50-S6703-24-CP335_R9 Sole Source #25000.docx - signed.pdf.PDF

R9 Sole Source #25000

STATE OF NEWMEXICO

SOLE SOURCE REQUEST AND DETERMINATION FORM

A sole source determination is not effective until the sole source request for determination has been posted for thirty (30) calendar days without challenge, and subsequently approved in writing by the State Purchasing Agent or, for Professional Services Agreements, the Secretary of the General Services Department. The foregoing requirement is regardless of whether the sole source request for determination has been signed by the Agency and/or the Contractor.

I. Name of Agency: Region 9 Education Cooperative

Agency Chief Procurement Officer: Arissa Klumker

Telephone Number: 575-519-2001

Agency Contact for this request: Veronica Wadley

Telephone Number & Email Address: 469-726-8349; veronica.wadley@regionix.org

II. Name of prospective Contractor: TEACH

SHARE Vendor Number (must be active):

Address of prospective Contractor:

2443 Fillmore St. #380-9883 San Francisco, CA 94115

Contact Name, Telephone Number and Email Address:

Zachary Levine 650-575-5277 zlevine@teach.org

Amount of prospective contract before tax:

Approximately $489,000.00 per year

Estimated tax amount (tax is subject to change): N/A

Term of prospective contract: 08/1/2024 - 06/30/2026

III. Agency is required to state purpose/need of purchase and thoroughly list the services (scope of work), construction or items of tangible personal property of the prospective contract (if this is an amendment request to an existing contract, include current contract number issued by SPD):

New Mexico is facing a critical and urgent teacher shortage. The Department seeks a vendor that can launch and manage a statewide initiative to deploy a comprehensive system to cultivate diverse talent to apply to and enter educator preparation programs (EPPs), which will be up and running recruiting teachers to EPPs as of Spring 2025, thereby addressing the urgent need for teachers across the state. This initiative must be conducted in partnership with the Department and with participation from the state’s educator preparation programs (EPPs) and school districts. The system must be comprehensive in the sense that it has all the components, processes, and programs necessary to achieve the intended outcomes, including online interface, multimedia content, lead generation, programming, digital communications, live-chat, social media, stakeholder management, and measurement and reporting. To recruit the most potential New Mexicans possible, the system must be adaptive to different age groups, different demographic groups, and people at different stages of interest in teaching.

The specific services the Department is looking for are:

● A core system that adapts to individuals: A proven system that provides resources and supports for any New Mexican exploring teaching, differentiated by education/career stage and race/ethnicity and personalizable to each individual, which results in prospects applying to educator preparation programs (EPPs) throughout the state

● Digital communications: Ongoing communications to keep prospects using the system engaged as they consider teaching

● Lead generation: A cost-effective and proven suite of strategies to identify New Mexicans across the state who would consider teaching (i.e. prospects)

● Data/information management: A database system for capturing the contact information for those prospects and tracking demographic and other information about them. Managing the functioning and security of the database. Integrating it with the core system and digital communications.

● Meet with mentor educators program: A program that allows prospects to speak to New Mexico educators to get inspired about the career and get all of their questions answered

● Live-chat support: Live-chat support to answer questions prospects have about the teaching profession

● Inspirational multimedia: Articles as well as video and other multimedia content to inspire New Mexicans to pursue teaching, raise awareness of the benefits of teaching in New Mexico (e.g. recent increases in teacher salaries) and address common misperceptions about the profession

● Tool to support people in researching and choosing an EPP: Information about how to apply to an EPP and get certified in New Mexico and a tool with profiles on all EPPs in the state to search for, filter, research, and compare EPPs

● Financial aid tool: A searchable directory of local, state, and federal scholarship, loan forgiveness, and other financial assistance opportunities

● Financial incentives: Administration of financial incentives, including EPP application fee reimbursements and scholarships, to remove financial barriers to pursuing teaching

● Measurement & Reporting: The ability to measure impact on the number of New Mexicans (and their demographics) entering EPPs

● Managing the initiative / stakeholder communications:Managing communications and coordination with the state’s EPPs and school districts to utilize the statewide system.

Day-to-day management of the initiative, in tight coordination with the Department -ensuring that all the pieces and programs are working together, looking for ways to continuously improve them, tracking progress, adapting strategies.

IV. Provide a detailed explanation of the criteria developed and specified by the agency as necessary to perform and/or fulfill the contract and upon which the state agency reviewed available sources. (Do not use “technical jargon;” use plain English. Do not tailor the criteria simply to exclude other contractors if it is not rationally related to the purpose of the contract.)

