AMENDMENT_2_Q A_Final_5-12-15.docx

AMENDMENT 2

May 12, 2015 DoDEA hereby issues Amendment 2 for the following DoDEA requirement, HH60104-Membership in a Comprehensive Assessment Consortium (RFP) to answer Prospective Vendors’ questions.

Answer to Vendors’ Questions:

Q1. Is this a follow-on requirement? If so, could you please provide the incumbent contract number for this opportunity?

Answer: No. Subject requirement is a new DoDEA requirement.

Q2. Per the Attachment 1 and opening statement in your solicitation: “The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) has a requirement for a commercial membership in a Comprehensive Assessment Consortia with a comprehensive assessment system and other products and services available through the membership. Please confirm that you are seeking responses from the assessment vendors who administer a consortia assessment rather than from the consortia itself.

Answer: We are seeking a membership in a Comprehensive Assessment Consortia and the respective assessments and resources that are offered as a part of the membership.

Q3. (Page 3- General Information and related Attachments). Can the IT Component Information and the Vendor Terms and Conditions be submitted together or must they be in separate packages? Also, may the submission be emailed as indicated on page 41 or must a hard copy submission be delivered?

Answer: The IT Component Information and Vendor Terms and Conditions may be submitted together. No email submissions will be accepted. DoDEA request a hard copy of all material and a digital copy in Microsoft Office Suite or Adobe format. Digital copies must be on a DVD /CD, no USB or thumb drives.

Q4. (Page 6 – Membership) Could the DoDEA please clarify the role they expect the assessment vendor to play in procuring a Consortium membership? It is our understanding that the intergovernmental agreement between agencies (i.e. DoDEA and a Consortium) requires signatures from DoDEA and Consortium leadership. Will DoDEA agree that standard Consortia participation terms will be acceptable to DoDEA? Does the DoDEA expect the vendor to assist the DoDEA in preparing the required documents for intergovernmental agreements, or is there an alternative expectation? Will DoDEA agree that the Assessment Vendor's facilitation of Consortium Membership for the provision of services for this solicitation will be for benefits only as they exist under the Consortium's guidelines, rules, and availability.

Answer: An answer will be provided at later date in a future amendment to the solicitation.

Q5. (Page 7 – SOW 4.2 Comprehensive Assessment System) Does the DoDEA define high school assessments as grade 11 assessments?

Answer: DoDEA has not determined the high school grade level. DoDEA requested estimates based on grade 11.

Q6. (Page 11 – SOW 4.8 Professional Development) Does the DoDEA expect that some components of the professional development requirement be designed and provided by the assessment vendor as the contract-holder and not specifically by the Consortium?

Answer: The requirement for professional development listed in the SOW 4.8 will be provided by the Contractor. The Contractor may subcontract elements of this requirement, to include professional development.

Q7. (Page 11- SOW 4.8.4 - Face –to-Face Training) Will the face-to-face trainings referenced in section 4.8.4 be limited to offices within the continental United States? For workshops held in Area or District offices, will DoDEA pay for DoDEA participant travel? If the DoDEA travel must be included in the proposal budget, please provide guidance so that assessment vendor budgets may be in alignment with DoDEA's expectations.

Answer: Training is not limited to continental United States (CONUS) offices. DoDEA personnel travel costs are not part of the contract. DoDEA will pay travel expenses for DoDEA employees.

Q8. (Page 18- Attachment 2 – Contract Line Item (Pricing) Schedule) The solicitation states that "the contractor shall provide at a minimum the CLINs below." As the Consortia achieve similar ends through slightly different structures, how must assessment vendors respond if a CLIN line (for example, K–2 Non-Summative) is not yet part of that particular Consortium's solution?

Answer: If required components are not available by the vendor, prospective vendors should indicate not applicable (NA) on the CLIN. However, if a product or service will be available in the near future, vendors should provide an anticipated availability date.

Q9. (Page 1-Description) The RFP indicates that the contract will be awarded in July 2015 and will include one 12-month base period and five consecutive 12- month option periods. Please confirm that the base period will be 2015-16, and that DoDEA intends to administer a consortium test in spring 2016.

