JOFOC_Title I and II Modification.pdf

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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Office of Finance and Operations

Contracts and Acquisitions Management

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

FAR 6.303-2

(a) The Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC) has been developed in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.303-2. Upon the basis of the following justification, the use of other than full and open competition for the proposed contractual action is pursuant to the authority of 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1).

(b) JUSTIFICATION

(1) IDENTIFICATION OF THE AGENCY AND THE CONTRACTING ACTIVITY:

This justification was prepared by Contracts and Acquisitions Management (CAM) in the U.S.

Department of Education (Department).

(2) NATURE AND/OR DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTION BEING APPROVED:

The purpose of this action is to negotiate and award Modification P00012 to the Department’s

Contract Number ED-IES-11-C-0063, Evaluation of the Implementation of Title I/II-A Program

Initiatives. Titles I and II-A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, amended thru the

Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), are the primary federal investments in improving K-12 education. The evaluation is a key component of a national assessment of Title I called for in the

Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA), the current statutory authority for the Institute of Education

Science.

The modification is necessary to adjust evaluation activities to the coronavirus pandemic in two important ways. First, the Department must delay its planned Spring 2021 comprehensive data collection because of the challenges school systems face this coming year. The collection was intended to include surveys of all state education agencies and nationally-representative samples of districts, schools, and teachers. Moving forward with these surveys as planned would impose burden on the respondents, particularly those in schools, at a difficult time and provide a poor reading of Title I and II implementation under ESSA. This significant investment in data collection is already in the contract. The modification covers the costs of delaying the data collection by a year. It also includes the costs of coordinating these surveys with other IES evaluations’ surveys planned for spring 2022, in order to improve data quality and reduce burden on districts or schools that might otherwise have been sampled for multiple evaluation surveys.

The modification includes a second key response to the coronavirus: a quick-turnaround spring 2021 survey of state agencies and a small sample of districts specifically about how they are responding to the pandemic. This originally unplanned data collection has been added to address needs expressed by the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) and the Office of Management and

Budget (OMB) to understand what is happening in education systems around the country during this important transition year. The surveys will ask about the role of specific federal policies in the wake of the pandemic, such as waivers for requirements for state accountability testing. The small sample of districts for this quick-turnaround survey will be a subset of those that will be surveyed for the

Title I/II surveys in spring 2022, so that the Department can track progress.

(3) DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES OR SERVICES REQUIRED TO MEET THE AGENCY’S NEEDS

Specifically, the modification covers expected escalation in labor and ODC costs due to delaying by a year a comprehensive collection of data from state agencies, districts, schools, and teachers. The modification also includes costs associated with preparation, sampling, data collection, analysis, and reporting for the spring 2021 quick turnaround surveys. Preparation includes developing questionnaires, obtaining OMB clearance for data collection under the federal Paperwork Reduction

Act, and obtaining district approval, if necessary, for conducting research (completion of the district survey) in those in the 2021 sample.

(4) STATUTORY AUTHORITY PERMITTING OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION:

The FAR authority permitting acquisition of these services is 6.302-1 - only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

(5) DEMONSTRATION THAT THE PROPOSED CONTRACTOR’S UNIQUE

QUALIFICATIONS OR THE NATURE OF THE NATURE OF THE ACQUISITION

REQUIRES USE OF THE AUTHORITY CITED:

The current contractor is the only responsible source capable of meeting the Department’s needs.

The Department has already provided the contractor with resources to conduct a comprehensive data collection of state agencies, districts, schools, and teachers about ESSA Title I and Title II implementation, but the delay due to the coronavirus means the contractor will incur additional costs. Those additional costs for which the modification is sought cannot be separated from the investment in the data collection already made by the Department.

The quick-turnaround, small-scale pandemic-focused surveys in spring 2021 also cannot be conducted by another source. It is essential that the Department include that same small sample of districts in the 2022 surveys to measure progress out of the pandemic. This requires careful coordination of questionnaire items, sampling, outreach, and notification to the districts that cannot be accomplished cost-efficiently with two different contractors. For example, for these districts sampled for both the 2021 and 2022 surveys, we will submit a single research request to district

IRBs and a single assurance of confidentiality and privacy that covers both data collections. If we were to award the addition of the spring 2021 survey to another contractor, the Department would incur these costs twice. In addition, the current contractor’s expertise in policies and practices related to Title I and Title I are critical to developing the spring 2021 questionnaires; most of the pandemic-related waivers and concerns relate to issues that overlap with these two large federal programs. If we were to compete and award the spring 2021 survey to a different contractor, the

Department would pay for the costs of getting the new contractor familiar with the relevant policies and regulations. Two different contractors would mean doubling the costs for programming for the purpose of data cleaning and analysis of the items in both surveys.

