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

R -- STUDY OF THE QUALITY AND IMPACT OF THE SAFE AND DRUG-FREE SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITIES PROGRAM SOL ED-00-R-0045 DUE 062200 POC Sang Park, (202) 708-8222, Contract Specialist; Isadora Binder, (202) 708-5141, Contract Specialist The United States Department of Education (ED) plans to issue a solicitation for the Study of the Quality and Impact of the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Program. This will be a Full and Open Competition. 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 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. The evaluation design will be attached to the RFP. 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 study will be guided by the following research questions: (1) What is the quality of drug and violence prevention programs in schools? (2) To what extent are Safe and Drug-Free Schools program funds being used well as part of overall prevention efforts, and to what extent is the program encouraging the use at the local level of high-quality, effective drug and violence prevention strategies that are implemented with fidelity? (3) In what ways could the program encourage grantees to implement higher quality programming? (4) To what extent is it feasible to examine in a non-experimental way the possible correlation between program quality and student outcomes (and other outcomes of interest) in districts with drug and violence prevention efforts supported (in whole or in part) by the Safe and Drug-Free Schools (SDFS) program? Is data available for such a study? If such a relationship can be found, what, if anything, can be concluded from this about the impact of SDFS-sponsored activities? RFP ED-00-R-0045 will be issued on or about 05/23/00. The closing date is 06/22/00. Requests for copies of the RFP may be made by telephone, facsimile, mail, E-mail, telegram or in person. All requests shall reference RFP ED-00-R-0045 and the title of the RFP. The Request for Proposals can also be found on the Internet on or about the RFP issue date at http://ocfo.ed.gov/Coninfo/currrfp.htm. Telephone requests may ONLY be placed by calling 202/708-6498. Faxes can be received at 202/708-9817. E-mail requests shall be sent to Yolanda_Abney@ed.gov. Mail or telegram requests shall be sent to the above address. Copies may be picked up in person on the issue date at the same address. All proposals submitted by responsible sources will be considered.***** Posted 05/09/00 (W-SN452981). (0130)

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