Request for Proposal RFP M.S.D. OF WARREN TOWNSHIP Version: 1.0 Date: 10/5/2015 RFP number: 2015-0001 EDUCATION & COMMUNITY CENTER Page 1
Contents Confidentiality... 3 Introduction and purpose of the RFP... 3 Scope... 3 Abbreviation and terminology... 3 RFP procedure... 4 How to deliver the response... 4 Contacts... 4 Timeframe... 4 Background description... 5 M.S.D. Of Warren Township... 5 Statement of need... 5 Submission Requirements... 5 EDUCATION & COMMUNITY CENTER Page 2
Confidentiality All information included in this RFP is confidential and only for the recipient knowledge. No information included in this document or in discussions connected to it may be disclosed to any other party. Introduction and purpose of the RFP Issued by MSD of Warren Township (Township), this Request for Proposals (RFP) focuses on implementing and supporting a Township-wide data warehouse and reporting system (System). It must function as the central reporting vehicle for the Township; one place where information can be gathered. The Township does not currently have a data warehouse solution. The primary deliverables of this RFP are: A Township-wide data warehouse Integration of existing data systems into the Township data warehouse An interface to the data warehouse that provides simultaneous search and retrieval of a wide range of heterogeneous information resources Services to users that are web-accessible Services to users that are customized/customizable Services regarding management/implementation The System will act as a source of information to track and relate, among other items, trends in student achievement, as measured by assessments and test scores, attendance, student demographics, teacher demographics, and financial records. The system should enable users without a statistical background to run predesigned queries, perform both simple and complex data analysis, and to produce reports to inform decisionmaking at the Township, school, classroom, and individual student level. A Township selection committee will evaluate all proposals and invite selected vendors to the Township for demonstrations. Please see evaluation process for more details. Scope Specific information is requested according to the form below. Abbreviation and terminology Township - M.S.D. of Warren Township RFP Request for Proposal System - Data Warehouse and Reporting System EDUCATION & COMMUNITY CENTER Page 3
RFP procedure The Future Begins Here To answer this RFP please adhere to the following directions. Contact person listed below is available for assistance in case that is needed. The answers to this RFP will be evaluated by staff from different functions in M.S.D. of Warren Township. How to deliver the response Vendors shall submit 6 copies of each proposal following the general requirements: Each copy shall be bound with the Vendor s name and address and marked MSD of Warren Township Proposal for Data Warehouse on the outside front cover. Each page in the binder must be numbered consecutively in Arabic numbers from the beginning of the proposal (Introduction Letter) to the end, and a tab sheet with a title keyed to the Table of Contents must separate each major section. Additionally, there should be two separate pages with the following information: The vendor profile: the name, title, address, telephone number and email address(es) of the contact person(s) responsible for clarifying proposal content and for approving any agreement with HSD. The product profile: product name, description, current release level, date current release level was available, projected date for the next release, current products install base, industry verticals of installation, number of installations, breakdown of installations/users. Responses to all requirements on the following pages should be addressed by section: General Requirements, Implementation, Training and Support, Security, Technical Requirements, Functional Requirements, References and Proposed Cost. Please explain any topic as a yes/no with a descriptive answer as needed. Page format should be on 8 ½ x11 portrait with the following additional criteria: Text shall be double-spaced Font shall be a minimum of 10 point Graphics test spacing should not be smaller than 8 point Contacts For questions regarding this RFP, you are welcome to contact: Kent A. Schroder Chief Technology Officer 317-869-4323 kschrode@warren.k12.in.us Timeframe ACTIVITY: DATE: Issue of RFP October 5, 2015 Deadline to Submit Written Questions October 16, 2015 Response to Written Questions October 23, 2015 Submission of Proposals October 30, 2015 EDUCATION & COMMUNITY CENTER Page 4
Background description M.S.D. Of Warren Township M.S.D. Of Warren Township (Township) is a public education school Township located on the East side of Indianapolis, IN. The Township is comprised of approximately 700 teachers and 12,000 students served in nine (9) Elementary Schools (K-4); three (3) Intermediate Academies (Grades 5-6); three (3) Middle Schools (Grades 7-8); Warren Central High School; Walker Career Center; Renaissance Alternative Program; and our Early Childhood Center. Township -wide poverty rate is 71 percent. Statement of need Earlier inquiry concluded that the Township would be best served to develop and implement a Township-wide information management system that would be able to store and report its wide variety of data. The current set of tools is loosely-coupled and has limited ability to meet the needs of Township staff. At present staff are unable to utilize the great variety of existing data as it is difficult to access quickly (data currently sit in different and sometimes isolated pockets