WWC_GRAPE_-_Amendment_0001_Executed.pdf

NSN 7540-01-152-8070 STANDARD FORM 30. (Rev. 10-83) Previous Edition unusable Prescribed by GSA FAR (48 CFR) 53.243

Page of Pages AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION/MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT 1. Contract ID Code

2. AMENDMENT MODIFICATION NO. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE 4. REQUISITION/PURCHASE REQ. NO. 5. PROJECT NO. (if applicable)

6. ISSUED BY CODE 7. ADMINISTERED BY (If other than item 6) CODE

(x) 9A. AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION NO.

9B. DATED (SEE ITEM 11)

10A. MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT/ORDER NO.

8. NAME AND ADDRESS OF CONTRACTOR (NO., Street, Country, State and ZIP Code)

CODE FACILITY CODE

10B. DATED (SEE ITEM 13)

11. THIS ITEM ONLY APPLIES TO AMENDMENTS OF SOLICITATIONS

The above numbered solicitation is amended as set forth in item 14. The hour and date specified for receipt of offers is extended, is not extended.

Offers must acknowledge receipt of this amendment prior to the hour and date specified in the solicitation or as amended, by one of the following methods:

(a) By completing items 8 and 15, and returning ______ copies of amendment; (b) By acknowledging receipt of this amendment on each copy of the offer submitted;

or (c) By separate letter or telegram which includes a reference to the solicitation and amendment numbers. FAILURE OF YOUR ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO BE RECEIVED AT THE PLACE DESIGNATED FOR THE RECEIPT OR OFFERS PRIOR TO THE HOUR AND DATE SPECIFIED MAY RESULT IN REJECTION OF YOUR OFFER. If by virtue of this amendment your desire to change an offer already submitted, such change may be made by telegram or letter, provided each telegram or letter makes reference to the solicitation and this amendment, and is received prior to the opening hour and date specified.

12. ACCOUNTING AND APPROPRIATION DATA (If required)

13. THIS ITEM ONLY APPLIES TO MODIFICATION OF CONTRACTS/ORDERS. IT MODIFIES THE CONTRACT/ORDER NO. AS DESCRIBED IN ITEM 14.

Check One A. THIS CHANGE ORDER IS ISSUED PURSUANT TO: (Specify authority) THE CHANGES SET FORTH IN ITEM 14 ARE MADE IN THE

CONTRACT ORDER NO. IN ITEM 10A.

B. THE ABOVE NUMBERED CONTRACT/ORDER IS MODIFIED TO REFLECT THE ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES (such as changes in paying office, appropriation date, etc) SET FORTH IN ITEM 14, PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORITY OF FAR 43.103(b).

C. THIS SUPPLEMENTAL AGREEMENT IS ENTERED INTO PURSUANT TO AUTHORITY OF:

D. OTHER (Specify type of modification and authority)

E. IMPORTANT: Contractor is not, is required to sign this document and return _______ copies to the issuing office.

14. DESCRIPTION OF AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION (Organized by UCF section headings, including solicitation/contract subject matter where feasible)

Except as provided herein, all terms and conditions of the document referenced in item 9A or 10A, as heretofore changed, remains unchanged and in full force and effect.

15A. NAME AND TITLE OF SIGNER (Type or print) 16A. NAME AND TITLE OF CONTRACTING OFFICER (Type or print)

15B. CONTRACTOR/OFFEROR 16B. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

(Signature of person authorized to sign)

15C. DATE SIGNED

(Signature of Contracting Officer)

16C. DATE SIGNED

Amendment 0001 clarifies the responds to vendor questions, corrects the time of offer submission, and revises the Instructions to Offerors and the Evaluation Criteria.

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91990018R00110001 JUL 16, 2018

CAMPCP

US Dept of ED-550 12th Street SW - Room 7169 Washington DC 20065

See Block 6

91990018R0011

JUL 06, 2018

See Schedule

X 1

Attachment Page

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Number Reference Question Category Question Response

Section II, page 7 of 91 Technical Please clarify what is needed for the sample research reports appendix.