Answer: DoDEA intends to award a Requirements Contract in July 2015 for a 12-months base period of performance; DoDEA has the option of exercising one or more optional contract line items at any time within the 12-months base period. A specific timeline for full implementation has not been determined. DoDEA cannot confirm when consortium testing will begin.

Q10. (Page 8, Section 4.3 Summative Assessments and Page 18, Attachment 2, CLIN 0003AB and 0005AB) Since the quantities for the paper/pencil assessments are relatively small, would DoDEA be open to a print on-demand offering rather than printing and shipping test booklets and answer documents to schools?

Answer: Yes, as long as the gateway to access the test booklets is compatible with DoDEA’s security requirements. Access security to the print on-demand area should be controlled by individual username/password IAW Section 4.10.1 of the SOW.

Q11. (Pages 11 and 12) It appears that Technical Support, on page 11, is mis-identified as 4.4 rather than 4.9, including subheadings 4.4.1 through 4.4.4. It also appears that the General Section, starting on page 12, is mis-identified as 4.5 rather than 4.10, including subheadings 4.5.1 through 4.5.2.2.

Please advise whether bidders should correct this numbering in our response.

Answer: The correction has been made; refer to attached revised solicitation dated May 12, 2015.

Q12. (Pages 18-31, Attachment 2) Please confirm that bidders should include any consortium fees along with the unit pricing provided in the Pricing Schedule.

Answer: Yes. Refer to Attachment 2-Contract Line Item (Pricing) Schedule, specifically contract line item number (CLIN) 0001.

Q13. (Page 18, Attachment 2, CLIN 0002AB) It is possible that the consortium’s non-summative assessments are only available in online format (not in paper/pencil versions). How should the bidder approach this line item if this is case?

Answer: Prospective vendors should indicate not applicable (NA) for the paper-pencil CLIN, if not available. However, prospective vendors may propose alternative solutions to the paper and pencil format, see question 10.

Q14.( Page 20, Attachment 2, CLIN 0010, Travel) Please confirm that all travel costs for the contractor are included in the amount designated under CLIN 0010, including costs for the professional development trainings listed under section 4.8.4 on page 11, and any possible planning meetings between the contractor and DoDEA staff. Please confirm that the bidder should not include any other travel costs outside of this amount.

Answer: Estimated travel costs are for professional development training only. DoDEA does not anticipate face-to-face meetings between the Contractor and DoDEA. Meetings between the Contractor and DoDEA will be conducted via video –or teleconference.

Q15. (Page 20, Attachment 2, CLIN 0012, Shipping) Please confirm that all shipping costs for any printed materials are included in this line item and that bidders should not include any shipping costs on other line items (e.g., CLIN 0003AB).

Answer: All shipping costs for printed materials are included in CLIN 0012. Vendors should not include shipping costs on any other contract line item numbers.

Q16. (Page 39, Oral Presentations) Please confirm that the three representatives per vendor that are allowed at the oral presentations include any subcontractors.

Answer: Yes; however, DoDEA has increased the total number of representatives per prospective vendor from 3 representatives to 6 representatives. Prospective vendors may have no more than 6 representatives (to include vendor personnel and/or subcontractors) at the oral presentation.

Q17. (Page 41, Submission of IT Components Information and Vendor Terms and Conditions) Please confirm that the IT Components and the Vendor Terms and Conditions must be submitted via hard copy submission to the DoDEA office in Alexandria, and not via email submission.

Answer: No email submissions will be considered. DoDEA requires a hard copy and a digital copy in Microsoft Office Suite or Adobe format. Digital copies must be on a DVD /CD, no USB or thumb drives. Refer to revised solicitation dated May 12, 2015.

Q18. (Page 42, Proposal Submission) Please confirm that bidders should submit the IT Components set again with the proposal on May 15 (the same information that is submitted on May 8).

Answer: Yes, a duplicate copy of the IT components should be re-submitted with the vendor’s proposals on the proposal due date of May 29, 2015 at 11:00 AM EST.

