Data Quality Initiative Technical Assistance (DQI-TA) Contract

The purpose of this Special Notice is to publicize the U.S. Department of Education's action to modify ED-PEP-11-C-0062, for Data QualityInitiative Technical Assistance, to increase the number of programs served under the contract from 10 to 20. The Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC) is provided as an attachment to this Special Notice. This contract was awarded to Westat and has a period of performance from September 23, 2011 through September 22, 2015. The overarching goal of the technical assistance contract is to promote and improve the quality of data on outcomes and impacts of Department grant programs. The technical support provided under this contract will provide data quality guidance to: - Assist program offices in the design and conduct of grant programs, so that successful applicants provide the Department with higher quality outcome and impact data. The contractor shall provide ED program office staff guidance on how the staff might structure their grant competitions to encourage grantees to plan for and collect quality impact or outcomes data and evaluations. The contactor shall also provide feedback to the program office on applicants evaluation plans, to promote higher quality grantee evaluations and more accurate and meaningful data on program impacts/outcomes at the grantee level. The contractor shall also assist program offices in the design of reporting forms and OMB clearance packages. - Provide technical assistance to ED program grantees and/or their local evaluators that are collecting data on outcomes and impacts. The contractor shall provide assistance to grantees/local evaluators on the design, instrumentation, data collection, and analysis and reporting aspects of grantee-level evaluations in order to improve the quality of such evaluations. To accomplish this, the contractor shall develop and disseminate a series of evaluation guidance documents designed to educate and guide grantees on the conduct of their evaluations. In addition, the contractor shall conduct workshops on evaluation design, instrumentation, and data collection analyses at grantee meetings. Workshops shall focus on obtaining high quality outcomes data. The contractor shall also provide ongoing technical assistance to grantees/local evaluators through the review of key evaluation products and consultations regarding site-specific evaluations. The contractor shall develop guidance and assist grantees in identifying and collecting data that supports high-quality outcomes. - Provide data collection and analytical assistance to program offices with their annual performance data. The contractor shall assist program offices in the design of grantee reporting forms and the drafting of OMB clearance packages. The contractor shall provide guidance to program office staff as to how to obtain high quality data from their grantees and how to identify and address instances of data deficiencies (e.g. missing or inaccurate data). The contractor shall also provide analytic support to programs in interpreting and aggregating grantee-level data. After the contract award, the Department will provide the contractor with a list of up to 10 programs (now increased to 20) that will be considered the target of the technical assistance provided under the contract. These programs will be selected by the Department on a variety of criteria such as the type of program (e.g., technical assistance, R&D, professional development, academic instruction), whether technical assistance with impact or outcomes evaluations is already being provided to the program, and the capacity of the program office to conduct such activities.