Description
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Finance and Operations Contracts and Acquisitions Management Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC) In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation subsection 6.303-2, the following serves as the JOFOC for this acquisition. 1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity. Agency: Contracting Activity: US Department of Education Contracts and Acquisitions Management 2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved. The purpose of this Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC) is to provide documentation that explains why this specific requirement is to be awarded as a firm-fixed price contract to the American Council on Education (ACE) without competition for the Education Blockchains requirement. The base pe i formance for this contract is 18 months, and the estimated total value of the contract is for the base period and includes an optional task of for an estimated total value of 3. A complete description of the supplies and/or services required to meet the agency's needs. Project Title: Education Blockchains Background Federal statute directs the Office of Educational Technology (OET) to develop a national vision and strategy for how educational technology can be used to transform teaching and learning; promote awareness and effective use of technology by States, districts, and postsecondary institutions; ensure the availability and dissemination of knowledge; and promote the effective uses of technology in existing Federal education programs. OET supports the President's and Secretary's priorities and the goals of Title IV, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) reauthorized by Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) by: • Providing access to high-quality education opportunities for all learners. Leveraging technology to create equitable and accessible learning ecosystems and pathways that support everywhere, all the time learning, personalized for all students. This includes leveraging technology to provide and demonstrate achievements from formal and informal learning experiences. • Supporting the use of technology to improve learning outcomes and increase flexibility Building capacity and providing technical assistance to State Educational Agencies (SEAs), Local Educational Agencies (LEAs), and Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) to address network infrastructure and data security needs. Legislative AuthorityThe Student Support and Academic Enrichment (SSAE) program, under subpart 1 of Title IV, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) reauthorized by Every Student Succeeds Act in December 2015, provides SEAs and LEAs with the flexibility to tailor investments based on the needs of their unique student populations. In addition to supporting a well-rounded education and safe and healthy schools, a portion of the SSAE program funds must be used for increasing the effective use of technology to improve the academic achievement, ac demic growth, and digital literacy of all students. Section 4103 (a)(3) of the ESEA authorizes the Department to reserve "two percent" of the amount appropriated for the SSAE program for "technical assistance and capacity building". A portion of these set-aside funds have been directed to the Department's Office of Educational Technology (OET) to support this activity. Scope The Education Blockchains project will build the capacity of SEAs, LEAs, IHEs, and the broad community of education and workforce stakeholders on the implementation of interoperable digital credentials anchored on blockchains and provide technical assistance to these stakeholders on the effective adoption ofblockchain based digital credentials infrastructure.Current educational records capture data from single institutions about the accomplishments of students in that institution rather than provide a comprehensive view of a students' knowledge, skills, and abilities, or their achievements apart from that single institution. This limits student mobility and the ability for education providers across the education spectrum to provide personalized learning and timely services. Developing an infrastructure that supports comprehensive, digital records of a students' accomplishments will allow the data across the student's lifetime of learning experiences to be used by students and learning providers to inform recommendations and student supports and enhance students' access to personalized learning and career experiences. Anchoring these on a blockchain can: (1) ensure that the data on these records is maintained securely and controlled by students themselves; (2) record achievements on the level of competencies, and can be described and validated transparently so that employers base recruiting on skills; and (3) and overcome institutional silos in our education system, allowing greater access for students to postsecondary education and employment. Description of Services Required Blockchain technology is an emerging and rapidly evolving technology, with limited Development in the educational context. The Department will provide technical assistance and build capacity to enable education stakeholders to effectively leverage this technology to address their academicachievement goals. This will require three components: (I) Extensive stakeholder outreach to examine policy and technical elements related to education blockchains. This should be accomplished by convening a diversity of education stakeholders and forming working groups to examine relevant topics of interest; (2) Primer on education blockchains that describes existing implementations of education blockchains, outlines policy considerations, and describes open source technical standards for interoperability. This should be developed as the stakeholder working groups surface relevant topics of interest; and (3) Organize and conduct a compet1t1on for the development of pilot sites for implementing education blockchains that allow mobility and opportunity across various education domains (such as Kl2, postsecondary, workforce training, or other informal learning). Together, these three components will inform policymakers, technology developers, education practitioners, and workforce entities about effective, replicable implementations of this novel technology and promising practices for supporting low-income and traditionally underserved students. The American Council of Education (ACE) will develop these three resources to build the capacity and provide technical assistance to SEAs, LEAs, IHEs, and other stakeholders on effective use of blockchain technology as the digital infrastructure of student records. 