Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) -- A Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching. U. S. Department of Education, Application and Control Center, GSA Bldg., Rm. 3633, 7th and D Streets, SW., Washington D.C. 20202-4725. Contract Officer: Helen Chang, 202-708-9740. I. INTRODUCTION: The United States Department of Education (ED) requests proposals for A Partnership for Excellence and Account- ability in Teaching. The Partnership shall facilitate national efforts to support and sustain long-term improvements in teaching preparation and career-long learning; identify/develop a variety of proven, replicable teacher preparation and professional development programs; identify/develop effective programs to advance teacher accountability; conduct research on the incentives and impediments for positive change in teaching and its contexts; and, carry out technical assistance and dissemination activities. II. BACKGROUND INFORMATION: ED will contemplate awarding one fixed-price contract. ED expects to award up to $4,000,000 in the first year; up to $5,000,000 for each of four additional option years. Option years are at ED's discretion and subject to the availability of funds. Today's and tomorrow's teachers must develop new skills and atti- tudes if they are to deal with a more diverse student population and the more challenging academic standards, new assessment pro- cedures, and new decision-making responsibilities of effective education reform. Some teachers, when faced with these challenges, opt for the continued use of traditional practices and curricula rather than make the commitment and effort to change. Still more teachers embrace the vision of reform only to become frustrated and discouraged because they lack the support and tools to make the vision a reality. Teachers must learn to use instructional approaches that take advantage of new theoretical insights; master subject matter content at new levels; be adept at accessing and using technology to enhance student learning and better manage classrooms; and be aware of the particular perspectives and strengths every student brings to learning. Each teacher must make a professional commitment to continually seek out, understand and apply the best available research and practice and to work with other teachers in the same school, teacher associations, teacher alliances, and education networks in order to maintain collaborative, collegial support, and improved practice. Individuals with the willingness and capabilities to meet these challenges must be recruited, prepared, licensed, inducted, professionally developed, certified at an advanced level, and retained in the profession at all levels -- Pre-K through 12th grade -- if all of America's students are to receive a quality education. Unfortunately, as stated by the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future, September, 1996), too many teacher preparation and professional development programs are unresponsive to the new challenges teachers face. Too often they lack sound theoretical underpinnings for what is offered and how it is offered, provide inadequate internships and support for beginning teachers, fail to promote continuous improvement among experienced teachers, and treat the various stages and demands of a teacher's professional life as distinct and separate. The results are that new and experienced teachers feel disconnected from each other and under-prepared to meet the challenges and opportunities afforded by education reform. Clearly, these circumstances call for a new approach to the development and support of the teaching force a systemic approach which fosters coherence in the disparate elements of school reform, teacher preparation, teacher licensing and certification, professional development, and teacher accountability. What is required is not merely an infusion of new professional development programs but the creation and interrelationship of professional communities and professional development systems. The various components of these systems must work together to ensure that: recruitment of teacher candidates is systematically selective; teacher preparation and professional development programs are firmly grounded on theories of teachers as adult learners and knowledge users; teacher preparation programs both respond to changes and promote school reform; teachers at all levels keep abreast of the most useful and current developments in their fields; states and local education agencies articulate desired teacher skills and knowledge and align them with teacher licensing, advanced certification, and assessment; and teachers are both treated as professionals and held accountable. Further, the system must support and sustain the interconnections along the continuum of career-long professional development and support on-going innovative research. III. PURPOSE: The U.S. Department of Education solicits proposals for a Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching that shall bring together elementary/secondary and postsecondary educational institutions, state and local education entities, national professional associations and other stakeholders whose influence is crucial to the success of professional communities and professional development systems in improving teaching effectiveness. The Partnership shall consist of a variety of member entities distributed across the nation and shall launch a focused, coordinated, and comprehensive national effort to promote, support, and sustain effective and efficient strategies to prepare, induct, and provide career-long professional development and support for K-12 teachers. The effort shall consider the entire spectrum of teacher professional development and tie knowledge-to-application-to-dissemination while continuing to "push the envelope" of professional development research. IV. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS: ED will use a two-step submission process to evaluate proposals submitted in response to this announcement. For the first step, offerors must submit an abstract of a proposal. ED will evaluate all abstracts against the evaluation criteria below. To be considered, abstracts must include letters of commitment from the proposed Partnership members. For the second step, ED will invite full technical, past performance, and cost proposals from the top-ranked abstracts submitted in response to this BAA. In the invitation, ED will specify proposal format and the representations and certifications required under the Federal Acquisitions Regulations, the Education Department Acquisition Regulations and other ED clauses to be included in the contract that will result from the BAA. There will be no RFP or other solicitation regarding this requirement. An invitation to submit a proposal does not assure subsequent award. No award will be made under this BAA without a full technical, past performance and cost proposal. The cost proposal must provide sufficient detail to allow assessment of costs and the offeror's capacity to perform the work proposed. To be considered, abstracts of proposals shall be received by 2:00 p.m. EST, April 29,1997 at the Application and Control Center address stated above. All abstracts should include the identifier RFP-97-0l0 on the envelope and on the first page. The abstract should provide an overview of the project and associated costs. It shall be prepared on 8.5 X 11 inch plain paper and shall be printed on one side of each page only. It should be in a type size that enhances readability, with one inch margins on all sides, and double spaced. The abstract shall include: (1) a description of the proposed Partnership and the work the offeror proposes to perform; (2) a summary table or chart specifying each proposed task and subtask by project year and the level of commitment proposed for each Partnership staff member; (3) projected costs for each year of the Partnership; and, (4) any other information the proposer wishes to have considered. Additionally, an appendix shall be attached to the abstract containing letters of commitment from all proposed