U.S. Department of Education, Grants and Contracts Services, 7th & D Streets, SW, Room 3633, ROB Washington, D.C. 20202-4337

A -- PART 1 OF 2 DEVELOPING AND IMPLEMENTING HIGH PERFORMANCE LEARNING COMMUNITIES SOL RC-96-1370 DUE 070596 POC Linda Feeney, 202-708-8282. PART 1 OF 2: Broad Agency Announcement (BAA)-- Developing and Implementing High Performance Learning Communities. U.S. Department of Education, Application Control Center, GSA Bldg., Room 3633, 7th and D Streets, SW., Washington, D.C. 20202-4337. Contract Officer: Helen Chang, 202-708-9740. I. INTRODUCTION: The United States Department of Education (ED) requests proposals for studies on Developing and Implementing High Performance Learning Communities. The studies shall focus on the strategies and procedures to initiate, support, and sustain high achievement for all students, especially those students in high poverty schools. II. BACKGROUND INFORMATION: ED will contemplate awarding up to three fixed-priced contracts. ED expects to award $1,000,000 to $1,250,000 for each study in the first year; and from $1,000,000 to $1,250,000 for each study for four additional years. Option years are at ED's discretion and subject to the availability of funds. There have been a number of studies on restructuring schools to support high levels of achievement for all students. Generally, these studies enumerate common characteristics of successful restructuring such as: an agreed upon vision of high achievement for all students by teachers, parents, pupils and the community; core education activities ( curriculum and instruction, assessments, professional development, after-school tutoring, etc.) oriented toward this vision; a school organization that helps teachers and students perform at high levels (i.e., to think, to develop in-depth understanding, and to solve problems); and, external support that enhances organizational capacity and helps the school focus on student learning. These characteristics generally define high performance learning communities-- communities that successfully organize or develop the values, beliefs, and technical skills of its members to help students achieve at high levels. III. PURPOSE Although helpful, these general characteristics fail to provide specific strategies and procedures to initiate, support and maintain high performance learning communities (i.e. the school, the surrounding community, and the school governance and policy environment) to promote high levels of learning for all students/ Accordingly, this BAA is a call for studies to: develop prototypical strategies and procedures, solidly grounded in theory and empirical evidence, to build high performance learning communities; established partnerships with schools and pilot the resultants prototypes in high poverty school communities and revise the prototypes on the basis of what is learned; and, replicate the revised prototypes in a number of communities and report the outcomes. A publishable product (s) must result from each year's effort. IV. SUBMISSON REQUIREMENTS: ED will use the following submission process to evaluate proposals submitted in response to this announcement. The offerors shall submit an abstract of a proposal. ED will evaluate all abstracts against the technical evaluation criteria described in this announcement. ED may use more than one panel if needed. ED will invite full technical, past performance, and cost proposals from offeror with the most promising abstracts. In the invitation, ED will specify proposal format and the representations and certifications required under the Federal Acquisition Regulations, the Education Department Acquisition Regulations and other ED clauses to be included in the contract(s) that will result from the BAA. There will be no formal 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 and cost proposals and past performance evaluation. The Technical proposal will include the requirement for an offeror-developed statement of Work (SOW) and a Schedule of Deliverables. The cost proposal must provide sufficient details to allow assessment of cost realism and the offeror's capacity to perform the work proposed. The past performance proposals will be addressed in the request and will include a request for contractor performance information from relevant organizations. To be considered abstracts of proposals shall be received by 2:00 p.m. EST, July 5, 1996 at the Application Control Center address stated above. All abstracts should include the identifier PR/AWARD#: RC961370 on the envelope and on the first page. The abstract should provide on 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 have on inch margins on all sides. Abstracts shall not exceed 15 pages (reviewers will not read beyond the 15th page). Any cover letter, statements of projected costs, and all other attachments are subject to the page limit. Offerors shall submit an original and 9 copies of the abstract which shall include a staff loading and availability chart. V. TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Abstracts shall clearly state the purpose and objectives of the study, specify and provide the rationale for the research design and procedures, briefly describe anticipated products and their schedule, and provide evidence of offeror's capacity to carry out the work-- including a summary table or chart specifying each proposed staff member's ( by name) commitment to each task and subtask by project year. The abstract should indicate how the proposed research will address the following questions: (1) How can a commitment to an agreed upon and widely accepted vision of high achievement for all students and high performance for educators be created and sustained among the members of the learning community--educators, parents, students, and the surrounding community? (2) How can all core education activities be oriented to a vision of high achievement for all students? (3) How can a learning community identify and implement appropriate instructional strategies to assure that all students achieve to high levels? (4) How can the school organization and community resources be expeditously used, modified or built anew to support high performance learning communities? (5) How can the policy environment and governance arrangements be expeditiously used, modified or built anew to support high performance learning communities? (6) How can key members of the learning community work together to identify and define the roles each will play in a restructured school, identify needed knowledge and skills to effectively and efficiently carry out their roles, and design and implement a plan to gain, maintain and best use that knowledge and those skills? (7) How can a high performance learning community be sustained in the face of change; e.g., personnel, leadership, resources, rewards and incentives, accountability practices, demography, etc.? (8) How can a commitment to self-assesment and continous improvement be created and sustained? (9) How can learning communities document and assess their progress in reaching a vision of high achievement for all students? In addition to addressing these questions, the offerors should specify the anticipated publishable products of each year's effort and plans to disseminate them in hard copy and/or electronic media to education policymakers, practitioners, and other appropriate audiences. It will be a requirement for each product or deliverable to be submitted to the Contracting Officer's Technical Representative (COTR) in draft for expert review and revised on the basis of this review before submission in final form. (0170)

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