Chancellor s Office California Community Colleges Digital Innovations and Infrastructure Division Request for Applications Data Services Program (DSP) Grant RFA Specification No. 18-082 2018-2019 Funding Fiscal Year 2018-2019 Program Years Instructions, Terms and Conditions Application Deadline: Applications must be received at the Chancellor s Office by 5:00 p.m. on June 29, 2018
Section I RFA Specification Table of Contents Background...4 Need...4 Scope of Work...5 Need... 12 Procedures and Activities... 14 Purposes/Uses of the Fund... 15 Transition Plan... 15 Reporting Requirements - Year-to-Date Expenditures and Progress Report... 15 Evaluation/Performance Outcomes... 15 Legal Terms and Conditions... 16 Information... 16 Section II RFA Instructions and Evaluation Criteria A. Intent... 17 B. Funding... 17 C. Eligibility... 18 D. Resource/Reference Materials... 18 E. RFA Clarification... 18 F. Bidder s Conference... 18 G. Application Format and Instructions... 19 H. Rejection of Application... 26 I. Selection of Grant Readers... 26 J. Scoring Criteria... 27 K. Notification of Intent to Award Grants... 29 L. Grant Protest Procedures... 29 M. Calendar of Key/Reporting Dates... 29 Reference Materials... 31 Terms and Conditions... 31 Appendix A Article I: Program-Specific Legal Terms and Conditions Article II: Standard Legal Terms and Conditions Appendix B Application Forms (Excel Workbook) Appendix C List of Additional Resources Appendix D Standards, Evaluation Criteria and Best Practices Appendix E Educational Technology Operating Norms Page 2
Section I Chancellor s Office California Community Colleges Request for Applications Specification No. 18-082 The grant awarded through this Request for Applications (RFA) Specification is for the initial year of a continuing project, the Data Services Program. The grantee(s) shall provide evidence of progress before seeking additional funding in succeeding years. Continued funding is contingent upon the approved completion of the prior year s objectives and the submittal and approval of a renewal application. RFA Specification RFA Specification Number: 18-082 Program Division: Funding Source: RFA Title: Funding Category: Digital Innovations and Infrastructure (DII) Authority Item 6870-101-0001, Sched.(15), Integrated Technology (5675098) Data Services Program (DSP) Integrated Technology Program Funding Period: September 18, 2018 June 30, 2019 Grant Timeframe September 18, 2018 June 30, 2019 (Possible renewals up to 4 years for a total of 60 months) Maximum Funds Available: Not to exceed $5,050,000 annually. Match Requirement: 10% for Cal-PASS portion of the activities only. Number of Awards: One to Multiple RFA Release Date April 18, 2018 Application Deadline Questions Deadline Bidder s Conference Applications must be received electronically (PDF format) at the Chancellor s office via email to DII_RFA@cccco.edu by 5:00 pm on June 29, 2018 Written questions concerning the specification in this Request for Application must be submitted by May 17, 2018, via e-mail to DII_RFA@cccco.edu May 3, 2018 @ 1:00 pm https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/653142900 Page 3
Background To ensure a strong economic future for California, the Chancellor s Office s Digital Innovations and Infrastructure (DII) Division maintains a cohesive set of data sources that are integrated, current, and can be used for historical reporting purposes in dashboards (such as the LaunchBoard and DataMart). The Chancellor s Office has undergone a significant transformation in the past five years to better respond to its mission. This restructuring has included a significant Workforce and Economic Division turnaround, from an afterthought to a policy priority, growing from $100 million to $900 million in funding over the past six years under Doing What MATTERS for Jobs and Economy (a.k.a., DWM). The transformation has also included a significant Guided Pathways Initiative to provide defined educational pathways for students; the simplification and integration of various categorical funding plans (to include the Basic Skills Initiative, the Student Equity plan, and the Student Success and Support Plan) into the Integrated Plan; and the Institutional Effectiveness and Planning Initiative to support the colleges in improving their operational practices. This transformational effort continues with the Metrics Simplification Initiative and the Performance Funding Initiative. Applicants should familiarize themselves with background on Cal-PASS PLUS, CCC Datamart, LaunchBoard, California Colleges Guidance Initiative (CCGI), Multiple Measures Initiative, CCC Tech Center Data Warehouse project, and other data related projects of the CCC. Need In the face of these transformational efforts, the need for more robust data and metrics to support decisionmakers has increased dramatically. In addition, the need for connecting the data created from various student support applications such as CCCApply and career and major planning tools has become increasingly more critical in providing customized experiences for our students in the form of timely information, nudges, nods, and support alerts. Furthermore, in 2017, the system adopted Vision for Success under Chancellor Oakley and set aspirational quantitative goals for the California Community Colleges. Accurate and timely availability of data aggregation, analysis, presentation and dissemination are needed to support Vision for Success. Objectives The objectives of this grant are as follows: Establish and build CCC Data data-lake in a Cloud Service. Successfully collaborate and partner with CCC data owners and partners, and aggregate all data into the CCC Data data-lake. Ensure continuous, accurate, and timely data to CCC data research, analytics, and personalization services so they can identify, define, measure, and provide details into student access, equity, and completion gaps and barriers. Build and support industry-current data reporting, presentation, dashboarding, and real-time data access infrastructure. Ensure that all data are secured according to the Chancellor s Office s cyber-security standards and policies. Maintain all related Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) documents and agreements to Page 4