partnership members. The abstract, including the description of the proposed work, the staffing table or chart, projected annual costs, and any other information shall not exceed 15 pages. The appendix containing letters of commitment is not included in this limitation, but shall contain only letters of commitment. Any cover letter, cover, fly leaf, etc. and all other attachments (save letters of commitment from proposed Partnership members) are subject to the 15 page limit. Any pages beyond the 15th page of the abstract and any item in the appendix other than letters of commitment will be returned to you unread by reviewers. Offerors shall submit an original and 5 copies of the entire submission. V. TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Abstracts shall: clearly state the purpose, objectives, and proposed activities of the Partnership; include a listing of the proposed Partnership members and their roles; specify and provide the rationale for the Partnership's makeup, procedures, and activities; briefly describe anticipated products and their schedule; provide evidence of offeror's capacity to carry out the work; and specify project goals and performance measures tied to those goals. The abstract should indicate how the Partnership will carry out applied research and development and/or technical assistance and dissemination to: 1. Help groups developing rigorous standards for teacher preparation, initial licensing, continuing development, and advanced certification that will enable all teachers to bring every American child -- including at-risk students and other students with special needs -- up to world-class standards in core academic areas; 2. Help colleges and schools work with states to redesign teacher education so that new teachers are adequately prepared and that all teachers -- including teachers of at-risk students and other students with special needs -- have access to continuous high-quality learning opportunities; 3. Help states and districts pursue aggressive policies to put qualified teachers in every classroom; 4. Help districts, states, unions, and professional associations cooperate and make teaching a true profession with a career continuum that places teaching at the top and rewards teachers for their knowledge and skills; 5. Help education agencies and schools restructure schools to become genuine learning organizations for both students and teachers organizations that respect learning, honor teaching, and teach for understanding; 6. Help colleges and universities work with faculty to ensure that potential teachers learn disciplinary content knowledge and encounter models of pedagogy that are consistent with national standards and conceptions of teaching; 7. Collect, analyze, and use data on the incentives and impediments to the recommendations of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future; and, 8. Collect, analyze, and use data on the impact of teacher preparation, induction, and professional development programs -- e.g., program completion, retention in the profession, teacher skills and knowledge, K-12 student achievement -- in order to enable entities and individuals crucial to the preparation of teachers to make informed choices among proven, replicable alternative professional development programs. In addition, the offeror should: A. Specify the entities to be included in the Partnership, such as: institutions of higher education; K-12 schools; state and local education entities; national teachers' unions; other national organizations and networks whose influence is crucial to the success of teacher preparation, professional development, effectiveness and accountability, such as groups representing state educational leadership, school reform, standards for student achievement, standards for the accreditation of teacher preparation programs, standards and assessments for the licensing of beginning teachers, and standards and assessments for certifying accomplished teaching; and, others, as appropriate. B. Specify a conceptual and management plan that identifies the problems inherent in an organization such as the one sought for this work and that addresses those problems in a creative manner. C. Specify plans for the operation of a steering committee, executive committee, advisory group or some other entity respon- sible for oversight of the entire project, recommendations of any mid-stream adjustments that might be required, resolution of any problems that might arise, and coordination of the Partnership's activities with other efforts (both governmental and non-governmental) to effect long-term improvements in teaching preparation, professional development and assessment. This group/committee/etc. shall be representative of the various perspectives and concerns of the Partnership, yet small enough to work efficiently. D. Specify and justify the mix of activities -- research, evaluation, and daat analysis as compared to policy analysis and coordination -- that the offeror proposes to carry out. E. Specify plans for a major nation-wide dissemination/out-reach effort that includes active on-site dissemination and a variety of communication media such as computer technologies, the Internet/- WWW, networks, conferences/meetings/exhibits, satellite technolo- gies, published reports/articles, television/cable, radio and print; and, specify the major products of each year's efforts. The offeror should plan to devote approximately 25% of its resources/effort to dissemination/out-reach activities. VI. AWARD PROCESS: The expected award date is September 9, 1997. ED reserves the right to select for award any or none of the proposals received, and to require an offeror to revise its proposal. Except when it is determined in accordance with FAR 17.206(b) not to be in the Government's best interest, the Government will evaluate offers for award purpose by adding the total price of all option years to the total price of the base year. For this solicitation, price will be a substantial factor in source selection, however, quality factors (including technical merit and past performance), considered together, are significantly more important than cost or price. The Contracting Officer will determine whether the difference in technical merit is worth the difference in cost. Technical quality will be evaluated in a peer review panel, based on the criteria specified below. VII. TECHNICAL EVALUATION CRITERIA: The following criteria apply to both abstracts and full technical proposals requested under this announcement. No other technical criteria will be used to evaluate the abstracts or the invited full technical proposals. 1. Offeror's demonstrated understanding of the state-of-the-art of teacher preparation, professional development and account- ability; adult learning, particularly effective methods of conveying new attitudes, knowledge and skills to prospective and practicing teachers; the nature of a Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching and the multitude of factors and problems inherent in, and surrounding, the creation and maintenance of such a partnership; and the critical need for teaching reform, especially for teachers of students at risk of educational failure and other students with special needs. Maximum points: 20. 2. Scope and quality of the proposed research design and work plan. Maximum points: 20. 3. Scope and quality of the proposed dissemination plan and proposed products. Maximum points: 20. 4. The quality of the proposed goals, performance measures, and management of the Partnership and the capacity of the proposed Partnership members to facilitate and analyze national efforts to support and sustain long-term improvements in teaching preparation and career-long learning. Maximum points: 15. 5. The quality and time commitments of proposed personnel, and the extent to which they have appropriate training and experience for conducting the proposed work, including demonstrated capacity to work with researchers and practitioners in the field. Maximum points: 15. 6. Facilities and equipment adequate to conduct the work proposed. Maximum points: 10.