SOURCES SOUGHT
B -- College Course Content Analysis for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Grade 12 Preparedness Research
- Notice Date
- 7/25/2012
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541611
— Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Education, National Assessment Governing Board, Executive Office, Suite 825, 800 N. Capitol Street, NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20002-4233
- ZIP Code
- 20002-4233
- Solicitation Number
- EDNAGB-12-900018_nagb120001A
- Archive Date
- 8/24/2012
- Point of Contact
- Munira Mwalimu, Phone: 2023576906
- E-Mail Address
-
Munira.Mwalimu@ed.gov
(Munira.Mwalimu@ed.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- Total Small Business
- Description
- Purpose: The National Assessment Governing Board intends to negotiate and award a sole source contract with the Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC) to undertake additional research and analysis of college course content in order to determine relationships between the content of college courses and the content of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). This work is in furtherance of the Governing Board's initiative on NAEP Grade 12 Preparedness Research. This requirement is pursuant to the authority of 41 U.S.C. 253 (c) (1) and FAR 6.302-1 (b) (1) (i) as only one responsible source will satisfy the Governing Board's requirements. Capability statements in response to this notice are to be submitted in accordance with the requirements noted below. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed effort on a full and open competition basis based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the Government. Background: The National Assessment Governing Board, an independent, bipartisan organization, sets policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), commonly known as The Nation's Report Card. NAEP makes objective information on student performance available to policy makers and the public at the national, state, and local levels. More information on the Governing Board and its work is at www.nagb.org. The Governing Board is currently conducting research to determine what and how NAEP can report on the academic preparedness in reading and mathematics of 12th grade students for college and job training. Reports on the Governing Board's 12th Grade Preparedness Research are available at http://www.nagb.org/publications/reports-papers.htm. Scope of Work: The Governing Board's work on 12th Grade Preparedness Research requires the identification of skills necessary for students to be academically prepared, without remediation, for first-year college level reading and mathematics. This work requires a description of the skills in each subject and, ultimately, to locate the point on the NAEP 12th grade reading and mathematics scales that represents such skills. As a part of this research, the Governing Board seeks to collect and analyze actual course materials for a sample of relevant entry-level credit-bearing college courses that satisfy general education requirements for a degree, without remediation. In reading, the focus would be on course materials that reflect the reading demands of first-year credit bearing college courses in the humanities and the social sciences. In mathematics, the focus would be on materials for first year credit bearing courses that meet general education requirements for quantitative reasoning, such as college algebra. The general education requirements of interest are first-year courses that satisfy requirements to obtain a Bachelor's degree, such as college algebra and introduction to psychology. Course materials include but are not limited to syllabi, textbooks, and course assignments. Course materials will be analyzed in order to evaluate the content of courses and to identify knowledge and skills in reading and mathematics prerequisite to qualifying for these courses.   The initial analysis will require the following resources: • Previously developed descriptions of minimal academic preparedness requirements used for setting cut scores on NAEP; • All items in the 2009 NAEP item pool; • Items in the 2009 NAEP item pool representing performance on NAEP near the preparedness cut scores identified through the Board's judgmental standard setting research on college preparedness; and • Items in the 2009 NAEP item pools that map in the range between the NAEP Basic and Proficient achievement levels at the 12th grade. For reading and mathematics, this project will address four core research questions: • What is the prerequisite knowledge and skills in reading and mathematics to qualify for first-year credit-bearing courses that satisfy general education requirements? • How do these prerequisites compare with previous NAEP preparedness research? • How do these prerequisites compare with the 2009 NAEP reading and mathematics frameworks and item pools? • How can these prerequisites inform future NAEP preparedness research? Based on the results, additional analyses may be required on NAEP reading and mathematics item pools for 2013 and later assessments at grade 12, and possibly for 8th grade as well for NAEP science and writing assessments. This work may require an additional option period of 12 months to be negotiated as needed. The collection of information on college course content will allow the Governing Board to determine how NAEP can report on academic preparedness of 12th grade students in reading and mathematics. Justification for Only One Responsible Source: EPIC is uniquely qualified to conduct the proposed research studies due to the fact that EPIC has extensive experience in analyzing the content of entry-level college courses. The organization's 15 years experience includes studies of entry-level courses at universities conducted in partnership with the Association of American Universities; identification of "best practices" courses in multiple subject areas nationally for the College Board's use in the revision of Advanced Placement course designs; validation of the Texas College and Career Readiness Standards in relation to the content of entry-level courses in all public post-secondary institutions in Texas; and, most recently, collection of syllabi, assignments, and assessments from nearly 2,000 entry-level courses from a national sample in order to determine the degree to which the Common Core State Standards align with college course content. In the process of conducting these studies and gathering and analyzing course information, EPIC has designed and implemented new techniques for content analysis and reporting that yield insight into the knowledge and skills necessary for student readiness to succeed in entry-level college courses and of the alignment between standards systems and college course content. These data sets will be accessed to conduct the required analysis on college course content. Additional data collection may be required, but a majority of the work will use existing data sets solely available to EPIC, thus eliminating duplication in data collection, maximizing project efficiencies, and achieving cost savings. Further, EPIC is currently conducting research on course content materials provided by higher education institutions and content experts for the reading NAEP and the mathematics NAEP, as a subcontractor with WestEd under contract # ED-NAG-10-C-0004. This work is a part of the Board's ongoing 12th grade preparedness research. The goal of these studies is to determine the prerequisite knowledge and skills required for entry in job training courses for five occupations. This course content analysis research proposed for college preparedness is parallel to the work currently underway for job training preparedness and will employ a methodology developed by EPIC specifically for the course content analysis research studies in the job training areas as described above. The experience applying this methodology in this unique context using NAEP, makes EPIC uniquely qualified to conduct this research. Contract Type and Period of Performance: The contract type is planned as a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) contract, awarded in accordance with the requirements of FAR Subpart 16.202. The contract base period of performance is 24 months with an option period of 12 months. Capability Statements: Interested parties may submit capability statements to Munira.Mwalimu@ed.gov no later than August 9, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. ET. All information submitted should support the capability to provide the services required, and shall be furnished at no cost or obligation to the Government. Capability statements received in response to this notice will be evaluated solely for determining whether or not to conduct this procurement on a competitive basis. The capability statements must be in writing and must provide clear and concise documentation indicating capability to provide these services. Oral communications will not be accepted in response to this notice.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/ED/NAGB/NAGB/EDNAGB-12-900018_nagb120001A/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: 800 North Capitol Street, N.W., Suite 825, Washington DC, District of Columbia, 20002, United States
- Zip Code: 20002
- Zip Code: 20002
- Record
- SN02815176-W 20120727/120726000236-c629c53162e4ca00d4d1d58a55bc9114 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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