Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) -- A Partnership for Excellence and
Accountability in Teaching.  U. S. Department of Education,
Application and Control Center, GSA Bldg., Rm. 3633, 7th and D
Streets, SW., Washington D.C. 20202-4725.  Contract Officer:  Helen
Chang, 202-708-9740.

I.  INTRODUCTION:  The United States Department of Education (ED)
requests proposals for A Partnership for Excellence and Account-
ability in Teaching.  The Partnership shall facilitate national
efforts to support and sustain long-term improvements in teaching
preparation and career-long learning; identify/develop a variety of
proven, replicable teacher preparation and professional development
programs; identify/develop effective programs to advance teacher
accountability; conduct research on the incentives and impediments
for positive change in teaching and its contexts; and, carry out
technical assistance and dissemination activities.

II.  BACKGROUND INFORMATION:  ED will contemplate awarding one
fixed-price contract.  ED expects to award up to $4,000,000 in the
first year; up to $5,000,000 for each of four additional option
years.  Option years are at ED's discretion and subject to the
availability of funds.

Today's and tomorrow's teachers must develop new skills and atti-
tudes if they are to deal with a more diverse student population
and the more challenging academic standards, new assessment pro-
cedures, and new decision-making responsibilities of effective
education reform.  Some teachers, when faced with these challenges,
opt for the continued use of traditional practices and curricula
rather than make the commitment and effort to change.  Still more
teachers embrace the vision of reform only to become frustrated and
discouraged because they lack the support and tools to make the
vision a reality.

Teachers must learn to use instructional approaches that take
advantage of new theoretical insights; master subject matter
content at new levels; be adept at accessing and using technology
to enhance student learning and better manage classrooms; and be
aware of the particular perspectives and strengths every student
brings to learning.  Each teacher must make a professional
commitment to continually seek out, understand and apply the best
available research and practice and to work with other teachers in
the same school, teacher associations, teacher alliances, and
education networks in order to maintain collaborative, collegial
support, and improved practice.

Individuals with the willingness and capabilities to meet these
challenges must be recruited, prepared, licensed, inducted,
professionally developed, certified at an advanced level, and
retained in the profession at all levels -- Pre-K through 12th
grade -- if all of America's students are to receive a quality
education.  

Unfortunately, as stated by the National Commission on Teaching and
America's Future (What Matters Most:  Teaching for America's
Future, September, 1996), too many teacher preparation and
professional development programs are unresponsive to the new
challenges teachers face.  Too often they lack sound theoretical
underpinnings for what is offered and how it is offered, provide
inadequate internships and support for beginning teachers, fail to
promote continuous improvement among experienced teachers, and
treat the various stages and demands of a teacher's professional
life as distinct and separate.  The results are that new and
experienced teachers feel disconnected from each other and under-prepared 
to meet the challenges and opportunities afforded by education reform.

Clearly, these circumstances call for a new approach to the
development and support of the teaching force   a systemic approach
which fosters coherence in the disparate elements of school reform,
teacher preparation, teacher licensing and certification,
professional development, and teacher accountability.  What is
required is not merely an infusion of new professional development
programs but the creation and interrelationship of professional
communities and professional development systems.  The various
components of these systems must work together to ensure that:
recruitment of teacher candidates is systematically selective;
teacher preparation and professional development programs are
firmly grounded on theories of teachers as adult learners and
knowledge users; teacher preparation programs both respond to
changes and promote school reform; teachers at all levels keep
abreast of the most useful and current developments in their
fields; states and local education agencies articulate desired
teacher skills and knowledge and align them with teacher licensing,
advanced certification, and assessment; and teachers are both
treated as professionals and held accountable.  Further, the system
must support and sustain the interconnections along the continuum
of career-long professional development and support on-going
innovative research.

III.  PURPOSE:  The U.S. Department of Education solicits proposals
for a Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching
that shall bring together elementary/secondary and postsecondary
educational institutions, state and local education entities,
national professional associations and other stakeholders whose
influence is crucial to the success of professional communities and
professional development systems in improving teaching
effectiveness.  The Partnership shall consist of a variety of
member entities distributed across the nation and shall launch a
focused, coordinated, and comprehensive national effort to promote,
support, and sustain effective and efficient strategies to prepare,
induct, and provide career-long professional development and
support for K-12 teachers.  The effort shall consider the entire
spectrum of teacher professional development and tie 
knowledge-to-application-to-dissemination while continuing to "push the
envelope" of professional development research.

IV.  SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS:  ED will use a two-step submission
process to evaluate proposals submitted in response to this
announcement.  For the first step, offerors must submit an abstract
of a proposal.  ED will evaluate all abstracts against the
evaluation criteria below.  To be considered, abstracts must
include letters of commitment from the proposed Partnership
members.  For the second step, ED will invite full technical, past
performance, and cost proposals from the top-ranked abstracts
submitted in response to this BAA.  In the invitation, ED will
specify proposal format and the representations and certifications
required under the Federal Acquisitions Regulations, the Education
Department Acquisition Regulations and other ED clauses to be
included in the contract that will result from the BAA.  There will
be no RFP or other solicitation regarding this requirement.  An
invitation to submit a proposal does not assure subsequent award. 
No award will be made under this BAA without a full technical, past
performance and cost proposal.  The cost proposal must provide
sufficient detail to allow assessment of costs and the offeror's
capacity to perform the work proposed.