Sample Reports. In the “sample reports” appendix, the offeror shall provide exemplars of its prior or current work conducting research and evaluation studies, or systematic evidence reviews and conveying the content of the work and its findings to a policy audience. Specifically, in this appendix, the contractor shall provide two (and no more than two) research/evaluation papers or reports (or parts of papers or reports) that the contractor has conducted within the last three years.

The papers or reports provided should demonstrate the contractor’s commitment to quality, rigor, relevance, and usefulness to policy-makers. Each report (or the portion of paper or report submitted as a sample) may be no longer than 8 single-spaced pages or 15 double-spaced pages in total. Neither of the two samples submitted may have been revised to reflect any comments from IES or other federal oversight. Each exemplar shall include the following written assurance on its cover sheet: “This document does not reflect any comments from IES or other federal oversight.” The offeror may choose to develop a product for this proposal if one does not exist.

Section II, page 7 of 91 Technical We cannot locate the "Organizational Capabilities, Experience & Resources" section.

This section has been retitled "Sample Reports Appendix" and the contents of those reports are described in Question 1 above.

Evaluation Scale and Criteria, Criterion E

Technical Please provide any specific requirements on the past performance section. Is there a requested number of past performance examples?

There are no specific requirements for the past performance section. It is up to the discretion of the offeror to allocate space for this section of the proposal in order to satisfy the evaluation criterion.

Task 2.1 Technical Does the Department require a preliminary number and description of methodologically rigorous and substantively relevant studies on the topic to be included in the proposal or a description of our approach to finding such studies?

While studies in need of WWC review for the practice guide do not need to be identified individually in the proposal, offerors should show familiarity with the number and design of the studies listed in the corresponding older WWC practice guide and with the process of determining the eligibility of studies for review for the updated practice guide. For budgeting purposes, offerors should assume that up to 200 studies will need to be reviewed for the updated practice guide, of which 150 were previously reviewed by the WWC but will need to be re-reviewed using the latest (version 4.0) standards and procedures.

RFP Contract What is the proposal due date? Page 1 of the Instructions to Offerors states July 26, 2018 at 11:00 AM while Standard Form 1449 states the due date is July 20, 2018 at 11:00 AM ET.

The deadline stated in the Instructions to Offerors is accurate. Proposals are due 11:00 AM EST on July 26, 2018.

6 Page 1 and page 6 of 91 Technical

Can the Department clarify the deadline for the proposal? It is listed as both July 20th and July 26th.

The deadline stated in the Instructions to Offerors is accurate. Proposals are due 11:00 AM EST on July 26, 2018.

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INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS

What Works Clearinghouse: Guides to Research that Assists Practitioners in Education

(WWC-GRAPE)

Solicitation: 91990018R0011

I. Proposal Submission Instructions

This Request for Proposal (RFP) is being issued in accordance with procedures set forth in Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) Part 12 (Acquisition of Commercial Items), Part 13 (Simplified Acquisition Procedures), and Part 19.5 (Set-Asides for Small Business). To be eligible to submit a proposal for this procurement, the offeror must qualify as a small business under NAICS 541720. The Government intends to award a multiple-award Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) and one firm fixed price task order for the work outlined in the attached Performance Work Statement (PWS).

Ceiling: The ceiling for each individual blanket purchase agreement issued will be $7,000,000.00.

Offerors must prepare separate technical and business proposals for the Order 0001. Each proposal should be separate and complete in itself so that evaluation of one may be accomplished independently of the other. Cost information must be restricted to the business proposal, and the technical proposal should not contain reference to specific costs (although resource information may be included so that the offeror’s understanding of the scope of the work may be evaluated). Past performance information should be included in the technical proposal. Note: the Department is not requesting, and offerors must not submit, a technical volume for the BPA itself – only for Order 0001.

An official authorized to bind your organization must sign the proposal. Proposals are due by 11:00 AM (Eastern Standard Time) on July 26, 2018. If an email’s attachment size exceeds 20MB, it is recommended that the offeror break up the proposal into smaller attachments in separate emails. E-mail attachments must not exceed 15 MB in total size per email, or they will be rejected by the Department’s servers. You may need to send more than one email in response to this solicitation.