support data projects. Ensure successful collaboration across various RFA services teams. Data Integration Strategy The historical data storage practices have created data silos that are not designed to promote integration and data-mining across the silos. The Chancellor s Office is planning to create an intelligently designed data repository for storing all of the available data sources to enable the aforementioned goals. This data repository should be designed and implemented in such a way as to allow for historical data analysis and presentations through LaunchBoard and other data presentation services. It should also be designed and implemented to allow for real-time analytics to support real-time applications to serve students, colleges, and other stakeholders of CCC. Scope of Work The Chancellor s Office is seeking a grantee(s) with deep experience in big data strategy formulation, data aggregation, modeling and visualization, integration, architecture design, analysis, dashboard design, real-time analytics, master data management, data governance, and cyber security to help in building such a data infrastructure as depicted in the chart below and the following table: Page 5
1 2 3 4 5 6 Activity Collaborate with the CCCCO VCs, and other system-wide Edtech grantees/subgrantees, to define and document the CCCCO big data strategy, data architecture, integration architecture, the data migration strategy and plan and the integration service management plan In accordance with CCCCO IT strategy, architecture standards, and CCCCO DII approval, establish one or more cloud-based data repositories (cccdata) In collaboration with Ed Results Partnership, migrate Cal-PASS+ data to cccdata (see section xx in this document for specific requirements on data related to Cal- PASS) In collaboration with California Colleges Guidance Initiative (CCGI), migrate appropriate CCGI data to cccdata In collaboration with the CCC Technology Center, migrate all operational and historical data, including cccapply, Canvas, listserves, and user databases to cccdata In collaboration with CCCCO MIS Team, prepare a functional migration schedule and migrate all appropriate Management Information System (MIS) data to cccdata accordingly Phase Year 1 Year 1 Year 1 Year 1 Year 2 Year 2 7 In collaboration with the CCCCO MIS Team, document in detail the existing ( As-Is Enterprise Model ) MIS database enterprise to include but not limited to existing data acquisition, submission, maintenance, and distribution processes (both system and organizational processes), system architecture and design to include any system dependencies such as external interfaces (uni or bi-directional) data security, logical data model, data dictionary, organizational support model, and impacted stakeholders that submit and/or rely on receipt of the data. Year 1 8 Post completion of the MIS As-is Enterprise Model, develop and execute a knowledge transfer plan to allow the CCCCO MIS to assume operational responsibility, including the ability to add or remove new data sources, integrations, master data objects and ongoing maintenance and troubleshooting. Year 2 and 9 10 11 When California Department of Education, CSU, and UC intersegmental data transfer are approved, collaborate with each agency to acquire and store student data in cccdata When requested, migrate all curriculum-related data for applications such as COCI, program planners (such as EduNav, Starfish, DegreeWorks, etc.) and C-ID to cccdata As other data sources become available to CCCCO, migrate or copy data to cccdata. Year 1 (Pending data availability) Year 2 Page 6
12 13 14 Industry best-practices should be exercised in all data migration activities mentioned in this document including, well-designed stand-up of data storage services, build out of data schema, mapping of data, designing ETL-MDM-QA, building of migration test script and QA scripts, executing migration test to ensure zero-risk in data migration, migration of data, enabling operational ETL, administering integration services, etc. Update all data on recurring basis as new data become available from existing sources such as K-12, CDE, CCGI, and all data sources already mentioned in this document and any future data sources that may contribute to CCC s Big Data buildout strategy. In addition, the grantee will work with external partners to ensure that the data stored in the data lake is refreshed as frequently as possible/feasible to ensure currency of data. Grantee shall also continue the effort to expand the data that is currently available to the CCC including data from partner institutions such as K-12, CSU, and UC. Build appropriate and timely integration and transfer schedule with all data provider and consumers of CCCCO including all colleges that connected via GLUE integration platform and implement according to schedule. 15 Develop, design and implement a CCCCO approved Master Data Management Plan to integrate and normalize the data to provide the most efficient data infrastructure for reporting, analysis, presentation, and real-time transactional data access for various CCC sponsored existing and future applications. Grantee to provide CCCCO a Deliverable Expectation Document (DED) for the MDM design, implementation and management plan prior to implementation. Year 1 and 2 16 17 Adhere to and enforce adherence to the Master Data Management Plan and update on an annual basis as needed with the approval of the Data Governance Board when substantive changes are included. Establish a database of policies and processes for Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) for acquiring new data and for maintaining existing data-related MOUs. Year 1 and Maintain 18 Actively participate as a member of the CCCCO Data Governance Advisory group. 19 20 21 22 23 Maintain partnership with CCCCO Legal Counsel to ensure CCCCO ownership and acceptance of all data related MOUs. Maintain existing Launchboard infrastructure to support existing and new implementation efforts and evaluate off-the-shelf presentation and reporting engines and propose plan for migration to new platform. Acquire and implement accordingly. Constantly strive to build partnerships with presentation and application layer partners and teams to bring the highest value of visibility and access to CCC stakeholders, partners, and students. Provide accessibility and functionality of data to enable new usage of the data such as Multiple Measures and Placement initiative as prompted by Assembly Bill 705. Establish data backup and recovery policies to maintain 24x7x365 uninterrupted access to data with data integrity and currency. Year 2 Year 1 and Page 7
