JOFOC_RELs Evaluation 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 P00001 to the Department’s

Contract Number 91990019C0077 (contract), Evaluation of the Regional Educational Laboratories.

This modification adds small-scale design, data collection (interviews, customer satisfaction surveys, document extraction) and analysis, and reporting that parallels activities already in the contract. The new activities focus on the REL’s counterpart technical assistance providers – the

Department’s Comprehensive Centers -- and how they coordinate, supplement, or overlap with the work of the RELs to improve the evaluation of the REL program.

Specifically, the modification allows the Department to fully investigate its holistic interest in federal P-12 technical assistance and the interaction between technical assistance programs.

Combined, the RELs and the Department’s other key technical assistance program, the

Comprehensive Centers, receive almost $100 million annually to help states, districts, and schools develop capacity to implement high-quality education and improve education outcomes. The REL program, as conveyed in the recent pre-solicitation notice for new awards, and the recent

Comprehensive Center grants, both require increased REL and Comprehensive Center coordination in order to ensure complementary, but less overlapping, support to State Education Agencies

(SEAs). Understanding how this coordination is being carried out recently became a priority in the

Department’s Learning Agenda—a new aspect of the Department planning required under the

Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018. (The Department’s draft Learning

Agenda will be published in September 2020.) Congress also raises questions of coordination when the programs come up for reauthorization. The modification allows IES to, for the first time, combine assessments of the two programs to address these issues.

The modification adds data collection and study design activities relating to the Comprehensive

Centers that parallel those for the RELs and integrates the two. This action will significantly https://beta.sam.gov/opp/e10f224c02a145ee9694620f7909505d/view?keywords=&sort=-modifiedDate&index=opp&is_active=true&page=1&organization_id=100001616 https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/04/04/2019-06582/applications-for-new-awards-comprehensive-centers-program improve the quality of the REL evaluation through an improved focus on how the RELs and

Comprehensive Centers coordinate to assess the needs of states, provide services, and build state capacity to better support districts and schools. Specific benefits include:

• Enhancements to the REL Study Design. Five aspects of the new work will provide important content for the REL study design: (1) the addition of interviews with Comprehensive Center directors and all SEAs about the coordination of Comprehensive Centers and RELs; (2) the addition of a summer 2021 customer satisfaction surveys of SEAs will provide longitudinal data on the coordination of Comprehensive Centers and RELs; (3) a separate Technical Working

Group (TWG) to advise on the Comprehensive Center implementation evaluation will advise on how to examine coordination between the RELs and Comprehensive Centers in the evaluation of the next REL cohort; (4) the expansion of currently planned work to develop accurate, valid, and reliable measures of SEA capacity; and (5) a separate TWG to advise on outcome (“capacity building”) measure development for both RELs and Comprehensive Centers.

• Reduced burden on SEAs. Only by having one contractor conduct customer satisfaction surveys relating to both the RELs and Comprehensive Centers, can IES explore the coordination of the programs and reduce duplication and burden on SEA respondents. As many individual SEA officials receive federal technical assistance, the contractor can track who was selected to participate in the REL customer satisfaction surveys in summer 2020 and reduce overlap with the sample of SEA officials selected for inclusion in the Comprehensive Centers customer satisfaction survey in summer 2021.

• Reduced costs to the Department. The work to develop capacity building outcome measures and to design rigorous evaluations for both programs will be quite similar and this modification avoids having to pay twice for the same activity.

Coordinated response to Congress. IES is required by Congress to conduct periodic evaluations of both the REL and Comprehensive Centers programs. By integrating the evaluations, the reporting to Congress can more fully address issues that they care about, including the coordination of the programs.