Electronic Submission: Proposals are to be submitted by email as three separate volumes with the following file names:

(i) [Name of Company] Technical Proposal (Version Date) (PDF)

(ii) [Name of Company] Business Proposal (Version Date) (PFD)

(iii) [Name of Company] Business Proposal Spreadsheets (Version Date) (EXCEL)

The U.S. Department of Education (the Department) will accept clarification questions from potential offerors. Clarification questions must be submitted by the due date, which is 10:00 AM (Eastern Standard Time) on July 13, 2018. All questions must be submitted electronically to Jaamal.Jennings@ed.gov with a carbon copy to Gabriella.McDonald@ed.gov. The Department does not guarantee that a response will be given to clarification questions submitted after the due date. Offerors will not receive a response until all questions have been received by the due date. All questions and answers will be posted on the Federal Business Opportunities web site (www.FBO.gov). It is the prospective offeror’s responsibility to monitor this site.

Offerors shall submit questions in an MS Excel file following a format similar to the table below:

Questions Format Question No. Reference Question

Category Question

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RFP, PWS, or attachments, and Section

Contract or Technical Question

Anticipated Period of Performance:

Task Order 0001 of this single-award BPA will have a 24-month period of performance, and each BPA will have an ordering period of 60 months. Orders placed during the ordering period of the BPA may extend beyond the BPA period of performance as long as the order is issued prior to its expiration.

The BPA ordering period is estimated to be September 25, 2018 – September 24, 2023.

II. General Proposal Instructions

The technical proposal will describe work for Order 0001 only. Through the technical proposal, the offeror must show a thorough understanding of the goals and activities of the Performance Work Statement (PWS) and demonstrate that proposed staff have the necessary experience and expertise to meet task objectives. While the intent of each task is spelled out in the PWS, this should be considered a starting point, and technical proposals must include detailed work plans and illustrative examples to fully describe the offeror’s plans to accomplish each task and the relevant deliverables. A proposal that simply repeats the language of the PWS without specifying the offeror’s technical solution will not be considered eligible for award.

Offerors are encouraged to suggest improvements to the approaches detailed in the PWS, along with a justification of the merits of these alternative approaches. Offerors may find it necessary to make adjustments to the schedule provided in the PWS, in accordance with the newly proposed strategies and/or procedures. In this case, offerors must clearly identify any changes in the schedule and explain their rationale, keeping in mind the Department’s objective of completing the requirement within the stated time frame.

The technical proposal has a page limit of 50 pages (8.5” x 11” pages). The following items are excluded from this count (though note the page requirements for the sample reports described below):

(i) Technical proposal cover page,

(ii) Resume appendix,

(iii) Letters of commitment appendix,

(iv) Sample research reports appendix (see “Organizational Capabilities, Experience &

Resources” section belowSample Reports Appendix section below).’

All other items are included. Offerors must follow the following formatting guidance: (i) double-spaced text, (ii) font that is 12-pt, (iii) 1-inch margins. The formatting requirements for the technical proposal do not apply to any graphs or tables included in the technical proposal.

The resume appendix has no formatting requirements; however no single resume may be longer than four pages. Each resume should clearly demonstrate that individuals have the skills to perform the work for which they are proposed.

The primary author for each section of the Technical Proposal shall be identified by name.

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III. Technical Proposal Format and Content

The organization of the technical volume is at the discretion of each offeror. The technical volume must contain enough information to satisfy each evaluation criterion, and the layout must be such that the technical evaluation panel may easily crosswalk the proposed work to the criteria and to the work described in the PWS and subject to the caveats listed below: .

Sample Reports Appendix:

In the “sample reports” appendix, the offeror shall provide exemplars of its prior or current work conducting research and evaluation studies, or systematic evidence reviews and conveying the content of the work and its findings to a policy audience. Specifically, in this appendix, the contractor shall provide two (and no more than two) research/evaluation papers or reports (or parts of papers or reports) that the contractor has conducted within the last three years. The papers or reports provided should demonstrate the contractor’s commitment to quality, rigor, relevance, and usefulness to policy-makers. Each report (or the portion of paper or report submitted as a sample) may be no longer than 8 single-spaced pages or 15 double-spaced pages in total. Neither of the two samples submitted may have been revised to reflect any comments from IES or other federal oversight. Each exemplar shall include the following written assurance on its cover sheet: “This document does not reflect any comments from IES or other federal oversight.” The offeror may choose to develop a product for this proposal if one does not exist.

