National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS 2016) & Postsecondary Longitudinal Studies

AMENDMENT #3 - The purpose of this amendment is two-fold: 1) to provide the Clarification Questions from offerors and the Department Responses to these Clarification Questions and 2) to provide the revised Attachment A -Performance Work Statement (PWS) with Appendices See the Amendment #3 attachments for details. _____________________________________________________________ SOLICITATION: This announcement releases Request for Proposals (RFP) ED-IES-13-R-0011. All proposals must be submitted no later than the due date and time stated in the RFP to the attention of Brenda Jefferson. The reference number to be used for the solicitation is ED-IES-13-R-0011. All correspondence and proposals must cite the Solicitation number and Title as provided for the procurement. In addition, include the Solicitation Number and Title in the subject line of all e-mails. The RFP is a Full and Open Competition. The North American Industry classification System (NAICS) Code used to define this acquisition is 541720 Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities. All responsible sources may submit a proposal, which will be considered by the agency. It is anticipated that the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education will award one contract, with a period of performance of 60 months and a 60 month option period. The support required to administer NPSAS 2016 will include: - Develop and implement a plan to field a study of how postsecondary education students finance postsecondary education that is nationally-representative for both graduate and undergraduate students and, for undergraduate students only, state-representative; - Develop and implement a process for collecting data from postsecondary institutions that automates data extractions and reduces burden; - Launch or continue longitudinal postsecondary studies begun in this contract or continued from past contracts; and - Provide data and information as necessary to administer the contract, meet the NCES study requirements, and/or the Department's accountability requirements. The contract type is anticipated to be a hybrid which include both cost reimbursement tasks and fixed price tasks. Potential offerors may submit clarification questions no later than May 31, 2013 by 11:30 A.M. Eastern Time (ET). Questions may be directed by e-mail to brenda.jefferson@ed.gov, Contract Specialist, with concurrent copy to deila.johnson@ed.gov, Contracting Officer. The Government will make award to the responsible offeror(s) whose offer conforms to the solicitation, has no deficiencies (as defined in FAR 15.001) and is most advantageous to the Government, cost or price and other factors considered. For this solicitation, price will be a substantial factor in source selection, however quality factors (including technical merit and past performance), considered together, are significantly more important than cost or price. The Contracting Officer will determine whether the difference in quality is worth the difference in cost or price. Please review the RFP which includes Section L, Instructions to Offerors and Additional Instructions to Offerors for further information. All responsible sources may submit a proposal that, if timely received by the Department, shall be considered by the agency. _______________________________________________________ AMENDMENT #2 - UPDATE ON PRE-SOLICITATION NOTICE: The Department anticipates the release of the "2015-16 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS 2016) & Postsecondary Longitudinal Studies" in May 2013. The Department anticipates the period of performance for the hybrid contract will be a 5-year base period and a 5-year option period. ________________________________________________________________ PRE-SOLICITATION NOTICE: This is a presolicitation notice. If any vendor has a question or comment regarding the revised Draft Performance Work Statement (PWS), attached, please e-mail to the references above. The Government will only accept questions or comments by e-mail. The Department of Education (hereafter, Department), Institute of Education Sciences (IES), National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), intends to award a contract for a series of studies, based largely on administrative data collections and some student interviews, to comply with the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended. These studies are designed to describe: (1) how students and their families finance postsecondary education and (2) students' persistence, attainment, and workforce outcomes. They include the following: - National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (http://nces.ed.gov/npsas); - Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/b&b); and - Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/bps). The requirements under this contract are to: (1) Develop and implement a plan to field a study of how postsecondary education students finance postsecondary education that is nationally-representative for both graduate and undergraduate students and, for undergraduate students only, state-representative, (2) Develop and implement a process for collecting data from postsecondary institutions that automates data extractions and reduces burden, (3) Launch or continue longitudinal postsecondary studies begun in this contract or continued from past contracts, and (4) Provide data and information as necessary to administer the contract, meet the NCES study requirements, and/or the Department's accountability