REL_-_RFI_-_08.07.15.docx

August 7, 2015

REGIONAL EDUCATIONAL LABORATORY

FY16/FY17 ACQUISITION

Solicitation No.: ED-IES-15-R-0016

Request for Information & Notice of Vendor Engagement

Facilitated by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Contracts and Acquisitions Management Office

Contents

Introduction

The U.S. Department of Education (Department) will issue a solicitation in FY16 from which nine of ten Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) contracts will issue[footnoteRef:1]. In order to support the FY16 competition, the Department announces an extensive Request for Information and Vendor Engagement effort. Please read this document in its entirety. The information that you provide may play a substantial role in shaping this procurement and may affect the composition of the Performance Work Statement (PWS), Instructions to Offerors, and Source Selection Criteria. Vendors are encouraged to provide feedback now so as to enable the Department to address as many questions as possible before release of the solicitation. [1: This procurement will result in contract awards for all RELs except REL Southwest. The Department will compete REL Southwest in FY17, and REL Southwest will be eleven months behind performance of the other nine REL contracts. The Department will likely utilize the same PWS, evaluation criteria, and solicitation instructions for the FY17 competition, so feedback from vendors interested in the potential Southwest competition is welcome and encouraged.

This document consists of four major information request components to be submitted in two parts:

(1) Request for requirement questions prior to the August 25, 2015 webinar.

(2) Request for capability statements for each REL region including REL Southwest[footnoteRef:2]. [2: Even though REL Southwest will not be competed in the FY16 competition, the market research obtained now will inform the future acquisition strategy for REL Southwest.]

(3) Targeted vendor outreach questions and responses.

(4) Request for comment and feedback on the following solicitation components:

a. PWS

b. Instructions to Offerors

c. Source Selection Criteria Detailed information for each request is located in the appropriate subsection below. In the event that vendors have questions, please note the contact information for Jonathan Bettis listed below.

In addition to the request for information, we are providing a detailed Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document that provides common questions and answers based on the current and previous requirements. Please review this document carefully as it is designed to streamline the acquisition process and avoid an extensive question-answer period during the active solicitation phase. Please feel free to submit additional questions as part of your document response so that the Department may address your questions prior to release of the solicitation.

Please note that all solicitation-related documents in this RFI are draft versions. The content of each document may change substantially between release of this RFI and release of the final Solicitation. The final solicitation will be governed by the terms, conditions, instructions, and criteria in that document. Offerors should not rely on the contents of this RFI for preparing final proposals. To the extent that information provided in this document is inconsistent with or contradicts information contained in the final Solicitation, the Solicitation controls.

Submission Instructions I. Pre-Webinar Questions

Offerors should submit technical questions regarding the substantive work of the REL program and/or competition to Jonathan E. Bettis (Jonathan.Bettis@ed.gov) no later than 11:00AM EDT August 19, 2015. The IES technical team may address these questions following formal presentations at the vendor outreach event. Additional information regarding the webinar is provided on page 5 of this document.

II. Formal RFI Response Detailed information for the required submission is provided below. Offerors should submit, via email, the following documents to Jonathan.Bettis@ed.gov with a cc to Heather.Watroba@ed.gov no later than September 10, 2015 at 2:00PM EDT.

I. One PDF document that contains your Capability Statement (PDF).

II. One PDF document that contains your response to vendor questions.

III. One WORD document that contains any comments, track change revisions, or edits to the PWS, Instructions to Offerors, and Source Selection Criteria. Narrative justifications for changes are also welcome if appropriate. If offerors have additional questions regarding any of the three documents please feel free to include this information in a separate heading in your WORD document that contains these questions in addition to any narrative information.

Offerors should submit all three documents in one email. Please note that the Department imposes a 15MB file size limitation. This limitation accounts for potential file size increases associated with Microsoft Cloud services and may be different from earlier Department file size restrictions.

Participation in this vendor outreach effort is entirely voluntary. A response to this RFI is not required in order to respond to any solicitation that the Department issues.

Notice of Vendor Engagement

IES invites you to attend a vendor engagement webinar on August 25, 2015 at 2:30PM EDT. The event will only take place online so as to provide equal attendance opportunities for all interested parties. The webinar will include presentations by IES staff about the REL program.

Interested parties are encouraged to review the PWS below and submit questions regarding the PWS no later than 11:00AM EDT on August 19, 2015. These questions may concern the purpose and structure of existing RELs, requests for clarification about the purpose and mission of the REL program, or questions about how each task fits within the context of the broader REL program.

