B-48882 Illinois Educator Preparation Profile IEPP Technical Expert Question and Answer Addendum 2~1.docx

25-586SBE-FINAN-B-48882

SBE: Illinois Educator Preparation Profile (IEPP) Technical Expert Question and Answer Addendum #2

1. Table B2 Volumes and Quantities includes a set of Stakeholder Advisory Group (SAG) meetings and Technical Advisory Group (TAG) meetings. The Technical Expert RFP includes an explicit role for the Technical Expert in contributing expertise and content to the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) Meetings. Can ISBE clarify the specific role, if any, that the Technical Expert has in both the Stakeholder Advisory Group Meetings (SAG) meetings?

ANSWER: The technical expert will serve mostly in a supporting role for the Stakeholder Advisory groups. The expert will assist with planning meeting topics (along with other Core Planning Team meetings) and will attend each stakeholder advisory group meeting to listen to stakeholder recommendations, provide insight (particularly from a technical standpoint) and contribute to discussions with stakeholders. Some meeting topics will be focused on deliverables required by the technical expert (e.g. the novice teacher, completer, and supervisor surveys), so the technical expert will contribute more heavily to discussions in these meetings and may even lead segments of these meetings.

The technical expert will take on a leadership role during the technical advisory group meetings. The expert will lead most of each meeting, ask questions of stakeholders, and will be responsible for providing visual materials (such as a tool to model scores and weights) during each meeting.

2. Does ISBE have a preferred organization or order for addressing the requirements and desired elements in the “technical response” section of the proposal?

ANSWER: ISBE prefers vendors address the requirements and desired elements in the order in which they appear in proposal. This sequence will allow ISBE to easily locate responses for scoring.

3. Has the previous research, data modeling, or technical evaluation work associated with the IEPP—such as the 2024 Technical Guide—been produced by ISBE staff, internal state partners (e.g., IWERC), or by contracted vendors? Has past/previous research associated with the IEPP been awarded and funded via an RFP to an external vendor?

ANSWER: Prior technical work related to the IEPP (such as creation of the Technical Guide) was produced by a state partner (external vendor) that was funded through a philanthropic organization. ISBE has updated documents, as needed, since their creation.

4. Is this opportunity still active? We are unable to locate it in BidBuy when we are logged into the system.

ANSWER: Yes, the opportunity is still active in Bid Buy under the solicitation number listed above.

5. What is the estimated budget for this scope of work?

ANSWER: ISBE prefers not to disclose the estimated budget as this solicitation invites competitive bids.

6. What is/are the funding sources for this scope of work? Will any federal funds be used to support this work?

ANSWER: This project is not federally funded. Funding is derived from an internal source of revenue collected by ISBE through licensure application and registration fees.

7. Is the completer survey publicly available? If so, please share the link.

ANSWER: The current completer survey is attached.

8. What level of utilization does the agency anticipate for the resource(s) assigned to this project—will they be engaged on a full-time basis for the duration, or, if part-time, approximately how many hours annually are expected?

ANSWER: The technical expert will be utilized on a part-time basis. The number of planned meetings (and their duration) is specified in the proposal. Each bidder will need to estimate the time they will need outside of meetings to complete required deliverables and to plan/prepare for any meetings (e.g. preparing data and visuals for technical advisory group meetings.) Below is information that may be helpful in estimating time to be spent on deliverables specified in Section F.1: Contract Requirements:

Core Planning Team Meetings: The vendor should plan to attend all core team planning meetings (see number and duration in the proposal) and engage in all planning discussions. Minimal to no pre-meeting planning/preparation and post-meeting task completion will be needed by the technical expert since most of these items will be handled by the facilitator, who will be selected through a separate procurement. The technical expert will provide technical expertise, insight, and feedback regarding all topics as a core planning team member. The technical expert should plan to spend time on pre-meeting planning and preparation, as well as post-meeting task completion, when topics relate to novice educator and supervisor surveys, and the technical advisory groups. See the planned sequence of topics for each advisory group meeting in the attached document titled “Planned Sequence of Advisory Group Meeting Topics.” Each topic will be discussed by the Core Planning team prior to the advisory group meeting.

Advisory Group and Technical Advisory Group Meetings: The technical expert will attend each stakeholder advisory group meeting to listen to stakeholder recommendations, provide insight (particularly from a technical standpoint) and contribute to discussions with stakeholders. Minimal to no pre-meeting planning or post-meeting task completion will be required. Some meeting topics will be focused on deliverables required by the technical expert (e.g. the novice educator and supervisor surveys), so the technical expert will contribute more heavily to discussions in these meetings and may even lead segments of these meetings. The technical expert will need to allow time to appropriately plan and prepare for these meetings and complete post-meeting follow up tasks.

