Posted: April 9, 2018, 2:53 p.m. EDT
The slides from the vendor collaboration webinar are attached to this notice.
Posted: March 9, 2018, 1:34 p.m. EST
Posted: March 2, 2018, 11:06 a.m. EST
Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2022-23 (ECLS-K:2023)
The U.S. Department of Education (the Department) is hosting a Vendor Webinar Event on Tuesday, March 13, 2018 from 1-2pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) to provide pertinent details regarding a new fiscal year 2018 procurement, "Design and Conduct of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2022-23 (ECLS-K:2023) Contract," for the Departments' Institute for Education Sciences (IES), National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The Department's intent is to host a Webinar during which interested parties and prospective offerors can obtain key information on the requirement, to allow for a robust understanding of the respective requirement in its entirety, to obtain valuable feedback from industry, and to provide a platform whereby both large and small businesses may obtain the information on other interested parties to support robust small business subcontracting opportunities, partnering, and/or teaming arrangements.
Attachments to this notice are as follows:
Attachment A - Draft Performance Work Statement
Attachment B - Capability Statement Instructions
A brief overview of the requirement and logistical information for the Vendor Collaboration Webinar Event is provided below:
Requirements Overview
The Department intends to award a contract in FY 2018 for a large, complex data collection, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2022-23 (ECLS-K:2023). The contract will design and conduct data collections for the preschool, kindergarten, first-grade, and third-grade years, as well as the design of the fifth-grade year, of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2022-23 (ECLS-K:2023). The ECLS-K:2023 will be the fourth cohort in the series of early childhood longitudinal studies that began with the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) and continued with the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K:2011). The purpose of the ECLS-K:2023 will be to provide important information on children's early learning and development, preschool/early care and education experiences, transition into kindergarten, and progress through the elementary grades, building upon knowledge acquired from the previous Early Childhood Longitudinal Studies. The ECLS-K:2023 will collect data about the child and the child's early care and education environment, school, classroom, teacher(s), before- and after-school care providers, and family. Information must be collected directly from the child (including through the use of direct cognitive assessments with the children in reading and math, and in the later rounds, child questionnaires), the child's parents/guardians, teachers, and school administrators.
This requirement consists of the following overall activities: 1) recruit children, families, and schools in order to follow the progress of the cohort as it moves from preschool through the third grade; 2) develop the parent interviews for all rounds of the ECLS-K:2023; 3) develop the teacher questionnaires and school administrator questionnaires for the kindergarten, first-grade, third-grade, and fifth-grade years; 4) field test the assumptions for the preschool collection, such as sample movement into kindergarten schools; 5) field test the direct cognitive assessments in the domains of reading and math (or some other domain as agreed up by NCES) to be conducted in all rounds except for preschool; 6) field test the non-assessment instruments for all ECLS-K:2023 rounds; 7) develop and field test the third- and fifth-grade child questionnaires; 8) plan and conduct the preschool (spring 2022), kindergarten (fall 2022 and spring 2023), first-grade (spring 2024), and third-grade (spring 2026) national data collections; 9) create restricted-use and public-use data files containing all data collected from rounds through the third grade, along with associated documentation; and 10) update child locating information (e.g., home address and telephone number, last school attended) at least annually to allow children to be followed over time.
Period of Performance
The period of performance for the anticipated contract period is 120 months.
Solicitation Number: 91990018R0012
NAICS Code: 541720 (Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities)
Anticipated Acquisition Strategy: Full and Open Competition
Anticipated Contract Type: Cost Reimbursement
ECLS-K:2023 Vendor Webinar details are provided below:
WEBINAR REGISTRATION:
All interested parties please register by sending an email noting their company name, size & socioeconomic standards; number of attendees; and number of phone lines that will be participating in the Webinar to the Contract Specialist (pavan.mehrotra@ed.gov) by 12 noon EST, Friday, March 9, 2018.
Information on how to join the webinar will be posted here as soon as it is available.
Background
The ECLS-K:2023 contract is for the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, which aims to collect data on children's school experiences and academic performance from preschool through the third grade. The study will provide information on children's readiness for kindergarten, their early school experiences, transitions between grades, and cognitive and socioemotional growth.
Work Details
The contractor is responsible for managing the collection of ECLS-K:2023 data efficiently, including holding a post-award conference, submitting monthly reports on project progress, and implementing an Integrated Monitoring System (IMS) to archive all project documents. The contractor must also assure the security of systems used to collect, process, and store data. Additionally, the contractor shall develop assessment battery specifications and framework reports for direct cognitive assessments in reading and math domains, as well as indirect socioemotional assessments. The contractor is also tasked with compiling a pool of assessment items for kindergarten and first grades in reading and math domains. Furthermore, the contractor shall produce methodology reports for preschool, kindergarten, and first-grade data collections. Optional tasks include investigating the feasibility of including a nationally representative sample of kindergarten teachers, oversampling charter schools, and testing base-year recruitment materials.
Period of Performance
The base period of performance for this contract is 120 months (10 years), covering activities such as recruiting children, developing questionnaires, field testing assumptions for preschool collection, conducting national data collections for various rounds from preschool through third grade, creating restricted-use and public-use data files containing all collected data along with associated documentation, updating child locating information annually to trace children over time. Data collection will begin in the spring of the 2021-22 school year and conclude in the spring of the fifth-grade (spring 2028) year.