Members of the REL team will address questions following individual information presentations. Due to the size of the webinar and the large number of attendees, we will not entertain live questions. To the extent that we receive questions that we are unable to answer during the event, members of the acquisition team will post responses to www.FBO.gov following the webinar.

Interested parties should submit questions in advance to Jonathan E. Bettis (Jonathan.Bettis@ed.gov).

Participation Information

NO PRE-REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED TO PARTICIPATE

Topic: Regional Educational Laboratory Vendor Engagement Date: Tuesday, August 25, 2015 Time: 2:00[footnoteRef:3] pm, Eastern Daylight Time (New York, GMT-04:00) Meeting Number: 745 430 275 Meeting Password: RegionalEdLabs

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IMPORTANT NOTICE: This WebEx service includes a feature that allows audio and any documents and other materials exchanged or viewed during the session to be recorded. By joining this session, you automatically consent to such recordings. If you do not consent to the recording, discuss your concerns with the meeting host prior to the start of the recording or do not join the session. Please note that any such recordings may be subject to discovery in the event of litigation. [3: The Webinar will open at 2:00 PM, but we will not begin discussion until 2:30 PM. ]

Contact Information Please note that only the individuals listed below are authorized points of contact for this competition. No members of the IES staff (REL project staff or otherwise) will respond to inquiries even if the individual is responsible for technical direction under an existing REL contract.

The following members comprise the acquisition team for this procurement:

Primary Point of Contact Jonathan E. Bettis Jonathan.Bettis@ed.gov

(202) 245-6971 Contract Specialist responsible for all operational aspects of the procurement.

Secondary Point of Contact Heather Watroba Heather.Watroba@ed.gov

(202) 245-8292 Contracting Officer responsible for all operational/supervisory aspects of the procurement.

Emergency Point of Contact Stephen Scheffer Stephen.Scheffer@ed.gov Contracting Officer/Group Manager responsible for high-level guidance and operates as an emergency point of contact if circumstances require.

Dissemination of Procurement Information Offerors are strongly encouraged to communicate via email. All questions that the Department receives regarding the procurement will be disclosed to the public via www.FBO.gov. All announcements regarding the procurement will be posted to FBO.

Request for Capability Statements

Proposed NAICS Information: 611710 – Educational Support Services[footnoteRef:4] [4: Please note that we welcome feedback on other appropriate NAICS and PSC codes. ]

Proposed Product Service Code: R499 – Support – Professional: Other

The Department requests capability statements in order to evaluate what, if any, set aside determinations are appropriate for each region. The Department will not make a small business set aside determination for the program as a whole. Rather, we will rely on the information provided for each region in order to determine whether a set aside is appropriate for each region that will result in a contract award. This means that if you intend to submit more than one proposal (i.e.,a proposal for more than one region), you are strongly encouraged to submit a capability statement for each region for which you will be submitting a proposal. We reserve the right to use other resources and information to inform our acquisition strategy.

The Department will not review generic capability statements because generic capability statements tell us nothing about your ability to execute a REL contract. Rather, we will only review capability statements that conform to the specifications provided below.

Format and Instructions for Capability Statements

Capability statements are limited to 7 pages (not including the cover page) and must be submitted in PDF format. The Department will not consider material in excess of 7 pages.

1. Cover Page containing the following information:

Region Name Name of Company Primary Point of Contact (phone and email) DUNS Number Small Business Status for the applicable NAICS code (if not a small business, please indicate “OTSB” in this field)

2. Substantive Content

Your capability statement must provide the following information:

I. Demonstrated understanding of the research and analytic needs of the region for which you are submitting a capability statement.

II. Demonstrated ability and capacity to provide tailored training and coaching on analytic and education topics.

III. Demonstrated experience coordinating and collaborating with policymakers, researchers, and practitioners, and the capacity to conduct this work within the scope of a particular REL region.

IV. Demonstrated expertise in conducting peer-reviewed education research and the capacity to conduct peer-reviewed education research within the scope of a particular REL region.

V. Demonstrated ability to disseminate scientific findings in an accurate and easy to understand manner and the capacity to disseminate such findings within the scope of a particular REL region.

VI. Demonstrated ability to manage large-scale government contracts.

Vendor Questions

(1) What, if any, additional information should the Department provide in order to enable you to accurately estimate the price/cost of each task? This includes documents, research materials, more accurate task descriptions, policy information, or other content produced by or utilized by the Department.