The following criteria have been developed by the Department as necessary to perform the contract and upon which available sources were reviewed.

● Offers a comprehensive system providing all the services the Department is looking for in one integrated package: To reduce cost and complexity and increase effectiveness, the Department seeks a single vendor that can deliver the services outlined in the answer to Question III vs. procuring them individually from different vendors. Not only will this reduce cost and save the Department time, but also an end-to-end system that identifies New Mexicans across the state interested in teaching and can support them all the way through applying to an EPP will be much more impactful and effective than procuring services from different vendors that are not coordinated or connected.

● Has conducted research to deeply understand the factors and interventions that lead people to choose or not choose teaching: In order for the initiative to be successful, the Department seeks a vendor that has experience in the teacher recruitment space specifically and has conducted research to understand the facts that most frequently prevent potential teachers from pursuing the profession and the interventions that can help them overcome those obstacles.

● Has a track record of impact and can measure their impact and report on outcomes to the Department: The Department seeks a vendor that has demonstrated that their system is effective at recruiting future teachers into the profession in a statewide deployment - that they have been successful at generating the outcomes the Department would engage them to achieve and that they have done this in a statewide deployment.

Additionally, the Department would like to be able to measure and report the impact of implementing the teacher recruitment system on the number of individuals applying to EPPs across New Mexico and, thereby, understand the return on its investment.

Therefore, the vendor must have the ability to do so.

● Has a proven track record of partnering with State Education Agencies and educator preparation programs in deploying such a statewide system: It is complex to deploy a statewide initiative, to interact with a state agency, and to engage many stakeholders in a multifaceted system. We would like to reduce risk and increase effectiveness by working with vendors who have demonstrated they can do this successfully.

● Engages all relevant life-stage groups. There are prospective future teachers among our state’s high school students, college students, and working population. To meet New

Mexico’s need for new teachers, we need to cultivate talent pools in all these age/life-stage brackets.

● Has a base to build on, so we are not starting from scratch or re-inventing the wheel:

We seek a vendor that has already developed and refined messaging and a set of interventions that will overcome the barriers that stop people from pursuing teaching and inspire New Mexicans to choose teaching as a career and support them to applying to an EPP. That way, we will be able to launch this initiative and get greater results faster. As mentioned, we have a sense of urgency and cannot afford to wait, because our students need teachers now and any delays deprive students of the teachers they deserve, permanently impacting their lives. Therefore, we seek a vendor who already has a base to build on and can deploy a comprehensive effective system that much faster.

TEACH provides states with a comprehensive system. The services we provide as part of this system are described below. Ultimately, what we are delivering is an outcome: more talented individuals recruited to apply to the state’s ed prep program. The exact details of the services may change slightly, as we are continuously learning, evolving, and improving, but the outcome we deliver will remain the same.

Provide the following services:

● A series of activities, including a PSA campaign, digital and social media marketing, and direct EPP and LEA outreach, that work in every zip code of the state to identify New Mexicans who would consider teaching but are not yet sure

● A mechanism to capture those New Mexicans as a lead - i.e. obtain their contact info and other info about them

● A database that keeps track of all information learned about tens of thousands of leads around the state to enable the cultivation of all these leads simultaneously

● A one-stop-shop online support portal that provides resources and supports for any New Mexican exploring teaching, with an experience on the portal personalizable to each individual

● A 1-on-1 and group coaching program where anyone in the state can talk to a hand-picked, trained New Mexico educator to get inspired about the career and get all their questions answered

● Ongoing communication via several options based on the user’s preference: email with fresh content 2 - 4 times per month, text, and social media

● Live-chat support to answer questions

● Regular live events and webinars on different topics, ranging from how to get certified to the legacy and impact of Black educators

● Dozens of rich, inspiring video and other multimedia content to inspire potential prospects and help them overcome perception hurdles to pursuing teaching

● Dozens of informational articles and guides about applying to an EPP, teacher salary and benefits, certification pathways, career paths, and more

● Connection to hands-on volunteer and paid opportunities to try-out teaching

● An explorer tool to research and compare EPPs with detailed profiles of individual EPPs

● A searchable directory of local, state, and federal scholarship, loan forgiveness, and other financial assistance opportunities

● Financial incentives, including application fee reimbursements and scholarships (including the promotion, awarding, and paying of these scholarships)

● A well-established measurement system from other states to measure the number of subscribers who ultimately apply to New Mexico EPPs

● Reporting on leading indicators as well as key outcome metrics (e.g. subscribers, EPP applicants) on a regular basis to track the impact of and success of the initiative relative to targets.

