26QE033_ATTCH8_PWS_040726.docx

PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT

Department of War Education Activity (DoWEA) 4800 Mark Center Drive Alexandria, VA 22350

CONTROLLED UNCLASSIFIED INFORMATION (CUI)

SOURCE SELECTION INFORMATION – SEE FAR 2.101 & 3.104

DEPARTMENT OF WAR EDUCATION ACTIVITY (DoWEA)

PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT (PWS)

FOR

ENGINEERING PATHWAY COURSEWARE

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Agency

The Department of War Education Activity (DoWEA) is one of only two federally operated school systems. DoWEA plans, directs, coordinates, and manages prekindergarten through grade 12 educational programs in 161 fully accredited schools that serve approximately 66,000 children of active-duty military and DoW civilian families. Our curriculum, resources and student achievement scores on standardized assessments compare favorably to those of high-performing US public school systems.

Operating as a field activity of the Office of the Secretary of War (Personnel and Readiness), DoWEA is overseen by a director located at our headquarters in Alexandria, VA. Our schools are organized into three geographic areas: Americas, Europe, and Pacific. In the Americas, DoWEA operates 50 schools located in seven states, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. In Europe and the Middle East, DoWEA operates 64 schools located in Germany, England, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Turkey, Bahrain, and Italy. In the Pacific, we operate 46 schools located in Korea, Japan (mainland and Okinawa), and Guam. DoWEA also operates one fully accredited virtual high school with teaching hubs in the Americas, Europe, and Pacific.

DoWEA has adopted College and Career Ready Standards (CCRS) in mathematics, literacy, the arts, social studies, and science, which are rigorous, research-based, and reflect the knowledge, skills and dispositions students need for success in college and/or careers and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards. DoWEA standards may be found at https://www.dodea.edu/education/curriculum.

1.2 Background .

As a reminder, FAR Clause 52.212‑4(q) requires the contractor to comply with all applicable Federal, State, and local laws, executive orders, rules, and regulations applicable to its performance under this contract. DoWEA is a DoW field activity, providing education from pre‑kindergarten through grade 12. Executive Order 14168, Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, and Executive Order 14190, Ending Radical Indoctrination in K–12 Schooling, are particularly applicable to DoDEA contracts.

DoWEA’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) program includes a popular Engineering Pathway since 2021. The current contract is expiring and must, according to Federal regulations, be recompeted.

1.3 Scope

The Contractor shall provide commercial off-the-shelf, 100% digital courseware for students and teachers as well as related professional learning, and technical support for three courses: Principles of Engineering, Engineering Design and Development, and Engineering Drawing Computer-Aided Design (CAD). The instructional resources shall be based on research-based best practices shown to help students master the standards. DoWEA prefers to make one award for this requirement but may make multiple awards.

2 REQUIREMENTS (OBJECTIVES)

2.1 Objective 1, Engineering Pathway Courseware

This objective is to provide courseware and related support that are aligned with the course competencies and standards for three courses: Principles of Engineering, Engineering Design and Development, and Engineering Drawing and CAD.

The tasks listed below help the Contractor understand the requirements but are not exhaustive.

The Contractor shall develop a complete solution using a performance-based approach.

2.1.1 Task 1, Three Courses—The Contractor shall provide access to commercial off-the-shelf (COTS), 100% digital, cloud-based instructional resources for the three engineering courses, which DoWEA calls Principles of Engineering, Engineering Design and Development, and Engineering Drawing CAD. Course standards may be found at the following URL: https://www.DoDEA.edu/curriculum/career-technical-education-cte. The Contractor shall provide the following content for each proposed course:

2.1.1.1 Aligned to the adopted competencies for each course.

2.1.1.2 Customizable content to support a variety of instructional formats, including face-to-face, virtual, or hybrid.

2.1.1.3 Instructional practices for teachers to foster student mastery of engineering skills.

2.1.1.4 Up-to-date regulatory information about the engineering industry.

2.1.1.5 Variety of recipes and hands-on and skill-building activities to strengthen knowledge of real-world engineering skills and concepts.