Personnel and Staffing:

Offerors shall demonstrate that the proposed key personnel are not overextended during the two years of the first task order of the contract by including a chart showing how the labor hours proposed for this requirement compare to other commitments (including other contracts and projects). At a minimum, offerors shall include a chart with the following data:

Staff Member

Total labor hours proposed for this contract (9/1/2018 – 8/31/2019)

Total labor hours proposed for other projects (9/1/2018 – 8/31/2019)

Total labor hours proposed for this contract (9/1/2019 – 8/31/2020)

Total labor hours proposed for other projects (9/1/2019 – 8/31/2020)

Past Performance:

The Source Selection Authority/Contracting Officer reserves the right to obtain past performance information from other services such as CPARS and FAPIIS and any additional sources that the Source Selection Authority determines to be necessary.

IV. Business Proposal Volume

The Department anticipates fully funding the Order 0001 at time of award. There is no page limit to the business proposal. The offeror must submit proposed costs for each task and subtask and for the project overall, as well as proposed payment schedule tied to the Government’s acceptance of the deliverables specified in the PWS. The proposed budget for each task and subtask must include the number of hours each staff person is expected to commit, the labor category, and the hourly labor rate.

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NOTE TO OFFERORS - It is required that your business proposal contain enough information for a price reasonableness determination to be made. Offerors are expected to use their best business judgment in submitting the necessary information. The Contracting Officer (CO) can reject an offeror’s proposal if proposed prices are found to NOT be reasonable. Please verify that the contents of the business proposal are mathematically accurate and the supporting data reconcile in the proposal

Business Proposal Contents

The Business Proposal shall be formatted in a readable way (e.g. no tiny fonts) and must include each of the following:

A cover sheet with the name, address, and DUNS number of the firm and signed by an officer of the firm.

Price Summary

Base Period Total Value Non-Optional Tasks Optional Tasks

After this summary chart, the offeror shall propose labor categories and rates for all personnel who might be used on any task orders issued against this BPA. The offeror should use the following format:

Labor Category

Year 1 6/30/17-6/29/18

Year 2 6/30/18- 6/29/19

Year 3 6/30/19- 6/29/20

Year 4 6/30/20- 6/29/21

Year 5 6/30/21- 6/29/22

Sample: Project Director

$123.45 / hour $134.56 / hour $145.67 / hour $156.78 / hour $167.89 / hour

Other Details:

The business quotation shall list the names and telephones numbers of persons authorized to conduct negotiations;

The business quotation shall include a statement to the effect that the offer is firm for a period of at least 90 calendar days from the date of receipt of offers specified by the Government;

The business quotation shall include a Conflict of Interest Certificate (as provided in the solicitation under EDAR 3452.209-70 Conflict of Interest Certification).

For any subcontractors which are proposed, a separate price buildup (by task/subtask) should be submitted for each proposed subcontractor, and these prices should also be included in the prime's total firm-fixed price for each task order. In the master buildup for each task order, it should be clear which costs are associated with the prime contractor and which costs are associated with subcontractors.

If subcontractors are proposed, FAR 52.219-14(c) (1) requires that “At least 50 percent of the cost of contract performance incurred for personnel shall be expended for employees of the concern.” The small business primary contractor must perform at least 50% of the labor for each task order, as measured by dollars (not hours).

Price Buildup

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The business quotation shall provide a complete price build-up for this task order that includes identification of proposed labor categories by named individuals, their functional category, level of effort, loaded hourly rate, extended labor price (i.e., labor hours x hourly labor rate), and other direct costs. The price shall be presented by task and subtask. The quotation shall describe any applicable assumptions used to formulate the price build-up. Where a percentage rate is applied (e.g., “Technology Fee” at x%), it should be clearly disclosed what the rate is being applied against (e.g., against total labor costs).