(2) Are the NAICS and PSC codes appropriate for this procurement? If not, please justify an alternative.

(3) Do you agree with the manner of pricing for each task and subtask (i.e. do you agree with the designation of each task as Firm-Fixed Price (FFP) or Cost Reimbursement (CR))? If not, why? If you propose to convert a FFP task to CR please provide a justification.

(4) Can you identify any barriers to competition? If so, please identify and describe how the Department could reduce or eliminate those barriers.

(5) Is there any other information that you wish to convey to the Department?

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is the REL required to have both a Director and a Deputy Director?

Yes, both positions are required for the 2017-2022 RELs, and both will be listed as key personnel in the REL contracts.

2. Must each task have a designated task lead?

Tasks 3-6 must have designated task leads. These individuals will be named as key personnel in the REL contracts.

3. What does it mean to have key personnel named in a contract?

These personnel are considered essential to the performance of the work. Therefore, changes in these personnel require the approval of the Department.

4. May the contractor host a REL website on its own corporate or university website?

No. REL websites will be hosted on the IES server. REL staff will be given access to a development site.

5. Why does the Department include a Special Rights in Data clause in the REL contracts?

The Department includes FAR Clause 52.227- 17– Rights in Data-Special Works in all REL contracts. This is because REL research is required by law to be peer-reviewed before release. This provision allows the Department to ensure compliance with this aspect of the law and to maintain the high standards of the REL program.

6. My university does not want to accept the Special Rights in Data clause. Will the Department grant a waiver?

No, under no circumstances will the Department grant a blanket waiver of this clause.

7. Can the Department offer my university an assurance that all REL research that meets scholarly standards will be publicly released?

Yes. It is the policy and practice of the Institute of Education Sciences to publicly release all research that meets its standards, without delay and without regard to content or findings.

8. May an author of a published REL report write an article for a scholarly journal using the findings?

Yes. The Department encourages authors to disseminate findings to multiple audiences. However, because the primary audience for REL work is state and local education agency staff, only in unusual circumstances will the Department allow a contractor to use REL funds to prepare an article for a journal that has an audience primarily of researchers. If REL funds are used to fund any portion of a journal article, the author is subject to the IES Public Access policy and the final, peer-reviewed manuscript must be deposited into ERIC. For more information, see http://eric.ed.gov/?granteefaq.

9. Letters of Support – Are they allowable? If so, do they go in the technical proposal? Do they count against the page limit?

General letters of support are not permitted, and the Technical Evaluation Panel will not review or consider these letters. We note that in past competitions some companies have submitted letters of support from Members of Congress. All letters of support from Members of Congress are acknowledged in writing. We note, however, that the evaluation of a technical proposal occurs in strict conformance with the criteria stated in the Solicitation. We do not consider letters of support from any individual or organization in making our determination in order to preserve an unbiased, full and open competition

We note that offerors are required to submit letters of interest from at least one potential stakeholder in each proposed research alliance or partnership

10. Will the Department provide a list of currently certified WWC reviewers?

Yes. A list of currently certified WWC reviewers is located at the following link: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Reviewers.aspx.

11. Will a Privacy Act System of Records Notice (SORN) be required for studies using existing data?

A Privacy Act System of Records Notice (SORN) and report to OMB/Congress will be required for data that would enable the identification of individuals.

12. Who will have access to the intranet? All REL personnel? All IES personnel? Should it be designed with login credentials?

The intranet shall be accessible to the IES REL team, REL directors and their designated staff, and when appropriate, to subcontractors of RELs and IES.

13. Does IES have any guidance for Offerors about fee for the Firm Fixed Price (FPP) contract?

It is in the Government’s interest to offer contractors opportunities for financial rewards sufficient to stimulate efficient contract performance, attract the best capabilities of qualified large and small business concerns to Government contracts, and maintain a viable industrial base. Offerors should keep in mind their need to cover their estimated costs for performance, earning a profit and ensuring their business proposal is competitively priced.

14. What contract type will the Department issue?

The 2017-2022 REL contracts will be hybrid and will consist of Firm-Fixed Price (FFP) and Cost-Reimbursement (CR) tasks. The Department will not include any award fee, and the final structure of the CR tasks and any applicable fee structure is still subject to refinement.