2.1.1.6 Assessments to determine student strengths and weaknesses for industry-aligned standards and objectives.

2.1.1.7 List of components required for each lesson to include necessary vs. optional equipment and consumables.

2.1.1.8 Option, if applicable, to purchase instructional resources such as student instructional materials that support adapted CAD software (such as the Onshape by design course). See PWS 2.2.3, regarding third-party programs, software, and applications.

2.1.2 Task 2, Professional Learning—The Contractor shall:

2.1.2.1 Overview and Navigation: Provide asynchronous webinars and/or digital modules for teachers. See PWS 3.9 for more information about SCORM® compliance.

2.1.2.2 Best Practices: Provide three 2-hour asynchronous sessions each year—a total of six contact hours. Note: The Government, in consultation with the Contractor, will determine the topics, dates, and times for each webinar post-award.

2.1.2.3 LMS: Post each webinar on our learning management system (LMS, Schoology).

2.2 Objective 2, General Requirements

2.2.1 Task 1, Technical Support: The Contractor shall provide industry-standard technical support for its digital resources for the life of the contract via telephone or email within one business day from the initial contact, to include, but not limited to, assisting with service problems, product setup, upgrades, and troubleshooting.

2.2.2 Task 2, Third-Party Programs, Software, and Applications: The Contractor shall ensure its own and its subcontractors’ (third-party) programs, software, and applications meet—at a minimum—the same technical requirements as the Contractor must meet, such as single sign on (SSO) and Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Level 2, etc. On a case-by-case basis, DoWEA may honor requests to waive the FedRAMP Level 2 requirement. For more information, see Technical Exhibit #1, 1.1.

2.2.3 Task 3, Delivery of Digital Resources: The Contractor shall:

2.2.3.1 Deliver digital materials with instructions detailing how the resources can be accessed by teachers, students, and above-school-level educators, using DoWEA’s LMS and/or DoWEA’s single-sign on rostering platform (ClassLink).

2.2.3.2 Allow teachers to download resources as needed. For example, a teacher may want to provide a printed worksheet for students or a student with an individual educational program (IEP) may require materials in print form. Note: All printed resources will be for internal use only.

2.2.4 Meetings: Attend virtual meetings at no additional cost to the Government and provide the medium through which each meeting occurs, and record each meeting’s minutes. Submit the draft minutes to the COR within two business days of the event and finalize the minutes two business days after receiving written feedback from the COR. Note: Costs associated with attending any face-to-face meetings shall be handled/ paid for as stated in the contract.

2.2.4.1 Post-Award Conference: Participate in a video- or teleconference with the COR five business days after award

2.2.4.2 IT Meeting: Convene a video- or teleconference with DoWEA’s Information Technology staff ten business days after award, per Technical Exhibit #1.

2.2.4.3 Other Post-Award Meetings: Meet with the Contracting Officer (KO), COR, and/or other DoWEA personnel, as appropriate, to review Contractor performance, as required by DoWEA. The KO may discuss DoWEA’s view of Contractor performance, and the Contractor shall apprise DoWEA of any problems being experienced. The Contractor shall take appropriate action to resolve any outstanding issues DoWEA raises.

2.3 Performance Standards and Acceptable Quality Levels (Objectives 1 and 2)

2.3.1 Performance Standard: Tasks shall be completed by the required completion date.

2.3.2 Acceptable Quality Level: See PWS Section 7, Performance Requirement Summary.

3 CONSTRAINTS

3.1 Place of Performance: Work shall be performed at the Contractor’s facilities.

3.2 Privacy—The Contractor shall:

3.2.1 User Accounts: Require, wherever applicable, that individual accounts possess unique usernames and passwords that do not require personally identifiable information (PII) to access online content, i.e., first & last name and any other unique personal information.