Q19. (Pages 3, 41-42, 67) Please clarify what information needs to be provided as part of the preliminary IT response. Other than Attachment 7 and instructions on pages 41-42, can DoDEA clarify what information needs to be provided as part of the preliminary IT components? Please clarify intent of submitting this one week before full proposal and use of term “preliminary”.

Answer: Any Information Technology (IT) component that is part of the vendor’s proposal must be submitted for evaluation. DoDEA Information Assurance technicians will review IT components provided on May 22, 2015 at 11:00 AM EST to determine if the vendors proposed materials are in compliance with the SOW section 5.0 prior to technical evaluation and oral presentation of materials. IAW SOW section 5.1.1 "Any IT component of the Contractor’s proposal that fails to meet DoDEA’s Information Assurance and Technology requirements will be excluded from further evaluation."

Q20 (Page 3) The instructions for Vendor Terms and Conditions states “provide any terms and conditions associated with Membership in a Comprehensive Assessment Consortium.” Please clarify if this information needs to be provided in a certain format, including any specific questions the bidder is to answer in their response.

Answer: DoDEA requires a hard copy and a digital copy in Microsoft Office Suite or Adobe format. Digital copies must be on a DVD /CD, no USB or thumb drives. Refer to revised solicitation dated May 12, 2015.

Q21. (Page 5, Section 2.1, 18) The RFP states "Implementation of the DoDEA CCR standards begins with Mathematics in PK-5 classrooms during the 2015-16 school year. The Mathematics and English Language Arts/Literacy standards implementations for grades 6-12 will begin during the 2016-17 school year." However, Attachment 2 (Contract Line Item Pricing Schedule) line items for the Base year (2015-16) include estimated quantities for Grades 3-8 and 9-12 summative assessments which suggest that the summative assessments will be administered in the Base year as broadly as they are administered in any of the subsequent years. Please clarify when the DoDEA plans to begin administering the summative assessment for grades 3-8 and high school.

Answer: DoDEA has no specific timeline for full implementation. Refer to question 9 for additional information.

Q22. (Page 11) On the bottom of page 11, the numbering of requirements falls out of sequence repeating 4.4. Should vendors consider 4.4 on page 11 to be 4.9 and 4.5 on page 12 to be 4.10?

Answer: Yes. Correction has been made; refer to revised solicitation dated May 12, 2015.

Q23. (Page 12) Can you please tell us how many schools to plan for in each international time zone (Europe, Pacific)?

Answer: Europe =68; Pacific =49 (includes Guam) Q24. (Page 12, Requirement 4.9 Technical Support, 4.9.4 Shipping) Please provide the following information in support of shipping related requirements:

1. The names of individual countries materials will be shipped to and/or collected from.

2. The number of sites (schools) to be serviced in each country to include Guam and Puerto Rico.

3. Verify the planned sites are APO destinations.

4. Any unique pertinent site-related address information.

Answer:

1. The names of individual countries materials will be shipped to and/or collected from.

Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Bahrain, Belgium, Netherlands, Okinawa, Japan, Korea, Guam, Puerto Rico

2. The number of sites (schools) to be serviced in each country to include Guam and Puerto Rico.

Germany = 35 United Kingdom = 10 Spain= 3 Italy = 8 Turkey = 2 Bahrain = 2 Belgium = 5 Netherlands = 2 Okinawa = 13 Japan = 20 Korea=12 Guam = 4 Puerto Rico = 4

3. All the planned sites are APO or FPO destinations.

Q25. (Page 13, SOW 5.1.2) Can you further describe what is involved in the DoDEA Information Assurance Testing and Validation process? How is it performed? What is the role of the Contractor in preparing for the testing?

Answer: The role of the DoDEA Information Assurance Testing and Validation process with regards to new system acquisition is to determine the level of risk any new system places on the DoDEA Enterprise Infrastructure and DoDEA student, employee and business data. The process includes a review of technical information provided by prospective vendors as well as analysis of any software. Once a risk determination has been completed it is presented to the DoDEA CIO for final acceptance decision. The evaluation includes the use of both public and proprietary Federal, DoD and DoDEA guidance and tools to complete this process. The role of the contractor is to provide detailed responses for the "DoDEA Cloud Vendor Information Collection" and to carefully review and ensure that all other requested IT components are provided as requested.

