U.S. Department of Education, Contracts and Purchasing Operations, CPO, 7th & D Streets SW, Room 3616, Washington, DC 20202-4443

R -- INTEGRATED POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION DATA SYSTEM (IPEDS) SOL n/a POC Nadine Kim, Contract Specialist, (202) 260-1679 This sources sought announcement is for planning purposes only. The United States Department of Education(ED)plans to issue a solicitation to establish the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)as its core postsecondary education data collection program. This data collection is designed to continue the series of cross-sectional data collections mandated by the Higher Education Act(as amended in 1998). The method for each data collection will be web-based surveys. Each collection will culminate in a short descriptive report and documented data files. It consists of institutional-level data that can be used to describe trends in higher education at the institutional, state and/or national levels. Researchers can use IPEDS to analyze information on: 1.) enrollments of undergraduates, first-time freshmen, graduate and first-professional students by race/ethnicity and gender; 2)institutional revenue and expenditure patterns by source of income and type of expense; 3) salaries of full-time faculty by academic rank and tenure; 4) competitions(award)by type of program, level of award, race/ethnicity, and gender; 5) characteristics of postsecondary institutions, including tuition, room and board, calendar systems etc.; and 6) other items of interest. The solicitation will be issued under Standard Industrial Classification (SIC)Code 8741. ED is seeking expressions of interest from small business to determine if an adequate number of small businesses exist which are capable of performing this service and are likely to submit a proposal. Qualified firms, classified as a small business, are encouraged to submit capability statement no later than December 17, 1999. The capability statement must describe your organization's qualifications and experience for performing similar services. Responses may be mailed, faxed(fax number 202-708-9817) or electronically mailed to Nadine_Kim@ed.gov. This is not a Request for Proposals(RFP)and should not be construed as a commitment of any kind by ED to issue a solicitation or award a contract. Posted 11/23/99 (W-SN403136). (0327)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0072 19991126\R-0012.SOL)