APPENDIX A - EPAS REQUIREMENTS FINAL.xlsx
XLSX spreadsheet 24 KB Posted
- Attached to
- 9280-27-R-IFBD-00009
- Solicitation number
- 3160008271
- Issued by
- Greene County, Mississippi
About this file
This file is an Appendix A requirements document for the University of Southern Mississippi's Educator Prep and Accreditation Solution (EPAS) procurement. The University seeks an integrated platform to support educator preparation programs, including candidate lifecycle management from application through licensure, support for multiple programs and certification areas, electronic applications with configurable workflows, and candidate progression tracking with milestone checkpoints. The solution must provide assessment capabilities with configurable rubrics aligned to professional standards, integrated field experience and clinical placement management with electronic tracking and approval of hours and activities, secure access for external field-based users, licensure tracking, and electronic portfolio functionality for candidates. The RFB deadline is Wednesday, October 7, 2026, with implementation required to initiate prior to December 1, 2026, and a soft-launch targeted for summer 2027. The contract term is four years, inclusive of all software licensing, maintenance, support, and services, with renewal or extension options to be clearly defined.
The solution must integrate with the University's existing Learning Management System (Canvas), Student Information System (SIS), and assessment and accreditation systems using standards-based integration methods, with vendors required to specify supported SIS integrations and integration methods available. The system must provide comprehensive reporting and analytics capabilities, including clinical experience tracking logs, rubric data exports, accreditation standards assessment maps, juried assessment comparisons, and placement tracking reports suitable for CAEP and other specialized accreditation body requirements. The vendor must provide system training prior to implementation, post-implementation support during normal business hours Central Time, three higher education references, and a detailed project management methodology. Security and access control requirements include secure SSO login with LDAP/SAML/Active Directory/Shibboleth integration, granular role-based access control, FedRAMP moderate baseline controls for cloud-based solutions, multi-factor authentication, encryption at rest, and audit trails. All data entered into the system remains the sole possession of the University, with the vendor prohibited from using or disclosing University data without written permission, and all data must be stored and processed within the United States.
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Other files
| File | Type | Posted |
|---|---|---|
| USM RFP 27-13 LEGAL AD.pdf | ||
| RFP 27-13 EDUCATOR PREPARATION AND ACCREDITATION SOLUTION.pdf |
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Text version
Sheet1
| ID | Req/Opt | Educator Prep and Accreditation Solution (EPAS) | Details | |
| Functional Requirements | Yes/No | |||
| 1 | R | The solution must provide an integrated platform specifically designed to support educator preparation programs. | ||
| 2 | R | The solution must maintain a centralized candidate record supporting the candidate lifecycle from application/admission through program completion and licensure. | ||
| 3 | R | The solution must support multiple educator preparation programs, certification areas, cohorts, and program requirements. | ||
| 4 | R | The solution must support electronic applications and configurable application review/admission workflows. | ||
| 5 | R | The solution must support configurable candidate progression requirements, milestones, and checkpoints. | ||
| 6 | R | The solution must allow administrators to track candidate completion of program requirements and identify outstanding requirements. | ||
| 7 | R | The solution must support collection and assessment of student learning evidence and artifacts. | ||
| 8 | R | The solution must support configurable assessment rubrics and alignment of rubric criteria to program outcomes and/or professional standards. | ||
| 9 | R | The solution must support assessment of candidate learning and performance across multiple courses, programs, and assessment points. | ||
| 10 | R | The solution must support standards-based assessment and aggregation of assessment results for program improvement and accreditation. | ||
| 11 | R | The solution must provide integrated field experience and clinical placement management. | ||
| 12 | R | The solution must maintain information regarding placement sites, cooperating teachers or mentors, supervisors, and candidate placements. | ||
| 13 | R | The solution must support electronic tracking and approval of field experience hours and activities. | ||
| 14 | R | The solution must support electronic field-based assessments completed by university supervisors, cooperating teachers, mentors, or other authorized evaluators. | ||
| 15 | R | The solution must support secure access for external field-based users without requiring them to be University employees. | ||
| 16 | R | The solution must support tracking of licensure/certification requirements and candidate progress toward completion. | ||