24 25 26 Test data back-up and recovery on a regularly scheduled basis to confirm integrity and viability of backup data and related policies and practices. Maintain flexibility to respond successfully to changing needs and demands of the Chancellor s Office, legislation, colleges, industry/employers, technology innovations, etc. Key talent within grantee/subgrantee organizations may be asked to participate in cross-project and system-wide architecture and planning workshops, and in doing so, will be expected to collaborate neutrally without lobbying for current or future scopes of work 27 The following grantee-funded key talent must physically work at the Chancellor s Office approximately three days a week (preferably Tuesday-Thursday): Data management/governance resource and Data Architect, In accordance with CCCCO Accessibility Standards (Appendix E), design product accessibility per current requirements of the revised US Section 508 Standards and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, Level AA (WCAG 2.0, AA) 28 29 30 31 32 Key talents described above must meet CCCCO talent qualifications and be approved the CCCCO prior to employment. In collaboration with the CCCCO Data Management Lead, establish data management (governance) policies and practices for in-scope data sets. In accordance with CCCCO Project Management Office standards (Appendix E) effectively plan, manage and report project scope, schedule, budget, resource and risks. In accordance with CCCCO Information Security standards ( Appendix E), implement and maintain security policies and procedures to ensure the overall security of cccdata Adopt, implement and adhere to all CCCCO educational technology operating norms and standards as defined by the CCCCO and as written in Appendix E 33 Subgrant with the Foundation for California Community Colleges to plan, develop and deliver systemwide and statewide communications and marketing campaigns, including the annual legislative report, aligned with the Chancellors Office communications policy and brand standards. The bidder is to set aside 5% of the total budget for research and outreach strategy. The research results will guide the outreach strategy and any unused funds will be returned to the core project fund. A full Scope of Work will be created after the contract is awarded. Operational and Steering Model The contract will provide the Chancellor s Office with operational support of the needed services. Additionally, this contract will provide the Chancellor s Office with advice and recommendations regarding all activities related to data including practice improvements, architecture enhancements, security and data sharing practices and policies, and application integration practices. The resources employed through this contract are extended resources of the Chancellor s Office and must comply with all such policies and practices. Any and all Page 8
recommendations, enhancements, and practices must be reviewed by the Chancellor s Office Data Steering Workgroup and approved before implementation. Cal-PASS Scope of Work (Additional Cal-PASS-specific Instructions and requirements) Background Cal-PASS is an initiative that collects, analyzes and shares student data in order to track performance and improve success from elementary school through university. The California Partnership for Achievement of Student Success (Cal-PASS) had its beginning in the Fall of 1996 when San Diego State University (SDSU) convened a meeting of the region s high schools and community colleges to discuss their concerns regarding impaction, a situation requiring that limits be placed on enrollments. The discussion moved from impaction to the need for data sharing among various educational institutions in the San Diego region. At the time, colleges in both San Diego and Imperial Counties lacked shared student information. A year later, the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District (GCCCD) invited SDSU instructional deans to a get-acquainted session in which a presentation on Grossmont College student outcomes was made. Subsequent discussions revealed a strong interest by both SDSU and GCCCD in piloting a data sharing agreement. The pilot program was completed in 1998 and over the next several years Cal-PASS efforts focused on expanding in the San Diego/Imperial County region. In 2002, the California Community Colleges Board of Governors approved a three-year $1.5 million expansion grant to implement Cal-PASS statewide. Cal-PASS set new goals to expand into Los Angeles/Orange County/Riverside, the San Francisco Bay Area, Central Valley, and Northern California regions. Partnership numbers increased to approximately 13 universities, both public and private, 46 community colleges and over 380 K-12 institutions. In 2006-2007, at the conclusion of the three-year expansion grant, a Request for Application (RFA) was published for the Cal-PASS project grant. The five-year Cal-PASS grant was awarded to the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District. Today, Cal-PASS member institutions include some private universities, all 10 University of California campuses, 18 of the 23 California State University campuses, all 112 California Community Colleges and 8,573 K-12 s in 52 counties. Cal-PASS database maintains 440 million student records across the segments and membership continues to bring together primary, secondary and post-secondary segments through regional educational data sharing partnerships, regional consortia and professional learning councils. Ultimately, Cal-PASS seeks to align curriculum and improve instruction by enabling faculty from the different educational segments to work together utilizing data rather than relying on anecdotal experience. Current Cal-PASS Services/Products Include: Data Sharing Partnership Management Student Data Collection and Storage Data Reporting, Research and Communication Regional Consortia Coordination Professional Learning Councils Oversight Cal-PASS Promotional and Networking Activities Data Sharing Partnership Management Page 9