List of Attachments

In addition to the PWS, Instructions to Offerors, and Selection Criteria, the following documents are uploaded as separate attachments to www.FBO.gov in addition to this RFI:

(1) REL Logic Model

(2) REL Resource Guide 2012-17

(3) Appendix A1 – TCTS Concept Paper

(4) Appendix A2 – Event Concept Paper

(5) Appendix A3 – ARS Concept Paper Outline

Other documents may be referenced throughout this RFI that are not attached to this notice.

Draft Performance Work Statement

Note: Some information is still under development. Sections noted in brackets with yellow highlight denote documents, references, or other documents that are pending finalization.

I. Purpose and Authorizing Legislation

The U.S. Department of Education (the Department) intends to enter into a 60-month contract with a qualified entity to serve as the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) for each of nine regions. See Appendix A for the names of the regions and their constituent states or jurisdictions. The REL will be part of a program of 10 Regional Educational Laboratories authorized under the Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA) of 2002, Part D, Section 174, (20 U.S.C. 9564). The REL program is administered by the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE) at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES)[footnoteRef:5]. [5: http://www2.ed.gov/policy/rschstat/leg/PL107-279.pdf]

Authorizing legislation directs the RELs to carry out applied research and development, disseminate findings from scientifically-valid research, provide support for using research in education decision making, and coordinate their activities with other federally-funded technical assistance entities (such as the Comprehensive Centers and the Equity Assistance Centers). RELs serve state education agencies (SEAs), local education agencies (LEAs), state and local school boards, and schools funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as appropriate. RELs are required to allocate no less than 25 percent of their resources to meeting the needs of rural areas, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. Each REL has a Governing Board that provides strategic direction, including helping to prioritize which regional needs should be the focus of the REL’s work. A Governing Board is comprised of the region’s chief State school officers or their designees and other regional education stakeholders. Because REL work is carried out under contract to the Department, REL products and services must be completed to the quality specifications required by IES.

II. Background

Over the past decade, the REL program has contributed to a significant cultural change that continues to gain momentum in education – namely, the increasing focus on basing education decisions on high-quality research evidence. Evidence-based decision making in education has bipartisan support at the national level (Hess and Little, 2015). Since 2002, the Department has made significant investments in an infrastructure to support building and using research evidence in education. In addition to offering the REL program, the Department has provided substantial support to states to develop longitudinal K-12 data systems; supported pre-doctoral and post-doctoral training of researchers capable of conducting rigorous studies; awarded grants for research ranging from exploratory and correlational studies to large-scale studies of effectiveness; conducted rigorous evaluations of federal programs; and established the What Works ClearinghouseTM(WWC) to search for, review, and summarize findings from studies of effectiveness in education. With the National Science Foundation, the Department’s Institute of Education Sciences articulated a set of Common Guidelines for Research and Development in Education (IES & NSF, 2013). Since 2008, the Department has added evidence-related requirements to a growing number of discretionary grant programs, of which the Investing in Innovation program is the most prominent example.

During this time, there arguably was more progress in training highly-skilled education researchers and producing high-quality research than in plainly communicating research results and providing support to policymakers and practitioners[footnoteRef:6] to engage with research and evidence, either as research partners or research consumers. The 2012-2017 REL program sought to address the disconnect between researchers and practitioners through researcher-practitioner partnerships known as research alliances. Research alliances were defined[footnoteRef:7] in the Performance Work Statement (PWS) as groups of practitioners, policymakers, and researchers who work together over time to use data and research to better understand and address a particular education concern. REL research alliances typically involved cross-state membership, groups of districts within a single state, or both state education agencies and several districts. The premise of this approach was that partnerships of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers would result in high quality research studies and products that answered pressing practical questions, communicated findings in plain-spoken but technically precise ways, were engaging and actionable for practitioners, and — most important — built the capacity in states and districts to apply research results. [6: Throughout this PWS, we refer to policymakers and practitioners. Our working definition of policymaker is an individual who has the authority to make policy choices for an education system. This definition, then, reasonably includes members of state or local boards of education, state education officials, and superintendents. Our working definition of practitioner is an individual whose responsibilities primarily are to carry out education practice, rather than to set broad policies. Practitioners, then, would include school principals, instructional coaches, and teachers. Our purpose in providing these working definitions is to indicate the various types of partners and audiences for REL activities.] [7: See: https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=1918ddb4c35fe795cb256350128f1365&tab=documents&tabmode=list]

The Department intends for the 2017-2022 REL program to build on and extend its recent history of high-quality research, genuine partnership, and effective communication. Therefore, the 2017-2022 RELs are tasked with conducting rigorous research, working in partnership with state and district staff, and effectively communicating about research. In addition, the Department expects the RELs to apply these capabilities to high-leverage education problems in their regions. High-leverage problems are those that (1) if addressed could result in substantial improvements in education outcomes for many students or for key subgroups of students; (2) are priorities for regional policymakers, particularly at the state level; and (3) require research or research-related support to address well. Focusing on high-leverage problems increases the likelihood that REL support ultimately will contribute to improved student outcomes.