| 17 | R | The solution must identify outstanding licensure and program requirements for individual candidates. | ||
| 18 | R | The solution must provide an integrated electronic portfolio capability for candidates to collect and present evidence of learning and professional development. | ||
| 19 | R | The solution must support alignment of candidate evidence and assessment results to applicable educator preparation standards. | ||
| 20 | R | The solution must provide reporting and analytics across candidate, program, assessment, field experience, placement, and licensure data. | ||
| 21 | R | The solution must support reporting by program, course, term, candidate, assessment, outcome, standard, sub-standard, and other configurable attributes. | ||
| 22 | R | The solution must support longitudinal analysis of candidate assessment results. | ||
| 23 | R | The solution must support analysis of assessment results across demographic and academic populations. | ||
| 24 | R | The solution must provide reports and evidence suitable for educator preparation accreditation and program review. | ||
| 25 | R | The solution must support export of data and reports for institutional analysis and accreditation purposes. | ||
| 26 | R | The solution must integrate with the University's existing Learning Management System (Canvas) using standards-based integration methods. | ||
| 27 | R | The solution must support automated exchange of student and academic data with institutional systems to minimize duplicate data entry. | ||
| 28 | R | The system will have a user-friendly and intuitive interface and provide seamless integration with current systems with the goal of providing faculty, staff, and students an interface that requires a minimum amount of learning a new system | ||
| 29 | O | The system should run juried assessment projects for faster insight on outcomes. | ||
| 30 | R | The system will offer specialized tools for educator preparation, including identifying sites and pulling demographic metrics directly from the NCES databas | ||
| 31 | R | Must allow assessments to be completed online through the system, through the LMS, or through a secure online link | ||
| 32 | R | The proposed solution must demonstrate the ability to support the complete workflow from candidate admission through field experience, assessment, program completion, and licensure within an integrated environment. | ||
| 33 | O | Solution should be accessible through a mobile application | ||
| 34 | R | Solution must be accessible from mobile devices | ||
| 35 | R | The solution must integrate with the University’s existing assessment, accreditation, and institutional-effectiveness systems. The respondent must describe available integrations with each University-identified system, including any additional licensing, configuration, or services required. | ||
| 36 | R | The solution must provide explicit integration with the University’s Student Information System (SIS), including the ability to securely exchange relevant student, enrollment, course, academic, and other required data. Vendors must identify the specific SIS integrations supported, the integration methods available (e.g., API, file transfer, or other mechanisms), and any applicable implementation requirements or limitations | ||
| 37 | R | The solution must provide explicit support for reporting and data requirements associated with CAEP (Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation) and other applicable specialized accreditation bodies | ||
| 38 | R | Describe integration with human-resources systems. | ||
| 39 | R | Describe how administrator accounts are established, updated, and removed. | ||
| 40 | R | Describe how faculty and staff accounts are established, updated, and removed. | ||
| 41 | R | Describe the system’s adaptability to changes in technology and evolving student and employee record systems | ||
| 42 | R | Describe mechanisms that ensure sensitive data can be accessed, altered, or destroyed only by authorized internal administrators and external users | ||
| The system must be able to produce the following reports at a minimum: | ||||
| 43 | R | -Clinical Experience Tracking Logs | ||
| 44 | R | -Assignment Rubric Raw Data Export | ||
| 45 | R | -Accreditation Standards Assessment Map or Crosswalk | ||
| 46 | R | -Juried or Group Assessment Comparisons by rater | ||
| 47 | R | -Student Teaching / Clinical Placement Tracking Reports | ||
| Vendor Requirements | Yes/No | |||
| 48 | R | Vendor must provide system training to key staff members prior to final implementation via web-based virtual training, face-to-face workshops, seminars, online computer-based training, tutorials or any combination of agreed-upon delivery methods | ||
| 49 | O | The vendor should propose and agree to a contract term of four (4) years, inclusive of all software licensing, maintenance, support, and services. Any options for renewal or extension must be clearly defined. | ||
| 50 | R | Vendor must provide post-implementation support and a clear path to obtaining support in accordance with service levels agreed upon during finalization of the contract | ||
| 51 | R | The system must allow for cusomization of fields, data entry screens/panels, custom reports, etc. | ||
| 52 | R | Vendor support must be available during normal business hours central time | ||