Partnership recruitment The goal is to develop partnerships with every K-16 public and private institutions statewide, expanding Cal-PASS participation throughout all 58 California counties. Ensure compliance to the Memorandum of Understandings (MOU s) in place with partnership institutions. Membership is free and educational institutions join Cal-PASS voluntarily and agree to participate in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Participating educational institutions seek to evaluate and improve their respective educational programs through the analysis of academic performance data concerning students who have or who are now attending a consortium member institution. It is necessary, therefore, for the educational institutions to share student data on a reciprocal basis so that they may evaluate and analyze their respective educational programs. Participating institutions agree to provide data at least annually and new participants are encouraged to provide five years of historical data upon initial upload to support research needs. Upon committing to the project, Cal- PASS requests district administration designate an Information Technology contact responsible for generating and submitting student data files and a Program contact responsible for coordinating the Cal-PASS process at the institution. Student Data Collection and Storage Data standards and data elements (required and regionally selected) Coordinate periodic reviews and updates of data elements Data integrity validations Data security and FERPA compliance Collection of partnership data submissions Manage data storage Access procedures and restrictions Hardware and software selection and maintenance Data recovery Data collection and reporting processes and responsibilities vary by educational segment. Currently, K-12 institutions gather and submit Cal-PASS data individually and will continue to do so until the CALPADS system becomes available. CALPADS is a central data warehouse of K-12 student data managed by the California Department of Education. The actual implementation date is currently unknown. In order to minimize the workload for K-12 districts, Cal-PASS aligned with the California School Information Services (CSIS) data elements and partnered with the major vendors of K-12 Student Information System software. While Cal-PASS data elements are only a fraction of the data elements defined by CSIS, alignment with CSIS allows districts to generate a data set for Cal-PASS with minimal data manipulations. Partnering with the software vendors provides Cal-PASS data extracts built directly into the software. The California Community College data is collected and submitted by the Management Information System unit of the California Community Colleges Chancellor s Office for all participating community colleges. Cal-PASS data elements are standardized; however consortium partners may have the opportunity to define additional elements that help to serve the unique needs of their region. Cal-PASS data elements focus primarily on student transcript information, such as demographics, course enrollment, attendance, test and grade information and awarded diplomas, degrees and certificates. Participating K-12 Districts or High Scholl Districts populate and submit six files: 1) Student File, 2) Course Enrollment File, 3) Award File,4) STAR File, 5) CAHSEE files and 6) transmittal file. Page 10
Participating K-8 districts submit four files: 1) Student File, 2) Course Enrollment File, 3) STAR file and 4) transmittal File. Participating Universities submit four files: 1) Student File, 2) Course Enrollment File, 3) Award File and 4) Transmittal File. Student File contains demographic and transition information. Course Enrollment File contains information related to courses and student performance. Award File contains any achievement(s) earned by the students. STAR and CAHSEE files- contain information related to the STAR and CAHSEE tests. Transmittal File contains record counts for validation. Additional information about data elements and reporting domains can be found on the Cal-PASS website: http://www.calpass.org. To ensure confidentiality and consistency with Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) guidelines, student identifiers such as social security numbers, names or birth dates are encrypted so that no individual student can be identified in the database. For schools that do not collect a SSN, another unique identifier is used. Cal-PASS focuses on tracking large numbers of students as they transition from one educational level to another over time. Cal-PASS does not track the performance of an individual student. Data Reporting, Research and Communication Requirements Maintain the Cal-PASS website: http://www.calpass.org Develop and provide standard and customized reports/tools related to analyzing student performance, including SMART tool. Examples include: demographics, high school transition, performance, inter-segmental and transfer studies. Solicit new reporting opportunities (template creation) and include in report portfolio. Conduct user training related to usage of reporting tools. Access to data is restricted to personnel working directly on the project. Participants have access to student data 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through a web-based query tool that produces standardized reports and web-application enabled downloads of consortium partner(s) authorized data. In addition, Cal-PASS provides technical assistance for data submission and query requests. Regional Consortia Coordination Management and coordination responsibilities with the Cal-PASS Partnership Consortia regions. Support collection and exchange of data, including regionally specific data elements Upon joining Cal-PASS, members participate in an advisory group or Regional Consortia. Members of each regional consortium enter into data sharing agreement(s) with one another (members designate which participants may have access to their data) and decide if additional data elements would benefit their region and students. The Cal-PASS data warehouse contains a set of mandatory data elements as well as optional data elements defined by the various regional consortiums. Data sharing agreements may be established between institutions from different regions as long as both parties agree. Membership is divided by regions: Shasta/Siskiyou, North Bay, Greater Sacramento, Central Valley, Santa Clara, Butte/Glenn, Monterey/San Benito/Santa Cruz, San Bernardino, Los Angeles/Long Beach, Orange County, San Diego/Imperial, East Bay, San Francisco, San Mateo, San Luis Obispo/Santa Barbara/Ventura, North Coast, Riverside, and Eastern Sierra. Professional Learning Council Oversight Page 11
