Education Week - Managing the Digital District - October 2, 2013 - S4

Q&A: How Los Angeles
Negotiated a 1-to-1 Deal
L.A. district official addresses
issues related to huge contract
for Apple computing devices
T
By Benjamin
Herold
BIG-DOLLAR BIDDING
In March 2013, the Los Angeles Unified School District issued a request for proposals for “personal
computing devices” pre-loaded with curricular content to support the new Common Core State
Standards. In July, the district signed a three-year, $30 million contract with Apple Inc., the first
phase of a half-billion-dollar effort to get iPads with Pearson’s new Common Core System of
Courses into the hands of all 660,000 Los Angeles Unified students.
PROPOSER
Apple Inc.
Arey Jones (A)
Arey Jones (B)
Apple Inc.
Arey Jones (D)
Technology Integration Group
Arey Jones ( C )
AT&T Corp.
AT&T Corp.
McGraw-Hill Education
IBM Corp.
A+ Interactive Technologies
IBM Corp.
S4
EDUCATION WEEK | October 2, 2013
Managing the Digital District >>www.edweek.org/go/digitaldistrict-report
DEVICE
iPad 4 with Retina Display
HP ElitePad
Dell Latitude 10 Tablet
iPad 4 with Retina Display
Dell Latitude 10 Tablet
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
HP ElitePad
Asus ME301T Tablet
Asus ME301T Tablet
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2
Nabi XD Tablet
ConnectEDU-M9715X Tablet
CURRICULUM
Pearson
Pearson
Pearson
Multiple providers
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Discovery Education
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
McGraw-Hill Education
McGraw-Hill Education
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Discovery Education
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
he board of the Los Angeles Unified School
District approved a $30 million contract
with Apple Inc. in June, for the first phase
of a roughly half-billion-dollar effort to
provide all 660,000 students in the district
with their own iPads by the end of 2014.
But what is all that money actually buy-
ing, and how did Los Angeles Unified and
Apple strike their headline-grabbing deal?
Education Week recently reviewed
thousands of pages of documents about the contract, which helped
provide important context for a telephone question-and-answer
session with the architect of the groundbreaking agreement: Mark
Hovatter, the chief facilities executive for the Los Angeles district.
Two important points about the deal stand out:
• Los Angeles Unified isn’t just purchasing devices. Mr. Hovatter
described how the district “forced a marriage” between
Apple and the education publishing giant Pearson, resulting
in a package deal that means each new tablet will come preloaded
with Pearson’s brand-new Common Core System of
Courses. The intent, said Mr. Hovatter, is to “completely and dramatically
change the way we deliver instruction to our students.”
• The district’s contract with Apple, it turns out, is for only three
years, even though the initial request for proposals called for a
five-year agreement. The shift saved LAUSD nearly $282 million,
but it means that the warranties and replacement guarantees for
each iPad, the district’s license to use Pearson’s curriculum, and
the training and support offered by both companies will all expire
in July 2016.
Skeptics of the deal, including John Mockler, an educational consultant
and former executive director of the California state school
board, question the wisdom of making a massive purchase that has
multiple big objectives and such a quick implementation timeline,
especially given that the Los Angeles district will be financing the
three-year technology effort as part of a bond initiative that will
take more than two decades to completely repay.
Such purchases, Mr. Mockler said, “can be bold, or they can be
big failures.”
Mr. Hovatter, though, made clear that the initial rollout of 30,000
iPads in 47 schools, already underway, is not a pilot project. He said
that Los Angeles school officials are “absolutely convinced” that
going all-in as quickly as possible “is the right thing to do.”
MARRYING DEVICE AND CURRICULUM
Los Angeles Unified is paying significantly more for its new
iPads with retina displays than consumers pay for a similar
product off the shelf: $678.58 per tablet (after volume rebates),
compared with about $499 at an Apple store.
Mr. Hovatter, though, bristled at the comparison, noting Los
Angeles Unified’s “high standards” for “content, durability,
warranties, security features,” and more. Indeed, the district’s
request for proposals included 32 minimum requirements for
the device’s hardware, 15 such requirements for the device’s
functionality, nine requirements for its applications, and a
long list of “non-negotiables” about everything from connectivity
to the mix of 5th grade reading selections the curriculum
must contain. The district actually decided against less
expensive proposals from Apple that would have involved
PAGE S6 >
PER-SEAT PRICE
(Initial 5-yr. bids, recommended
proposers)
1,125.00
1,328.50
1,179.62
999.00
1,050.12
996.34
1,199.00
955.01
756.41
981.00
1,202.00
785.00
1,852.00
SOURCE: Los Angeles Unified School District
PER-SEAT PRICE
(3-yr. best-and-final offers, finalists)
678.58
730.95
Documents reviewed
by Education W
eek show how
the decision was made: After receiving
13 “responsible bids” for five-year contracts
that were far more expensive than anticipated,
district officials changed course, inviting their
two finalists, Apple and San Diego-based
Arey Jones, to submit three-year
bids.
The Los Angeles Unified School
District is providing iPads to
students like Tiannah Dizadare
(smiling as she works with
classmate Avery Sheppard) at
Broadacres Avenue Elementary
School in Carson, Calif.
Proponents hope an emphasis on
technology will boost
achievement and give low-income
students new opportunities.
Skeptics have questioned the
financing of the multimilliondollar
project.
Bob Chamberlin/Los Angeles Times/AP

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Education Week - Managing the Digital District - October 2, 2013

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