RELs conduct three types of activities

ESRA charges RELs with three main activities: (1) applied research; (2) dissemination of scientifically-valid research; and (3) technical assistance related to application and use of scientifically-valid research. While there are not always bright dividing lines between these three activities (for example, a research activity may also include support or training for staff at state or local education agencies), these categories are useful as general descriptors of activities that RELs may undertake to inform and increase the capacity of policymakers and practitioners in their regions to access, conduct, interpret, and apply research.

Applied research

ESRA describes applied research as specifically directed to the advancement of practice in education. The law implicitly contrasts applied research with basic research, which does not necessarily have immediate or obvious implications for practice. The Department envisions the applied research of the RELs as use-inspired research[footnoteRef:8] -- that is, research that seeks to solve practical problems but also, to the extent possible, advances fundamental understandings of education problems and processes. Whether basic or applied, quality research is informed by prior empirical and theoretical work and seeks to add new knowledge to that body of work (IES & NSF, 2013). Importantly, research is concerned with generalizing results to multiple contexts. Research may provide careful descriptions of patterns, examine associations, or conduct rigorous empirical testing of models and hypotheses. In the education context, research addresses complex questions about teaching, learning, organization of schools and systems, education access, and education attainment. These characteristics separate research from other forms of information-gathering, such as compiling facts or statistics, documenting policies without analysis or scholarly interpretation, or generating and reporting on performance indicators. [8: Pasteur's Quadrant: Basic Science and Technological Innovation by Donald E. Stokes (1997). Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution ]

Dissemination of research findings

In ESRA, dissemination is characterized as the “communication and transfer” of research findings in ways that are “understandable, easily accessible, and usable, or adaptable for use in the improvement of educational practice.” RELs are to facilitate the flow of actionable, credible, up-to-date research evidence (and information, ideas, and approaches that are clearly based on credible research evidence) among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. The Department emphasizes that it does not envision a “transmission” model in which the “experts” (i.e. researchers) convey information to non-researchers. Rather, REL dissemination is to facilitate the wide sharing of research evidence and research-related information to spark new ideas, introduce individuals to others working on similar issues, and reduce unnecessary duplication. In an age when information is ubiquitous and readily transmitted, the value-added of the RELs is that they are honest brokers and effective synthesizers of information. The Department’s goal is for the “REL brand” of dissemination to convey quality, objectivity, timeliness, and engaging opportunities to learn and connect with others.

The Department recognizes that dissemination activities, on their own, are unlikely to bring about deep and lasting improvements in education practice. This is because changes in organizational and instructional routines and practices typically require more intensive support than can be provided in presentations, workshops, webinars, or other relatively brief interactions (Christie et al 2007). But dissemination can alert policymakers and practitioners to new findings and approaches and, ideally, to resources that can support deeper engagement in content. To help audiences to go beyond learning about research to applying research, RELs also are charged with providing more intensive, targeted training, coaching, and technical support, which is discussed below.

Training, coaching, and technical support for use of research

ESRA uses the term “technical assistance” to characterize a broad area of work that RELs conduct to support use of research evidence in practice and policy, including work to select and test solutions, improve classroom instruction and student learning, and plan and assess programs. In the 2012-2017 RELs, this area of work was called “analytic technical assistance” to distinguish it from assistance for policy and program development and implementation offered by other federal education technical assistance centers. In this contract, the Department is calling this work training, coaching, and technical support (TCTS) for research use. A wide variety of activities and partnership models are allowable within this general area of work, but all must be designed intentionally to increase the capacity of individuals and/or organizations, and, when appropriate, the education research sector (see discussion of capacity-building later in this introductory section). The content of activities conducted within this area of work must be carefully assessed against the research base. Further, unlike the “light touch” envisioned by dissemination, these activities imply more extensive, ongoing, or customized support to meet the needs of particular stakeholders. Some of these activities are services that do not result in tangible products for wide distribution. However, published products for a broad audience such as guides, toolkits, or videos that arise from technical support activities are allowable in this area of work.