Oversight of the established curriculum councils, currently English, Mathematics, Careers, Counseling, English as a Second Language and Science Identification of opportunities (and solutions) within each curriculum Creation of plan to promote or implement opportunities and/or solutions at regional and ultimately a statewide level. The data sharing partnerships and regional consortia enable and support the work of the Cal-PASS Professional Learning Councils. Professional Learning Councils are regional consisting of teams of discipline-based faculty from elementary, middle school, high school, community college and university segments. The Professional Learning Councils were formed to collaborate and discuss curriculum, exemplar teaching practices, instructional materials, and performance measures which are shared and reviewed in light of transition data. The Professional Learning Councils seek to identify and implement innovations in teaching (particularly curricular alignment) that improve student success. Currently, ongoing Professional Learning Councils meet in various locations in San Diego, San Bernardino, Sacramento, Placer-Nevada and Riverside Counties. The Cal-PASS program was implemented to benefit students, faculty and institutions. Expressly, students are better prepared and more likely to succeed in the next phase of their education. Faculty are empowered to track their students progression and align curriculum as needed. Institutions benefit by having more prepared students who achieve greater outcomes. Since its beginning in 1996, Cal- PASS successfully collected and shared student performance data as a student progresses from one educational level to the next. Need Cal-PASS was ultimately formed due to two features of the California educational system. The first feature is related to the technical configuration of the educational data collection systems within California. California s educational segments do not share a centralized student database or standardized data elements nor were they initially designed to communicate. This disparate technical configuration does not facilitate the tracking of students as they progress into and out of the educational segments. In addition, each educational segment develops its own curricular standards, guidelines, processes and methodologies making it difficult for educators to prepare their students for the next phase of their education and to design courses that smoothly articulate to the next level. The Californian educational system needed a project to bring together all educational segments, both public and private, that would coordinate and develop a structured system to facilitate collaboration, research review, and identify and evaluate initiatives and their impact upon student success. Cal-PASS is a continuation of an eleven-year statewide effort to create a comprehensive inter-segmental student research database to examine student transition and success through the segments by focusing on alignment of curriculum and developing innovations to improve alignment efforts. According to the Legislative Analyst s Office s Back to Basics Report(2008), all three segments of California s public postsecondary system find that many high school graduates are not fully prepared to do college level work. At UC, about one third of regularly admitted freshmen (those meeting the system s eligibility requirements) arrive unprepared for college level writing. More than one half of regularly Page 12
admitted CSU freshmen are unprepared for college level writing or math. About 90 percent of incoming CCC students are not proficient in transfer (university) level math or English. In addition, success rates for basic skills students are generally low. A review of CCC data shows that: Many Students Do Not Pass Their Basic Skills Courses. Of those students who enroll in credit basic skills courses, only about 60 percent successfully complete (receive a grade of C or better) a basic skills English course, while just 50 percent of students successfully complete a basic skills math course. The course completion rate for ESL is better (about 75 percent). These percentages do not take into account an unknown number of students who initially enroll in a basic skills course but drop out before the third week of classes, when an official student count (census) is taken. About One Half of Basic Skills Students Do Not Persist in College. About one half of students enrolled in credit basic skills math, English, and ESL courses in any given fall term do not return to college the following fall. About One Half of Successful Basic Skills Students Do Not Advance. Of those students that successfully complete a credit basic skills math, English, or ESL course, only about one half go on to complete a higher level course in the same discipline within three years. Few Noncredit Students Move on to Credit Courses. The CCC system frequently states that one of the purposes of noncredit basic skills courses is to serve as a gateway to credit instruction and the attainment of a college degree. Yet, less than 10 percent of noncredit basic skills students eventually advance to and successfully complete one degree applicable credit course (excluding physical education). (It should be noted, however, that an unknown number of noncredit students do not endeavor to achieve such a goal.) High rates of remediation and low rates of success and completion are of concern to the California Community Colleges. A number of studies have pointed out that many high school students are unaware of the preparation needed for success in community college and the extent to which their skills and knowledge make them college ready. The California Community Colleges Chancellor s Office introduced legislation, AB743: Common Assessment Bill, to standardize the English, Mathematics and English as a Second Language placement tests used by the community colleges. AB743 was signed into law October 2011(actionable upon the receipt of funding). An expressed benefit of such tests would be the ability to clearly communicate college-level assessment and placement standards to high school faculty and students. Currently, multiple tests are used throughout the community