Adult Ed Immigrant Integration - Market Research Webinar 05-08-2012.pptx

Adult Education and Immigrant Integration

U.S. Department of Education (ED) Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) Division of Adult Education and Literacy (DAEL)

May 9, 2012

Sheryl Adler welcomes, does introductions, and provides context. Asks for questions to be saved to the end.

Turns it over to Heidi Silver-Pacuilla.

Webinar & Capability Statement Purpose of the Webinar:

Conduct market research Promote transparency in contracting Facilitate strategic partnerships Learn of any barriers to competition

The purpose of this webinar is what the Department calls “market research.” We are interested in promoting the opportunity to be involved in this project as widely as possible, knowing that this is a new area for us, and hope to encourage interest in this procurement.

In addition, we want to

Promote transparency in contracting, Facilitate strategic partnerships by publishing the firms that have participated today on FedBizOps so that you can make contact with others who may be interested

Hear from potential offerors of any barriers they identify in the performance work statement that would inhibit their participation. The PWS that is posted on FedBizOpps is a draft, and we sincerely want to hear from offerors if they consider any of the tasks, timelines, or expectations to be a barrier.

Webinar & Capability Statement Purpose of the Capability Statement:

Due on May 14, 2:00 pm ET 15 pg limit (excluding comments on barriers), 12pt font Expectation is that offerors do not repeat language in the capability request, but that they… Demonstrate 3 areas of capability:

Existing expertise, knowledge, and experience of proposed personnel Experience with, and existing resources that support, immigrant integration Experience in managing and/or providing large-scale technical assistance

The purpose of requesting the capability statement is to collect from potential offerors demonstrations of their expertise in this area. The capability statements are not required to participate in the procurement, and they are not being used to select or invite proposals.

The 15 page limit is firm, except for the appendix in which you can detail your feedback on the draft PWS – the barriers, concerns, or questions you have.

We expect that you do not simply repeat the language we’ve provided but that you use your page limit to demonstrate your firms’ capabilities and expertise in three critical areas:

Existing expertise, knowledge, and experience in immigrant integration of proposed personnel

Experience with, and existing resources that support, immigrant integration describing how these experiences and existing resources position the offeror to effectively and efficiently meet the purposes and objectives of this contract.

Experience in managing and/or providing large-scale technical assistance within educational contexts, and the key methods used for successful management and provision

Adult Education This activity is authorized under Title II, Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA), of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, Public Law 105-220, Section 243, National Leadership Activities, which provides funds to enhance the quality of adult education and literacy programs nationwide.

Adult education programs serve youth and adults with basic skills and English language proficiency needs. Over 40% of our adult learners are served in English language classes.

Services are provided in local school districts, community colleges, community-based organizations, volunteer organizations, public or private nonprofits, and consortiums.

Adult education is key to workforce entry and professional reintegration, and to the economic recovery.

[read screen text top paragraph – read out AEFLA]

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the adult education context, here is a quick summary.

Our programs are taught across the country in every state. We focus on basic skills below the postsecondary level, with a strong emphasis on helping adults, ages 16 and above, prepare for transitions into postsecondary education or occupational training. Most of our classes are offered at no cost to the students and attendance is voluntary.

The technology infrastructure in our programs is uneven, some are well-equipped and others have virtually no technology for teaching.

Over 40% of our students enroll to improve their English proficiency including immigrants and refugees. Whether low skilled/or high skilled, undereducated/or highly-educated, immigrant students who are limited English proficient are eligible to receive services funded under AEFLA.

Our programs attend to diverse needs, such as limited English Proficiency and Career Pathways.

In summary: it is a very diverse and challenging context.

Challenges for Immigrants Limited English proficiency Lack of access to job training and retraining Lack of access to credentialing and licensing Limited understanding of U.S. educational systems Lack of understanding about U.S. civic engagement Lack of access to employers Lack of access to technology

As mentioned, immigrant students who are limited English proficient are eligible to receive services funded under AEFLA.

Successful integration of immigrants is vital to the social and economic strength of the United States.

However, immigrants often face challenges which hinder their full integration and participation in the American spheres of work, school and community. These challenges include limited English proficiency, lack of access to job training and retraining, lack of access to credentialing and licensing, limited understanding of the U.S. educational systems; lack of understanding about US civic engagement, lack of access to employers and professional networks, and lack of access to technology.

Innovative Immigrant Integration Three Pillars of Immigrant Integration

Linguistic = improve immigrants’ access to English language programs Civic = support immigrants on the path to citizenship Economic = support career development

The Department is seeking to identify a more holistic, integrated, evidence-based approach to meeting the linguistic, civic, and economic needs of immigrants.