| 53 | R | The vendor must include a stated service-availability commitment, including the vendor’s guaranteed or target system uptime percentage, applicable service-level agreement (SLA), planned maintenance provisions, and procedures for addressing service interruptions or outages. Vendors must clearly identify any exclusions or exceptions to the stated availability commitment. | ||
| 54 | R | Vendor must provide 3 higher education references | ||
| Implementation | Yes/No | |||
| 55 | R | The vendor must initiate implementation activities prior to December 1, 2026. | ||
| 56 | R | The vendor must provide implementation troubleshooting and support | ||
| 57 | O | The vendor should achieve a soft-launch by the 2027 summer semester | ||
| 58 | R | The vendor is required to initiate and maintain a detailed project plan which includes University and the solution provider staff. Provide documentation of your project management methodology and processes | ||
| 59 | R | The Vendor must describe its available approach to data migration during implementation, including supported data formats, migration tools or services, validation procedures, University and Vendor responsibilities, known limitations, and any additional costs | ||
| 60 | R | The vendor must provide an implementation schedule covering configuration, integrations, testing, training, go-live, and post-implementation support | ||
| DISASTER RECOVERY REQUIREMENTS | Yes/No | |||
| 61 | R | hosted solution must have in place a system recovery plan, including policies around nightly backups and restoration and recovery of data within 24 hours of an outage or request | ||
| SECURITY AND ACCESS CONTROL REQUIREMENTS | Yes/No | |||
| 62 | R | the solution must allow secure SSO login leveraging LDAP, SAML, Active Directory or Shibboleth security integration and determine level of access via identified fields within LDAP | ||
| 63 | R | the solution must allow for granular Role based control of access to profile data and workflows; including full access, limited access, and view only access; based on user | ||
| 64 | R | the solution must allow the administrator to assign security roles to users | ||
| 65 | R | system must provide logging of user management, administrative activity, and of user activity | ||
| 66 | R | the solution must allow the university admistrator to view user data on system use, (logins, uploads, modifications, etc) | ||
| 67 | R | if the system is doing any authentication, it must not use or provide default credentials | ||
| 68 | R | the cloud service must have implemented FedRAMP moderate baseline controls (though does not need to have Authorization To Operate) | ||
| 69 | R | hosted cloud based solution | ||
| 70 | R | user accounts will be centrally-managed (created, purged, or achieved) as necessary | ||
| 71 | R | ability to segment constituent data to accommodate varying security levels for different users | ||
| 72 | R | support the current State and Federal privacy laws and general data protection (GDPR) policies | ||
| 73 | R | there must be no restrictions on the number of concurrent users in the system | ||
| 74 | R | must encrypt data at rest or implement sufficient alternative physical safeguard measures | ||
| 75 | R | provide an audit trail/logs/tracking for any action in the database including real- time notifications | ||
| 76 | R | support multi-factor authentication | ||
| 77 | R | ability to track and display the history of information stored in the application. | ||
| 78 | R | ability for files to be attached to records but only viewable by those with appropriate permission levels. | ||
| 79 | R | any breach of vendor system must be reported to USM's Technology Security Officer in |
accordance with The MS Data Breach Law and the European Union General Data Protection Regulation within 72 hours of having discovered or being made aware of the breach 80 R USM client access must be browser based and must run on the most recent versions.
• Microsoft Edge
• FireFox
• Safari
• Chrome
| SYSTEM | Yes/No | ||
| 81 | R | the vendor must implement software upgrades and updates to the system with prior notification to the University | |
| 82 | R | system must be secure and meet all local, state and federal data security standards | |
| 83 | R | ability to import and export data on demand with built-in utility for data import/export | |
| 84 | R | The solution must provide a method for all data imports and exports, and must use a secure file transfer such as Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). | |
| 85 | O | Should have the ability to change all field and tab labels to reflect internal terminology/vocabulary | |
| 86 | R | all configuration changes must be protected across all upgrades | |
| 87 | R | Web content must meet ISO/IEC 40500:2012 [Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA] at a minimum. | |
| DATA OWNERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT | Yes/No | ||
| 88 | R | all data entered into the solution is the sole possession of the University. Vendor must agree not to use or disclose USM data without USM's written permission, data cannot be stored or processed outside of the united states | |
| 89 | R | vendor must provide a mechanism for returning all data at the end of the contract. The mechanism |
must provide for automated load into a relational database system & a non-proprietary format
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