college system making statewide alignment efforts difficult. In addition to pulling together student data from all educational segments into a single database, perhaps the most critical component of Cal-PASS is to bring together faculty in face-to-face meetings (Professional Learning Councils) to review and discuss research findings, propose curriculum and instruction modifications and define evaluation metrics for proposed modifications. While the PLC s are regional and much of their work has a regional focus, the ultimate goal is to identify improvements that can be expanded to a multi-regional and/or statewide level. Cal-PASS Objectives Cal-PASS s overall objective is to collect, analyze and share student performance data as students progress from one educational level to the next. Cal-PASS strives to bring together primary, secondary and post-secondary segments through regional educational data sharing partnerships. Looking at it another way, the Cal-PASS project attempts to provide answers to the following questions from elementary, intermediate and high schools, colleges and universities: How do my students perform when they leave my institution? Page 13
Were they well prepared? Are adjustments in curriculum necessary to improve their preparation? More specifically, Cal-PASS works to accomplish the following objectives: 1. Improve course sequencing in undergraduate general education requirements so that appropriate senior year high school courses are linked to postsecondary general education courses. 2. Reduce the need for remedial courses by ensuring that students have the requisite entry level skills as they transition to higher education. 3. Align curriculum with placement tests in higher education so students have the preparation necessary to meet test expectations and, therefore, to reduce reliance on idiosyncratic placement testing. 4. Ensure that faculty are working together across educational segments to improve students success as they transition through the educational levels. 5. Align curriculum and instruction between the educational segments. 6. Track and evaluate the effects of curricular and instructional alignment as well as special interventions. 7. Improve regional K-16 collaboration. 8. Identify solutions and/or initiatives and plan for regional and/or statewide implementation. Procedures and Activities To accomplish the objectives outlined above, the Cal-PASS project encompasses the following activities: Maintain current infrastructure, hardware and software necessary to collect, store and maintain student partner data. Enhance as needed. Develop cloud migration strategy & plan, execute migration, administer (operating model will be different than current hands/feet support in data center) Ensure compliance with the Memorandum of Understanding with partner institutions and expand those MOUs to strengthen the partnership between CCC and the K-12 institutions. Provide technical support and secure access to student data for partner institutions. Maintain the Cal-PASS website, www.calpass.org. Manage the project as it conducts data analyses, including the development, production of reports, studies and outcome analyses. Distribute Cal-PASS outcomes to statewide and regional partner institutions, regional consortia and professional learning councils. Conduct end-user training. Continue recruiting efforts to encourage more K-16 institutions to join Cal-PASS. Manage and coordinate Regional Consortia activities, including data element review and enhancements. Manage and coordinate the Professional Learning Councils activities to improve curricular alignment and teaching methodologies. Including monitoring, evaluating and communicating the effects of curricular and teaching modifications and special innovations. Develop implementation plan(s) for such modifications and innovations at the regional and ultimately statewide level. Develop metrics to evaluate the impact of modifications upon student success and transition. Align effort with, and support implementation of LaunchBoard, metrics, tabs, and augmented data. Page 14
Monitor and evaluate changing trends, standards and regulations affecting curriculum, teaching and/or education. Adjust data analysis accordingly. Increase communication and promote Cal-PASS through inter-segmental consortiums, workshops, user groups and conferences. Purposes/Uses of the Fund The goal of the Data Services Program is to to create an intelligently designed data repository for storing all of the available data sources to enable the aforementioned goals in the objectives section. This data repository should be designed and implemented in such a way as to allow for historical data analysis and presentations through LaunchBoard and other data presentation services. It should also be designed and implemented to allow for real-time analytics to support real-time applications to serve students, colleges, and other stakeholders of CCC. This grant, which will be for a maximum period of five years or 60 months, will be awarded to satisfy the program requirements of the Data Services Program. Award recipient will be responsible for continuing the current program. Grantee will be required to ensure program continuity with minimal overhead. Transition Plan As necessary, a transition plan should be prepared by the applicant to address how project responsibilities will be transitioned without impact to project objectives. During plan preparation the applicant is encouraged to closely evaluate each responsibility with respect to how it will be resourced and what degree of transition is necessary. For example, in some instances a collaborative agreement with another entity may be the most effective resource alternative for a task. The applicant should work closely with the existing grantee to ensure an uninterrupted transition of current program goals and commitments. Reporting Requirements - Year-to-Date Expenditures and Progress Report Each allocation recipient is required to submit quarterly Year-to-Date Expenditure and Progress Reports via an online reporting system (see Calendar of Key Dates, Section J or Appendix A, Article I, Section 4, for quarterly reporting due dates and terms). No negative numbers are allowed within quarterly reports since the Chancellor s Office allows for liberal budget movement quarterly (see Article I, Section 2, Budget Changes) and has an online process for those budget changes that require Project Monitor approval. Evaluation/Performance Outcomes The annual report must describe the project status, performance outcomes and identify level of institutionalization. Page 15
