal of statements of interest: January 16, 
2018.

ADDRESSES: Submit your statement of interest electronically to 
[email protected] with the subject line ``#GoOpen Statement of Interest.''

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sara Trettin, U.S. Department of 
Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW., Room 11152, Washington, DC 20202-
7240. Telephone: (202) 453-6604 or by email: [email protected].
    If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) or a text 
telephone (TTY), call the Federal Relay Service (FRS), toll free, at 1-
800-877-8339.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Department of Education's #GoOpen 
movement supports States and districts choosing to transition to the 
use of openly licensed educational resources by establishing a network 
of mentoring relationships between experienced districts and States and 
those new to the use of open educational resources.\1\ #GoOpen States 
and districts are sharing new approaches to professional learning for 
teachers, developing systems for tagging and curating resources that 
offer students and teachers options for personalizing learning, and 
building robust technology infrastructure to support curating, 
creating, adapting and sharing openly licensed educational resources. 
To date, #GoOpen has a network of 20 States and 114 districts committed 
to documenting and sharing their implementation strategies and 
partnering with committed nonprofit organizations, policymakers, 
foundations, and private-sector companies. The #GoOpen movement and the 
growing network of States, districts, and educators has not only 
provided a space for robust discussions about the merits of openly 
licensed educational resources but also supported broader dialogue and 
dissemination of information on the policies and practices that impact 
teaching, learning, and collaboration.
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    \1\ Openly licensed educational resources, or open educational 
resources, are teaching, learning, and research resources that 
reside in the public domain or have been released under a license 
that permits their use, modification, and sharing with others.
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    OET is interested in working with one or more nonprofit 
organizations or a consortium of nonprofit organizations to build on 
and expand the #GoOpen network. In addition to connecting additional 
States and districts to #GoOpen, the partnership will (1) engage 
education leaders across a network of States and districts to form 
regional communities of practice; (2) facilitate the sharing of openly 
licensed educational resources including those that are accessible 
(e.g., text to speech, captioning and highlighting features, embedded 
videos, font and size choices) and the dissemination of promising 
practices in teaching and learning; and (3) integrate evidence of the 
efficacy of openly licensed resources into the broader education policy 
dialogue.
    Criteria for Partner Organization(s): The organization(s) best 
suited to helping the Department build on and expand the #GoOpen 
network must be an existing nonprofit organization(s):
    (a) With experience assisting educators, such as teachers, district 
leaders, superintendents, and other educational resource and technology 
staff, in selecting and implementing a variety of digital and non-
digital learning strategies. The organization(s) must have specific 
expertise in providing assistance to stakeholders with respect to 
sharing, using, and collaborating on the use of open educational 
resources using a variety of digital learning platforms. In addition, 
the organization(s) must have a positive record of leading or 
coordinating discussions on a range of education policy issues, 
especially related to the promise and perils of digital learning and 
increasing educational opportunity for an increasingly diverse student 
population, including children with disabilities who can use or require 
technology accommodations;
    (b) That commits to collaborate with OET in providing leadership in 
the development of regional communities of practice and building 
networks of impact comprising a strong and diverse consortium of 
committed partner organizations. The organization(s) must coordinate 
with OET to (1) design the structure of the expanded #GoOpen network; 
(2) in collaboration with OET, design, develop, and lead outreach 
activities geared toward developing a coalition of local leaders and 
regional communities of practice; (3) create experiences (e.g. in-
person and virtual professional learning opportunities, etc.) that 
encourage States, districts, and educators to build on initial 
commitments; (4) capture and share promising practices; (5) integrate 
evidence of the efficacy of openly licensed resources into the broader 
education policy dialogue; and (6) advance the education policy 
dialogue (e.g. through articles, presentations, etc.) on the use of 
technology to transform learning; and
    (c) With the resources necessary to support its own activities 
during this partnership. OET will not provide funding for 
organization(s) in this partnership.\2\
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    \2\ Note that this is not a notice inviting applications for any 
grant program.
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    Submission Requirements: Interested organizations must submit a 
statement of interest that describes:
    (a) The organization's experience assisting educators in selecting 
and implementing digital and non-digital learning strategies;
    (b) The organization's expertise in providing assistance to 
stakeholders with respect to sharing, using, and collaborating on the 
use of open educational resources using a variety of digital learning 
platforms;
    (c) The organization's record of leading or coordinating discussion 
on a range of education policy issues;
    (d) The organization's commitment to collaborate with OET in 
providing leadership in the development of regional communities of 
practice and building networks of impact comprising a strong and 
diverse consortium of committed partner organizations;
    (e) A possible design for the structure of the expanded #GoOpen 
network;
    (f) The organization's role and approach to scaling the #GoOpen 
movement through regional communities of practice;
    (g) The organization's approach to creating experiences that 
encourage States, districts, and educators to build on initial 
commitments and capturing and sharing promising practices;
    (h) The organization's strategy to integrate evidence of the 
efficacy of openly licensed resources into the broader education policy 
dialogue and advance the education policy dialogue on the use of 
technology to transform learning;
    (i) How the organization will support its own activities during 
this partnership;
    (j) Any other information relevant to the organization's experience 
in education or technology policy; and how it might carry out the 
activities to

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partner with the Department and otherwise help to implement the #GoOpen 
network, and
    (k) Contact information (name of the organization, address, contact 
person's name, email address etc.).
    Each statement of interest will be evaluated by taking into account 
the submission requirements listed above.
    Accessible Format: Individuals with disabilities can obtain this 
document in an accessible format (e.g., braille, large print, 
audiotape, or compact disc) on request to the contact person listed 
under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
    Electronic Access to This Document: The official version of this 
document is the document published in the Federal Register. Free 
internet access to the official edition of the Federal Register and the 
Code of Federal Regulations is available via the Federal Digital System 
at: www.gpo.gov/fdsys. At this site you can view this document, as well 
as all other documents of this Department published in the Federal 
Register, in text or Portable Document Format (PDF). To use PDF you 
must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available free at the site.
    You may also access documents of the Department published in the 
Federal Register by using the article search feature at: 
www.federalregister.gov. Specifically, through the advanced search 
feature at this site, you can limit your search to documents published 
by the Department.

    Dated: November 28, 2017.
Joe Conaty,
Office of the Secretary, Acting Director for the Office of Educational 
Technology.
[FR Doc. 2017-25913 Filed 11-30-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4000-01-P