SOLICITATION NOTICE
R -- National Education Technology Plan and Policy Briefs
- Notice Date
- 9/3/2019
- Notice Type
- Justification and Approval (J&A)
- NAICS
- 813920
— Professional Organizations
- Contracting Office
- Department of Education, Contracts & Acquisitions Management, Contracts (All ED Components), 550 12th Street, SW, 7th Floor, Washington, District of Columbia, 20202
- ZIP Code
- 20202
- Archive Date
- 10/20/2019
- Point of Contact
- Rodger, Phone: 2022457245, Pamela a Bone, Phone: 202-245-6181
- E-Mail Address
-
rodger.young@ed.gov, pamela.bone@ed.gov
(rodger.young@ed.gov, pamela.bone@ed.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Award Number
- PEPP1905009UP
- Award Date
- 9/20/2019
- Description
- Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition 1.Identification of the agency and the contracting activity. Agency:U.S. Department of Education Contracting Activity:Contracts and Acquisitions Management 2.Nature and/or description of the action being approved. The purpose of this Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC) is to provide documentation that explains why this specific requirement is to be awarded as a firm-fixed price contract to Digital Promise Global without competition for the National Educational Technology Plan and Policy Briefs requirement. The base period of performance for this contract is 36 months, with optional tasks that may extend the period of performance for an additional 18 months. 3.A complete description of the supplies and/or services required to meet the agency's needs. Project Title: National Education Technology Plan and Policy Briefs Federal statute directs the Department's Office of Educational Technology (OET) to develop a national vision and strategy for how educational technology can be used to transform teaching and learning. To meet this legislative mandate, OET requires unique educational technology expertise to develop a new National Educational Technology Plan along with a series of policy briefs on educational technology topics aligned with the Administration's priorities. The first policy brief will focus on leveraging emerging technologies to advance competency-based, personalized, professional learning opportunities for teachers, and other focus areas may include but are not limited to leveraging virtual, augmented and mixed reality, robotics, and other future interfaces to improve student engagement and workforce readiness, and artificial intelligence powered education platforms. 4.An identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition. The statutory authority permitting use of non-competitive procedures is 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1): When Noncompetitive Procedures May Be Used. An executive agency may use procedures other than competitive procedures only when the property or services needed by the executive agency are available from only one responsible source and no other type of property or services will satisfy the needs of the executive agency. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) citation permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition is FAR 6.302-1- Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. 5.A demonstration that the proposed contractor's unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited. To ensure delivery of the required components of this educational technology technical assistance and capacity building contract, the Department requires a contractor with demonstrated expertise in the following five areas: (1)Educational Technology Research: Deep bench of educational technology research expertise including computational thinking, cognitive science, emerging technologies, and learner variability, that results in findings that significantly inform practice and increase the impact of educational technology interventions on teaching and learning (2)Research Design and Translation: Demonstrated expertise in synthesizing and translating research into practice in new and unique ways for practitioners and educational technology developers, including effective collaboration among researchers, developers and practitioners in real-world settings that results in contextually sensitive designs for work products. (3)Teacher Micro-credentials: Demonstrated expertise in developing personalized professional learning opportunities for teachers, that must also include expertise in developing a system for teacher micro-credentials that engages a full network of issuing partners in a variety of educational content areas (4)Educational Technology Technical Writing: Demonstrated expertise in writing, editing, positioning and messaging high-level, complex and technical educational technology content, including developing national educational technology plans and policy briefs, in plain language targeted to meet the needs of both practitioners and policymakers, that must also include designing, developing and implementing communications and outreach activities to actively engage constituents at all levels of the education ecosystem. (5)Educational Technology Networks and Partnerships: Demonstrated expertise in recruiting, engaging and partnering with a diverse set of innovative teachers, school and district leaders, educational technology product and service providers, and corporations to engage in deep collaboration, that must also include: (1) conducting high-level and cross-functional educational technology convenings; and (2) developing purposeful networks of districts and organizations with the goal of leveraging technology to solve persistent problems in education. Digital Promise Global is an independent, bipartisan nonprofit, authorized by Congress in 2008 as the National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies through Section 802 of the Higher Education Opportunity Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush. Digital Promise Global works at the intersection of education leaders, researchers, and entrepreneurs and developers to improve learning with the power of technology. Digital Promise Global has highly technical and extensive knowledge, skills and experience in all five of the required key areas identified above, demonstrated through both corporate experience and the experience of key personnel, required for the success of the National Educational Technology Plan and Policy Briefs requirement detailed as follows: Key Area 1: Educational Technology Research Expertise Digital Promise Global is an internationally recognized leader in educational technology research, with over twenty doctoral-level researchers currently. The organization regularly conducts educational technology research at all levels from