There are three important pillars that, if implemented effectively, will enable the integration of immigrants into the fabric of American society: Linguistic, Civic and Economic integration.

Linguistic integration involves improving immigrants’ access to effective and innovative English language programs.

Civic integration enables immigrants to increase civic participation, such as providing support on their path to citizenship through naturalization.

Finally, economic integration provides support for career development. Career development may involve training low skilled/undereducated immigrants for workforce entry or advancement. Career development may also involve training higher skilled, professionally trained immigrants for professional reentry in the United States.

Certainly, there are programs nationwide which attend to the different needs of immigrants, such as educational, linguistic and workforce needs.

However, services within these programs are often delivered independently of other, related services, and efforts lack alignment.

Goals and Objectives The Department seeks assistance in identifying integrative and innovative approaches that reduce linguistic, academic, and employment barriers for low skilled and skilled immigrants and refugees, and that facilitate their integration or re-integration into the U.S. workforce and support their success through appropriate technical assistance.

The Department is interested in identifying promising practices that more strategically coordinate across services and service providers to promote immigrants’ linguistic, civic, and economic integration—particularly as it relates to low- and high-skilled immigrants with limited English proficiency.

With this procurement, …[read screen text]

This award will focus on the design and implementation of evidence-based, innovative immigrant integration models and practices.

Tasks in this Procurement Manage the Project and Ensure Accountability Convene a Technical Work Group Design the Technical Assistance (TA) Approach Recruit and Select Appropriate Place-based Initiatives Deliver and Document the Approved TA Disseminate the Design and Lessons Learned

We are going to go through the 6 tasks in the draft performance work statement, but we will touch on the highlights required in each one.

The Tasks in this Procurement are: [read text on screen]

Note that though these tasks are numbered sequentially, the timeline given in the performance work statement and schedule of deliverables indicates that some of the tasks are to be conducted simultaneously.

1. Manage the Project and Ensure Accountability

Conduct regular monthly meetings, including an initial project kick-off meeting with the Department

Ensure accountability through reporting

The first task, management of the project, is fairly standard and we will not spend too much time on it now except to say that this contract will involve close coordination with OVAE through 1) conducting regular monthly meetings, including an initial project kick-off meeting with the Department and ensuring accountability through reporting.

2. Convene a Technical Work Group (TWG) The purpose of the TWG is to:

Advise and guide the project Contribute expertise to the project Participate in three in-person meetings in Washington, DC

The second task is to convene a technical work group (TWG).

The purpose of the Technical Work Group (TWG) is to advise the contractor and the Department throughout the project and bring additional expertise to the effort.

We are looking for expertise relevant to creating, supporting and sustaining place-based models that integrate linguistic, civic and economic support.

The Contractor shall identify and recruit members of the TWG, but offerors should not have such experts make contractual commitments. As you will see in the PWS, the contractor proposes a roster of well-qualified experts, but the final selection is made by the Department.

Plan to convene the TWG in Washington, DC for three face-to-face meetings throughout the period of performance. Such meetings would be held at Department facilities, so offerors would not need to budget for meeting space.

3. Design the Technical Assistance (TA) Approach Articulate a Framework to Guide Technical Assistance Provide for coordinated services Identify needed services Leverages strategic partnerships Emphasize integration needs of distinct immigrant populations (i.e. low and high skilled immigrants)

Create a Technical Assistance Implementation Plan Describe the design, coordination and implementation of the TA

In Task 3, the contractor will articulate an evidence-based framework to guide technical assistance and create a technical assistance implementation plan, designed to support place-based initiatives, and leverages strategic partnerships.

The goal is to support the provision of coordinated services.

We anticipate that not all of the needed services will be appropriate to be provided under AEFLA. Therefore, the Framework shall clearly and explicitly identify the need for appropriate strategic partnerships. The Framework shall describe the types of potential partnerships, such as partnerships with public and private stakeholders, organizations, and/or educational institutions in order to maximize capacity to serve the linguistic, civic and economic needs of local and regional immigrant populations. The Framework may also outline how traditional adult education services might be appropriately altered to better meet the linguistic, civic and economic integration needs of these two distinct immigrant sub-populations.

Task 3 also involves creating a technical assistance implementation plan which will describe the overall plan for design, coordination and implementation of the project. It is anticipated that sites will be implementing and documenting the project in unique ways to meet local needs, so coordination with the sites will be critical.

