College of Education Placement and Assessment Software

Project Overview Minnesota State is requesting proposals from qualified vendors to implement a cloud-based (SaaS) placement management system that will support the full lifecycle of student experiential learning across field experience, student teaching, practicum, internship, and other supervised placements. The system must manage complex placement processes and provide tools to track student progress from initial onboarding through final evaluation. Additionally, the solution must support assessment workflow, maintain robust documentation to support accreditation requirements, and deliver meaningful reporting and analytics for institutional decision making. The platform should streamline communication between internal and external partnerships, relationship management, and notifications among students, faculty, and site supervisors in a way that is easy for staff to administer. Minnesota State prefers to select a vendor with a mature, fully developed product already in use by an established client base and capable of configuration to meet our needs without requiring development of a custom-built solution. The system must operate independently of Minnesota State’s internal IT resources and should require minimal technical support for successful implementation and ongoing use. Attachment A in "Buyers Attachments" lists headcount and program count. Technical/Functional Requirements The placement management system must be a cloud hosted, SaaS based solution capable of supporting the complete lifecycle of student experiential learning across multiple academic terms, years, and placement sites. The system should facilitate management of complex placement scenarios, including facilitating placement requests with partners and site matching, tracking approvals, scheduling placements, supporting student onboarding, tracking supervision and observations, and integrating outcomes assessment and final evaluation workflows. The solution must provide robust documentation capabilities to support accreditation needs, including tracking competencies, managing evidence submissions, maintaining compliance records, and providing audit-ready reporting. The solution should offer integrated tools for reporting and analytics to generate meaningful, real-time insights into placement activity, student progress, site performance, and program outcomes. Additionally, the platform must streamline communication and relationship management among students, faculty, placement sites, and supervisors, including automated notifications, reminders, messaging, and status updates. The system should be easy for administrative staff to manage without requiring programming knowledge or internal IT support for routine configuration. The proposed solution must be compatible with all major operating systems and modern web browsers, including mobile devices, and should support configurable workflows, forms, and data fields that can be adapted by nontechnical users. The solution must comply with current national accessibility standards and provide intuitive, accessible interfaces for students, faculty, site supervisors, and administrators/technical users. The system must also fully support and integrate with Minnesota State’s Single SignOn (SSO) requirements, ensuring secure, seamless authentication for all user roles without relying on custom development or internal IT maintenance as well as allowing us to manually create users that are external to our system. Minnesota State prefers a mature, fully developed platform already in use by an existing client base and does not seek a custom built or internally supported solution. Selection Process The selection process includes this group: Director Office of Assessment and Research; Director of Technology-College of Education; College of Education Director of Operations; Elementary Online Student Support Coordinator; Assistant Director of the Office of Field and International Experience; Research Analyst. This group will evaluate the proposals and make the final decision. Evaluation Factors The following factors and their identified weight will be used to evaluate the responses: Topic Factor Weight Adherence to Minnesota State Terms and Conditions. A statement of the objectives, goals, and tasks to show or demonstrate its view and understanding of the nature of the contract. 10% Work Plan. A description of the deliverables to be provided by the Responder along with a detailed work plan. 25% Price/Value. Identify the level of the participation of Minnesota State in the contract, as well as any other services to be provided by Minnesota State, and details of cost allowances for this participation. 30% Qualifications of Respondent and its personnel. An outline of the Responder’s background and experience with examples of similar work complete by the Responder and a list of personnel who will conduct the project, detailing their training, and work experience. Resumes or other information about project personnel should not, if possible, contain personal telephone numbers, home addresses or home email addresses. If it is necessary to include personal contact information, please clearly indicate in the proposal that personal contact information is being provided. 20% Completeness, thoroughness and detail of the response Completeness, thoroughness and detail of the response as reflected by the proposal's discussions and coverage of all elements. 10% Accessibility A completed response to the linked Voluntary Product/Service Accessibility Template(s)®(VPAT) for all software, hardware, and websites as applicable (guidance available in the ‘Products’ tab). The response must contain adequate information to evaluate the responsiveness to the accessibility standards (e.g., a completed VPAT or equivalent). 5% Total: 100 Selection and Implementation Timeline Key Dates Timeline Friday, March 13, 2026 Publishes RFP notice on MinnState.edu/Vendors webpage Tuesday, March 24, 2026; 2:00 PM CT Deadline for Vendors to submit clarifying questions on the RFP Q&A Board. Tuesday, March 31, 2026 Deadline to publish responses to RFP questions on the RFP Q&A Board. Thursday, April 9, 2026; 2:00 PM CT Deadline for RFP proposal submissions April, 2026 Selected Vendors invited for oral presentations (Virtually) April, 2026 Oral presentations (Virtually) by selected Vendors April, 2026 Vendor(s) selected and notified Minnesota State reserves the right to name a date which all responding Respondents will be invited to present demonstrations or participate in an interview. Minnesota State does not agree to reach a decision by any certain date although it is hoped the evaluation and selection will be completed by the contract terms date identified. Contract Terms Minnesota State desires to enter into a contract with the successful Vendor(s) effective June 1, 2026 or on the date the last recognized signature is obtained, whichever occurs later. The length of such contract(s) will be three (3) years with the option to renew up to total maximum of five (5) years. If Minnesota State and Vendor are unable to negotiate and sign a contract by May 25, 2026, then Minnesota State reserves the right to seek an alternative Vendor(s). Inquiries and Submission Instructions Minnesota State accepts all questions and bid submissions exclusively through Minnesota State's e-procurement system. Hard copy submissions, emails, or submissions through any other medium will not be considered. Each Respondent is solely responsible for the timely delivery of its questions and bids by the RFx date and time deadlines. Failure to meet the deadlines shall be grounds for rejection. Oral Presentations After evaluation of written proposals, Minnesota State will shortlist responders for oral presentations and demonstrations. Shortlisted responders will be notified in writing and provided with scheduling instructions. Demonstrations are intended to validate proposed solutions and allow clarification of responses. Responders should ensure that key personnel and subject matter experts are available. Minnesota State will make reasonable efforts to accommodate each responder’s scheduling preferences; however, Minnesota State reserves the right to assign dates and times at its discretion.