PWS - Task Order 15 .pdf

Version Date: January 18, 2022

Task Order Title: Assessment Division Support Task

Task Order Type: Firm Fixed Price

Performance Work Statement Performance Period: June 1, 2022- May 31, 2023

I. SCOPE OF WORK

The Assessment Division (AD) Support task is required to help AD support the full schedule of

NAEP assessments which are mandated by Congress. This task order will work closely with

Task Order 14 (NAEP Statistical & Psychometric Methodology Support) to achieve NAEP’s mandated mission which is the primary goal of AD. The AD believes it would be inefficient to build complete NAEP assessment capacity in each of the two task orders. Consequently, AD envisions that there will be deliberate and planned coordination of expertise and resources across the task orders. To facilitate the coordination process, a major requirement for the AD Support task, is coordination across the entire complement of tasks and subtasks included in both the AD

Support task and the NAEP Statistical and Psychometric Methodology Support task.

Independently and not as an agent of the United States Government, the contractor shall provide all personnel, materials, services, and facilities necessary for the project and perform the tasks as described below.

Task 1: Provide Technical Information Support for the Assessment Division

The contractor shall support the Assessment Division in providing both responsive and proactive information to help meet the high demand for NAEP-related information. For example, the

Assessment Division must be able to provide Department officials and other NAEP stakeholders with information on a very tight timeline (e.g., end of day technical review of a short document, immediate meeting with associate commissioner to brief on state landscape data) and this information must be error-free. In addition, the contractor shall support the Assessment Division in its requirement to provide technical information to various external audiences, including researchers and stakeholders. These following subtasks provide support for the Assessment

Division in responding to these requests. More specifically, it includes:

Subtask 1.a Gathering and summarizing information

The contractor shall gather and summarize information from NAEP publications and other resources such as the NAEP Data Tool or other publications provided by NCES(including contractor reports or memoranda) and conduct NAEP analyses in response to requests from the Department of Education, external researchers, the media, and the public.

Subtask 1.b. Fact checks

The contractor shall review statements, figures, and tables to make sure that the

NAEP-related information is correct (fact checks).

Subtask 1.c. Briefing materials

The contractor shall support NCES in the development of briefing materials for briefings and major NAEP meetings such as meetings of National Assessment

Governing Board or NAGB, Design and Analysis Committee or DAC, and the

State Operations Task Force.

Subtask 1.d. Data tools and information storage

To assist NCES in the review of new items and changes to the suite of Data tools and information storage, the contractor shall be made aware of these changes and assist with plans for updating and improving data tools and other information storage products. This includes changing or confirming that information on tools reflects final decision of tool content.

Subtask 1.e. Support for NAEP blog

The contractor shall provide analyses to support blog content. For example, if a blog is developed on racial ethnic differences in math, the contractor shall provide and/or review the necessary data to support the blog.

Subtask 1.f. Report

The contractor will develop a report on a topic to be decided by both the COR and

Task Leader. This report would be developed as an NCES publication and will highlight an area of the NAEP that does not typically receive prominent attention.

An example is descriptive statistics report of how certain student questionnaire variables relate to NAEP performance OR a deep look at COVID variables and how their prevalence (or lack of) varies across demographics, region, school type, etc.

Task 2: Technical Coordination Support

The contractor shall provide support to the Assessment Division in coordinating NAEP’s current and future implementation. Attendance at key meetings and submitting meeting notes along with the tracking of issues that impact multiple NAEP contractors will provide information to assist

NCES in strategic planning and in the implementation of immediate and long-term activities to maintain or improve the quality of the NAEP assessments, administration, and reports. More specifically these activities require:

Subtask 2.a. NAGB meetings and follow up

The contractor shall attend 4 NAGB meetings and provide quick-turnaround memoranda on NCES or contractor follow-up needed from the contractors/NCES debriefing meeting.

Subtask 2.b. Coordination/Support for NAEP Task Leaders

The contractor shall provide coordination support to the NCES National Indian

Education Study (NIES) Task Leader. This support includes note taking at meetings and coordination with the NIES panel in keeping track of deliverables.

Subtask 2.c. NAEP contractor meetings, conference calls, and working groups

The contractor shall participate in up to 10 NAEP contractor meetings, conference calls and working groups, such as the annual design meeting, SES Working

Group, Writing Working Group, and the Puerto Rico Working Group. This support includes providing notes, follow up and contributing to conversation/meeting with technical guidance, if needed.

Subtask 2.d. Data quality check meetings and follow-up

The contractor shall attend up to 10 Data Quality Check meetings and providing memoranda of issues and/or recommendations to improve the quality of the assessment instruments and data analysis and reporting processes, products or procedures.

Subtask 2.e. NAEP Validity Studies Panel, Design and Analysis Committee Follow-Up

The contractor shall attend up to 8 meetings of the NAEP Validity Studies Panel, and the Design and Analysis Committee, providing quick-turnaround memoranda on NCES or contractor follow-up actions needed from NCES debriefing meeting.

Subtask 2.f. Review materials for other meetings, briefings or reports

The contractor shall review up to 40 reports or prepare other meeting or briefing materials as requested. This includes preparing PPT slides/talking points, summarizing relevant articles/research to enhance presentation/briefings, and/or reviewing PPT/talking points.

Subtask 2.g. Coordination assistance

The contractor shall provide coordination assistance as requested for other key constituency groups or special populations such as Puerto Rico, Students with

Disabilities (SD), English Language Learners (ELL), and NIES. This includes providing notes and follow up for up to 5 meetings.

Task 3: State Assessment and Education Policy (SAEP) Tool

The Contractor shall support NCES by, updating and maintaining a database of state assessment data. This tool should systematically catalog, harmonize, and inventory state assessment and education policy meta-data and data. The data in this tool should include names/consortia of state assessments, state assessment results, state assessment participation (include exclusion rates and sample sizes), content areas of state assessments, and more detailed specifics of the state assessment content (subscales, item distribution, etc.); and the adoption and/or implementation of particular policies at the national and state level. It should also include important state/district indicators around COVID. Including were schools open for full, in-person, hybrid, retention, state testing during COVID and others as decided with the COR/Task lead.

Subtask 3.a. Data Collection and Uploading of data to the tool

The contractor shall collect non-NAEP data that NCES and the contractor agree on for the tool, and the contractor will upload these data, along with NAEP data, to the tool. Also, NCES and the contractor shall agree upon any data that other contractors have collected and that shall be uploaded to the tool. Some of the non-NAEP data that the contractor could collect are:

• Achieves ESSA Performance Index,

• Algebra 1 requirement for 8th graders

• School Crime (percentage of students reporting being bullied, theft, violent victimization, etc.)

• Average daily student attendance

• Average daily student absences

• Percentage of teachers with 10 years or more of teaching experience

• Percentage of schools requiring one or more professional development per year

• Percentage of people with a college degree

• Percentage of people below the poverty line

• Median income level

• Early childhood reading program

• Statutory definition of school readiness

• Developed language regarding the assessment of readiness for kindergarten students

• Programs and interventions for students scoring below grade level on kindergarten through grade 3 assessments

• Natural disasters

• Opioid use

Subtask 3.b. Reporting

The Contractor shall provide automated reports (i.e., static reports [PDFs, Word Docs., Excel files] and interactive visualizations [i.e., Tableau dashboards) of the data in the tool to NCES.

Two reports are anticipated over the period of this workplan.

Subtask 3.c. Repository maintenance

The contractor shall provide updates and fixes as bugs are discovered and enhancements are made to the tool.

OPTIONAL Task 4 – Transition Activities

The Government may decide to implement a transition period if funding permits. The transition period, if implemented, would not affect the contract’s period of performance as specified above.

If a transition period is necessary, the period of performance will be 2 weeks, with dates to be agreed upon by the government and the contractor. During this transition period, the contractor shall expect to hold meetings with the NCES task order lead and additional NCES staff as requested, to discuss the current status of the task order activities, subtasks, as well as historical information to transition all knowledge, files, and supporting documents from the incumbent contractor to a potential new contractor. Transition hours shall also be budgeted to efficiently transfer necessary files to the Government.

II. SCHEDULE OF DELIVERABLES

This schedule assumes a period of performance for June 1, 2022- May 31, 2023.

Task/Subtask number

Activity Deliverable Estimated due date

Task 1: Provide

Technical

Information

Support for the

Assessment

Division

1.a Gathering and summarizing information

Up to 10 products gathering or summarizing information

Ongoing – to be determined by the COR.