contact with the Project Monitor will be required. The funded project may also be subject to a formal site visit(s) during the period of performance. The grantee shall provide evidence of progress before seeking additional funding in succeeding years. Continued funding is contingent upon the approved completion of the prior year s objectives and the submittal of an application renewal. Legal Terms and Conditions The legal terms and conditions contained in Articles I and II, which are included in this manual, are the ones that will be used for the grant awarded under this RFA. Rather than list the provisions again, they are incorporated into the grant agreement document, by reference, on the face sheet. Applicants must, therefore, retain this manual for future reference. Information If you have any questions or need more information regarding this RFA, please email dii_rfa@cccco.edu with Data Services Program RFA in the subject line or contact via U.S. mail at California Community Colleges Chancellor s Office, Attn: DII RFA, 1102 Q Street, Suite 4400 Sacramento, CA 95811. Page 16
Section II RFA Instructions and Evaluation Criteria A. Intent Section II contains general instructions, procedures, formats, and timelines for submitting project applications to the California Community Colleges, Chancellor s Office (CCCCO). It has been developed with the intent of establishing, to the extent possible, consistent practices and procedures for the submission, evaluation, and allocation of a variety of State and federally funded projects administered through this office. Applications should be submitted utilizing the format and sequence described in these Application Instructions and fully address the RFA Specification. B. Funding Fund disbursements are allocated in one funding category: Integrated Technology The Data Services Program RFA provides one-year of funding, renewable annually up to five years dependent on funding and the discretion of the Chancellor s office. The initial total budget for 2018-19 for this Request for Application is $5,000,000. One (1) grant will be awarded. This RFA provides funding for the following items: Cost of cloud-based data repository and related services Cost of all personnel necessary to comply with the requirements of the grant, including fulltime key talents housed at the Chancellor s Office three days a week. Cost of managing the finances of the grant, preparation of the reports, and related work. Cost of facilities, access, and licensure, registration for services, computing devices, and any other software, hardware, hosting and telecommunication devices. Cost of facilitating and attending meetings, regardless of location. Cost of administrative and support services Cost of travel to maintain connection with all related partners, attend meetings, and attend conferences to stay current with the latest technologies, policies, and practices The Chancellor s Office reserves the right to adjust awards based upon the availability of funds. The Chancellor's Office reserves the right to fund applications at a lesser amount if it is determined that the application can be implemented with less funding, if funding is not sufficient to fully fund, or if a partial scope is sufficient. The Chancellor s office reserves the right to add funds. Important Note: All potential applicants for funding under this RFA should maintain a clear understanding of, and compliance with existing and new legislations, policies and rules that govern Page 17
the acquisition, use, and maintenance of each data element and category of data in the Data Services Program. C. Eligibility Only a California Community College District is eligible to apply. If there are none or insufficient application(s) that meet the minimum score of 75 points viability threshold, the grant will not be funded. The Chancellor s Office then can opt to rebid, sole source with some technical assistance, or issue a capacity-building grant. The Chancellor s Office will consider past performance of grantees prior to awarding additional funds to those reapplying for contracts and grants, and shall deny applications from grantees that exhibited unsatisfactory performance. Therefore past performance of other state grants will be a consideration prior to final selection. Capacity-Building Grant If there are no applications or insufficient applicants passing the 75 point threshold, the Chancellor s Office may opt to issue a capacity-building grant to seed the needed public capacity sole source. Past Performance Per Article I, the Chancellor s Office can consider past performance prior to making final selection and as a basis for not making an award to an applicant. D. Resource/Reference Materials The RFA Specification will provide the necessary list of resource or reference material for completion of a grant, if applicable. E. RFA Clarification If any ambiguity, conflict, discrepancy, omission, or other error in this RFA is discovered, immediately notify the Vice Chancellor of the Digital Innovations and Infrastructure (DII) of the error and request a written modification or clarification of the document. A clarifying addendum will be given to all parties who have obtained the RFA, without divulging the source of the request. Insofar as practical, the Chancellor s Office will give such notice to other interested parties, but the Chancellor s Office shall not be responsible for failure to do so. F. Bidder s Conference A Bidder s Conference will be held for this RFA as a webinar on Thursday, May 3 2018 at 1:00 P.M. Failure to attend the Bidder s Conference will not preclude the submission of an application. Applicants may join the bidder s conference at https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/653142900 Page 18