early childhood to K-12, higher education and adult learning and research projects funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences, and philanthropic organizations. Dr. Barbara Means, the Executive Director for Learning Sciences Research at Digital Promise Global, leads work to examine the effectiveness of innovative education approaches supported by digital technology. A fellow of the American Educational Research Association, Dr. Means has served on many study committees of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, including the one currently producing a companion volume to the classic How People Learn. Dr. Jeremy Roschelle, Executive Director for Learning Sciences Research at Digital Promise Global, applies learning science theories and methods to understand how, when and why technology can enable improved teaching and learning. He is nationally and internationally recognized for groundbreaking research in computer-supported collaborative learning; learning with connected, mobile devices; and technology in mathematics learning. He has conducted rigorous efficacy research on personalized, adaptive learning, on online homework tools, and on dynamic visualizations for mathematics learning. His 25 years of research experience have led to over 125 publications and 9 patents, resulting in 15,000 citations to his contributions. Dr. Roschelle leads a large community of National Science Foundation-funded projects in the area of cyberlearning. He brings extensive experience in growing productive research organizations and leading complex, multi-institutional research and development teams funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department's Institute for Education Sciences, philanthropies and leading educational technology companies. Educational technology research expertise is required for the successful development of the 2020 NETP and the six policy briefs under the base contract. This expertise will further be required to successfully execute the options if exercised, including the 2022 NETP, three additional policy briefs, and the Customer Satisfaction Survey of key educational technology stakeholders. Key Area 2: Research Design and Translation The broad research goal of Digital Promise Global is to infuse the latest learning science research into the development and improvement of products and programs to advance public education and improve learning. Digital Promise Global is highly skilled at synthesizing and translating research into practice and creating contextually sensitive designs for work products in new and unique ways for practitioners and educational technology developers. They developed the Research Map, a visualization of over 100,000 research articles, to help education leaders, policymakers, and technology developers access education and learning sciences research findings that can inform their work. In addition, the Learner Variability Navigator (LVP) is a web app that presents a complete synthesis of research associated with literacy and mathematics at various levels of learning to (1) highlight the factors that research shows matter most for learners; (2) improve educator capacity to understand learners at an individual level; (3) provide practitioners and learners with more effective learning strategies; and (4) support the development of more effective educational products and services Research design and translation expertise is required for the successful development of the 2020 NETP and the six policy briefs under the base contract. This expertise will further be required to successfully execute the options if exercised, including the 2022 NETP and the three additional policy briefs. Specifically, Web-enabled drafts of the plans and policy briefs must include: an interactive interface connecting key ideas and content within the plans and policy briefs with previous Department publications and products, embedded and linked multimedia content aligned with key ideas within the text, user experience testing, interactive data visualizations, and a layout and learning experience reflective of the digital learning ideas and propositions outlined within the plans and policy briefs. Key Area 3: Teacher Micro-credentials Digital Promise Global has built an ecosystem of micro-credentials in partnership with issuers, earners, and recognizers to personalize learning for educators, and is actively working with states, districts, schools, and educators to implement and build incentive structures for micro-credentials. They actively support schools, districts, and states as they implement micro-credentials to provide personalized professional learning that is competency-based, on-demand, and shareable, and work closely with education leaders to design implementation plans for micro-credentials to address specific challenges or needs and organizations to support the development of new micro-credentials. Expertise in teacher micro-credentials specifically, and personalized, competency-based professional learning for teachers more broadly is required for the successful development of the 2020 NETP and the first policy brief focused on leveraging emerging technologies to advance personalized, professional learning opportunities for teachers. This project must advance the Secretary of Education's Supplemental Priority focused on increasing high-quality, on-demand, and personalized professional learning opportunities for teachers and result in changes in state, district and school practices to improve and personalize professional learning for educators and facilitate educator collaboration and communication. Key Area 4: Educational Technology Technical Writing Digital Promise Global has demonstrated expertise in writing, editing, positioning and messaging high-level, complex and technical educational technology content, including developing national educational technology plans and policy briefs, in plain language targeted to meet the needs of both practitioners and policymakers. Karen Cator, President and CEO of Digital Promise Global, is a nationally recognized expert in transforming education through technology, innovation and research for over 20 years. Ms. Cator led the development of the 2010 National Education Technology Plan and has led the development of 61 educational technology reports by Digital Promise Global over the past six years. Dr. Means has advised the Department on multiple national education technology plans, including the most recent 2016 plan, and has authored or edited more than a half dozen books related to learning and technology. Dr. Roschelle has published 125 educational technology research articles and has a long-standing role as Associate