NTPS 2026-28 RFI.pdf

U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences

Request for Information (RFI) Support for the 2026-27 National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS), 2027-28 Principal Follow-up Survey, and Teacher Follow-up Survey

(TFS)

PLEASE NOTE: All information contained in this notice is preliminary in nature and subject to change. This notice is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a Request for Proposals (RFP), Request for Quotations (RFQ), Invitation for Bids (IFB), or a commitment on the part of the Government to conduct a solicitation in the future. All information provided is strictly voluntary and no reimbursement will be made by the Government for any costs associated with providing a response to this notice or otherwise participating in market research activities. Further, the U.S. Department of Education offers no assurance that a solicitation will result from this notice.

1. Overview The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) is the statistics, research, and evaluation arm of the U.S. Department of Education. Our mission is to provide scientific evidence on which to ground education practice and policy and to share this information in formats that are useful and accessible to educators, parents, policymakers, researchers, and the public. The purpose of this notice is for informational purposes only in conducting market research. This is a Request for Information and Capability Statements. Parties that submit responses are not guaranteed any response from the Department. Responses from small business firms are highly encouraged to determine whether or not this requirement can be set-aside for the small businesses.

2. Description of the Requirement This procurement addresses the need to understand the condition of education in the United States. This project supports the collection of descriptive data on the context of elementary and secondary education in the United States via a nationally representative survey of teachers and principals through the National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS), the Teacher Follow-up Survey (TFS) and the Principal Follow-up Survey (PFS) collectively known as the NTPS Survey Program. The NTPS began in the 2015-16 school year following a redesign of its predecessor, the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). Please see the attached draft Performance Work Statement (Attachment A) for additional details about this requirement.

3. Focus Questions Interested small businesses are requested to provide to following information:

1. Please demonstrate capacity and capability for the following processes being sure to note how your organization applied the statistical standards of NCES or standards from a federal statistical agency specifically highlighting experience with each of the following items:

a. Used the Common Core of Data (CCD) and Private School Universe Survey (PSS) to produce a sampling scheme for a data collection to create a stratified nationally representative sample with oversampling of certain hard to reach groups and implementing a sampling specific for a stratified nationally representative sample with a sample size of 5,000 participants or larger;

b. Producing weighting specifications for stratified state and nationally representative samples of schools, teachers and principals with a sample size of 5,000 or larger and implementing that weighting scheme successfully;

c. Conducting data imputation for nationally representative data collections with a sample of 5,000 or larger;

d. Collecting data from schools in all 50 states using multiple modalities within one collection including paper surveys, web-based surveys, computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) and/or in-person interviewing;

e. Communicating and coordinating with district research offices in numerous states to gain consent to contact schools;

f. Producing data user manuals and methodological reports for nationally representative data collections that meet the requirements and standards of a statistical agency;

g. Producing data user manuals for restricted-use datasets in accordance with NCES standards;

h. Creating and implementing a disclosure risk assessment plan in accordance with NCES standard on disclosure prevention and implementing the plan on a large dataset; and

i. Having recognized expertise (as demonstrated by publications in leading surveys methods and statistical journals) in the areas of sample design, weighting, data collection strategies, data processing and reporting from large complex education surveys and using that expertise to provide review of specifications and plans developed by others.

j. Producing multiple statistical tables and analytic reports for state and nationally representative data collections across multiple rounds of revisions simultaneously with quick turnaround times (less than ten business days per review cycle).

k. Experience applying statistical standards of NCES or standards from a federal statistical agency in datafile creation, analysis and publication.

l. Developing new methodologies or data collection strategies to improve response and data quality in nationally representative education surveys.

2. Will your firm submit a proposal if this requirement is set-aside for small business?

All vendors are requested to provide a response to the following:

1. Is your company a small business? If so, what is your socioeconomic status across the proposed NAICS code?

2. Does your company offer these services on one or more contract vehicles (e.g. GSA Schedule, other agency contract vehicle, etc.)?

3. Do you have any recommendations, feedback or are there unclear sections of the PWS as drafted?

4. Are you able to respond to this requirement on a firm-fixed price basis? If not, what tasks are you unable to price and why?

4. Submission Instructions Request for Capability Statements The Department invites any offeror that believes that it can fulfill the requirements of this procurement to submit a capability statement. The Department does not plan to notify submitters whether their capability statement was rated as “Capable” or “Not Capable,” nor does the

Department plan to provide submitters with any analysis of the capability statement. However, the Department will review all capability statements submitted by the due date that meet the requirements set forth below. As part of the capability statement, offerors shall demonstrate their technical capabilities in performing the requirements of the PWS, its relevant corporate experience, and the expertise of key staff.

Format Requirements: The response to the Request for Information and Capability Statements shall be a single document that is either MSWord or PDF format. In addition to the one-page cover page (more details below), an additional five (5) pages of content are permitted. These five

(5) pages shall have font no smaller than 12-point (single spacing permitted) (though the font-size restriction does not apply to charts or tables) and one-inch margins. The one-page cover page shall include:

• Company Name

• Company Size

• The website address of the company (if applicable)

• The point of contact (name, phone number, email address) of a company representative who can answer any potential questions from the Department

• The vendor’s Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) Number

Submission Requirements: Responses/Capability Statements due via email to Charles.Fields@ed.gov, with a cc: to Anastasia.Jones@ed.gov by 2:00pm EST, Friday, August 2, 2024. The subject line of the email shall be “Response to RFI for Support for the 2026-27 NTPS, 2027-28 PFS, and TFS.” A party’s failure to respond to this request will have no impact on its ability to submit a proposal in the event of the release of a Request for Proposal (RFP).

mailto:Charles.Fields@ed.gov mailto:Anastasia.Jones@ed.gov