requirements. The Department anticipates the release of the "2015-16 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS 2016) & Postsecondary Longitudinal Studies" in April 2013. The Department anticipates the period of performance for the hybrid contract will be a 60-month base period and a 60-month option period. ______________________________________________________________ Available - PRESENTATION AND AUDIO TRANSCRIPT FROM PRE-SOLICITATION CONFERENCE HELD ON DECEMBER 14, 2012 Attached is the presentation and audio transcript from the NPSAS 2016 Pre-Solicitation Conference held on December 14, 2012. Any additional questions and comments on NPSAS 2016 are due by December 20, 2012 at 4:00 pm ET to brenda.jefferson@ed.gov with a copy (cc) to: deila.johnson@ed.gov. ___________________________________________________________________________ WEBINAR INFORMATION FOR THE DECEMBER 14, 2012 PRE-SOLICITATION CONFERENCE, AS FOLLOWS: Vendors unable to attend in-person will be able to participate live through a WEBINAR on Date: Friday, December 14, 2012 at Time: 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET). Instructions to access the WEBINAR are below: ------------------------------------------------------- TO ACCESS WEBINAR SLIDES ------------------------------------------------------- 1. Go to https://educate.webex.com/educate/j.php?ED=195317902&UID=0&PW=NMWYyODFjOWJj&RT=MiMxMQ%3D%3D 2. If requested, enter your name and email address. 3. If a password is required, enter the meeting password: NPSAS 4. Click "Join". To view in other time zones or languages, please click the link: https://educate.webex.com/educate/j.php?ED=195317902&UID=0&PW=NMWYyODFjOWJj&ORT=MiMxMQ%3D%3D To check the compatibility of your browser plug-ins, please click the link: https://educate.webex.com/mc0805ld/meetinginfo/meetinginfosysdiagnosis.do?siteurl=educate ------------------------------------------------------- TO ACCESS AUDIO, DIAL IN VIA TELECONFERENCE CALL ------------------------------------------------------- Dial in: 800-369-2104 Passcode: 8824652 ------------------------------------------------------- For assistance ------------------------------------------------------- 1. Go to https://educate.webex.com/educate/mc 2. On the left navigation bar, click "Support". _________________________________________________________________ PRE-SOLICITATION CONFERENCE RSVP RESPONSE DATE: DECEMBER 7, 2012, 11:00AM ET The U.S. Department of Education (the Department) is hosting a Pre-solicitation Conference that is open to all responsible offerors. The purpose of this conference is to: (1) identify potential offerors; (2) provide information to better understand the Department's requirements; and (3) maximize competition. The Pre-solicitation Conference will be held as follows: Date: Friday, December 14, 2012 Time: 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) Location: 1990 K Street N.W. 8th Floor Conference Center Washington, DC 20006 Vendors unable to attend in-person will be able to participate live through a WEBINAR. Instructions to access the WEBINAR will be posted on or before Friday, December 7, 2012. Please RSVP for the Pre-Solicitation Conference (in-Person or WEBINAR) to brenda.jefferson@ed.gov with a copy (cc) to: deila.johnson@ed.gov by December 7, 2012, 11:00 a.m. Each contractor is required to e-mail a list of attendees by December 7, 2012, 11:00 a.m., ET to brenda.jefferson@ed.gov with a copy (cc) to: deila.johnson@ed.gov. This list will be used for Pre-Solicitation Conference attendees to gain entry at the security desk of the building. Contractors should bring state or federal issued identification and business cards to check in at the conference registration desk. The attached Draft Performance Work Statement is provided to interested parties for questions and comments. All questions and comments shall be in writing. In addition, the Department is interested in receiving feedback on the following: 1. The anticipated contract type will be a hybrid contract (i.e. fixed price and cost reimbursement tasks). Are tasks that include research and development feasible given the type of award tentatively assigned? 2. Are project requirements feasible given the anticipated timelines? Please e-mail all questions and comments by Friday, December 7, 2012, 11:00 a.m., ET to brenda.jefferson@ed.gov and copy deila.johnson@ed.gov. There will be time for questions and answers at the conference. Questions asked in writing by December 7, 2012 will be answered at the conference. Questions asked at the conference will be answered in an addendum to the solicitation. Responses to all questions will be posted with the solicitation on www.fbo.gov. __________________________________________________________ AMENDMENT #1 - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) The draft Performance Work Statement (PWS) posted on 11/21/12 is unable to be opened or viewed by some of the public. Therefore, the Draft PWS is attached again. There are no other changes to the RFI and the due date remains the same. _________________________________________________________________ REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) The U.S. Department of Education (the Department) is conducting market research to support a requirement for "National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS 2016) & Postsecondary Longitudinal Studies". NPSAS entails a series of studies, based largely on administrative data collections and some student interviews, to comply with the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended. These studies are designed to describe (1) how