● Ongoing research and development to constantly refine and improve the CTRS and identify, plan, and execute pilot projects

● Ongoing management of the initiative via a program manager dedicated to New Mexico

V. Provide a detailed, sufficient explanation of the reasons, qualifications, proprietary rights or unique capabilities of the prospective contractor that makes the prospective contractor the one source capable of providing the required professional service, service, construction or item(s) of tangible personal property. (Please do not state the source is the “best” source or the “least costly” source. Those factors do not justify a “sole source.”)

There are several qualifications, proprietary rights, and unique capabilities that only TEACH, the prospective vendor, possesses that have led the Department to conclude that they are the one source capable of providing the required services:

1) Founded by USED with a mission aligned to our objectives: TEACH was founded as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2015 by the U.S. Department of Education to be “endowed to the nation” to become the centralized recruiting partner for the P-16 public school system.

The U.S. Department of Education maintains leadership in TEACH via a seat on the Board of Directors. TEACH’s mission to end the national teacher shortage and diversify the teaching profession is highly aligned with the Department’s Educator Quality division’s objectives.

2) SEA partnership model: TEACH is the only organization in the country that partners with State Education Agencies (SEAs) to deploy statewide initiatives and systems for long-term cultivation of prospective future teachers into the teaching profession. They have partnerships with five other SEAs.

3) Comprehensive package: In terms of comprehensiveness, there are no other entities that offer an equivalent system designed with the same depth of research with the same services, all integrated into a single, cohesive package and specialized to recruit new talent into the teaching profession.

4) Proprietary rights: The system TEACH deploys has several proprietary aspects -including research-backed messaging, proprietary software, and a library of proprietary informational and inspirational multimedia.

5) Proven track record: The system has a track record of measurable results in other states.

We have not found other entities that have proven results recruiting people to educator preparation programs statewide from all life-stage groups.

The fourth and fifth aspects are described in more detail below:

Proprietary Rights

A major part of TEACH’s new teacher cultivation system is what TEACH calls its “Digital Recruitment Platform (DRP),” which is a combination of services and proprietary components:

software, content, branding, databases, data and analytics, third-party software, and the unique integration of all of these components — all of which is informed by TEACH’s intellectual property. The DRP was developed by TEACH, over the past six years, specifically to provide states with a system for long-term teacher talent cultivation. TEACH has spent thousands of hours and invested over six million dollars to develop all the components of this proprietary system.

● Software: the DRP includes uniquely-developed software - a web-based application -that consists of tens of thousands of lines of code that are the result of thousands of developer hours. When TEACH forms a partnership with a new SEA, they replicate the proprietary software to create a one-stop-shop web portal for the SEA (which becomes a new digital property at a unique URL) and work with the SEA to customize the content.

● Database: TEACH also has a uniquely-developed database of profiles on EPPs. This database is a combination of data from the U.S. Department of Education and data that TEACH has collected from EPPs themselves. This database includes educator preparation programs in New Mexico. All the data has been modified and configured uniquely to form the proprietary database.

● Data and analytics systems: TEACH has developed data and analytics systems that are uniquely tailored to track and capture the behavior of visitors to and users of the proprietary software. TEACH also has proprietary data on prospects around the country who are interested in teaching, some of whom are from New Mexico or interested in teaching in New Mexico.

● Inspirational and informational multimedia library: TEACH has developed a library of dozens of proprietary informational and inspirational multimedia, including videos and articles, developed based on their research, lessons learned, and feedback.

● Brand: TEACH’s software includes uniquely-developed branding elements.

● All of the components are informed by intellectual property, including:

○ Research on messaging, perceptions of teaching, barriers to teaching, career decision-making, and recruitment best practices

○ Findings from two years of user research including 60+ surveys of prospective teachers, including high school students, college students, non-certified school staff, and career switchers; dozens of focus groups with diverse prospective teachers; six literature reviews of Millennial and Gen Z attitudes, behaviors, and career values and 50+ in-depth interviews with educators and educational organization leaders

○ Six years of lessons learned and feedback from partnering with other metropolitan areas and SEAs to improve all elements of the system