3.2.2 Contractor Personnel

· Ensure personnel assigned to this contract take proper precautions to protect information from disclosure. Collect and/or store all DoWEA-owned or DoWEA-controlled PII in accordance with the relevant requirements of the Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C, which may be found at the following URL: http://www.archives.gov/about/laws/privacy-act-1974.html.

· All Contractor personnel that have access or may potentially have access to DoWEA data in any form shall be US citizens, including any third-party penetration (PEN)/security testers.

3.2.3 Privacy Training: Ensure Contractor staff who have access to DoWEA’s student, teacher and/or staff personally identifiable information successfully complete the DoW Privacy Act/Personally Identifiable Information (PA/PII) training before gaining access to the data and yearly thereafter. Provide copies of the certificates of completion to the COR which can be audited at any time by the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) or his/her designee.

3.2.4 Privacy Verification: Provide the COR written verification of compliance with the Privacy requirements (listed above) 120 calendar days prior to the expiration of each year’s contract option period or annually, as required. Note: After reviewing the Contractor’s verification, DoWEA reserves the right to ask for additional verification data so DoWEA can comply with DoW’s evolving privacy mandates.

3.3 Liaison and Alternate Liaison—The Contractor shall:

3.3.1 Provide a liaison and alternate liaison to be responsible for the performance of work. Their names shall be designated in writing to the Contracting Officer. They shall have full authority to act for the Contractor on all contract matters relating to the daily operation of this contract. Each shall have at least one year of experience working in a similar role.

3.3.2 Notify the COR in writing regarding any change in either the liaison’s role ten business days in advance of the change If the liaison or liaison alternate is changed post-award, the replacement shall meet or exceed the qualifications and experience of the person assigned upon contract award.

3.4 Holidays and Hours of Operation: The liaison or alternate liaison shall be available during the hours of 9AM to 3PM Eastern Standard Time (EST), except for Federal holidays and Federal government closures/ shutdowns. The following list shows recognized Federal holidays: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.

3.5 Availability: The Contractor shall make all resources available for the life of the contract.

3.6 Updates: The Contractor shall keep content/courseware current and updated regularly throughout the period of performance, as demonstrated by maintenance of an updated content copyright not to exceed one school year from its current date. For example, an eBook published in January 2025 would be acceptable for the 2025-26 school year and also the 2026-27 school year. It would not, however, be considered current for the 2027-28 school year.

3.7 Section 508 Compliance—The Contractor shall:

3.7.1 Background: Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, as amended by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-220) requires Federal agencies that develop, procure, maintain, or use information and communication technology (ICT) to ensure they are accessible to people with disabilities. Federal employees and members of the public who have disabilities must have access to and use of information/ data that is comparable to people without disabilities.

3.7.2 Requirement: Ensure that products, platforms, and services delivered as part of this work statement that are ICT or contain ICT conform to the Revised 508 Standards, 36 C.F.R. § 1194.1 & Apps. A, C & D which are located at the following URL: https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh/final-rule/text-of-the-standards-and-guidelines.

3.7.3 ARS: See the attached ICT Accessibility Requirements Statement (ARS). All functional performance criteria apply when using an alternative design or technology that achieves substantially equivalent or greater accessibility and usability by individuals with disabilities, than would be provided by conformance to one or more of the requirements in Chapters 4-6 of the Revised 508 Standards or when Chapters 4-6 do not address one or more functions of ICT. Note the guidance in the table below:

3.8 Sharable Content Object Reference Model® (SCORM®) Compliance: Provide digital modules, if included among the proposed/required resources, that are SCORM®-compliant. Note: The Department of War Instruction (DoWI) 1322.26 mandates that modules comply with the latest possible version of SCORM®, per https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/issuances/dodi/132226_dodi_2017.pdf?ver=2017-10-05-073235-400.