within the Township) and efficiently. Additionally, departments are being overwhelmed with requests from external partners and granting agencies requesting data regarding their programs. Submission Requirements It is expected that the solution that is chosen based on this RFP should be able to access, manage and display data from the Township s current main information systems, as well as from any future systems that might be chosen. A sample of current systems follows. System Function Student Information System Business Information Title Publisher Major Functions Tyler SIS Alio Tyler Technologies Weidenhammer Student demographics, attendance, grades, schedules, discipline, health and immunization, special education status, ELL, grade book, etc. Finance, payroll, purchasing, fixed assets, etc. Human Resource Alio Weidenhammer Personnel demographics, degrees, experience, attendance, certifications, etc. Teacher Assessment System Pivot Five Star Technologies Creation of teahcer assessments; administration of assessments; scoring of assessments and reporting of results Digital Curriculum Apex Learning Apex Learning Blended and online learning environments for subjects including ELA, Science, Math, Social Studies, Health, and PE. Digital Curriculum IXL IXL Learning Math and reading intervention EDUCATION & COMMUNITY CENTER Page 5
Assessment System/ Intervention Tool Intervention/ Curriculum Text Files The Future Begins Here Scholastic Scholastic Inc. curriculum. Assessments to gauge student progress in reading and math and provide intervention tools for both. Lexia Rosetta Stone Ltd. Reading intervention for PK-4. Standardized Tests Indiana Department of Education Transportation VersaTrans Tyler Technologies Standardized assessment results from the State of Indiana. Student address information and bus scheduling for Transportation Department. 1. General Requirements 1.1. The software should be a browser-based user interface (Chrome, Safari, and Internet Explorer) not requiring local client installation. 1.2. The software should be accessible on a PC, Mac and Chromebook and on Windows, Android and ipad tablets. 1.3. The software should be currently fully deployed and installed in other Townships of at least the same size for 3 or more years. 1.4. The software should provide high-level data manipulation and analysis tools for Township -level departments, while at the same time providing easy to use, flexible, functional tools for the end-user (classroom teacher or parent). 1.5. The software should be compatible with Windows 2012 Servers and SQL Server 2012. 1.6. The software should be hosted at the Township, however the Township will consider a hosted option if it determines that this is in its best interests. 1.7. The software should contain flexible, powerful, and intuitive reporting tools. 2. Implementation, Training and Support 2.1. There should be a dedicated account manager or other similar dedicated support personnel assigned, who has experience working with Townships of similar size, to oversee the system rollout, training, and implementation 2.2. There should be weekly meetings throughout the implementation to ensure any issues are addressed in a timely manner. 2.3. A thorough implementation plan should be developed to help ensure technical success and, more importantly, user adoption. 2.4. There should be provided, a sample implementation plan and management component which is designed to move staff through the process of initial installation to full-scale usage. 2.5. The system should include both a comprehensive online help component that is web-based for both tech staff and the end users, and a toll-free support telephone number for in-person support that recognizes the fact that the Township is in the Eastern Time zone. School hours are 7:00-3:30. 2.6. There should be thorough training documents for each group of users. 2.7. The plan should provide for regular reports of the ongoing evaluation of the success of the program implementation, and any modifications and adjustments as needed. 3. Security 3.1. Websites should be encrypted using Secure Socket Layer (SSL). 3.2. The software should be integrated with Active Directory (AD) and/or LDAP compliant. EDUCATION & COMMUNITY CENTER Page 6
3.3. User account should be accessed through AD and preferably support single sign on. 3.4. User account creation should be automatic through AD. 3.5. External accounts (parents) should be created through an upload process including one-time password generation. Parent passwords should be changed after first sign on. 3.6. Township customizable user roles and permissions allowing varying access to the data. 3.7. Users should be granted access by role and on an individual basis. 3.8. User roles and entitlements must be designed for the whole system. 3.9. User roles can include: 3.9.1. Teacher view only for students in classroom (current and previous school years) 3.9.2. School-level administrators should be able to view detailed information about students and teachers in their school, but only see aggregated information across the Township. 3.9.3. Township-level administrators should be able to view detailed and aggregated information across the Township. 3.9.4. Parents should be able to login and only view information about their particular student(s). 4. Technical Requirements 4.1. System should be capable of importing and extracting data from any internal or external Township systems in use currently or in the future. Preferably, the system will have automatic connections to many, it not all, Township systems. 4.2. Import a minimum of 3 years of data as a starting point. 