Request for Proposals: Assessing Opportunities and Incentives for Educators’ Ongoing Professional Learning in Northern New Mexico

The LANL and Thornburg Foundations are seeking a contractor to design, develop, implement and write a research report to better understand prek-12 teachers’ and leaders’ opportunities for on-going professional learning in our region. Our aim is to better understand the systems of professional learning for educators that help ensure prek-12 students throughout Northern New Mexico have access to a sufficient education for the 21st Century — an education that is culturally sustaining and that supports children and youth’s holistic development,

Educators, both teachers and leaders, are vital for ensuring students, pre-k through grade 12, have access to learning opportunities that prepare them for thriving in the 21^st Century. In framing this study, we want to center the call to action that the findings from the Martinez/Yazzie Lawsuit make to ensure that all students in New Mexico, especially those named in the lawsuit, that Native American, Hispanic, English language learners, and students with Special Needs, have access to a sufficient education that supports their holistic development and ensures they have the knowledge, skills, practices and identities to thrive in the 21st Century in our communities and beyond.

The study will include a systematic review and assessment of:

The field of education’s current understanding of effective professional learning for educators.
Current requirements for educators’ initial and ongoing professional learning in public district and charter schools, BIE schools and Tribally controlled schools, including school/district requirements, contract requirements, and/or requirements connected to maintaining professional licensure and/or Tribal Council/Government requirements.
Current opportunities for Northern NM’s educators to engage in professional learning in culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogies, facilitating inquiry based learning, and integrating social emotional learning into their professional practice.
Current opportunities for Northern NM’s educators to engage in professional learning that helps them be responsive to the Martinez/Yazzie lawsuit, as well as up-to-date with state and national standards of practice for the subject areas and grade levels they teach.

Background:

A sufficient education in the 21st Century means that students have access to inquiry learning across the curriculum that is integrated with social emotional learning and culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogies. This transformative work means educators in our region – and throughout the state – need systematic access to on-going professional learning opportunities that prepare them to meet children and youth’s needs and interests as they support their academic, cultural, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical development.

The Martinez/Yazzie court decision identified that the state of New Mexico does not

provide enough funds or opportunities to recruit, train, and support educators in the

State, especially educators who mirror the demographics of our student population. At the same time, New Mexico schools spend millions of dollars annually on professional development opportunities for their educators. Despite this, our school ecosystems struggle to advance teachers’ professional practice based on state and national pedagogical and content standards of practice, including those that align with the multicultural framework and other recommendations from the Martinez/Yazzie case.

One potential initiative to address these issues is for the state – along with unions, professional associations, and the professional standards board – to develop a structured professional learning pathway for NM educators to participate in throughout their careers, i.e. professional learning in the form of required continued education units and/or microcredentials to maintain their professional license. Currently, educators (defined here as superintendents, principals, and teachers Pre-K-12) have few, if any, continuing education requirements to maintain their professional license after they move from level 1/1A to level 2. This trend is untrue for nearly all other licensed professionals in the state and across the nation. Before advocating for such an initiative, the LANL Foundation will complete a landscape assessment to better understand the issue. How are initial and continuing licensure and contract requirements working and not working to support on-going professional learning in the current education ecosystem? What are schools spending their professional development money on? What kinds of professional learning opportunities have educators participated in over the past 3-5 years? How is that professional learning structured and paid for? When do educators engage in professional learning? What do educators want to engage in to support their own professional goals? How are other states who are finding success in their education ecosystems structuring professional learning opportunities for teachers and leaders? What role does licensure play in supporting teachers in on-going professional learning? What role do teachers’ contracts with their LEAs play in supporting teachers’ and administrators’ on-going professional learning? How up to date are educators’ practices and familiarity with state and national content and pedagogical standards for the subjects and age groups they teach? What funding streams–local, state, and federal–are available and being used to support ongoing professional learning and what models exist to better leverage each of these funding streams?

To answer these and other pertinent questions, this research project will identify a contractor to complete research, surveys, and focus groups to better understand the landscape of professional learning in New Mexico and what the state, and the education profession in NM, may learn from the research base on effective professional learning and other national trends. This project will be grounded in current research-based understandings of the kinds of professional learning and incentives that best support teachers and leaders’ to engage in on-going learning throughout their careers. In addition, the research will include a review of licensure and contract requirements that support professionals’ on-going learning and commitment to maintaining national and state standards in their professional practice. Finally, this research will systematically collect data from youth, teachers and administrators that will help us to understand the professional learning opportunities educators have had to support their response to the Martinez/Yazzie lawsuit as well as staying current with national and state pedagogical and content standards for the subjects and age groups they teach and oversee. From this research base, we will have a stronger understanding to make recommendations to strengthen the systems of professional learning in our region and state; a system that ensures students have access to educators who continue to learn, grow and deepen their professional practices throughout their careers.