Proven Track Record

TEACH’s system has been deployed in five other states and has a proven track record of measurable results. No other entity has these results. Specifically, TEACH’s system has proven effective at signing up prospective teachers to use it; increasing the interest of prospects in teaching; and getting more and more diverse prospects to apply to EPPs in the state at a very low cost. Since its founding, TEACH has:

● Signed up and supported over 120K prospects

● Increased interest in teaching for 63% of subscribers surveyed (AY2022-23)

● Successfully recruited ~16.2K prospects to apply to an EPP in the states in which

TEACH operates

● Recruited >2x the applicants of color to EPP programs relative to the percentage of teachers of color in the region today

● Achieved these results at a cost per applicant of $900 - the most cost-effective solution for bringing new talent into teaching in the nation

VI. Provide a detailed, sufficient explanation of how the professional service, service, construction or item(s) of tangible personal property is/are unique and how this uniqueness is substantially related to the intended purpose of the contract.

One overarching aspect that makes TEACH’s services unique is that they have been developed, tested and refined, and proven to work specifically for teacher recruitment. Another overarching aspect is that they work as one comprehensive integrated package.

The following are other aspects of the integrated package that we find to be unique (including but not limited to):

● TEACH has a Digital Recruitment Platform that is totally unique. We have not seen anything like it or close to it. Its unique and sophisticated features include the following:

○ A “profile builder” which asks prospects a series of questions to get to know them, so as to better understand them and support their exploration of teaching.

This profile builder has features which enable it to be effective at balancing the need for more information without overwhelming prospects: it asks prospects questions upfront, but if they don’t answer the questions, the platform will prompt them to complete their profile each time they log in.

○ The system works with all life-stage groups - high school, college, and post-college. What life-stage they are in is part of their profile.

○ A database that keeps track of all the profile information learned about tens of thousands of prospect leads around the state to enable the cultivation of all these leads, and the database of information is linked to the DRP, so that the DRP can deliver a highly personalized experience at scale.

○ An ability to personalize the experience on the platform for each user, based on information stored about them. This means that, for instance, a white high school student would receive different resources, supports, and messaging than, say, a Native American college student, who would receive different resources than, say, a Latino career switcher.

○ Moreover, the platform can keep track of what resources prospects have already browsed and where they left off and then adapt what the user sees accordingly.

○ TEACH’s DRP interacts with and communicates with prospects in a variety of ways - email, text, social media, and Livechat.

○ There’s an online appointment system for quickly and easily scheduling one-on-one conversations with New Mexico’s current educators.

○ A tool for browsing and comparing profiles of every EPP in the state

○ Other supports, such as a financial aid directory, guidance to navigating the EPP application process, and test-prep support to pass certification exams

● TEACH is the only entity that has such an extensive multimedia library (i.e., >100 videos and articles) persuading people to consider teaching

● TEACH has designed and runs a program in other states, where - when applied in New

Mexico - anyone in New Mexico can make one-on-one appointments talk to a current New Mexico educator to get inspired about the profession. They recruit, train, and manage the educators and run the whole program.

● TEACH puts on live online events to inspire people to join the teaching profession. These events are integrated with the rest of the DRP, so they serve as one touchpoint, and so the system can keep track of whether someone attends an event and follow-up accordingly.

● A series of activities to identify individuals who would consider teaching but are not yet sure (including a PSA campaign, digital and social media marketing, and direct EPP and LEA outreach) that work in every zip code of the state, leveraging messaging based on in-depth research and testing on what inspires individuals to consider teaching and extensive experience running multichannel teacher recruitment-focused lead generation campaigns.

● The PSA campaign work they do has the backing of the U.S. Department of Education, which is unique and we believe will lead to a more robust campaign that leads to more success in New Mexico.

● A well-established measurement system from other states to measure the number of subscribers who ultimately apply to New Mexico EPPs

VII. Explain why other similar professional services, services, construction or item(s) of tangible personal property cannot meet the intended purpose of the contract.

We did not find other vendors that were that comparable to TEACH. In some cases, we found a professional service firm that offered a piece of the package (e.g. marketing agencies), but these firms had zero experience with teacher recruitment. Additionally, because they only offered a piece of the package and not the full breadth of services that TEACH offers, they ultimately could not fulfill the purpose of the contract to deliver a system that results in a measurable increase in talent recruited to our state's educator preparation programs (EPPs). In other cases, we found entities that did focus on teachers or teacher recruitment, but they did not engage talent from all life-stages and they did not offer technology-based systems with the ability to scale to the whole state and to a large number of prospects.