The technical expert will take on a leadership role during the technical advisory group meetings. The expert will lead most of each meeting, ask questions of stakeholders, and will be responsible for providing visual materials (such as a tool to model scores and weights) during each meeting. The technical expert should estimate time needed to prepare for each meeting (e.g. create visual materials, compose talking points, create hypothetical score and weight options using ISBE data) and complete any post-meeting tasks.

ISBE Application Analysis (APR, ELIS, IEPP)

· The vendor should estimate spending about 30 hours total reviewing and familiarizing themselves with the ELIS, APR, and IEPP applications from various user vantage points.

· The vendor should estimate spending about 28 hours in focus groups or interviews with APR and ELIS users across all years of the project. (8 hours per user group, except 4 hours for the ISBE user group.)

· The vendor should estimate spending about 28 hours in focus groups or interviews with IEPP users across all years of the project. (8 hours per user group, except 4 hours for the ISBE user group.)

· The vendor should estimate time needed to create survey instruments and focus group/interview questions, and any other time needed to prepare for the focus groups and interviews. Plan for one round of revisions for the survey and focus group questions from ISBE.

· The vendor should to estimate time needed to analyze and code data resulting from the surveys and focus groups.

ISBE Application Analysis Reports and Documents:

· The vendor should estimate the time needed to research, write, and create any documents or reports. When estimating time to be spent on these items, include time to make one round of revisions per ISBE edits. ISBE will review and propose edits to each document or report before it is finalized.

Completer, Novice Teacher, and Supervisor Surveys:

· The vendor should estimate spending up to 6 hours in focus groups with EPPs to evaluate usability, understanding, and usefulness of the completer survey.

· The vendor should estimate time needed to research best practices, compile and review advisory group meeting notes, create survey instruments and focus group questions, and analyze survey and focus group data. Plan for one round of revisions for the survey and focus group questions from ISBE.

· The vendor should estimate the time needed to write each survey. Plan for three rounds of revisions for each survey (two from advisory groups; one from ISBE.) As a reminder, there are five surveys (Completer, Novice Teacher, Novice Administrator, Novice School Support Personnel, and Supervisor.)

· The vendor should estimate spending about 40 hours in focus groups with completers, novice teachers, novice School Support Personnel, novice administrators, and supervisors to evaluate usability and understanding to the surveys (8 hours per group). Two rounds of focus groups will be conducted with each user across the duration of the project.

· The vendor should estimate time needed to create survey instruments and focus group questions, and analyze survey and focus group data. Plan for one round of revisions for the survey and focus group questions from ISBE.

· The vendor should estimate time needed to analyze field-tested survey results.

Pilot Analysis

· The vendor should estimate spending 8 hours in focus groups with EPP for the principal preparation data pilot (across two years.)

· The vendor should estimate spending up to 12 hours in focus groups with EPPs for teaching, school support personnel, and administrative programs ( 4 hours for each group across two years.)

· The vendor should estimate time needed to create survey instruments and focus group/interview questions, and any other time needed to prepare for the focus groups and interviews. Plan for one round of revisions for the survey and focus group questions from ISBE.

· The vendor should estimate time needed to analyze and code data resulting from the surveys and focus groups.

Other Documents and Reports:

· The vendor should estimate how much time will be needed to create each report and document, including any necessary research and proofreading. Note that ISBE has a graphic design team that will format and add branding to any external-facing documents and reports. Plan for two rounds of revisions from ISBE staff before finalizing each document and report in this subsection (excluding progress reports—ISBE will not edit these documents.) For all other documents in this subsection, ISBE will review and propose edits to each document or report before it is finalized.

9. For the Facilitator vendor, there are 3 key roles identified (i.e., one consultant with experience providing meeting planning etc., one consultant with successful project management experience, and one consultant to serve as a thought partner). Can one person serve in more than one of these roles, or is the expectation to have three different people in each role?

ANSWER: The vendor must propose one lead consultant who should meet criteria specified in Section F.3: Desirable Elements. Supporting team members may support the consultant with research, writing, and other tasks as specified in Subsection F.3.31. The lead consultant will be the individual that ISBE expects to attend and lead all meetings (including serving as a thought partner to ISBE during Core Planning Team Meetings.)

10. Can the same firm bid on both the Facilitator and Technical Expert roles or does ISBE prefer having two different vendors in these roles?

ANSWER: Yes, the same firm can bid on both roles.

11. Does ISBE have a budget range planned for the Facilitator vendor role or the Technical Expert vendor?

ANSWER: ISBE prefers not to disclose a budget range as this solicitation invites competitive bids.