Scope of Work

The aim of this project is to complete research on educator’s professional learning opportunities and requirements in Northern New Mexico. While this research is geographically specific, the expectation is it will culminate in recommendations to be used for legislative, regulatory, and programmatic objectives on how to systematically ensure all educators’ have access to ongoing professional learning opportunities. Opportunities that will ensure teachers’ and leaders’ professional practices are responsive to the Yazzie/Martinez lawsuit findings as well as ensure that students have access to teachers and leaders whose teaching practices and learning environments align with state and national standards of practice; including professional practices that ensure students have access to 21^st Century learning opportunities that support their academic, cultural, linguistic, social, emotional and physical development and readiness to participate in our communities in the 21st Century.

Proposed Research Questions:

The research project should address a composite of the following questions and issues by reviewing and synthesizing relevant research, text based analysis of current laws, regulations, contracts and other data that already exists, and surveys, interviews and focus groups that can inform our understanding of the landscape of professional learning opportunities in Northern NM, and beyond. We have framed this research broadly, but recognize that a contractor will need to develop a comprehensive framework for ensuring that their scope of work is focused and viable.

Literature Review:

Review and synthesize literature on professional learning for educators including:

Professional Learning Content
Professional Learning Formats and Pedagogies
Professional Learning Requirements
Professional Learning that supports educators’ growth in enacting culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogies, integrating social emotional learning, and facilitating inquiry learning.

Licensure:

What are the current licensure requirements for prek-12 educators who hold a level 1, 1A, 2, 3A and 3B license?
What are the current professional learning requirements for licensed educators in New Mexico (superintendents, principals, preK-12 teachers who hold a level 1, 1A, 2, 3A, and 3B license)?
How do licensure advancement and professional learning opportunities align with the realities of an educator’s given job?
How does licensure impact professional learning opportunities?
What professional learning is required for licensure advancement for New Mexico educators?
How do other states approach licensure advancement requirements?

Contracts:

How do contracts between educators and LEAs address professional learning?
How do contracts align with the realities of an educator’s given job?
How do contracts impact educators’ professional learning opportunities?
What professional learning is required in educators’ contracts?
Are there contract requirements or structures in NM’s districts and/or other states that facilitate ongoing professional learning for educators?

Professional Learning Opportunities:

What kinds of professional learning are current prek-12 educators engaging in? When do they do it? Why do they do it? How do educators decide to do it?

What kinds of professional learning do prek-12 educators want to participate in/choose?
What kinds of professional learning are offered by the Public Education Department and BIE?
How do charter schools, BIE schools, Tribally controlled schools, and districts spend professional learning funds?
How do schools/districts decide on what to offer teachers?
- National vs local vendors, focus and topics, internal or external coaches etc.
How does this spending on professional learning compare with other like-districts in other states? What funding streams–local, state, and federal–are available and being used to support professional learning and what models exist to better leverage each of these funding streams?
What kinds of professional learning opportunities have educators had that helps them be responsive to the Martinez/Yazzie lawsuit?
What kinds of professional learning opportunities do educators have that helps them to align with state and national standards of practice in the subject areas and age groups they teach/lead?
What kinds of professional learning opportunities do educators have that helps them enact culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogies, integrate social emotional learning, and facilitate inquiry learning?
How are learning opportunities differentiated according to years of experience (1-5 year teachers vs 10 – 20 year teachers), licensure type? Is it one size fits all?
How do other states approach professional learning requirements for licensed educators?
What do youth want their leaders and teachers to be learning?

Landscape Assessment:

A landscape assessment of Northern New Mexico educators that:
- Collects data on the number of professional learning hours prek-12 educators engage in annually by subject and grade
- Collects data on educator satisfaction with recent professional learning opportunities
- Collects data on educator perceptions about how their practices have grown over time.
- Collects data on educators’ familiarity with culturally and linguistically pedagogical practices that help them be responsive to the findings in the Martinez/Yazzie lawsuit.
- Collects data on educators’ basic familiarity with national and state standards of practice in the subject area(s) and age groups they teach.
- Collects qualitative data of what professional learning opportunities educators found valuable and why.