Editor for the Journal of the Learning Sciences. Educational technology technical writing expertise is required for the successful development of the 2020 NETP and the six policy briefs under the base contract. This expertise will further be required to successfully execute the options if exercised, including the 2022 NETP and the three additional policy briefs. Key Area 5: Educational Technology Networks and Partnerships Digital Promise has demonstrated expertise in recruiting, engaging and partnering with a diverse set of innovative teachers, school and district leaders, educational technology product and service providers, and corporations to engage in deep collaboration, that includes expertise in conducting high-level and cross-functional educational technology convenings and developing purposeful networks of districts and organizations with the goal of leveraging technology to solve persistent problems in education. These networks and partnerships include: •Education Innovation Clusters: Local communities of practice across the country that bring together educators, entrepreneurs, funders, researchers, and other community stakeholders (families, local government, nonprofits) to support innovative teaching and learning in their regions •League of Innovative Schools: National network of forward-thinking school district leaders across 114 districts and 34 states brought together to design, validate, champion, and scale effective, innovative learning opportunities to advance equity and excellence for all learners •Cyberlearning Research Center: National research network that works to support, synergize, and amplify the efforts of projects in the emerging field of cyberlearning, a field that seeks to integrate emerging technology capabilities and learning sciences insights to address the pressing need to increase learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Expertise in building and sustaining educational technology networks and partnerships is required for the successful development of the 2020 NETP and the six policy briefs under the base contract (outreach, engagement and dissemination). This expertise will further be required to successfully execute the options if exercised, including the 2022 NETP, three additional policy briefs, and the Customer Satisfaction Survey of key educational technology stakeholders. Making a noncompetitive award to Digital Promise Global is the most advantageous acquisition strategy for meeting OET's need for an organization with a deep bench of educational technology research expertise, skill at synthesizing and translating complex information into online tools for practitioners, teacher micro-credentials expertise, educational technology technical writing skill and expertise in recruiting, engaging and partnering to develop robust networks of educational technology policymakers, practitioners and industry leaders.. While other vendors may be able to provide generic outreach, writing and dissemination support, only Digital Promise Global has the combined subject matter, research, data translation and networking expertise to complete this work requirement. For these reasons, a sole source contract to Digital Promise Global is necessary to ensure the success of the National Educational Technology Plan and Policy Briefs contract. The below table indicates a Strength Weakness Capability and Opportunities (SWOT) analysis of proposed sole source vendor with companies with either same or different capabilities. Table 1; SWOT Analysis Comparing Capabilities 6.A description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under 5.202 apples. In accordance with FAR 6.305(d), this justification shall be made publicly available at the GPE (https://www.fbo.gov) and the Department website for 30 days within 14 days after contract award. 7.A determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable. Any rates proposed by Digital Promise Global for this contract will be compared with labor rates from other contractors in the market to ensure they are fair and reasonable. The Department will perform a price or cost analysis to determine fair and reasonableness of price or cost, as required by the FAR. In addition, the Independent Government Cost Estimate uses historical data to estimate the cost of performance and the Department will use this information in the cost analysis before award. The labor mix will also be confirmed as commensurate with the work required. 8.A description of the market research conducted and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted. In early 2019, OET conducted market research to assess viable options for meeting this requirement. This research included using Internet search engines with discriminating factors corresponding to the six key areas of required expertise described in Section 5. A total of 5 vendors, all with knowledge of current K-12 educational technology policy, practice and research, were assessed against the six required key areas. This market research confirmed that Digital Promise Global is the only vendor with demonstrated technical expertise in all six of the key areas required for providing timely and high-quality deliverables for this contract. No other vendor demonstrated expertise in more than two of the five required key areas. 9.Any other fact supporting the use of other than full and open competition. N/A 10.A listing of the sources, if any, that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition. No other vendors have expressed an interest in this requirement. 11.A statement of the actions, if any, the agency will take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to restricted consideration before any subsequent acquisition for supplies and services is made. The Department will continue to conduct thorough market research to gauge the marketplace capabilities for future requirements. CAM will follow up with OET in advance of this contract ending to ensure that if any additional work is required, we have enough time to compete a requirement without affecting the mission of the project. In addition, the acquisition team has discussed that at the close of the contract, no further work will require the historical knowledge developed by the incumbent. Therefore, all future work will be competed.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/8375f10e651611a5a9891507e3419b57)
- Place of Performance
- Address: 550 12St Street SE, Washington, District of Columbia, 20019, United States
- Zip Code: 20019
- Zip Code: 20019
- Record
- SN05429247-W 20190905/190903231339-8375f10e651611a5a9891507e3419b57 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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