students and their families finance postsecondary education and (2) students' persistence, attainment, and workforce outcomes. They include: - National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (http://nces.ed.gov/npsas); - Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/b&b); and - Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/bps). In addition, NPSAS 2016 study varies substantially from prior years as follows: (1) To include plans to conduct a NPSAS study in 2015-16 that is based exclusively on administrative data sources (i.e., the Department of Education's databases, data from postsecondary institutions, and data from other administrative data sources) that is: a. Nationally-representative of graduate and undergraduate students at the sector level and, b. State-representative of undergraduate students for the 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. (2) Include a series of optional tasks have been designed to repeat administrative NPSAS studies more frequently, add a student interview data collection to a NPSAS study, begin one or more longitudinal studies, conduct follow-up student interviews in longitudinal studies begun in this or past contracts, and collect and code postsecondary transcripts. The Department needs to determine if there are small business sources with all of the following areas of knowledge, capabilities, and successful experiences. This notice is provided as information to the marketplace and is an invitation for potential offerors to express interest and provide information regarding their relevant capabilities. Small businesses are encouraged to team with other large or small businesses for this requirement. The Department is seeking information on whether small businesses that are certified as HUBZone, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), Women-owned (WO), 8(a), or Small Disadvantaged have the required capabilities to perform the Performance Work Statement tasks. Small businesses are requested to provide capability statements that address the Draft Performance Work Statement. Instructions are provided as follows: In response to the attached Draft PWS, the Department hereby solicits capability statements from eligible contractors. These statements shall be no longer than three pages, single-spaced with a minimum of one-inch margins and 12 point font. Contractors shall include up to five resumes in the appendix. Each resume must be no more than three pages and clearly demonstrate that individuals have the skills to perform the work described within the Performance Work Statement. Only resumes for key personnel that would work on the contract may be included. The resumes will not be counted as part of the three page limit for the capability statement. The capability statement should describe the qualifications and experience of key personnel, as well as related corporate experience and capacity, in each of the following areas: - Demonstrate qualifications, knowledge and experience of managing national large scale sample surveys. - Demonstrate successful experience in conducting large scale national surveys for postsecondary education institutions and individuals, as well as, the key staff, consultants or subcontractors, and - Provide documentation of past projects conducted of similar scale and scope, and complexity. Alternatively, the SOC can address a specific task or group of tasks: - Identify the task or tasks, - Demonstrate qualifications, knowledge and experience of managing the requirements of the selected tasks, - Demonstrate successful experience in accomplishing the requirements of the tasks(s), and - Provide documentation of past projects. NOTE: No conflicts of interest shall exist (See EDAR CLAUSE 3452.209-71, Conflict of Interest). NAICS Codes: The small business size standards changed on March 12, 2012. All small businesses are encouraged to ensure their ORCA and CCR designations are correct. Interested parties having the capabilities necessary to perform the stated requirements may submit capability statements via email to Brenda Jefferson, Contract Specialist at Brenda.Jefferson@ed.gov. Please address each requirement in the order listed above. This is not an invitation for bid, request for proposal or other solicitation and in no way obligates the Department to award a contract. This notice sole intent is to obtain capabilities for set-aside and procurement planning purposes. The Department is planning a Vendor Communication Conference, Date: TBD/December 2012. Please provide the following Business information: 1. DUNS Number 2. Company Name 3. Company Address 4. Company Point of Contact, phone number and email address 5. Type of company under NAICS, as validated via the Central Contractor Registration (CCR). Additional information on NAICS codes can be found at www.sba.gov. Any potential government contract must be registered on the CCR located at http://www.ccr.gov/index.asp. 6. Corporate structure (corporation, LLC, sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability partnership, professional corporation, etc.) 7. Point of Contact, phone number and email address of individuals who can verify the demonstrated capabilities identified in the responses 8. Responders should also include a statement about whether or not they have an approved Federal audited accounting system. If the responder has an approved accounting system, please provide the certification in which the accounting system was deemed adequate (e.g. the name of the audit agency and audit number).You may submit as an attachment, which will not count towards the overall page limit.