3.9 Data & Data Rights: All data developed from any work awarded under this contract is and shall remain the property of the Government. The Contractor shall ensure that digital rights to all visual materials embedded in the resources will be given so that DoWEA—for our internal use only—may use resources without incurring copyright costs or infringing on copyright laws. All data developed from any work awarded under this contract is and shall remain the property of the Government.

3.10 Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI): The Contractor (including any subcontractor) personnel performing work under this contract may receive, have access to, or participate in the development of, proprietary or Privacy Act information (e.g., personal information, education, etc.) may create a current or subsequent OCI as defined in FAR Subpart 9.5. Whenever the Contractor becomes aware that such access or participation may result in actual or potential OCI, the Contractor shall (1) immediately notify the Contracting Officer (KO) in writing and (2) promptly submit a plan to the KO to avoid or mitigate any such OCI. Note: The KO will unilaterally determine if the Contractor’s plan is acceptable. If the KO determines the plan cannot satisfactorily avoid or mitigate an OCI, s/he may implement other remedies to include prohibiting the Contractor’s further participation in contracted requirements.

4 GOVERNMENT-FURNISHED INFORMATION / RESOURCES

None

5 CONTRACT DELIVERABLES

Frequency Submit To

Objective 1, Engineering Pathway Courseware

Drafts: 15 business days before the first presentation.

Final: Five business days after receipt of written feedback from DoWEA

COR

Objective 2, General Requirements

Constraints

6 ACRONYMS and DEFINITIONS

Contracting Officer (KO): Only individuals with the expressed authority to obligate (bind) the Government by means of entering, administering, and terminating contracts within the limits of the authority delegated via the KO’s warrant.

Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR): Qualified and trained Government employee, nominated by the requiring activity (RA) and appointed in writing by a KO primarily to perform specific technical or administrative functions on a specific contract(s); serves as the ‘eyes and ears’ of a KO to assure the Government’s best interests are protected via the terms and conditions of the contract(s). Appointed. CORs do not have the authority to obligate (bind) the Government.

Contractor: Supplier or vendor contracted to provide specific supplies or services to the Government—may also be referred to as “the prime”.

Deliverable: Usually physically delivered items but may include such items as digital documents/reports.

Performance Requirements Summary (PRS): Tabular listing of performance objectives and standards.

Performance Work Statement (PWS): Statement of work for performance-based acquisitions describing the required results in clear, specific, and objective terms with measurable outcomes.

7 PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENT SUMMARY

Objective 1, Engineering Pathway Courseware

Task 1, Three Courses

PWS 2.1.1

Drafts: 80% correct Finals: 100% correct except for possible errors in grammar and/or formatting.

Objective 2, General Requirements

Constraints

Privacy Verification

PWS 3.2.4

Technical Exhibit #1 - TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS The Contractor shall comply with the applicable technical requirements detailed below.

1.1 Software and Cloud Security Requirements—The Contractor shall:

1.1.1 Ensure all online resources, cloud-based services and instructional software meet Department of Defense (DoD) and DoWEA cybersecurity requirements as defined below. Note: Software, cloud services and associated websites are rigorously tested to ensure no security risks are posed to DoWEA infrastructure and its users.

1.1.2 Complete the Cloud Services questionnaire that was submitted as part of the proposal submission and provide copies of and/or access to any software listed in the proposed solution.

1.1.3 Ensure its content accessible from the web is compatible with the following browser platforms: Google Chrome, and Microsoft Edge. Ensure that any applicable STIGs are implemented.

1.1.4 Provide a plan of action and milestones (POA&M) to mitigate any cybersecurity findings resulting from non-compliant and/or vulnerable components within 30 calendar days of written notification from DoWEA.

1.1.5 Be able to meet Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Level 2 standards for all proposed software/digital resources and ensure that any third-party resources that are part of its proposed solution also meet the FedRAMP Level 2 standard. For more information on FedRAMP, see the following URL: www.fedramp.gov. Participate, if required, in interviews and deep system architecture inspections.

