Request for Proposal (RFP) for Business Plan Consultant | KWEST January 2025

The Kaleidoscope Head Start Arts-Integrated Preschool at Settlement Music School is excited to announce an initiative to develop a digital, widely accessible, scalable, research based, arts-integrated, pre-school methodology to support all kinds of preschool learners and environments. This RFP seeks an experienced ed tech consultant who can create a sustainable business plan for this project, which has proof of concept and is backed by published research. The contract will be awarded as soon as possible, with work to begin in February of 2025.

BACKGROUND

Founded in 1908, Settlement Music School, a non-profit organization, is one of the largest community schools of the arts in the United States and serves children and adults of all ages. Settlement Music School is an inclusive creative community, dedicated to providing the highest quality arts education for all. Regardless of age, background, ability, or economic circumstances, there is a place for all at Settlement. 12,000 learning experiences through lessons and classes are provided every week in music, dance, and arts therapy at our branch locations across the Philadelphia region, online, and through dozens of community partnerships across the region. We are proud to offer financial aid to more than 60% of our student population, ages 6 months to 96 years. Today, Settlement continues to meet our founding mission that the principles of its Founders, that there be no barriers to participating in music and arts education.

Settlement’s Mission

With 170 degreed faculty members and arts therapists, a dedicated staff, and an engaged board, our mission is to provide the highest quality instruction in music and the related arts to children and adults.

Kaleidoscope Preschool, a program of Settlement Music School

Kaleidoscope, a NAEYC accredited, Keystone Stars 4, Head Start preschool, offers a high quality, arts integrated, affordable PreK program that prepares children for kindergarten. Kaleidoscope’s artist teachers have a 30-year history of working with diverse preschoolers to integrate daily visual art, music, and creative movement classes that enhance standard language, literacy, math, science, and social/cultural learning and thereby improve outcomes.

The Teacher Training Institute for the Arts has provided 20 years of workshops where our Kaleidoscope faculty have shared their expertise in arts integration with early childhood providers. A peer-reviewed research study about the Kaleidoscope method stated that, with arts integration, students had three times more vocabulary attainment than at a control pre-K. Other studies show that students in our program report feeling more pride, happiness, and interest in learning – key indicators for readiness.

SCOPE OF PROJECT

Goal and Vision

Our 30 years of experience, enhanced by published peer-reviewed academic research, confirms that arts integration improves outcomes for students, and that it can be used as a standalone or overlaid onto existing curricula. Arts integrated teaching methods are effective because they are easy to adopt and understand for new users and because they are flexible. We know existing curricula is often so rigid it does not meet the varying needs of a diverse learning group. We also know that many centers, especially smaller or home-based centers, do not use published curriculum due to the cost. With 6 of 10 children not ready for kindergarten*, solutions need to be found to support providers, particularly those who have been historically disadvantaged.

We have seen the happiness and success of our preschoolers over the past 30 years. We know that we can do more. High-quality content fostering school readiness should be made accessible to all students, regardless of their background or the size of their centers. More providers need tools for success, and Kaleidoscope has the knowledge and experience to support these providers. Truly, Kaleidoscope Wants Everyone Succeeding Together, through Arts integration (KWEST Arts).

Our working hypothesis, supported by our researcher Dr. Ellie Brown of West Chester University, is that the impact of arts-integration on young people occurs not only in programming delivered by professional teaching-artists, but that it occurs in regular classrooms where teachers are trained in arts integration techniques.

Current Status:

Since 2022, we have collaborated with early childhood centers across Philadelphia to take our highly successful, research proven method of integrating art into existent curricula, codify it, and transform it into a digital model – giving diverse classrooms of all sizes and resource levels access to arts integrated instructional methods. A soft launch of the digital model with 6 classrooms was completed November 2025 with extremely positive feedback. Learn more through the current website: kwestlearning.org/

The current team, comprising Settlement’s Executive Director of Early Childhood Learning (Project Lead), Project Manager, Settlement’s Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Advancement Officer, and CEO, as well as a Curriculum Consultant, has reached the limits of their expertise and time availability for bringing this product to market. All team members are committed and vital to the project’s success and will continue to contribute, albeit with the support and guidance of a business plan and planner.

JOB DESCRIPTION

The Need: We seek a business planner with ed tech experience who can work with our team to create a business plan and help guide KWEST towards an ultimately sustainable business.

Consultant Goals: The ideal Business Plan Consultant will work with the project team to:

• Goal 1: Gain understanding of current team, product and needs. This includes evaluation and analysis of customer profiles (educator, school lead, school district), current leads/potential beachheads, competition, marketing channels etc… that have been developed by team, using this as a baseline to understand project, communicate needed changes, and shape next steps for the team towards successful launch.
• Goal 2: Conduct relevant market research, using innovation techniques and focusing on segmentation, data analysis, and meeting market needs
• Goal 3: Primary Goal – Use results to create short- and long-term business plans including future product development, pricing, marketing and digital presence
• Goal 4: Recommend a long-term organizational structure for the project, keeping in mind that the ultimate goal is to make KWEST both sustainable and available as widely as possible, at the lowest possible price, to maximize number of users and positive impact.
• Goal 5: TBD… Manage team to ensure success of first step launch, monitor status of product, identify issues and concerns, and manage course correction as needed

The grant-funded project has clear deliverables including a meaningful launch due by Sept 2025.

Compensation will be commensurate with experience and within the project’s grant-funded budget

Consultant Qualifications:

• Experienced Team Leader
• Demonstrated expertise when working with cross-functional teams
• Highly qualified collaborator and communicator
• Expert in ed tech market research, data analysis, pricing structures, financial processes and forecasting
• Deadline driven

SUBMISSION PARAMETERS

Pre-proposal Meeting Request

Interested respondents must send an email request to schedule a pre-proposal meeting to answer questions and clarify the intent and approach of this work. Please send email to Tarrell Davis, Executive Director of Early Childhood Programming: [email protected]

Form and Submission of Proposal

Proposals should be submitted within a week of the pre-proposal meeting to Tarrell Davis, Executive Director of Early Childhood Programming: [email protected]

Proposals should include the following information:

• Experience and Expertise: Submit detailed information addressing consultant’s experience and expertise, particularly as it pertains to similar projects.
• Resume and references: Submit current resume and significant professional information and at least three professional references
• Examples of Quality of work: Include a minimum of one, and not more than three, sample projects, as either PDF’s or link to a portfolio
• Proposed Fees and Expenses clearly stated for each service

Anticipated Schedule:

• Request Issued: January 21, 2025
• Deadline for Scheduling Pre-proposal Meetings: February 3, 2025
• Pre-Proposal Meetings: February 5-7, 2025
• FAQs sent out by Settlement to all potential respondents: February 10, 2025
• Proposals Due: February 13, 2025
• Selection of Bidder: February 17, 2025
• Start Date: February 24, 2025

(or sooner if possible)

Settlement Music School is an Equal Opportunity Employer that encourages candidates of all backgrounds to apply for this position.