The business quotation must incorporate cost and pricing information that accounts for a 52.217-8 -- Option to Extend Services. The proposed pricing is for evaluation of the option clause only; it will not be taken into account as part of the proposed total contract value of the contract. Please show this information based on monthly increments.

Note that the cost/price of optional tasks will be added to the total contract value for the purposes of evaluating total cost/price.

Payment Schedules

The offeror must submit a proposed payment schedule for the FFP elements of the order. These should be submitted as separate Microsoft Excel files (or separate sheets in the same Excel file). The individual amounts should add up to the total order amount. The payment schedule need not reference due dates and can generally follow a simple format such as:

WWC-GRAPE

Description of Payment Trigger (Deliverable or Milestone Achievement) Payment Amount

Total:

The payment triggers should be based on accomplishments (e.g., submitting a deliverable, meeting a milestone), as opposed the passage of time (e.g., monthly).

Conflict of Interest Plan

Each offeror shall submit a Conflict of Interest Plan, providing details on its policies and procedures to identify and avoid potential organizational or personnel conflicts of interest (or apparent conflicts of interest). The Plan should also address procedures taken to neutralize or mitigate such conflicts, if they have not been or cannot be avoided. The Plan should indicate that such policies and procedures are operative throughout the period of outside activities financial interests, or other significant connections or identifications that would establish, or give the appearance of establishing, a conflict of interest. A method for periodically reviewing financial interests of employees, subcontractors and consultants, and their immediate families, in order to assess actual or apparent conflicts of interest, should be included in the plan. The term, “potential conflict” means a reasonably foreseeable conflict of interest.

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Evaluation Criteria Version Date: 07.16.18 Evaluation Scale and Criteria

The following definitions shall be applied appropriately by Panel Members when evaluating a proposed solution and documenting technical evaluation findings:

Strength – An attribute in the proposal, which can be beneficial to the program or greatly increase the probability of successful contract performance.

Weakness – An attribute in the proposal that is a flaw in the proposal that increases the risk of unsuccessful contract performance.

The adjectival rating scale for the technical evaluation criteria listed on the attached Technical Proposal Evaluation Forms is defined below. Panel Members shall cite specific proposal references and page numbers to support comments listed under the strength, weakness, significant weakness, or deficiency (as appropriate) categories. The following adjectival ratings shall be applied for each evaluation criterion:

EVALUATION SCALE

EXCELLENT

The vendor’s proposed solution exceeds specified performance or capability in a beneficial way to the Department. The solution does not contain inconsistencies or incompatibilities. The response to this criterion has multiple strengths in meeting the requirements and does not contain any weaknesses.

SATISFACTORY

The vendor’s proposed solution meets the performance or capability standards.

The solution contains minor or insignificant inconsistencies or incompatibilities.

The response to this criterion has strengths and may have weaknesses, but the strengths outweigh the weaknesses.

MARGINAL

The vendor’s proposed solution fails to meet some of the performance or capability standards. The solution contains inconsistencies. The response to this criterion may have strengths, but these strengths are offset by weaknesses or a combination of significant weaknesses.

UNSATISFACTORY

The vendor’s proposed solution fails to meet the minimum performance requirements. The solution contains numerous inconsistencies and weaknesses.

The response to this criterion may contain strengths; however, any strengths are outweighed by the weaknesses or a combination of significant weaknesses. The response to this criterion requires extensive revision that amounts to a rewrite of the criterion in order to be satisfactory or excellent.

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Evaluation Criteria Version Date: 07.16.18 Technical Evaluation Criteria

The U.S. Department of Education will base the source selection decision for Order 0001 (and, by extension, whether the responding company will be included in the BPA) on the following evaluation criteria. Each criterion (e.g. A, B, C, D, and E) is listed in descending order of importance while all sub-bullets below each criterion are of equal importance.

Criterion A: Technical Qualifications of Proposed Staff The proposed project team has combined substantive content-area expertise in topics related to early childhood education, elementary education, secondary education, and postsecondary education, particularly with regard to the following elements:

o Response to Intervention in mathematics for elementary school and middle school (the designated topic of the practice guide to be prepared under Task Order 0001);

o Methodological experience and certification to apply WWC standards (especially Version 3.0 or Version 4.0 standards) to review randomized-controlled trials (including cluster randomized-controlled trials), quasi-experimental designs involving a matched comparison group, regression discontinuity designs, and single case designs (SCDs);

o Experience and skill in applying systematic review standards when assessing research design and findings; and o Extensive experience developing and producing user-friendly products to communicate research findings to readers who may not have a research background.