VIII. Provide a narrative description of the agency’s due diligence in determining the basis for the procurement, including procedures used by the agency to conduct a review of available sources such as researching trade publications, industry newsletters and the internet;; contacting similar service providers; and reviewing the State Purchasing Divisions’ Statewide Price Agreements. Include a list of businesses contacted (do not state that no other businesses were contacted), date of contact, method of contact (telephone, mail, e-mail, other), and documentation demonstrating an explanation of why those businesses could not or would not, under any circumstances, perform the contract; or an explanation of why the agency has determined that no businesses other than the prospective contractor can perform the contract.

Horizons of New Mexico has provided a declination. In addition to this in 2023-2024 we ran an RFP for recruitment support to meet the state's teacher recruitment needs. Through this process, only two vendors applied. We ended up contracting with both vendors in FY24 around a few different areas to support the state’s recruitment efforts. In both the RFP process and in working with these vendors over the past year, it was clear that neither vendor offers anything similar to what TEACH has developed and neither vendor was able to offer the comprehensive recruitment system that TEACH provides through its proprietary software. The RFP process also illuminated a void in the vendor market as only two vendors applied for our FY24 Recruitment RFP. In a review of available resources such as trade publications, industry newsletters and the internet, there are no other vendors offering the streamlined and complete recruitment vision that TEACH does. Evidence of other state’s research indicates similar findings. Both South Carolina and Missouri have already approved TEACH as a sole source. The New York State Education Department recently did a scan and found that TEACH was unique. In addition to this, the American Institutes for Research (AIR) compiled a list of resources for recruiting, selecting, and hiring teachers. TEACH is on this list, but the other resources on the list only offer one or a few of the services that TEACH provides.

List of businesses contacted:

● Horizons of New Mexico

6121 Indian School Rd. NE, Suite 102 Albuquerque, NM 87110 office phone: (505) 345-1540 email: mloehman@horizonsofnewmexico.org web: www.horizonsofnewmexico.org

● The New Teacher Project (TNTP)- contacted on Oct 13, 2024 through the RFP process

Carmen Orozco

(480) 578-7297 | carmen.orozco@tntp.org | tntp.org

● The Golden Apple Foundation For Excellence in Teaching- Golden Apple Scholars- contacted on Oct 13, 2024 through the RFP process.

https://webnew.ped.state.nm.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Log-206-Teacher-Residency-Recruitment-Efforts_RFP-.docx.pdf https://webnew.ped.state.nm.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Log-206-Teacher-Residency-Recruitment-Efforts_RFP-.docx.pdf http://www.horizonsofnewmexico.org/ http://www.tntp.org/

New Mexico Office 200 Broadway Fatpipe Building Albuquerque, NM 87102 jlucero@goldenapple.org Mobile: 505-688-6820

Certified by: Date:____________________

Agency Chief Procurement Officer

Agency Approval by: Date: ____________________

Cabinet Secretary/Agency or Entity Head or Designee

Arissa Klumker (Aug 14, 2024 15:46 MDT)

08/14/2024

Bryan Dooley (Aug 15, 2024 05:35 MDT) Bryan Dooley

08/15/2024

R9 Sole Source #25000.docx Final Audit Report 2024-08-15

Created: 2024-08-14

By: Region IX Ed Coop (contracts.procurement@regionix.org)

Status: Signed

Transaction ID: CBJCHBCAABAArkssgis64CYsWJq_kdDRsLuTux-Q4XiL

"R9 Sole Source #25000.docx" History Document created by Region IX Ed Coop (contracts.procurement@regionix.org)

2024-08-14 - 9:37:47 PM GMT

Document emailed to Arissa Klumker (arissa.klumker@regionix.org) for signature

2024-08-14 - 9:37:52 PM GMT

Email viewed by Arissa Klumker (arissa.klumker@regionix.org)

2024-08-14 - 9:45:49 PM GMT

Document e-signed by Arissa Klumker (arissa.klumker@regionix.org) Signature Date: 2024-08-14 - 9:46:39 PM GMT - Time Source: server

Document emailed to Bryan Dooley (bryan.dooley@regionix.org) for signature

2024-08-14 - 9:46:43 PM GMT

Email viewed by Bryan Dooley (bryan.dooley@regionix.org)

2024-08-15 - 11:34:35 AM GMT

Document e-signed by Bryan Dooley (bryan.dooley@regionix.org) Signature Date: 2024-08-15 - 11:35:00 AM GMT - Time Source: server

Agreement completed.

2024-08-15 - 11:35:00 AM GMT