Recommendations:

Identifies recommendations for New Mexico regarding licensure and professional learning systems through the following lenses:

State Legislation
Tribal Policy
PED Policy
Union Policy
District Policy
School Policy
Administrator Voice
Teacher Voice
Youth Voice

Recommended Timeline & Deliverables

May 2024 – RFP open
June 2024 – Review submissions and select contractor
July 2024 – Research Begins; Regular bi-weekly check-ins between contractor and Foundation staff will be established. Prior to commencing, the contractor will provide a final work plan and schedule to LANL Foundation staff that includes research methods and analysis plan. The plan should also include the researcher’s plan to ensure informed consent of all participants in the study.
November 2024 – Literature review and text based findings draft complete and ready for review by Foundation Staff.
November 2024 – Foundation staff provides feedback on literature review and text-based findings.
November 2024 – Educator & youth surveys, interview and focus group methods and protocol drafts developed and ready for LANL Foundation review.
December 2024 – Literature review, text based findings, educator & youth surveys, interview and focus group methods and protocol finalized. (Potentially release preliminary findings, recognizing the work on the literature review and text based findings will be ongoing until the final report is complete).
January-March 2025 – Educator and youth surveys, interviews, and/or focus group recruitment and data collection.
June 2025 – First draft due (provide 3 weeks for staff feedback).
July 2025 – final draft due – send report to graphic designers
August 2025 – Final report completed & released

Deliverables:

The consultant will complete the following deliverables to accomplish the purpose and objectives outlined above:

Meet with LANL Foundation staff bi-weekly throughout the project to provide updates and refine processes.
Provide summary notes from all meetings that are used to collect data.
Provide data collected from surveys and any transcripts that are generated from focus groups or other data collection methods.
December 2024 provide all protocols and instruments developed for this research project.
December 2024 provide a near final draft of the literature review, methods, and text based research findings and summaries. This draft must be approved before proceeding with research.
June 2025 complete a detailed, public ready research report that addresses the objectives listed above. The report should include the literature review, methods, analysis, findings and actionable recommendations grounded in the findings. The research report should include:

A current literature review on professional learning, contract, and licensure requirements that best support teachers and leaders’ on-going professional learning to ensure students have access to a sufficient education for the 21^st Century.
A summary of current practices and requirements for initial and continuing NM licensure for levels for prek-12 teachers and administrators who hold a level 1, 1A, 2, 3A and/or 3B license(s) in the LANL Foundation’s region and New Mexico as a whole.
A summary of current practices and requirements for professional learning requirements in contracts between prek-12 teachers, leaders, and their LEA in the LANL Foundation’s region.
A summary of current practices, incentives, preferences and opportunities for professional learning for prek-12 educators in the LANL Foundation region and New Mexico as a whole.
A set of recommendations grounded in research findings to establish a platform for legislation and policy approaches regarding initial and on-going licensure, contracts, and professional learning opportunities for NM’s prek-12 educators.
Improved understanding of the landscape of licensure, contracts, and professional learning opportunities in the state for LANL Foundation’s constituents.

Provide a minimum of three weeks for LANL Foundation staff to review a draft of the report to provide edits, revisions, and questions before final submission.

Recommended Contract Amount: $75,000.00 – $100,000.00

$37.5K – $50K for 2024 and $37.5K-$50K for 2025

RFP evaluation:

Project Timeline: 15-16 months depending on contracting plan

Compensation: $75,0000 – $100,000

Proposal Evaluation Criteria (100 Total Possible Points)

Technical capability – 50 possible points

Indicators: Demonstrated qualifications and experience necessary to complete the project, including:

Demonstrated experience and applied knowledge in education research.
Demonstrated experience and applied knowledge of K-12 education in New Mexico; including BIE and Tribally controlled schools.
Familiarity and experience working with the full diversity of New Mexico’s communities, including Tribal nations and in Native communities;
Strong organizing and facilitation skills;
Demonstrated qualitative and quantitative research experience;
Demonstrated ability to write a professional and public ready research report;
Three (3) professional references provided and
Two (2) professional writing samples provided reflective of the work described in this scope of work.

Scope of Work – 50 possible points

Indicators: The proposal evidences expertise in doing and completing the research described in this RFP.

The proposal evidences a comprehensive framework for focusing the research
Proposal evidences a clear and reasonable work plan to accomplish the scope of work’s objectives and deliverables
Timelines for project implementation and milestones are identified and reasonable.
Includes plan for engaging with Tribal and rural schools and communities in Northern NM
Willingness to collaborate with LANL Foundation staff on the direction and refinement of the project throughout the project.

Please direct any questions to:

Kersti Tyson

Director of Research and Evaluation

LANL Foundation

kersti@lanlfoundation.org

(505) 818 7510

Please email proposal to:

kersti@lanlfoundation.org

Please submit proposal by 7/12/2024

Other research to consider: