Sources Sought for SEAC.pdf

Student Engagement and Attendance Center (SEAC)

Sources Sought Announcement

U.S. Department of Education Student Engagement and Attendance Center (SEAC) Technical

Assistance Contract

Purpose:

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is seeking qualified businesses to establish a new Student Engagement and Attendance Center and expand the Department’s previous technical assistance efforts to build capacity at the State and local levels to significantly decrease chronic absenteeism in the nation’s public schools and increase student and family engagement, particularly in schools serving large numbers of low-income students and in districts experiencing high rates of chronic absenteeism.

This is a Sources Sought Announcement being released pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 10 - Market Research. This Sources Sought Announcement’s purpose is to conduct market research and determine the availability and technical capability of all sources to provide the required services.

The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code assigned to this procurement is 541611 – Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services.

There is no solicitation at this time. This request for capability information does not constitute a request for proposals; submission of any information in response to this market survey is purely voluntary; the government assumes no financial responsibility for any costs incurred.

Background:

The Department of Education’s (the Department) mission is to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence throughout the nation. The Office of Program and Grantee Support Services within the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education coordinates the Student Engagement and Attendance Center (SEAC), which is one of several technical assistance (TA) initiatives that support the Department’s mission.

The Student Engagement and Attendance Center (SEAC) supports state educational agencies (SEAs), referred to in this document as “states” and local educational agencies (LEAs), referred to here as “districts”, in their efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism and increase student engagement through identifying and disseminating evidence-based, promising practices and research; by providing targeted and intensive technical assistance services to State and district clients to apply those practices; by establishing peer learning communities guided by subject matter experts to learn, identify, and explore together strategies to promote attendance and engagement; and developing tools, products, and resources on chronic absence interventions and improving student engagement in learning that local and state practitioners can use directly in their work to promote regular attendance.

Objective:

The Department is seeking industry feedback regarding the Draft Performance Statement of Work that is attached to this announcement. The Department is seeking capability statements addressing the following areas:

Vendor to demonstrate its ability to meet the objectives of the requirement to include the effort’s size and scope. The requirements objectives include:

1. Establish a new Student Engagement and Attendance Center https://oese.ed.gov/offices/office-of-formula-grants/program-and-grantee-support-services/student-engagement-and-attendance-technical-assistance-sea-center/ https://oese.ed.gov/offices/office-of-formula-grants/program-and-grantee-support-services/student-engagement-and-attendance-technical-assistance-sea-center/

2. Provide technical assistance to increase the capacity of States, local educational agencies, schools, and local communities to employ evidence-based strategies to combat chronic absenteeism. Technical assistance will include, but not limited to:

• Addressing issues related to student attendance and engagement.

• Technical assistance activities implemented across multiple service tiers (universal, targeted, and intensive) and with varied audiences, such as States, districts, other technical assistance providers, and community partners.

Technical assistance activities will include universal webinars, communities of practice or other forms of learning communities for state and local practitioners, targeted and intensive technical assistance to States and districts, and the development and dissemination of tools and resources.

3. Promote regular school attendance and student engagement using systemic and comprehensive approaches.

Vendor to demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and experience in all the following areas:

• Demonstrated project management experience. Interested parties should describe exceptional contract management capabilities with past projects similar to that described in the PWS, including but not limited to the ability to manage multiple and complex deliverables to an exceptionally high-quality standard, requiring different levels of review, and on varying timelines; and the establishment and management of tracking systems for deliverables and project status. Project management should demonstrate experience with the following:

o Contract Management. Interested parties should demonstrate experience with the creation and submission of monthly reports that indicate project status, timelines, milestones, accomplishments or successes, delays, and mitigation strategies.

o Work Plan. Interested parties should demonstrate experience in the development and ongoing management of an annual work plan for technical assistance activities, including topics, timelines, needed expertise, intended participants, and outreach and communication.

o Quality Control. Interested parties should demonstrate experience with the creation and implementation of quality-control plans to ensure that deliverables meet high-quality standards.

o Performance Management and Continuous Improvement.

Interested parties should demonstrate experience with defining project outcomes and developing and implementing systems to track progress to outcomes. Interested parties should discuss experience creating and managing ongoing routines that support continuous improvement on contract delivery and services.

o Communication. Interested parties should demonstrate experience with the establishment of recurring and frequent communication routines with the Department.

o Dissemination. Interested parties should demonstrate experience and familiarity with the implementation and management of dissemination strategies that facilitate awareness of contract activities to target audiences, and support contract goals and objectives. Examples may include email listservs, newsletter blasts, and other targeted awareness campaigns.

o Collaboration. Interested parties should demonstrate experience with managing collaboration with internal (Department) and external stakeholders and subject matter experts (SMEs).

• Demonstrated subject matter expertise. Interested parties should demonstrate the ability to obtain subject matter expertise and competency in topics related to student attendance and engagement, such as educational pedagogy, root cause analysis, high quality data systems to address chronic absenteeism, evidence-based practices, multi-tiered systems of support, school climate, youth and family engagement, chronic absenteeism in the early grades, and supporting historically underserved student populations. Interested parties should demonstrate the ability to obtain expert practitioners and technical assistance providers with direct experience supporting state and local practitioners to implement attendance and engagement policies and programs.

Interested parties should also demonstrate experience with the identification and recruitment of SMEs for the development and presentation of content, presentations, and other materials and publications related to student attendance and engagement.

• Demonstrated technical assistance experience. Interested parties should describe successful experiences in providing results-driven, research informed technical assistance services in multiple service tiers (including universal, targeted, and intensive) and with varied audiences, such as States, districts, other technical assistance providers, and community partners. Technical assistance experience should indicate the following:

o Needs Sensing. Interested parties should demonstrate experience with the design and execution of needs sensing activities including the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data.

o Universal Webinars. Interested parties should demonstrate experience in the facilitation of webinars intended for universal audiences. This includes content creation applicable to varied audiences; identification, recruitment, and collaboration with nationally recognized subject-matter experts in topics related to student attendance and engagement;

communication strategies that ensure maximum participation; and webinar facilitation, such as audience engagement and participation activities, such as polls, discussions, and breakout rooms.

o Universal Tools and Resources. Interested parties should demonstrate experience in the development and dissemination of high-quality tools and resources intended for a wide audience of practitioners. Tools and resources may include research, evidence-best practices; practical examples at the State, district, and school level; and engaging content.

o Peer Learning Communities. Interested parties should demonstrate experience in the design and facilitation of virtual and in-person, peer learning communities. Such experience should include the development of high-quality content with clear objectives and take-aways for participants, consultation with subject matter experts, the use of engaging participation strategies, and alignment to Department priorities.

o Targeted and Intensive Technical Assistance. Interested parties should demonstrate experience in the provision of targeted technical assistance to States and districts, including the facilitation of needs sensing and client intake, the alignment of resources to the request, designing appropriate and effective technical assistance activities aligned to adult learning needs and expected client outcomes, tracking project progress, and the establishment of short, medium, and long-term project outcomes, as appropriate.

o Collaboration. Interested parties should demonstrate experience with collaboration with internal (Department) and external stakeholders on the development and implementation of technical assistance activities and resources. External stakeholders may include other federal TA providers, national subject matter experts, state and local contributors, and others.

o Recruitment. Interested parties should demonstrate experience in outreach and recruitment strategies to maximize participation for technical assistance activities.

o Project Evaluation. Interested parties should demonstrate experience and expertise with the design and implementation of qualitative and quantitative evaluation routines techniques to assess and evaluate technical assistance activities and to inform continuous improvement.

• Demonstrated meeting organization and facilitation experience. Interested parties should demonstrate experience with designing and facilitating virtual or in-person meetings, including coordination of travel logistics, agenda and presentation development, adult-learning driven design, aligning presenter and facilitator expertise to meeting outcomes, recruitment of speakers and presenters, communication and outreach.

• Demonstrated stakeholder engagement experience. Interested parties should demonstrate experience with designing and facilitating stakeholder engagement meetings, virtually or in-person with varied audiences such as state and local educational administrators, educators, community members, students, and subject matter experts. This may include focus groups, advisory committees, technical working groups, or other similar committees assembled to inform technical assistance.

• Demonstrated website management experience. Interested parties should demonstrate experience with website design and management. This includes the establishment of a new website, design and implementation of user-centric navigation and features, and adherence to all information technology policies and requirements.

This document consists of three major information request components to be submitted in three parts:

1. Request for capability statements.

2. Targeted vendor outreach questions and responses.

3. Request for comment and feedback relating to the PWS.

Detailed information for each request is located in the appropriate subsection below. Please review this document carefully as it is designed to streamline the acquisition process and avoid an extensive question-answer period during the active solicitation phase. Please feel free to submit additional questions as part of your document response so that the Department may address your questions prior to release of the solicitation.

Please note that all solicitation-related documents in this Sources Sought Announcement are draft versions. The content of each document may change substantially between release of this notice and release of the final solicitation. The final solicitation will be governed by the terms, conditions, instructions, and criteria in that document. Offerors should not rely on the contents of this Source Sought Announcement for preparing final proposals. To the extent that information provided in this document is inconsistent with or contradicts information contained in the final Solicitation, the Solicitation controls.

Submission Instructions Detailed information for the required submission is provided below. Offerors should submit, via email, the following documents to Brian.Pentecost@ed.gov with a cc to Matthew.Lucas@ed.gov no later than April 17, 2024 at 10:00 AM Eastern Standard Time. The subject line shall read:

Sources Sought: SEAC-91990024Q0049.

I. One PDF document that contains your Capability Statement.

II. One PDF document that contains your response to vendor questions.

III. One WORD document that contains any comments, track change revisions, or edits to the PWS. Narrative justifications for changes are also welcome if appropriate. If offerors have additional questions regarding any of the three documents, please feel free to include this information in a separate heading in your WORD document that contains these questions in addition to any narrative information.

Offerors should submit all three documents in one email. Please note there is a 15MB file size limitation.

Capability Statements The Department requests capability statements in order to evaluate what, if any, set aside determinations are appropriate. The Department will make a small business set aside determination for the requirement. We reserve the right to use other resources and information to inform our acquisition strategy.

The Department will not review generic capability statements. Vendors are to provide a capability statement that demonstrates the vendor’s corporate capability, capacity, and knowledge to successfully complete the work of the PWS.

Format and Instructions for Capability Statements The capability statements must contain sufficient detail; however, statements are limited to 10 pages (not including the cover page) and must be submitted in PDF format. Font size must be 12-point, minimum 10-point for any tables or figures. The Department will not consider material more than 10 pages.

Cover Page containing the following information:

• Name of Company

• Address

• Primary Point of Contact (phone and email)

• Unique Entity Identifier (UEID) Socioeconomic Status under the NAICS code

541611 Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services.

• GSA Schedule(s) (if applicable) mailto:Brian.Pentecost@ed.gov mailto:Matthew.Lucas@ed.gov

Vendor Questions

(1) What, if any, additional information should the Department provide in the PWS to enable you to accurately estimate the price/cost of each task?

(2) Can you identify any barriers to competition? If so, please identify and describe how the Department could reduce or eliminate those barriers.

(3) Is there any other information that you wish to convey to the Department?

Information provided will be used solely by the Department as market research and the Department does not intend to release the information outside of the Requirements Team.

Interested parties are strongly advised that the Department is not seeking proprietary information. All information contained in this announcement is preliminary as well as subject to modification and is in no way binding on the Government. Failure to respond to this notice will not preclude an interested party in participating in a future related or unrelated solicitation.

Vendor Questions