Examples of training, coaching, and technical support to enable use of research include but are not limited to: in-person or virtual consultation or training on research design, data collection or analysis, or approaches for selecting or adapting research-based interventions to new contexts; in-depth training or workshops on instructional approaches supported by rigorous research, including preparation of materials for these trainings or workshops; informal reviews of studies against WWC standards[footnoteRef:9] (see subtask 5.4); acting as a thought partner when evaluating a program or initiative, and reference searches in response to questions submitted by stakeholders through the Ask-A-REL service (see subtask 5.5). [9: . The What Works Clearinghouse standards are available at http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/reference_resources/wwc_procedures_v3_0_standards_handbook.pdf. ]

Supporting use of research evidence and building research evidence are defining features of REL work. Therefore, training, coaching, and technical support activities that are not related to building capacity for creating or using research evidence are out of scope for RELs. In particular, advising on program or policy development, alignment, or implementation are not within the mission of the REL program.

Bridging Research and Practice in Education

The REL program serves as a bridge between the worlds of education research and education practice.

Though these worlds share a common desire to improve education outcomes, they often differ in their incentive structures, time constraints, priorities, and communication practices (Biesta 2007). More than any other research-related program at the Department, the REL and its staff must be able to navigate comfortably between the two worlds and must understand the norms and requirements of both research and practice in education. Specific examples of how this requirement must be met include:

· Demonstrating rigor and relevance: The REL shall conduct research to the high standards expected by IES. However, the REL also shall be committed to co-creation of research agendas with its education partners and skilled at communicating research findings in an easily accessible manner to busy practitioners.

· Differentiating support based on need: The REL shall be able to provide its region with access to the most sophisticated research expertise. However, it also shall offer support on basic, introductory-level data and research topics when needed.

· Providing information in the short term, and developing evidence over the long term: The REL shall respond to immediate needs of practitioners and policymakers for products to inform decisions, usually within a short time horizon. However, REL researchers shall craft research projects so that they also make empirical and theoretical contributions to long-term, enduring issues in education research.

· Address local issues that can also benefit the nation: The REL shall respond to regional needs for research, dissemination, and technical support as articulated by its education stakeholders. However, as much as possible, it also shall design its activities to benefit practitioners and policymakers throughout the entire country. To the extent possible, the REL shall craft its work to address the research needs of local partners while also informing broader scholarly and policy debates.

III. TOPICAL PRIORITIES

Priorities for the REL are described throughout this PWS, especially under Tasks 3, 4, and 5 where especially encouraged activities are listed. The Department emphasizes that the REL is to work on high-leverage issues in its region, as defined in Section II. However, to the extent possible, the Department also encourages the REL and its region to address the following four topics: (1) early childhood education and school readiness; (2) college and career readiness; (3) professional development and teacher preparation to deliver effective instruction, informed by the most credible, up-to-date research; and (4) increasing education access and attainment in high needs communities, schools, and subgroups of students.

IV. EXPECTATIONS FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REL

1. The Department expects the REL to make efficient and effective use of its resources for greatest impact and broad benefit.

First and foremost, the REL serves its region by learning about, prioritizing, and addressing regional needs. The REL’s Governing Board, which includes but is not limited to the State chief or designee from each state in the region, helps the REL allocate its resources to various activities in the region and ensure equitable distribution of work across the jurisdictions. Governing Board members also can help the REL make connections with other regional and national entities that can co-sponsor, extend, or amplify the REL’s work in order to reach new audiences within the region. However, as directed in authorizing legislation, the REL also must seek to address national priorities (see Section III) and to benefit education policymakers and practitioners across the entire country.

Expectation: The REL shall thoughtfully and strategically use its resources to generate the greatest good for the greatest number of individuals and entities, both in the region and across the country. The first way that RELs shall accomplish this is through identifying high-leverage education problems on which to work, drawing on careful assessment of regional needs and opportunities and on the guidance of their Governing Boards. High-leverage problems are those that (1) if addressed could result in substantial improvements in education outcomes for many students or for key subgroups of students; (2) are priorities for regional policymakers (particularly at the state level); and (3) require research or research-related support to address well.

