Advancing Equity in Career and Technical Education

The purpose of this procurement is to provide support to the U.S. Department of Education (Department) in the development and administration of technical assistance strategies through a performance based contract issued on a firm fixed-price basis. The Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE) will be making a new two-year investment in a project focusing on advancing equity in career and technical education: the Advancing Equity in Career and Technical Education (CTE) Project. This investment supports goals 1 and 4 of the Department's FY 2014-2018 Strategic Plan[1] as well as OCTAE's goals to ensure that all youth and adults are ready for, have access to, and complete college and career pathways and that all youth and adult students have equitable access to high quality learning opportunities on demand. The technical assistance activities are intended to provide OCTAE with the subject matter expertise to advance equitable access for students and young adults engaged in educational endeavors within career pathways systems that actively include secondary and postsecondary career and technical education. Work may be required to be performed under tight deadlines. This contract shall provide support to OCTAE across a range of tasks related to the advancement of equity within career and technical education systems, including the following key issues of interest to the Department: Conducting an evidence-based, high-quality literature review that addresses the role, if any, equity plays in CTE recruitment, retention, program completion, and transfer into postsecondary education. - Developing, disseminating, and implementing professional and innovative web-based and print tools and solutions for advancing equity for CTE state leaders and other stakeholders. To accomplish this work, the contractor shall be skilled in managing contracts with multiple tasks, acquiring subject matter expertise in equity in CTE, conducting research and environmental scans, developing and disseminating technical assistance strategies via innovative and interactive web-based tools and resources. The contractor shall also have demonstrated expertise in research and analysis in career technical education and knowledge of national policies and initiatives surrounding equity in education issues. The contractor shall have expertise in using information technology, online clearinghouses, and outreach and communication strategies for stakeholder engagement as a means to deliver complex ideas and sustained opportunities for state CTE leaders, school administrators, equity leaders, teachers, and other stakeholders. The contractor shall be skilled at conducting all aspects of logistical planning and facilitating as it relates to in-person and virtual conferences, meetings, workshops, and online events. The contractor shall have expertise in designing professional development training for state CTE leaders, school administrators and educators, and other stakeholders on a broad range of equity in education topics and promising practices. The contractor shall have expertise related to developing and designing web-related materials. The contractor shall offer solutions that are innovative and creative. OCTAE administers two federal grant programs, one of which is the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006. Perkins IV includes gender considerations relative to nontraditional occupations and related programs and provides some degree of authority and provision to advance equity related to underserved students that struggle with barriers that include, but are not limited to, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. However, a proactive and multicomponent approach is needed to improve the outcomes of underserved students and increase their access, participation, completion, and placement in career and technical education programs that prepare them for in-demand careers. In support of the Department's Strategic Plan, OCTAE is furthering not only the Department's commitment to advancing equity but also the Administration's. OCTAE's proposed equity project aims to help address these issues and will ensure that students, both youth and adult, have equitable access to key educational resources, specifically in career and technical education. This new investment will help OCTAE support the development of a long-term strategic plan to help reduce inequities in career and technical education access, participation, completion and post-program outcomes through the support and development of policy proposals, program initiatives, and the sharing of emerging and promising practices. National activities funds pursuant to section 114(c)(1) of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 (Perkins IV) will be used to support this project. In 2014, the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE) reported that only 20.5 percent of women and girls are enrolled in STEM and CTE programs; 11 percent of students with disabilities are pursing STEM degrees; and 9 percent of low-income students graduate from college. Additionally, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released Part II of its 2009-10 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) exposing significant inequities in educational resources and opportunities provided to minority students nationwide. The Advancing Equity in CTE project will complement the current activities of OCR and related organizations by proactively investing in activities and programs that will better help the Department identify local, State, and national trends in CTE affecting students from underserved subpopulations. Additionally, OCTAE seeks to advance programs and activities in CTE to serve all students; ensure the needs of underserved student subpopulations are being met; and increase student diversity in CTE programs. In order to achieve the objectives set forth by the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006, OCTAE plans to use this project to provide the Department with information regarding strategies and promising practices in advancing equity in CTE programs across the nation. OCTAE plans to share the information obtained (via electronic means) from this project with the field via a comprehensive literature review that identifies the causes of inequity that impede access to education, resources and jobs for CTE students. The literature review will provide an evidence base to help inform internal and external stakeholders understanding of - equity and - equity barriers, which will become the foundation for the development of policies and program proposals, as well as for the identification of policies and practices to be eliminated that currently hinder equity in career, technical and adult education programs and services. To develop and implement methods to identify and disseminate promising practices in equity that have the potential for replication to advance and/or improve access and opportunities for career, technical and adult education learners, OCTAE requires technical