1.b Provide information related to requests from outside NAEP through summaries, reviews, web content, and release highlights

Up to 6 summaries, reviews, web content, and release highlights

Up to 25 products of materials provided in response to requests for information, fact checks, web tool content, and release highlights – ongoing

Ongoing – responses due

30 days following submission of the COR’s request

1.c Develop briefing materials for major NAEP meetings such as meetings of NAGB, DAC, and the

State Operations task

Force

1.c Pre-release booklets

Complete 2 large pre-release booklet

• Age 9 mathematics and reading long term trend

• Grades 4,8 mathematics and reading. National, State, district

Ongoing – briefing materials due 10 business days before the meeting date

One month before the scheduled briefings are conducted, or on a date as agreed upon by the

COR

The contractor may invoice after final acceptance of each deliverable

1.d Data tools and information storage

Actively participate in meetings on redesign of

NAEP tools and provide quality check for data uploaded to NAEP tools. One meeting is anticipated for the period of this PWS.

Due Date

1.e NAEP blog support Provide data analyses for up to 5 blogs to support blog development

Ongoing – technical assistance should be completed within 2 business days following request or on a date as requested by the COR

To be billed on an ongoing monthly portion number

Activity Deliverable Estimated due date

1.f Report development Develop one publication on a specific NAEP topic.

Historically, report has been

10 pages, including 3 tables and two data visualization charts.

On a date as agreed upon by the COR

The contractor may invoice 1/3 after outline of report; 1/3 after acceptance of draft report and remaining 1/3 after final report

Task 2: Technical

Coordination

Support

2.a Provide quick-turnaround memoranda summarizing issues that need NCES or contractor follow-up after NAGB meetings

Provide 4 Quick-turnaround memoranda (memos), due 1 business day following

NAGB meetings.

Ongoing – memos due 5 days after the NAGB meeting concludes, or on a date as agreed upon by the COR

2.b Support for task leaders

Attend/provide notes for up to

3 meetings.

Ongoing – notes due 3 days after each meeting concludes

2.c NAEP contractor meetings

Attend/provide notes for up to

10 meetings

Ongoing – notes due 3 days after each meeting concludes

2.d Data quality meeting Attend up to 10 meetings and provide input on quality of data

Ongoing – meeting dates to be determined by

NCES.

Notes/feedback due two days before the meeting is conducted.

2.e Attend DAC/NVS meetings

Up to 8 meetings with notes provided for each

Ongoing – notes due 5 days after each meeting concludes

2.f Review or prepare meeting materials

Review or prepare up to 40 meeting materials

Ongoing – materials to be submitted 14 days prior to the meeting date

2.g Coordination

Assistance

Attend up to 5 meetings and provide notes/follow up on meetings around special populations.

Ongoing – notes to be provided 3 days after the meeting concludes.

number

Activity Deliverable Estimated due date

Task 3: State

Assessment and

Education Policy

(SAEP) Tool

3a. Data collection and uploading

The contractor will collect non-NAEP data as agreed upon with NCES, as well as upload these data, NAEP data, and any data from other contractors (agreed upon by

NCES) to the tool.

Data collected and uploaded one month prior to a release, or on a date as agreed upon by the COR.

3b. Reporting The contractor will create reports – both static (i.e., Word documents, Excel files, PDFs) and interactive (i.e., Tableau dashboards) – with

NAEP and non-NAEP for contextualizing NAEP results.

Delivery of reports within 60 days of the start of the option period, or on a date as agreed upon by the COR.

Delivery of reports one month prior to a release, or on a date as agreed upon by the COR.

3c. Repository maintenance

Fix bugs as well as address

NCES need for updates/improvements to the tool; report of how bugs detected, fixed, and confirmed fixed.

Plan to fix bugs, including timeline, should be delivered within 7 days of bug discovery. Updates should be rolled up and added to the tool, on a timeline requested by the

COR.

Optional Task 4:

Transition

Activities

Transition meetings The contractor will prepare for and facilitate meetings that include current contractor staff, NCES staff, and new vendor staff for the purposes of transferring knowledge of the task order work and requisite files developed throughout the current contract’s performance.

Meetings to be conducted following receipt of the

COR’s request