The staff proposed for the leadership of this project and each of the tasks have skills and successful experience leading work of a similar nature (e.g., conducting multiple study reviews, leading systematic review efforts, etc.) and of a similar size and scope.

Criterion B: Soundness of the Technical Approach The degree to which the proposal demonstrates an understanding of the purpose and context of the contract, the major issues and objectives, and how they relate to each task rather than merely repeating the information provided in the Performance Work Statement. and.

The strength and quality of the proposed approach to conducting each of the tasks including the clarity of the approach, the feasibility of implementing the plan, and the prospects that the successful implementation of the plan would achieve the intended goal in a timely manner.

The proposal demonstrates creative strategies for achieving the goals of each task while maintaining a strong commitment to the rigorous procedures that are the foundation of the WWC.

The proposed plan is clearly written, coherent, well organized, and demonstrates a commitment to detail and high quality work.

Criterion C: Management of Tasks The quality of the procedures for controlling work performance, coordinating work of staff and sub-contractors, and ensuring work quality and timeliness.

The degree to which the proposal provides more than a basic organization chart and instead provides strong justifications for the assigned roles on all aspects of the contract.

The degree to which the staff included in the proposal have a clear division of responsibilities, well-defined lines of communication and authority, and sufficient time allocations to accomplish the various research, reporting, and dissemination tasks to which they have been assigned.

The degree to which the staff proposed for the leadership of this project and their proposed time commitments to the project are consistent with a real leadership (and not merely advisory) role.

The degree to which the proposal adequately identifies potential risks to successful completion of each task, and it demonstrates a capacity to effectively manage those risks.

The degree to which the proposal describes a clear and convincing quality control plan that will ensure that deliverables are timely, complete, free of errors, and demonstrate the level of effort needed to successfully complete each task.

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Evaluation Criteria Version Date: 07.16.18 Criterion D: Related Corporate Experience

There is evidence of prior successful corporate experience and capacity with projects of a similar nature, which includes delivering timely, quality products on or under budget.

There is evidence of prior successful corporate experience in leading or participating in large systematic reviews of research literature, or projects of similar scale, scope, and challenges.

There is evidence of developing high-quality, practitioner-friendly resources of materials that communicate research findings (note: the Department will evaluate the offeror’s Sample Reports Appendix under this criterion in addition to any other relevant information that the offeror provides).

There is demonstrated corporate level experience in developing user-friendly products to communicate research findings or connect to practitioner-focused audiences (note: the Department will evaluate the offeror’s Sample Reports Appendix under this criterion in addition to any other relevant information that the offeror provides).

There is a track record of recruiting and maintaining well-qualified researchers and staff.

There is a record of strong past performance in terms of quality, creativity, problem resolution, cost control, timeliness, business relations and customer service.

Criterion E: Past Performance Past performance information is submitted that is relevant to the nature, scope and complexity of the work outlined in the PWS. Information received from the contractor is favorable, and does not contain any valid negative information.

Price Evaluation

Although price is an evaluation factor, it will not be evaluated based upon a predetermined evaluation rating scale. Rather, price will be analyzed in order to ensure that the proposed price is fair and reasonable, as required by the SSA/CO.

Evaluation of the business quote shall be conducted under the guidance of the assigned Contract Specialist and Contracting Officer. The TEP Panel Chair and/or panelists may participate in the evaluation of the business proposal as requested. Due to the fact that adequate price competition is anticipated, the price analysis will consist of:

• A comparison of the total prices proposed in response to the RFP.

• An assessment of whether each total price for the RFP is fair and reasonable.

If deemed necessary, the Government may conduct additional price analysis techniques. Evaluation of options shall not obligate the Government to exercise the option(s).

NOTE: The Department reserves the right to issue an award based on the initial quote submission without any discussions/exchanges.