SOLICITATION NUMBER:   RFP ED-00-R-0045
PROPOSAL DUE DATE:   June 22, 2000 2:00 P.M. E.S.T.
POINT OF CONTACT:   Sang Park,Contract Specialist at (202) 708-8222

UPDATE - June 13, 2000

Amendment 1 to RFP ED-00-R-0045 has been issued. The entire text of the amendment is below. The closing date of this RFP is NOT extended by reason of this amendment. All proposals are due on 2:00 PM EST June 22, 2000.

1) The Schedule of Deliverables (31K MS Word file) was inadvertently left out of the RFP. It is hereby being made available for download. The due dates of the deliverables are estimates; actual dates will be determined by the final study design as approved by ED and cleared by OMB and by the revised schedule of deliverables prepared under Subtask 3.8 (and, for optional task 11, the revised schedule of deliverables prepared under Subtask 11.2) and approved by ED.

2) The Department (ED) received the following question concerning this solicitation. The answer is provided below:

Q: We understand that Optional Task 11.0 (Conduct Study of Relationship of Quality and Student Outcomes) will be exercised at the option of the government and that the decision to conduct this study will be based in part on the results of the Feasibility Study of the Relationship of Quality and Student Outcomes (Task 8). Please clarify if Optional Task 11 should be included in our cost estimate and, if so, what assumptions we should make about the number of participating schools in order to develop a cost estimate.

A: Yes, optional task 11 should be included in the cost estimate, presented separately from the total costs for the other tasks.

In terms of what number of schools to base this estimate on, offerors should use their best judgement, and explain the basis for the choices that they make. In advance of actually completing the feasibility study (obviously the best basis for making such an estimate) the answer to "how many" really depends on what offerors believe to be the number of U.S. schools/districts (and thus, what proportion of the study's nationally representative sample) that are likely to be collecting student outcome data, and also what the offeror believes about the potential usefulness of such data for the study. However, in the absence of any other basis for an estimate, it would seem reasonable for offerors to use the analogy of the sample sizes for the case studies that are included in the other (non-optional) study tasks, and base their estimates on an assumed sample size of 20 to 30 sites-with the understanding that this estimate would need to be revisited once the feasibility study was completed.

UPDATE - June 7, 2000

A complete transcript from the pre-proposal conference held on June 5, 2000 is now available.

TRANSCRIPT.DOC (K) - Pre-proposal conference transcript in MS Word format.

UPDATE - MAY 24, 2000

TO ALL OFFERORS:

RFP ED-00-R-0045 was issued on May 23, 2000. The entire solicitation is available below for download. The United States Department of Education (ED) is sponsoring a pre-proposal conference to provide potential offerors with background information that will be useful in proposing to conduct the Study of the Quality and Impact of the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Communities Program. This conference will be held at The United States Department of Education Headquarters, Federal Building 6, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW, Room 1W108, Washington, DC, 20202 on June 5, 2000. The conference will begin at 10:00 A.M., and is anticipated to last approximately (2) two hours. Attendance at the pre-proposal conference is OPTIONAL BUT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for all potential Bidders. The purpose of the conference is to provide prospective offerors an overview of the Source Selection Procedures and the Request for Proposal. Also, representatives from Research Triangle Institute-the author of the Evaluation Design-will present an overview of the Evaluation Design for a Study of the Quality and Impact of the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Program. A question and answer period will follow thereafter. Interested firms shall RSVP via email by contacting Sang_Park@ed.gov or Isadora_Binder@ed.gov by June 02, 2000. Firms are encouraged to submit written questions prior to or during the conference concerning any aspect of the solicitation. If you have questions prior to the conference, please submit them electronically to Sang_Park@ed.gov or Isadora_Binder@ed.gov no later than June 02, 2000, to ensure replies are provided during or shortly after the conference period.

The United States Department of Education (ED) requires a study of the quality and impact of Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Program. Through the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act (SDFSCA), the U.S. Department of Education (ED) funds school-based drug and violence prevention programs. The State Grants portion of the Act provides funding to approximately 97 percent of all school districts. ED has efforts under way to encourage program improvement.

The ultimate purpose of the study is to provide information about what the Safe and Drug-Free Schools (SDFS) program is accomplishing and how it needs to be changed to be more effective. An evaluation design-which will be attached to the RFP-has been prepared for this study of the quality and impact of the program, and the SOW is largely based on that design, although there are some differences between them. The design includes a concept paper and a paper describing options for the design, along with a draft conceptual framework, a draft data collection plan, a draft sampling/site selection plan, and a draft data analysis plan. Using a nationally-representative sample of districts, this study will primarily examine the quality of school-level programming supported in whole or in part by SDFS funds, through an examination of implementation at the district and school levels. A separate component will examine the quality of programming for Governors' program grantees. The study will also seek to determine the feasibility of examining the relationship between program quality and student outcomes, to provide the basis for a study of the extent to which the SDFS program is contributing to the accomplishment by grantees of outcomes (particularly student outcomes) related to the prevention of youth violence and drug use and the creation of safe and orderly learning environments.

The entire solicitation is available below for download. Requests for a hard copy of the RFP may be made by telephone, mail, telegram, Internet, or in person. All requests shall reference the RFP number (ED-00-R-0045) and title. Telephone requests may be placed by calling 202-708-6498. Mail or telegram requests shall be sent to the following address, U.S. Department of Education/CPO, ATTN: Yolanda Abney, Room 3616, 7th & D Streets, SW, Washington, DC 20202-4443. E-mail requests may be sent to Yolanda_Abney@ed.gov. Copies of the RFP may be picked up in person on the issuing date at the above address, Room 3616. Issue date is May 23, 2000 and closing date is June 22, 2000 (2:00PM EST). All responsible sources may submit a proposal which will be considered. The dates listed herein are subject to change.

ED00R0045-SOLICITATION.ZIP (219K) - All files needed to prepare a proposal, zipped for easy downloading, including the RFP in PDF format, which retains exact formatting as the hardcopy RFP, and the Statement of Work in MS Word format. There are 7 separate documents contained in this file. All are in either MS Word or PDF format. Zip utility software is required to extract the 7 files from this zip file before viewing in word processor or other applications. The Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available free, is required to view and print PDF files.

ED00R0045-SOW.DOC (63K) - Statement of Work in MS Word format for quick viewing.

Contact Gary Weaver at (202) 401-0083 for downloading problems only.