G. Application Format and Instructions An Excel workbook (Appendix B) has been developed which contains a contact page, annual work plan, application budget summary, and an application budget detail sheet. This workbook must be used when submitting an application. The workbook contains formulas that will prevent errors in allocation amount, indirect costs, etc. Narrative sections such as the Cover letter, Abstract, Response to need, the management section and intent-to-participate letters are not part of the workbook. The Out-of-State travel form and the CEO Cover Letter Template can be found with the online application materials. The following instructions prescribe the format and order for the development and presentation of the application for both the workbook and the narrative sections of the application. In order to receive the highest possible score and to prevent disqualification, the application format instructions must be followed, the application must follow the order prescribed below, all questions must be answered, and all requested data must be supplied. Applicants are expected to follow these instructions while using the RFA Specification, the forms provided in Appendix B, the CEO cover letter template, and the out-of-state travel form found with the online application materials. The Chancellor s Office may require the applicant to make adjustments in the budget, annual work plan, or other aspects of the application prior to funding the grant. Grant applications are scored based on a 100-point scale as indicated in the list provided below. NOTE: A minimum averaged score of 75 must be obtained within the reading process in order to be considered for funding. Maximum points Response to Need 20 Annual Work Plan (Statement of Work) 25 Application Budget Summary/Application Budget 10 Detail Sheet Project Management Plan 15 Quality of Service 30 Total Points 100 1. Face Sheet NOTE: The completed application will be submitted electronically and therefore no face sheet will be required. If an application is funded, an appropriate face sheet with instructions will be sent out for completion. 2. Cover Letter The Chief Executive Officer/Designee of the applying Community College District will submit a cover letter with signature within the electronic submission process stating that the Community College District is willing to be the fiscal agent if funded and is submitting the attached application for Chancellor s Office review. Page 19
3. Contact Page An Excel workbook (Appendix B) contains the contact page, budget forms and annual work plan. The first tab Do First of the workbook requires the applicant to fill in the following information first: The Community College District that is applying (click twice on the Community College text box and choose the Community College District from the provided drop down menu). After filling in the Do First tab, the District, applicable college, budget allocation, and regional name will auto fill within the contact page, application budget summary, application budget detail sheet and Annual Work Plan. The contact page tab must be filled in second. After filling in the contact page, Project Director and the Chief Business Officer name and title will auto fill within the application budget summary. These auto fill features prevent incorrect and/or inconsistent information within the application. 4. Application Abstract (Narrative 1 margins, single- or double-spaced, 12 pt. Arial font) The abstract should concisely summarize the entire application and must not exceed one page. Include statements on the objectives, procedures, expected contribution or impact on the funding priorities of the RFA specifications, and deliverables (products/services/outcomes). 5. Table of Contents The Table of Contents shall be on a separate page, with each component of the application listed and page numbers indicated. 6. Response to Need Maximum Points 20 (Narrative 1 margins, single- or double-spaced,12 pt. Arial font) Concisely describe the problem being addressed and/or the need for the project and how it addresses the funding priorities listed in the related RFA Specification. In addition applicants will describe the following: Scope of problem being addressed: local, regional and/or statewide; Target group(s) - populations to be served.. 8. Statement of Work (Annual Work Plan) Maximum Points 25 a. Objectives Objectives should be based on the needs of the proposed project while remaining consistent with the Objectives in the RFA Specification. Page 20
List one objective per form, along with corresponding measurable outcomes, activities, timelines, and responsible individual. Label the objectives in sequential order: Objective #1.0 at the top of page one; Objective #2.0 at the top of page two, and so forth. Up to ten (10) objectives can be selected. Additional copies of the form will be needed to address all of the project objectives. NOTE: Each objective must be on its own form and does not preclude a single objective having activities that cover more than one page. b. Activities Project activities are the basic steps that are required to be taken to implement the stated goals of the project and to achieve results. Major activities and tasks should be outlined in the activities section of the Annual Work Plan for each objective. c. Performance Outcomes Each objective should result in measurable outcomes (note: metrics are found in the LaunchBoard) that clearly link to the objectives and activities. Describe the outcomes in qualitative and quantitative terms. Address any performance outcomes unique to this project that will result from the implementation of the objectives and activities listed in the Statement of Work (Annual Work Plan). Applicants should pay close attention to how the Data Project will advance these numerical Vision for Success goals: Increase ability to longitudinally track student progress from K-12 to college, completion, graduation, transfer and job placement Increase visibility of data to K-12, colleges, practitioners, legislators Increase the ability of researchers to identify issues and barriers and reduce students success along the educational journey. Increase the ability of data scientists, Artificial Intelligence engineers, and application developers to provide customized/personalized user experiences for students Increase the ability of practitioners to increase student success according to Vision for Success goals. Increase data sharing and collaboration among all contributors to the Data Project d. Timelines Provide the projected completion date for key activities within the term of the grant. Identify the month and year in which activities are scheduled to be completed. Do not make activities on going or year long. An estimated completion date must be entered. Page 21