support in the areas of project management, research and development, innovative technology, leadership professional development, outreach, communications and information dissemination, technical assistance resources development, and online information resource center development. These areas represent a few of the types of tasks that are encompassed within this proposed contract. Objectives: The objectives of this procurement are to provide CTE with support in the following: 1. Research and Analysis Research and document how equity is defined within the educational and stakeholder community; Conduct a literature review that addresses the role, if any equity plays in CTE recruitment, retention, program completion, and transfer into postsecondary education; Define and identify - equity barriers that impede access to, participation in, and completion of career and technical education for students; Support the field in ensuring high-quality data collection and analysis in order to effectively monitor equity as it relates to program access, opportunity, and completion; Identify and highlight examples of evidenced-based and promising practices in order to scale up programs that advance equity. 2. Advancing Equity in CTE Promising Practices Research and document promising practices of advancing equity in CTE; Develop methods to identify promising practices in equity that have the potential for replication to advance and/or improve access and opportunity for career, technical and adult education learners; Disseminate emerging or promising practices for public consumption via engaging electronic resources. 3. Development of Technical Assistance Resources via Advancing Equity in CTE Toolkit Develop and disseminate promising practices in advancing equity in CTE using a toolkit based on the findings from the literature review and the identified promising practices. The online, web-based toolkit, which will be housed on OCTAE's Perkins Collaborative Network (PCRN), will serve as a clearinghouse of resources, particularly for state and local education agencies, academic staff, school administrators and counselors, parents and equity coordinators. The resources provided in the toolkit will address issued of equality and foster excellence and equity in the development and delivery of programs, services (including counseling), recruitment and retention, teaching and learning practices, and curriculum design in order to create accessible and inclusive environments for career, technical, and adult education learners. Include virtual online events to provide guidance and technical assistance regarding the identified promising practices, particularly to clarify and affirm how these practices have been found to advance equity in CTE. Provide open source electronic tools, resources, strategies, videos and lessons for potential replication that can be used to train CTE leaders (train-the-trainer resources) and stakeholders on overcoming the common barriers to implementing equitable high-quality CTE programs. Develop a final report which includes a summary of the project's tasks, activities, findings, implications, recommendations and next steps. The purpose of this Notice is to support market research by the Department for this procurement opportunity. If the Department were to decide to pursue a procurement action, it will issue a subsequent Notice that will issue a formal Solicitation. Period of Performance The Department anticipates a period of performance that will include a 12-month Base Period and one 12-month Option Period that will be exercised at the sole discretion of the Department. Instructions to Interested Parties Interested parties are invited to submit a short capability statement that specifically addresses this requirement. Contractors must demonstrate extensive expertise in successfully managing and administering projects; creating and implementing leadership opportunities; conducting environmental scans and generating knowledge; creating and disseminating technical assistance tools and conducting outreach; securing subject matter experts; and managing logistics for meetings and events. Contractors shall describe their experience, demonstrating expert abilities in these areas: 1. Evidence-Based and High-Quality Research, 2. Development and Dissemination of New and Promising Practices in Advancing Equity in CTE, including professional development webinars, web-based technical assistance tools and strategies, peer-to-peer learning, and virtual communities. Contractors shall provide brief statement regarding past performance, proposed key personnel, their experiences that would be most relevant to this project, and details about how a team arrangement would be managed and how decisions would be made should a partnership be pursued. Capability statements shall be Word documents of no more than five (5) double-spaced pages in length and shall use at least a 12-point font. The Department has a preference for small business set-asides, particularly with Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs) and HUBZone Small Businesses (HUBZones) but has not yet determined if this procurement opportunity will be set aside for small businesses. It is conducting this market research, in part, to determine if any type of set-aside is appropriate. Interested parties should also provide the following information: 1. Business size and any specific socio-economic small business categories for which it meets the established federal government criteria. 2. Any relevant General Service Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contracts that may be used for this purpose. 3. Any other GWACs that may be used for procurements such as this one. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE DEPARTMENT WILL NOT RELEASE THE ESTIMATED LEVEL OF EFFORT FOR THIS PROCUREMENT. IT IS MOST INTERESTED IN HOW INTERESTED PARTIES ENVISION AN INDEPENDENT SOLUTION TO PERFORM THIS PROCUREMENT. The Department is only interested in receiving capability statements that demonstrate a proven capability to perform the specific functions described herein. The Department is not interested in receiving capability statements that simply describe the contractor's general capabilities. Submission Due Date: Interested parties are requested to submit their responses to this Sources Sought Notice on or before 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time, April 21, 2015. Responses to this Notice should be submitted to Alice Mihill at Alice.Mihill@ed.gov with a cc: to Stephen Scheffer at Stephen.Scheffer@ed.gov. Interested parties are strongly encouraged to sign up for additional alerts about this procurement opportunity (see the bottom of the page for this option). THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS AND IS INTENDED SOLELY FOR THE PURPOSE OF CONDUCTING MARKET RESEARCH. ANY INTERESTED PARTIES THAT PLAN TO SUBMIT A FORMAL PROPOSAL WILL NEED TO WAIT UNTIL A FORMAL RFP OR RFQ IS ISSUED IN ORDER TO DO SO. [1] http://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/strat/plan2014-18/strategic-plan.pdf