No School
Left Behind Software Grant Program
The
Program grants all qualified Applicants who submit a
completed Grant Application before the deadline for
each year of the Program, a perpetual license of VIP
Tone's School MATRIX software product.
Each annual phase will award a specific version, or
bundle, of the School MATRIX product, to be specified
before the grant application process starts. The Grant
Application must be completely filled out and submitted
to VIP Tone by no later than the published deadline
for submission. Each applicant will receive a formal
letter from VIP Tone within 10 working days of submission
of their Grant Application Form with the approval status
of their application.
Each applicant must fill out the form completely, and
must accept the School MATRIX Software License Agreement
terms and conditions, and commit to the required resources
detailed in the School MATRIX Professional Services
and Implementation Planning Guides.
Grants will be awarded only to those qualified school
districts who commit to deploying the software, at least
in one school site, before the end of the calendar year
of the program. For example, Year 1 Grants will be awarded
to those Applicants who intend to deploy the software
before December 31, 2008.
Product: School MATRIX is a comprehensive student
information system (SIS) integrated with an instructional
information management system, case management system
and staff development. It is designed to enable educators
to manage an extensive amount of student information
in context of standards, curriculum, lessons, formative
and summative assessments and student performance and
progress.
Eligibility: Any Public U.S. School District
with total student enrollment of 1,000 or fewer students.
Value: The List-Price of the Perpetual Software
License for School MATRIX 2.0 is $18,000.
Application Deadlines:
School
MATRIX 2.0 Grant |
Starting Date |
Closing Date |
| Year One |
October 15, 2007 |
May 30, 2008 |
| Year Two |
October 15, 2008 |
January 16, 2009 |
| Year Three |
October 15, 2009 |
January 15, 2010 |
To submit your application for the No School Left
Behind Software Grant Program click
here.
Software
Grant Program Questions:
Q: What will the School District actually receive
once it is awarded the Grant?
A: The School District will receive a School
MATRIX 2.0 CD with a complete software system binary
code, Installation and Configuration Guide, and a voucher
for a free 2-hour online School MATRIX 2.0 orientation
session.
Q: How can we learn more about School MATRIX to determine
if it is right for us?
A: VIP Tone will schedule several on-line "Webinars"
during October and November which are designed to provide
a comprehensive overview of School MATRIX's features
and functions. Webinar participants will have the opportunity
to submit questions to VIP Tone that may arise during
the Webinar. The Webinar sessions will be sent to all
grant applicants.
A VIP Tone representative can also be scheduled to come
to your district to provide an on-site demonstration,
answer questions, and assist with the development of
an implementation plan. If your district is one of several
applying for a School MATRIX grant in your area, this
strategy would be an excellent way to dialog with each
other and learn in-depth how School MATRIX can be used
to help you implement a very powerful and cost-effective
enterprise-wide decision support system to help you
deal with the complexities of increased accountability,
NCLB, and state reporting.
Q: What hardware and software will we have to acquire
in order to implement School MATRIX if we are awarded
the Grant?
A: The School District can either acquire the
hardware and operating system needed to run School MATRIX,
or it can contract with VIP Tone to host and manage
School MATRIX for a monthly service fee.
If the district decides to host School MATRIX in its
own network, it can still contract with VIP Tone for
remote management of the software. However, it will
need to install School MATRIX on a Windows or Linux
Server (hardware) with dual Intel X86 processors, 2GB
of main memory, 120GB of Disk Storage, and CD-ROM Drive.
The cost of the hardware should be in the range of $2,000.
Q: Are there any additional costs will we have to
incur to implement School MATRIX if we are awarded the
Grant?
A: The District will need to dedicate internal
resources to implement the system. Or, if it wishes,
it can outsource the implementation to a trained IT
consultant.
Implementation
includes: a) System Installation, configuration, customization
and ongoing system administration (updates, upgrades
and data back-ups); (b) Data migration or initialization
(if not electronically captured); (c) End-User training;
and (d) End-User Help Desk Support.
The
cost of professional services (internal or external
consultants) may range from $5,000 to $25,000 depending
on the size of the district, the implementation project
plan, the number of end-users to be trained in each
site, unique reporting requirements, curriculum framework
to be utilized, availability of digital content resources,
and the ease of data migration from current SIS system.
Implementation
costs can be more clearly delineated after an initial
planning session. VIP Tone offers implementation planning
services as a part of this grant program. Any district
that wishes to go through an implementation planning
session prior to submitting their grant application,
may schedule a session with a VIP Tone representative.
Q: What do we need in terms of internal resources
to implement School MATRIX?
A: Depending on the desired outcomes and which
of the School MATRIX modules are to be implemented first,
the School District would have to dedicate a specific
set of internal resources that include district administration
staff and various school site personnel: Superintendent,
associate superintendents, curriculum director, assessment
director, school principals, special education specialists,
counselors, teaching staff, and IT specialist and technology
coordinators.
Q:
What resources and services does VIP Tone offer to assist
us to implement School MATRIX?
A: VIP Tone has put together a discounted list
of services that could facilitate the deployment of
School MATRIX for this program. The following services
are available to all Grant recipients:
ASP Hosting in a dedicated server, including on-going
system administration, weekly back-ups, upgrades and
2 hours per month of phone support: $995 per month
(per server)
Locally-Hosted Server Appliance, including remote
system monitoring, administration, weekly back-ups,
upgrades and 2 hours per month of phone support: $795
per month (per server)
Locally-Hosted Virtual Appliance (Software) to be
installed on Client's hardware, includes remote upgrades
and 2 hours per month of phone support: $395 per month
(per server)
In addition to the above deployment services, VIP Tone
offers professional services ranging from on-site consulting
to software customization. Average pricing starts at $99 per hour (pre-purchased bundle of 20 hours) for phone or remote support, or $995 per day (pre-purchased bundle of 10 days) plus expenses for on-site services.
Q: What happens if we do not implement School MATRIX before the end of the calendar year, even though we had intended to do so when we initially applied for the Grant?
A: The School District would have two options to overcome its default: a) Hire VIP Tone to assist in the implementation during the following 12 months and update the License Agreement, or (b) Cancel the granted software license and return the Software CD to VIP Tone.
Q:
Are there any benefits in teaming with neighboring school districts to participate in the program?
A: Definitely! Implementation costs can be dramatically reduced by coordinating implementation of School MATRIX within a consortium of districts. In addition, each district can benefit from collaborating in data conversion, database population, curriculum development, assessment design, development of custom reports, etc. In addition travel costs associated with bringing VIP Tone consultants and trainers on-site can be shared across the consortium.
Q: Who else is using School MATRIX and how do we get in touch with them as a reference?
A: VIP Tone will provide reference information to qualified districts if requested during the grant application process. School MATRIX is in use in districts in various states including: California, Oklahoma, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, and Kentucky.
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