Q26.( Page 19, Attachment 2) In the Contract Line Item (Pricing) Schedule the quantities for grades high school non-summative assessments seem to include all grade levels, however the summative assessment quantities seem to reflect only a single grade level. This appears to be across all years. For example, for the base year the estimated quantity for high school non-summative assessments electronic (0006AA) is 12,100. The estimated quantity for high school summative assessments electronic (0005AA) is 3,156.

Can you confirm by year, which summative high school tests will be administered and anticipated volumes? Also, do the quantities reflect number of students (each taking ELA and mathematics) or number of tests?

Answer: A specific timeline for full implementation has not been determined for the summative assessment; however DoDEA provided numbers for one grade level as all potential grade levels have similar enrollment numbers. The quantities reflect the number of students.

Q27. (Pages 38-41, Instructions to Vendors) The solicitation requires 1 original and 7 copies of Volume 1, 1 original and 2 copies of Volume 2, and 1 original and 1 copy of Volume 3. However, on page 41 it appears that the IT Components can be emailed to DoDEA.

Please confirm that email submission (in lieu of providing hard copies) is acceptable for the IT Components? Is that also true for the Vendor Terms and Conditions? If not please specify in addition to the original how many copies are required Answer: No email submissions will be considered. DoDEA request one hard copy and one digital copy of the Vendor’s Terms and Conditions, if applicable, in Microsoft Office Suite or Adobe format. Digital copies must be on a DVD /CD, no USB or thumb drives.

Q28. (Page 39, Instructions for Vendors) Bidders need to address the nine sub-factors listed on page 39, for the most part, these align with the SOW requirements in section 4 (pages 6-13), however the instructions do not specify where bidders are to respond to the general requirements on pages 12-13, the technical requirements, deliverables, or schedule in sections 5-7 (pages 13-17). Please confirm where in their IT Component response or Volume I bidders should include this information.

Answer: Provide in Volume I, as stated in the solicitation Volume I – Technical Capability Statement (a) “Vendor shall demonstrate an understanding of the Statement of Work (SOW) and their ability to provide the required products and services as specified in the SOW.”

Q29.( Pages 3, 41-42) It is our understanding that only items listed at the bottom of page 41 and top of page 42 (proposed components, instructions/passwords, Attachment 7, packing slip) are requested as part of the IT component submission. Please confirm? Yes.

The technical requirements (Section 5) on pages 13-16 are not explicitly asked to be addressed as part of the IT submission.

Is that correct? Yes, Section 5.0 of the SOW should be addressed in Volume I.

Please clarify the intent of submitting the “preliminary” IT component and vendor terms and conditions one week before the full proposal if no changes can be made.

Answer: DoDEA Information Assurance technicians will review IT components provided on May 22, 2015 at 11:00 AM EST to determine if the vendors proposed materials are in compliance with SOW section 5.0 prior to technical evaluation and oral presentation of materials. IAW SOW section 5.1.1 "Any IT component of the Contractor’s proposal that fails to meet DoDEA’s Information Assurance and Technology requirements will be excluded from further evaluation." See question 19.

Q30. (Page 43, Summary of Important Due Dates) Will DoDEA consider a request for an extension, at a minimum of two weeks, for both the May 8 and May 15 components’ deadlines? This would in turn require an extension of the Oral Presentations by a minimum of two weeks. We believe that an extension would provide all bidders with time to provide a more robust and thorough response for consideration by DoDEA.

Answer: Yes, an extension of two weeks has been provided to all prospective vendors.

Q31. (Pages 2, 44) Regarding the Award Determination, how will the IT components and vendor terms and conditions portion of the response be considered relative to the order of importance?

Answer: An answer will be provided at later date in a future amendment to the solicitation.

Q32. (General) Does DoDEA have a budget for the base period and five option periods that bidders should consider when responding to the solicitation? If so, please clarify.

Answer: No