HCPS FL Logo Curriculum and Instruction
Action Item
DATE: Tuesday, July 15, 2014
TO: School Board Members
FROM: MaryEllen Elia, Superintendent
SUBJECT / RECOMMENDATIONS
Approve the Purchase of Turnitin District Licenses from iParadigms, LLC (Sole-Source Provider) (Curriculum and Instruction Division)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Turnitin Suite is a web-based service that helps instructors detect unoriginal content in student work, engage students with rich feedback, and improve the student writing process through online peer review.  The Turnitin software license is for a three year term effective July 16, 2014, and concluding July 15, 2017, for up to 54,200 students at 27 high school campuses.  The Turnitin Suite is comprised of three integrated services.

Turnitin's OriginalityCheck helps instructors quickly and effectively check students' written work for improper citation and similarity to existing sources that might represent potential plagiarism.  Students self-submit papers into the Turnitin service for comparison against this database, which provides instructors with insight into potential originality issues.  GradeMark provides instructors with a web-based platform for evaluating student written work.  Instructors can quickly and efficiently mark and comment on students' papers.  They can also access, build, and upload writing rubrics for evaluating written work.  GradeMark automatically calculates paper grades based on rubric criterion scores that instructors input.  With PeerMark, instructors can enable online student peer reviews of each other's written work, facilitating development within students of an understanding of writing for an audience as well as practice in the iterative process of writing.

iParadigms, LLC is designated as sole-source and is the exclusive agent for the Turnitin licenses based in the United States.  This purchase is exempt from requesting competitive solicitations by the Florida Department of Education 6A-1.012 Purchasing Policies (11)(b).

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
• Increase promotion rates at all grade levels and the percentage of high school graduates • Demonstrate consistent and effective teaching methods • Demonstrate best financial practices
FINANCIAL IMPACT (Budgeted:  Yes)
Funding in the amount of $271,679 is available through the Curriculum and Instruction Division Secondary Education budget over the three year term of the contract.
EVALUATION
Evaluation of the program will be based on the classroom usage of the instructional tool by teachers and students through online data reporting, as well as targeted students' proficiency on the assessments.
SUBMITTED BY:  Troy Suarez, Supervisor, K-12 Instructional Technology
Wynne A. Tye   Gretchen Saunders
Assistant Superintendent, Curriculum and Instruction
(813) 272-4221
  Chief Business Officer
(813) 272-4270
    A 6.06
Hillsborough County Public Schools (Florida) * Mtg.#20140715_636 (Board Meeting) * Section A Item# 6.06