· Per DoD policy for cloud-based services, DoWEA conducts a supplemental series of validations, which closely mirror the FedRAMP Internet Cloud vetting processes. Contractor participation/cooperation is normally required to complete this process.

· On a case-by-case basis, DoWEA may honor requests to waive the FedRAMP Level 2 requirement.

· DoWEA currently distributes software packages via Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) and Microsoft Intune.

· All older 16-bit software are automatically denied.

1.4 DoWEA Software License Keys: The Contractor shall provide (1) license keys and electronic downloads for software required under this Contract to the COR and (2) software directly to DoWEA schools, districts, or regions only if explicitly required to do so in the contract or in writing by the COR.

· DoD Directive (DoDD) 8500.01E, Information Assurance, be found at the following URL: https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/issuances/dodi/850001_2014.pdf.

· DoD Security Technical Implementation Guidance (STIG), which may be found at the following URL: https://public.cyber.mil/stigs/downloads/.

· DoD Risk Management Framework (DODRMF) per DoD Instruction 8510.01, which may be found at https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/issuances/dodi/851001p.pdf?ver=2019-02-26-101520-3004.5.2.

1) Maintaining system security IAW the latest versions of the (1) DoD Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide, (2) Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and (3) Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA).

2) Providing a solution robust enough to serve the needs of a large community of learners dispersed across the world using a variety of bandwidths and scalable to meet future growth, both in terms of instruction and the number of users. In addition, provided solutions shall be applicable to the digital learning environment of the DoWEA Virtual School.

3) Ensuring Contractor staff who have access to DoWEA’s student, teacher and/or staff personally identifiable information take the DoD Privacy Act/Personally Identifiable Information (PA and PPI/PII) training before gaining access to the data and yearly thereafter. Provide copies of the certificates to the COR which can be audited at any time by the CISO or his/her designee.

1.6.2. Support industry-standard data rostering standards via ClassLink and standard data formats such as OneRoster.

1.6.3. Ensure that data storage, handling, and security meet the following minimum standards:

1) DoWEA’s information and data shall be secured in data center located in the United States.

2) The system, including its server(s) and network devices, shall be in an environmentally controlled and secure facility under controlled circumstances (e.g., using authorized personnel access lists, ID cards, entry logs, etc.).

3) All Contractor personnel that have access or may potentially have access to DoWEA data in any form shall be US citizens, including any third-party penetration (PEN)/security testers.

4) All data transit shall be secured with Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption.

5) All data at rest shall be secured with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)-256 encryption.

1.6.4 Ensure that data integration includes the following:

1) Automated industry standard form of data integration using Representational State Transfer Application Program Interface (RESTful API), Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI), or Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) data sets (ClassLink, OneRoster, etc.).

2) Encryption of DoWEA’s data at rest to include unique encryption keys for each customer on systems hosting multiple customers.

3) Notification of DoWEA in writing within 72 hours of any changes made to corporate policies for data protection.

4) Use of only masked student data in a non-production environment.

5) Integration scheduling that meets DoWEA’s required timeframes.

6) Provision of fully automated data uploads per Agency schedule(s) and Agency requirements.

7) Support of SFTP capabilities using a single set of login credentials.

8) Provision of a single data set of DoWEA information. Note: The Contractor’s solution shall support DoWEA at all levels: school, community, district, region, and HQ.

9) Maintenance of a backup and restore plan for DoWEA data in the event of a disaster.

10) Provision of detailed feedback of what caused errors if an integration transmission results in errors.

1.6.5 System Features—The system shall:

1) Allow user accounts to be created automatically based on a file provided by DoWEA either nightly or on another pre-determined scheduled feed.

2) Allow DoWEA to be able to choose the format of user login identification, e.g., an email address, and be able to create manual accounts, if needed.

3) Require the user—for manually created accounts—to reset the password on the user’s initial login or, upon request, a password reset.