4. An identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition. The statutory authority permitting use of non-competitive procedures is 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(l). An executive agency may use procedures other than competitive procedures only when the property or services needed by the executive agency are available from only one responsible source and no other type of property or services will satisfy the needs of the executive agency. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) citation permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition is FAR 6.302-1- Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. 5. A demonstration that the proposed contractor's unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited.In order to ensure timely and high-quality delivery of the three required components of this technical assistance and capacity building project, the Department of Education requires a contractor with demonstrated expertise in four key areas: (1) Building partnerships with stakeholders that span multiple segments of the education pipeline, including Kl2, postsecondary education, and workforce. This includes developing communities of action across these stakeholders to enable students to bridge formal and informal learning systems; (2) Conducting policy research on topics affecting student success, especially for students that are pursuing non-traditional or informal learning experiences; (3) Developing interoperability frameworks that allow translation of skills and academic achievements earned from a variety of sources to be aggregated into a comprehensive learner record; and (4) Designing and implementing pilot projects that build capacity of education stakeholders, collecting data and conducting reviews on the outcomes of the pilot projects, and disseminating promising practices and results to the education community.The American Council on Education (ACE) is a nonprofit organization that is unique in that ACE has experience in each of the four key areas above as demonstrated through numerous prior and current projects. As discussed in further detail below (see Sections 6 and 8), other organizations have experience in one or more of the key areas, but no other organization has experience in all four. While other organizations have experience working on connecting alternative credentials along some portion of an educational and workforce pathway, no organization has developed a national framework that covers transitions across thousands of organizations and instituti ons. In addition, many organizations that support credit transfer are limited to working within one education sector, such as within K12, or within specific segments of postsecondary education, such as colleges of continuing education or online learning providers. ACE has demonstrated experience developing partnerships across various education and workforce sectors and creating infrastructure for lifelong learning pipelines. Finally, ACE is uniquely positioned to successfully convene a national conversation with diverse stakeholders to discuss policy implications of new technologies, balancing the impact on traditional institutions, non-traditional and new education providers, and the needs oflow-income and non-traditional students. For these reasons, a sole source contract to ACE is necessary and will lead to the greatest success of the Education Blockchainproject. Key-areas that ACE has excelled in are identified as follows: Key Area 1; ACE has demonstrated experience building partnerships with multiple segments of the education pipeline and bridging formal and informal learning for students. ACE has experience across all sectors and has developed a framework adopted nationally for enabling transitions across thousands of organizations and institutions. ACE is the major coordinating body for US colleges and universities and the only US organization that represents most students in all types of US accredited, degree-granting institutions. ACE has significant experience building partnerships with K12 educational entities and bridging K12 to postsecondary education. From 2017 to 2019, ACE led the American College Access Campaign (ACAC), a national campaign to support K12 schools and first generation and low-income students in navigating the college application process. The success of this campaign was the result of developing and supporting cross-disciplinary leadership teams in all 50 states and Washington, DC. Key Area2;ACE regularly conducts research on topics affecting student success, especially for non traditional students or students pursuing informal learning experience .ACE is a leading national organization for policy research on topics related to student success, institutional transformation, and modem challenges to the education system. ACE regularly convenes national and regional summits that bring together senior leaders in postsecondary education around current issues affecting student success and sharing promising practices on technology and other policy innovations that impact success for students, especially non traditional students. Key Area3; ACE has led the development of frameworks that allow translation of skills and academic achievements earned from a variety of sources to be aggregated into a comprehensive learner record. ACE is the only organization that has created and mediated credit transfer programs that have allowed individuals to receive academic credit for learning received outside of formal institutions, creating a bridge between formal and informal education across the lifelong learning pathway. Since 1974, the ACE Education College Credit Recommendation Service (CREDIT) has linked professional accomplishments earned in the workplace to academic credit at colleges and universities by developing skills mapping and assessments across multiple industry sectors and academic disciplines. By creating partnerships with major employers and technology companies, these credits can be issued as digital