A second way that the REL shall use its resources strategically, efficiently, and in a non-duplicative manner is to involve larger audiences by offering virtual dissemination and technical support activities and making them widely available through electronic means. Vastly improved telecommunications networks already have allowed the REL program to invite a broad, national audience to participate in virtual events, either synchronously or asynchronously. To the extent possible, REL activities shall be recorded, archived, and posted in a user-friendly manner (for example, by breaking a long presentation into shorter segments) for later viewing by those who could not attend the event in-person. Videos from webinars and events held by the 2012-2017 RELs are posted on IES’s YouTube site.[footnoteRef:10] The Department anticipates that telecommunications capacity, including social media opportunities and electronic applications, will continue to evolve and improve during this contract cycle. The REL shall keep abreast of and take full advantage of these anticipated improvements to involve new audiences, engage them more deeply in generating and using research, and make REL products and activities widely accessible. [10: The YouTube site can be found at this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRUCjPehBxFQ6lfZDqq_f7g. ]

Third, the REL shall develop collaborations and partnerships with non-partisan regional and national entities that share the REL’s goal of increasing use of research evidence in education. These partnerships can allow costs to be shared and new audiences to learn about resources provided by the REL program. Examples of entities with which RELs may be able to partner are professional organizations that seek to improve instruction in particular school subjects; organizations that support principals, superintendents, or school boards; research and development (R&D) centers funded by IES; and other federally supported technical assistance entities.

Fourth, the REL shall make the most effective use of program dollars by creatively and strategically “getting more” from each technical support activity or report. Examples of “getting more” may include, but are not limited to:

· Formatting and sharing research-related materials such as surveys and codebooks for use by other states or localities.

· Creating a model analysis for a particular state or local education agency, and then offering opportunities for additional agencies to receive support for conducting a similar analysis, using research questions, variable definitions, and table shells developed for the original study.

· Widely sharing training materials and creating facilitators’ guides that enable others to offer similar training without “reinventing the wheel.”

· Producing companion documents or materials that present findings or ideas for different audiences.

2. The Department expects the REL to involve research experts in relevant content areas.

Through its dissemination and technical support, the REL is charged with enabling practitioners and policymakers to learn about and apply the most credible, up-to-date research in education. In turn, through its research projects, the REL adds new evidence to the body of research knowledge.

Expectation: The REL shall involve researchers with significant, demonstrated scholarly expertise in content areas relevant to the work it undertakes. These experts provide REL stakeholders with a broad and deep perspective on what is known and what still is not settled in a research field. Content experts also enable the REL to frame important research questions that both address immediate needs for evidence and advance knowledge more broadly.

For dissemination activities, the REL shall engage researchers with national reputations in the relevant content area. Authors of REL reports shall have demonstrated expertise in the content area being addressed by the report, ideally shown through a substantial portfolio of published work in that area. Since no single entity is likely to possess all of the expertise needed for the content needs of its region, the Department expects that the REL shall seek content expertise from a variety of sources, including other universities or firms, and shall adjust its mix of content expertise as new regional needs arise.

3. The Department expects the REL’s research to be methodologically rigorous.

The REL program is the Department’s primary and most comprehensive source of research support for state and local education agencies.

Expectation: The REL shall conduct a full range of types of studies to respond to regional needs. These include descriptive studies, correlational analyses, literature reviews, and studies of effectiveness. When called upon by its regional stakeholders, the REL also shall produce sophisticated technical analysis related to measurement and statistical modeling. For example, the 2012-2017 REL program produced studies of the validity and reliability of educator evaluation measures and systems, predictive validity of assessments, effects of modeling choices on schools identified as exceeding expectations, and usefulness of alternative statistical methods for estimating student risk of failure.

For research on the effectiveness of programs, policies, or practices, the REL shall prioritize research designs that involve randomization, with the goal of meeting WWC standards without reservations. With a compelling justification, and on a case-by-case basis, the Department will allow the REL to conduct low-cost, quasi-experimental studies that are designed to meet WWC standards with reservations.

All REL reports shall carefully document assumptions, data, and analytic methods, explain what can and cannot be concluded from the analysis, and indicate the limitations of the study. Regardless of study type, all REL studies will be peer reviewed for technical rigor as well as for relevance to a policymaker or practitioner audience and readability (see Section [X]). IES determines and administers the peer review process for all REL products.

Methodologically rigorous research can take time to design, implement, and be scrutinized by peers for quality. This represents a conundrum for researchers as they seek to engage with the faster-paced world of education policy and practice. The Department recommends that RELs divide large research projects into smaller sub-projects that can be released sequentially, as appropriate. For example, some of the 2012-2017 RELs produced sequences of publications that included a literature review (report #1); early findings (report #2); and the full study (report #3).

