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FBO DAILY ISSUE OF JUNE 23, 2011 FBO #3498
SOLICITATION NOTICE

R -- TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY AND REPORTING OF OUTCOMES AND IMPACT DATA FROM ED GRANT PROGRAMS

Notice Date
6/21/2011
 
Notice Type
Presolicitation
 
NAICS
611710 — Educational Support Services
 
Contracting Office
Department of Education, Contracts & Acquisitions Management, Contracts (All ED Components), 550 12th Street, SW, 7th Floor, Washington, District of Columbia, 20202
 
ZIP Code
20202
 
Solicitation Number
ED-PEP-11-R-0065
 
Point of Contact
Nicole Fils, Phone: 202-245-8367, Cynthia L. Duncan, Phone: 202-245-6196
 
E-Mail Address
nicole.fils@ed.gov, cynthia.duncan@ed.gov
(nicole.fils@ed.gov, cynthia.duncan@ed.gov)
 
Small Business Set-Aside
N/A
 
Description
The U.S. Department of Education (ED), Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development (OPEPD) anticipates the release of the subject solicitation on or about July 6, 2011. Description The Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development of the U.S. Department of Education (ED) requires customized technical assistance to improve the quality and reporting of outcomes and impact data from ED grant programs. ED intends to award a two year contract that will also include the option for an additional 24 months, which, if exercised, would allow the contractor to continue providing technical assistance to an additional cohort of ED programs. Across ED, there is significant variation in the quality of information about program outcomes and impacts. Some programs have recently been evaluated or are currently being evaluated using a rigorous research methodology. Other Department programs collect correlational data or simple outcomes data from grantees that may be of uneven quality such that it is difficult to assess program performance. Some Department programs, often the smallest programs, currently have no information on program outcomes or impacts. The Government Performance Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) requires federal departments and agencies to clearly describe the goals and objectives of their programs, identify resources and actions needed to accomplish goals and objectives, develop a means of measuring progress made, and report regularly on achievement. The goals of the Act include: improving program effectiveness by promoting a focus on results, service quality, and customer satisfaction; improving congressional decision-making by providing objective information on achieving statutory objectives; and focusing on the relative effectiveness and efficiency of federal programs and spending. On January 4, 2011, President Obama signed into law the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010[1] (the Act), Public Law 111-352. The Act modernizes the Federal Government's performance management framework, retaining and amplifying aspects of the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) while also addressing some of its weaknesses. In addition, the Act reinforces key elements of the Administration's approach to improving the effectiveness and efficiency of government: • Leaders set clear, ambitious goals for a limited number of outcome-focused and management priorities; • Agencies measure, analyze, and communicate performance information to identify successful practices to spread and problematic practices to prevent or correct; and • Leaders frequently conduct in-depth performance reviews to drive progress on their priorities. The Act emphasizes the use of goals and measures to improve outcomes, and requires the Federal Government to adopt a limited number of crosscutting goals, defined as objectives that cut across organizational (such as agency) boundaries. These goals are expected to focus on outcomes in a limited number of crosscutting policy areas, as well government-wide management objectives in the areas of financial management, human capital, procurement and acquisition, information technology, and real property. The Act also requires agencies to report performance against those goals through a single federal website at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2011/m11-17.pdf Purpose and Objectives The overarching goal of the technical assistance contract is to promote and improve the quality of data on outcomes and impacts of Department grant programs. The technical support provided under this contract will provide data quality guidance to: • Assist program offices in the design and conduct of grant programs, so that successful applicants provide the Department with higher quality outcome and impact data. The contractor shall provide ED program office staff guidance on how the staff might structure their grant competitions to encourage grantees to plan for and collect quality impact or outcomes data and evaluations. The contactor shall also provide feedback to the program office on applicants' evaluation plans, to promote higher quality grantee evaluations and more accurate and meaningful data on program impacts/outcomes at the grantee level. The contractor shall also assist program offices in the design of reporting forms and OMB clearance packages. • Provide technical assistance to ED program grantees and/or their local evaluators that are collecting data on outcomes and impacts. The contractor shall provide assistance to grantees/local evaluators on the design, instrumentation, data collection, and analysis and reporting aspects of grantee-level evaluations in order to improve the quality of such evaluations. To accomplish this, the contractor shall develop and disseminate a series of evaluation guidance documents designed to educate and guide grantees on the conduct of their evaluations. In addition, the contractor shall conduct workshops on evaluation design, instrumentation, and data collection analyses at grantee meetings. Workshops shall focus on obtaining high quality outcomes data. The contractor shall also provide ongoing technical assistance to grantees/local evaluators through the review of key evaluation products and consultations regarding site-specific evaluations. The contractor shall develop guidance and assist grantees in identifying and collecting data that supports high-quality outcomes. • Provide data collection and analytical assistance to program offices with their annual performance data. The contractor shall assist program offices in the design of grantee reporting forms and the drafting of OMB clearance packages. The contractor shall provide guidance to program office staff as to how to obtain high quality data from their grantees and how to identify and address instances of data deficiencies (e.g. missing or inaccurate data). The contractor shall also provide analytic support to programs in interpreting and aggregating grantee-level data. The period of performance will be twenty-four (24) months with one twenty-four month option period.
 
Web Link
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/ED/OCFO/CPO/ED-PEP-11-R-0065/listing.html)
 
Record
SN02478668-W 20110623/110621235214-df3633fd08b38358e8b2add0dfd56bc2 (fbodaily.com)
 
Source
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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