NOTE: It is not the intention of the Department that funds from this project be utilized for website development. A Drupal Commons community of practice, with document storing and sharing capability, will be made available to the project through the LINCS project (see http://lincs.ed.gov; this platform will be relaunched in Drupal code in the summer of 2012). Offerors are encouraged to consider how to maximize the use of the provided platform and minimize other expenditures or efforts on other proprietary or public platforms.

4. Recruit and Select Place-based Initiatives Promote the opportunity widely

Create:

Application Process Site Recruitment Strategies Site Selection Process and Criteria

Recruit and select no fewer than five sites to receive technical assistance

The fourth task is to recruit and select the sites that will receive technical assistance.

The Department is seeking sites that collectively represent the range of populations, geographic diversity, and needs that are representative of the targeted population. Therefore, strategic and innovative awareness campaigns and dissemination techniques to promote the opportunity are warranted.

The site selection plan shall include proposed outreach and recruitment strategies, as well as timelines, and a proposed process for qualitatively selecting from diverse, interested place-based initiatives that are focused on immigrant integration as discussed in this PWS. Sites will be encouraged and supported to apply for this opportunity. Selection will be accomplished in coordination with OVAE.

It is anticipated that this project will select no fewer than five sites to receive technical assistance.

5. Deliver and Document the Approved TA On-going site meetings

Documentation of TA

Collect data in collaboration with sites, such as:

Task 5 is to Deliver and Document the Approved Technical Assistance.

The contractor will provide oversight to each site via on-going communication with the site coordinator. Technical assistance may take place in-person, via phone and/or virtually, as described in the approved TA Implementation Plan. At least one visit for each of the selected sites should be in-person and on-site.

The contractor should plan to coordinate with participating sites to propose data collection and analysis in order to document the effectiveness of the models and practices in relation to the contract’s purpose and objectives as described in this PWS.

Documentation can include analysis of existing data indicating success or failure rates of participant outcomes; Interview data with individual students/participants, teachers, staff, employers, community members and other relevant stakeholders; Observational data of classroom practices and programmatic activities; Samples of student/participant work; Survey data with relevant stakeholders; and/or Action research data and reports.

The purpose of the data is to provide evidence for the effectiveness and/or limitations of the integration model, and also to provide a base of evidence for subsequent recommendations regarding replication of these innovative integration practices in other localities.

Note that data collection plans will be subject to the information collection rules of OMB. See the link for more information in the PWS.

6. Disseminate the Design and Lessons Learned Public engagements at events such as Annual State Directors of Adult Education Meeting TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) LINCS (Literacy Information and Communication System) online discussions

Final Summary Reports, intended for publication

All products shall be well-grounded in theoretical and empirical research literature, as well as grounded in the data collected from the technical assistance.

Task 6 is to Disseminate the Design and Lessons Learned from Implementation.

The contractor is expected to disseminate information about the lessons learned in immigrant integration through multiple venues, such as the Annual State Directors of Adult Education Meeting, TESOL, and/or LINCS community of practice guest discussions.

To document the TA, The contractor will draft two Summary Reports that share lessons learned, summarizing the programs, practices, outcomes and impact of the project components, and to serve as a resource for replication of programs and practices. These Reports will be intended for publication through the Department.

These summaries shall be well grounded in the theoretical and empirical research literature, as appropriate, to demonstrate the grounding of the technical assistance in promising practices in the adult education field.

What happens next?

Watch https://www.fbo.gov/.

A final PWS will be posted under the same solicitation number – most likely by mid-June.

A due date for full technical and business proposal will be posted.

There will be a short period for offerors to ask questions of the Department about the PWS.

An award is expected by end of September.

This ppt and the transcripts from today, along with the list of vendors who registered for the webinar, will be posted on the Federal Business Opportunity webpage dedicated to this solicitation – that usually happens within three to four days.

Capability Statements, due May 14, will be read and comments to the PWS will be considered.

When the final PWS is posted, we will also be providing Instructions to Offerors and the evaluation criteria.

At that time, a due date for full technical and business proposal will be posted.

There will be a short period for offerors can ask questions of the Department about the PWS.

An award is expected to be made on this solicitation by end of September.

Due Date Capability Statement due Monday, May 14, 2012 by 2:00 pm EST

Submit to:

Colin Alleyne at colin.alleyne@ed.gov with a cc: Sheryl Adler at sheryl.adler@ed.gov

Sheryl takes the lead on due dates and submission specifics, reminds participants how to submit questions.

Submit Capability Statement and additional comments to the Department by Monday, May 14, 2012 by 2:00pm EST to: Colin Alleyne at colin.alleyne@ed.gov with a cc: Sheryl Adler at sheryl.adler@ed.gov.

Questions?