credentials that are portable and transferable to any institution. Beginning in 2018, ACE and the Lumina Foundation have partnered on a Working Transcript Project to further extend this service by embedding open standards and taxonomies into these digital assets so that they can be applied seamlessly across multiple technical domains and allowing the credentials themselves to be self-sovereign and individually owned (rather than by institutions or organizations).Through partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, ACE led a national review of credentialing that led to the development of the ACE National Guide to College Credit for Workforce Training, which contains credit recommendations for formal courses or examinations offered by thousands of industry organizations, employers, and governments and military. This National Guide serves as the primary resource for education stakeholders for understanding and applying alternative credentials - those earned from informal and non accredited entities such as online learning providers or through prior learning assessments. To support this Guide, ACE provides extensive technical assistance for institutional and non institutional entities on applying best practices for creating more flexible pathways for students to degree and credential completion. In partnership with the Department of Defense, ACE supports quality assurance frameworks and research on assessment validity for the Joint Services Transcript, used across all branches of the military to translate military training and service into civilian academic and professional achievements. Key Area 4; ACE has designed and implemented pilot projects that build capacity of education stakeholders.In addition to the pilots mentioned above, ACE has experience developing and implementing national pilot projects that focus on innovations in credential and credit transfer, including the Alternative Credit Project, the US-Japan Collaborative Online International Leaming (COIL) project, the US Department of Education EQUIP Experimental Sites Initiative, the GED 2181 Century Learning Pathways Pilots (in partnership with Pearson), and the Effective College Instruction and Effective Teaching Practices pilot (in partnership with the Association of College and University Educators). Making a noncompetitive award to ACE is the most advantageous acquisition strategy for meeting OETs need for a partner with unique and demonstrated expertise providing technical assistance and capacity building. While other organizations reviewed have experience working on connecting alternative credentials along some portion of an educational and workforce pathway, no organization has developed a national framework that covers transitions across thousands of organizations and institutions. In addition, many organizations that support credit transfer are limited to working within one education sector, such as within Kl 2, or within specific segments of postsecondary education, such as colleges of continuing education or online learning providers. ACE has demonstrated experience developing partnerships across various education and workforce sectors and creating infrastructure for lifelong learning pipelines. Finally, ACE is uniquely positioned to successfully convene a national conversation with diverse stakeholders to discuss policy implications of new technologies, balancing the impact on traditional institutions, non traditional and new education providers, and the needs of low-income and non-traditional students. For these reasons, a sole source contract to ACE is necessary and will lead to the greatest success ot the Education HJockchain project. The below table indicates a StrengthWeakness Capability and Opportunities (SWOT) analysis of proposed sole source vendor with companies with either same or different capabilities. 6. A description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under 5.202 apples. In accordance with FAR 6.305(d), this justification shall be made publicly available at the OPE (https://www.fbo.gov) and the Department website for 30 days within 14 days after contract award. 7. A determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable. Any rates proposed by ACE for this contract will be compared with labor rates from other contractors in the market to ensure they are fair and reasonable. In addition, the Independent Government Cost Estimate uses historical data to estimate the cost of performance and the Department will use this information in the cost analysis before award. The labor mix will also be confirmed as commensurate with the work required. 8. A description of the market research conducted and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted. In early 2019, OET conducted market research regarding viable options for meeting this requirement. The research confirmed that ACE is the only vendor with the technical expertise in all four key areas to meet this requirement. This research is summarized in the table below. 9. Any other fact supporting the use of other than full and open competition. NIA. 10. A listing of the sources, if any, that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition. No other vendors have expressed an interest in this requirement 11. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency will take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to restricted consideration before any subsequent acquisition for supplies and services is made. The Department will continue to conduct thorough market research to gauge the marketplace capabilities for future requirements. CAM will follow up-with OET in advance of this contract ending to ensure that if any additional work is required, we have enough time to compete a requirement without affecting the mission of the project. In addition, the acquisition team has discussed that at the close of the contract, no further work will require the historical knowledge developed by the incumbent. Therefore, all future work will be competed. 12. The ordering activity Contracting Officer's certification that the justification is accurate and complete to the best of the Contracting Officer's (CO) knowledge. This justification is accurate and complete to the best of the CO's knowledge. The award of a sole source contract to ACE for the Education Blockchains requirement is in the best interest of the Government.