In order to support and implement the above described added work, the modification will add funding in the amount of $1,465,618 and make the following additional changes:

• Revise the Period of Performance from 24 months to 36 months

• Revise the Name of the Contract in order to properly capture the work that is now included in the contract to: Design and Evaluation of Federal Technical Assistance: Regional Educational

Laboratories and Comprehensive Centers

• Revise PWS language and make changes to existing Tasks (Task 4.3, Task 5.1, Task 5.2, Task

6.1, Task 7)

• Add additional required tasks (Task 1.5, Task 5.3, Task 5.4, Task 6.3, Task 6.4, Task 8, Task 9, Task 12)

• Add additional Optional Tasks (Task 5.5, Task 5.6, Task 10, Task 11, Task 13)

• Increase the total contract value from $1,955,470 by $1,939,494 to $3,894,965

• Exercise newly added Optional Tasks 5.5 and Task 5.6

• Increase the total funded contract value from $1,955,470 by $1,465,618 to $3,421,088.

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

Modification P00001 augments current evaluation activities to include:

• Two additional TWGs that will have expertise in and provide advice on the Comprehensive

Center data collection activities and measurement development;

• Exploration of design options for an evaluation of the Comprehensive Centers, similar to the design options work for the RELs that is in the current contract;

• Development of accurate, valid, and reliable measure of state capacity, that builds off work that is in the current contract; and

• Interviews and surveys (and the analysis and reporting thereof) with SEAs about the

Comprehensive Centers and integration with the RELs, similar to the interviews and surveys with SEAs that are in the current contract.

(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 In particular, 6.302-1(b)(1)(i)

Unique supplies or services available from only one source or only one supplier with unique capabilities.

(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 comprehensive analysis concerning the REL design work, which gives the contractor unique capability in the fact that they have conducted the comprehensive analysis. This also gives the current contractor unique knowledge regarding the design work. Therefore, modifying the current contract is the most timely and efficient way to ensure the initial investment is as useful as possible. The purpose of the current contract is to improve federal P-12 technical assistance, specifically the REL program. It is necessary to evaluate the role and activities of the Comprehensive Centers and how they work with the RELs to provide a full accounting of the REL program and to address the Department’s Learning

Agenda about technical assistance. If the Comprehensive Center data collection and analysis was conducted by another contractor, the Department would not be able to easily incorporate the lessons learned from the analyses into the current contract’s REL design work. This in turn would have an impact on both the new REL competition and a new REL evaluation that are due to be award in FY

20 and FY21. A single contractor must develop accurate, valid, and reliable measures of how technical assistance influences SEA capacity building, informed by what both the RELs and the

Comprehensive Centers do. That work, much of it already in the current contract, is being expanded to ensure it fully addresses all aspects of capacity building. Additionally, if the Department did not award this additional work to the one responsible source, parts of the measurement design work would need to be repeated.

(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 Contract Opportunities website

BetaSAM (https://beta.sam.gov) within 14 calendar days after of Modification P00001’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. This action will result in a 36-month period of performance.

https://beta.sam.gov/

(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)

Abt Associates’ 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

P00001 to the current contract. As stated previously, this modification enhances the REL Study

Design, reduces burden on SEAs, reduces cost to the Department, and provides a coordinated response to Congress. Most importantly, the REL Study Design can be timely and efficiently improved only by awarding this additional work to the one responsible source. That is, it would not be beneficial to the Department to reprocure the requirement because it would delay or impede the

Department from attaining the best possible REL Study Design.

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

OPEN COMPETITION:

There are no other facts supporting he use of other than full and open competition.

(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. 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 P00001, in order to evaluate the Comprehensive Centers, create capacity measures for the REL and Comprehensive Center design work, and design a rigorous evaluation for the Comprehensive Centers that will build off existing design work for the RELs. This award will allow the Department to receive a return on its initial investment. 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 (pursuant to 8.405-6) 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:

9/24/2020

X Joseph Gibbs

Joseph Gibbs

Contracting Officer

Signed by: U.S. Department of Education

9/24/2020

X Chris Rosier

Christopher Rosier

Group Manager (PCG)/Competition Advocate

Signed by: Chris Rosier

X Erica Lee

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 other rationale for limited sources (pursuant to 8.405-6) 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.