Finally, it would not be possible to procure the services of another contractor through a competition and obtain the information in the needed timeframe. The coronavirus pandemic began in March

2020; only in summer 2020 did it became clear that school systems would face the same challenges in school year 2020-2021 and therefore how the Department’s needs were shifting. It typically takes 3-4 months to develop a new procurement RFP (including receiving approvals from OCIO, etc.) and then 6 months to conduct a free-and-open competition. Had we begun that process in

June, a new contract would not be awarded until February, the month we need to begin administering the survey to get results out in a timely way to be useful to our stakeholders. But there are months of preparation necessary even to administer a small survey, including OMB clearance, notification to districts, and the district research review process. Delaying the survey would only increase the costs, as the new contractor would have to follow up with districts over the summer when many are not available.

To summarize, competing and making a new award for the quick turnaround survey would require a substantial duplication of efforts, resulting in additional costs to the Government. It would delay the survey in ways that would also add cost. Neither would be acceptable.

(6) DESCRIPTION OF EFFORTS MADE TO ENSURE OFFERS ARE SOLICITED FROM

AS MANY POTENTIAL SOURCES AS PRACTICABLE:

In accordance with FAR 6.305(a), the Justification and Approval for Other than Full and Open

Competition (JOFOC)(a redacted version) will be published on the Business Opportunities

(beta.Sam.gov) within 14 calendar days after of Modification P0012’s execution. Interested parties may provide comment at that time.

This contract was awarded through a full and open competition under authority set forth in Federal

Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 15 (Contracting by Negotiation) on behalf of the

Department’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES), National Center for Education Evaluation and

Regional Assistance (NCEE), as Cost Plus Fixed Fee contract.

(7) DETERMINATION BY CONTRACTING OFFICER THAT THE ANTICIPATED COST TO

THE GOVERNMENT WILL BE FAIR AND REASONABLE:

In accordance with FAR 15.404-1(c) Cost Analysis, the Contracting Officer (CO) will conduct a cost realism analysis to determine if the anticipated cost for the additional services are fair and reasonable by using the: (1) negotiated cost and pricing information available in the current contract;

(2) historical cost data in the independent government cost estimate formulated by the COR; and (3)

Westat’s current, approved Indirect Cost Rate Agreement.

(8) DESCRIPTION OF MARKET SURVEY AND RESULTS, OR STATEMENT WHY MARKET

SURVEY WAS NOT CONDUCTED:

The Department did not conduct a market survey as the work is to be performed under Modification

P0012 to the current contract. As stated previously, this modification builds on work already being conducted by the current contractor and cannot be separated from that current work.

(9) OTHER FACTS SUPPORTING THE USE OF OTHER THAN FULL AND

OPEN COMPETITION:

No additional supporting facts.

(10) SOURCES, IF ANY, WHICH HAVE EXPRESSED, IN WRITING, AN INTEREST IN THE

ACQUISITION:

The government plans to provide timely responses to inquiries from interested parties regarding this contract through email responses as appropriate. Please reference Section 6 above for additional information regarding this response.

(11) STATEMENT OF ACTIONS, IF ANY, TO REMOVE OR OVERCOME BARRIERS TO

COMPETITION BEFORE ANY SUBSEQUENT ACQUISITION FOR THE SUPPLIES

OR SERVICES:

There are no current actions required at this time. Performance under this contract will not continue past September 25, 2022.

Any future actions for similar contractual services will be advertised through appropriate mediums

(e.g. Inclusion in the Department’s annual Forecast of Contracting Opportunities and through posting on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO.gov) website), as appropriate.

(12) CONTRACTING OFFICER CERTIFICATION THAT THE JUSTIFICATION IS

ACCURATE AND COMPLETE TO THE BEST OF THE CO'S KNOWLEDGE:

I hereby recommend that this justification be approved, and that the Department proceed with the award of Modification #012, in order to continue the evaluate the Implementation of Title I/II-A

Program Initiatives. This award will allow the Department to receive a return on its initial investment and obtain critical, time-sensitive information. I certify that this justification is complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge.

This is to certify that the data supporting this justification is the responsibility of the undersigned

Contracting Officer, including verifying the Government's minimum needs or schedule requirements or other rationale for limited sources or for other than full and open competition justification (pursuant to

6.303-2(b)) which form a basis for this justification, and that such data and rationale are accurate and complete.

Signed:

9/21/2020

X Brian M Farrell

Brian M Farrell

Contracting Officer

Signed by: Brian Farrell

9/16/2020

X Chris Rosier

Christopher Rosier

Group Manager (PCG)

Signed by: Chris Rosier

X Christopher Rosier

Competition Advocate

Erica Mulcahy-Johnson Date

Contracting Officer’s Representative

Program Office Certification

This is to certify that the data supporting this justification is the responsibility of the program office personnel, including verifying the Government's minimum needs or schedule requirements or for other than full and open competition justification (pursuant to 6.303-2(b)) which form a basis for this justification, and that such data and rationale are accurate and complete.

9/21/2020