4. The Department requires the REL’s products to be clear, engaging, and actionable for the intended audience, with appropriate brevity.

The education research field is coming to recognize its traditional written formats, which facilitate communication among academics, are less appropriate for communicating findings to an audience of practitioners and policymakers (Conaway, 2013; Dynarski and Kisker, 2014). In response, education researchers have begun to organize, write, and design reports and graphics to make research questions and findings easier to understand. They also are using alternative formats – such as infographics, videos, and podcasts -- to highlight major findings and spark audience interest.

Expectation: The REL shall present research findings and technical support materials in clear and engaging ways. Over the course of the contract, the REL shall continuously identify and implement improvements to its presentation of research findings and technical assistance materials, drawing on customer feedback, the research base on effective communication, and embedded experiments as appropriate. The 2012-2017 REL program made important strides in producing concise reports that were organized to make the research questions and findings clear without sacrificing documentation of methods. For example, the main text of REL reports was limited to 20 pages, with accompanying appendices as needed. For reference, see the 2012-2017 REL Style Guide,[footnoteRef:11] as this will be the minimum expectation for research reporting. Offerors should note that federal law requires agencies to use plain language in all written communications. The Department interprets this to mean that research-related materials authored under contract to the government must use plain language.[footnoteRef:12] [11: Add link to Style guide] [12: Information about the government’s Plain Language guidelines is available at: http://www.plainlanguage.gov/index.cfm. ]

5. The Department expects the REL to focus on capacity-building.

Fundamentally, the role of the REL is to work in such a way that the state and local education agencies in its region have notably more capacity to use research evidence to inform education decision making than they would have had without this support. This means that the REL must give careful attention to how its work is expected to change attitudes, build skills, and increase knowledge of research evidence. In the context of the REL program, building capacity can be conceptualized as having three dimensions.

Building individual capacity. Staff members at state and local education organizations bring varying levels of experience, knowledge, and skills to education decision making. A critical role of the REL is to further enhance existing human capital in state and local education agencies, building from whatever the starting point is among agency partners. The logic of the REL program is that state and local education agency staff who are better able to access, understand, interpret, critique, generate, and apply data and research are essential to education improvement.

Building organizational capacity. State and local education agencies are more than collections of individuals, each with a specific set of capacities. Rather, agencies are complex systems with their own organizational routines and technical solutions. Building organizations’ capacity to use research may involve work such as development of tools, routines for collecting and analyzing data to answer research questions, and models for regularly evaluating the effects of policies and practices.

Building education research sector capacity. In the process of building individual and organizational capacity as described above, the REL can build the capacity of the education research sector by modeling reciprocal and productive researcher-practitioner partnerships; contributing to denser and more cost-effective dissemination networks, by co-sponsoring learning opportunities with professional organizations and other federally-funded entities; and modeling and advancing the effective communication of research findings.

Expectation: The REL shall carry out its work intentionally and strategically so as to increase the skills, knowledge, commitment, effectiveness of organizational routines, and quality of tools of its education partners. Every activity of the REL shall be assessed through the following lens: Is this activity likely to build capacity, and if so, what kind of capacity, how, and for whom?

6. The Department expects the REL to engage in genuine, reciprocal partnerships with regional stakeholders.

The REL model brings together people with disparate areas of expertise and interest to produce research, technical support, and learning opportunities that can be genuinely useful to education practitioners and policymakers. Productive REL partnerships build on the varied knowledge, skills, experiences, and networks of the partners. To serve their regions, REL leadership and staff must engage in an ongoing way with key education partners in order to understand needs and priorities as articulated by those partners and to receive feedback on whether REL products and services have met those needs.

Partnership implies mutual respect and recognition between the REL and its regional partners. The REL looks to regional stakeholders for strategic direction, knowledge of the context, and priority setting. However, the REL is not to serve as a research assistant to state or local education agencies, nor is it the role of the REL to respond to large-scale, last-minute requests by stakeholders. Instead, with the guidance of its Governing Board (see Subtask 2.1), the Department expects that the REL will balance and prioritize competing needs and opportunities in the region and will develop a coherent, integrated, well-planned set of activities to address high-leverage problems. The REL must draw on the professional judgment and expertise of its staff in research, communication, and training to identify which course of action is most feasible, most likely to make a contribution to research and practice, and most cost-effective.

As described above, during the 2012-2017 REL contract cycle, REL work was conducted primarily through research alliances.