4.3. Includes predefined extraction, transformation, loading tools and processes. The Township does not wish to create, modify or edit our own extraction tools/processes. 4.4. Provides the ability to update, delete, and reload existing records. The solution should automatically upload the data into the solution, in most cases without Township involvement. 4.5. Provides the ability to automatically update pre-defined and pre-calculated fields and processes in order to provide the optimum speed and responsiveness. 4.6. Provides the ability to generate custom reports and screens. 4.7. Reports/screens should use consistent color scheme to define levels of achievement regardless of the instrument, for example: red = below basic, yellow = basic, green = proficient, blue = advanced; or red = novice, yellow = partially proficient, green = proficient, etc. 4.8. Reports/screens should be able to be sorted on any field. 4.9. Reports should be able to be easily printed and understood in both black and white and color. 4.10. The system should include customized graphing capabilities. 4.11. The system should be able to store multiple years of master schedules and demographic data. 4.12. The system should be able to archive data to accommodate the mobility of students. 4.13. Provides the ability to export data sets from standard reports or custom queries for further statistical analysis in a commercial off-the-shelf package such as SPSS or Microsoft Excel 4.14. Should contain a powerful, yet intuitive set of administrative and reporting tools that is appropriate to both the kind of information that is being accessed and the user that is accessing the information. 4.15. Should provide the ability for Township staff to be able to customize reports included with the system and to create new reports to meet Township needs. 4.16. Should contain an intuitive and flexible interface so that staff may access data quickly and efficiently in order to make decisions that will improve students achievement. 4.17. Should provide data dashboards, which are drillable through the data and customizable by the Township and the user, which present a quick view of critical data elements using charts, graphs, and/or text information as appropriate. 4.18. Should provide the ability for the Township to develop dashboard portlets and reports which may be pushed out to users by role. EDUCATION & COMMUNITY CENTER Page 7
4.19. Should provide the Township with the ability to publish saved report queries with disaggregation options (i.e. filters) based on a user s level of access. 4.20. Should provide a mechanism for reports to be published to Township website on as needed basis. 5. Functional Requirements - The system should be able to provide teachers, administrators, and parents with at least the following information: 5.1. Student assessment and achievement data on a variety of instruments over a period of time. 5.2. Allow Township users to drill down on reports from the Township level to the school and then to the classroom and finally to the individual student. 5.3. Disaggregation of State, Township and classroom data by such Township-defined filters and demographic factors, as: gender, ethnicity, home language, special programs, free and reduced lunch, etc. 5.4. Ability to include Township formative/benchmark data along with Summative data by student, class, grade level, school, Township. 5.5. Such membership data as attendance and tardies. 5.6. Student demographic data in a user-friendly interface should include, but not limited to demographic data available in Tyler SIS. 5.7. The system should allow for multiple filters to be used in a query (i.e. Hispanic, Special Ed, females in Title I, etc.). 5.8. Filters should be both inclusive and exclusive (all students in Title I or EXCEPT Title I). 5.9. Class lists that include teacher-selected assessment data for each student. The data may be from current year or previous years and should include all Township and State assessment instruments. 5.10. Individual student assessment history for multiple instruments over multiple years. 5.11. Classroom profiles for Township assessments and state and nationally-normed assessments over multiple years. 5.12. Administrators should be able to easily compare classroom profiles in the aggregate or disaggregated format as defined by the filters above. 5.13. Ability to review assessment results through flexible multi-year cohort analysis. 5.14. Ability for Township staff to create and save cohort groups, and to use these groups in further analyses. 5.15. Ability to compare school performance to other comparable schools. 5.16. Ability to include special education information, where applicable, in reporting matrices. 5.17. Ability to consider discipline data including infractions and resolutions. 5.18. Ability to manipulate data to include additional assessments or demographic attributes. 5.19. Ability for the Township to define cut-points for various assessments and be able to report on these pre-defined levels, i.e. proficient, advanced, etc. 5.20. Ability to compare student assessment data to relevant teacher demographic information, such as years of experience, degree, Highly Qualified designation, absenteeism, salary, etc., for the purposes of identifying. 6. References 6.1. Three (3) Reference customers (including contact information) using the product in production for more than 2 years comparable to M.S.D of Warren Township (description may be attached). 7. Cost Proposal 7.1. Township will consider both the cost of implementation and maintenance and support costs for five (5) years following implementation. EDUCATION & COMMUNITY CENTER Page 8