To be considered, abstracts of proposals shall be received by 2:00
p.m. EST, April 29,1997 at the Application and Control Center
address stated above.  All abstracts should include the identifier
RFP-97-0l0 on the envelope and on the first page.  The abstract
should provide an overview of the project and associated costs.  It
shall be prepared on 8.5 X 11 inch plain paper and shall be printed
on one side of each page only.  It should be in a type size that
enhances readability, with one inch margins on all sides, and
double spaced.  The abstract shall include: (1) a description of
the proposed Partnership and the work the offeror proposes to
perform; (2) a summary table or chart specifying each proposed task
and subtask by project year and the level of commitment proposed
for each Partnership staff member; (3) projected costs for each
year of the Partnership; and, (4) any other information the
proposer wishes to have considered.  Additionally, an appendix
shall be attached to the abstract containing letters of commitment
from all proposed partnership members.  The abstract, including the
description of the proposed work, the staffing table or chart,
projected annual costs, and any other information shall not exceed
15 pages.  The appendix containing letters of commitment is not
included in this limitation, but shall contain only letters of
commitment.  Any cover letter, cover, fly leaf, etc. and all other
attachments (save letters of commitment from proposed Partnership
members) are subject to the 15 page limit.  Any pages beyond the
15th page of the abstract and any item in the appendix other than
letters of commitment will be returned to you unread by reviewers. 
Offerors shall submit an original and 5 copies of the entire
submission.

V.  TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION:  Abstracts shall:  clearly state the
purpose, objectives, and proposed activities of the Partnership;
include a listing of the proposed Partnership members and their
roles; specify and provide the rationale for the Partnership's
makeup, procedures, and activities; briefly describe anticipated
products and their schedule; provide evidence of offeror's capacity
to carry out the work; and specify project goals and performance
measures tied to those goals.

The abstract should indicate how the Partnership will carry out
applied research and development and/or technical assistance and
dissemination to:

1.  Help groups developing rigorous standards for teacher
preparation, initial licensing, continuing development, and
advanced certification that will enable all teachers to bring every
American child -- including at-risk students and other students
with special needs -- up to world-class standards in core academic
areas; 

2.  Help colleges and schools work with states to redesign teacher
education so that new teachers are adequately prepared and that all
teachers -- including teachers of at-risk students and other
students with special needs -- have access to continuous high-quality 
learning opportunities;

3.  Help states and districts pursue aggressive policies to put
qualified teachers in every classroom;

4.  Help districts, states, unions, and professional associations
cooperate and make teaching a true profession with a career
continuum that places teaching at the top and rewards teachers for
their knowledge and skills;

5.  Help education agencies and schools restructure schools to
become genuine learning organizations for both students and
teachers   organizations that respect learning, honor teaching, and
teach for understanding;

6.  Help colleges and universities work with faculty to ensure that
potential teachers learn disciplinary content knowledge and
encounter models of pedagogy that are consistent with national
standards and conceptions of teaching;

7.  Collect, analyze, and use data on the incentives and
impediments to the recommendations of the National Commission on
Teaching and America's Future; and,

8.  Collect, analyze, and use data on the impact of teacher
preparation, induction, and professional development programs --
e.g., program completion, retention in the profession, teacher
skills and knowledge, K-12 student achievement -- in order to
enable entities and individuals crucial to the preparation of
teachers to make informed choices among proven, replicable
alternative professional development programs.

In addition, the offeror should:

A.  Specify the entities to be included in the Partnership, such
as:  institutions of higher education; K-12 schools; state and
local education entities; national teachers' unions; other national
organizations and networks whose influence is crucial to the
success of teacher preparation, professional development,
effectiveness and accountability, such as groups representing state
educational leadership, school reform, standards for student
achievement, standards for the accreditation of teacher preparation
programs, standards and assessments for the licensing of beginning
teachers, and standards and assessments for certifying accomplished
teaching; and, others, as appropriate.

B.  Specify a conceptual and management plan that identifies the
problems inherent in an organization such as the one sought for
this work and that addresses those problems in a creative manner.

C.  Specify plans for the operation of a steering committee,
executive committee, advisory group or some other entity respon-
sible for oversight of the entire project, recommendations of any
mid-stream adjustments that might be required, resolution of any
problems that might arise, and coordination of the Partnership's
activities with other efforts (both governmental and non-governmental)
to effect long-term improvements in teaching
preparation, professional development and assessment.  This
group/committee/etc. shall be representative of the various
perspectives and concerns of the Partnership, yet small enough to
work efficiently.

D.  Specify and justify the mix of activities -- research,
evaluation, and daat analysis as compared to policy analysis and
coordination -- that the offeror proposes to carry out.

E.  Specify plans for a major nation-wide dissemination/out-reach
effort that includes active on-site dissemination and a variety of
communication media such as computer technologies, the Internet/-
WWW, networks, conferences/meetings/exhibits, satellite technolo-
gies, published reports/articles, television/cable, radio and
print; and, specify the major products of each year's efforts.  The
offeror should plan to devote approximately 25% of its
resources/effort to dissemination/out-reach activities.

VI.  AWARD PROCESS:  The expected award date is September 9, 1997. 
ED reserves the right to select for award any or none of the
proposals received, and to require an offeror to revise its
proposal.  Except when it is determined in accordance with FAR
17.206(b) not to be in the Government's best interest, the
Government will evaluate offers for award purpose by adding the
total price of all option years to the total price of the base
year.  For this solicitation, price will be a substantial factor in
source selection, however, quality factors (including technical
merit and past performance), considered together, are significantly
more important than cost or price.  The Contracting Officer will
determine whether the difference in technical merit is worth the
difference in cost.  Technical quality will be evaluated in a peer
review panel, based on the criteria specified below.

VII.  TECHNICAL EVALUATION CRITERIA:  The following criteria apply
to both abstracts and full technical proposals requested under this
announcement.  No other technical criteria will be used to evaluate
the abstracts or the invited full technical proposals.

1.   Offeror's demonstrated understanding of the state-of-the-art
     of teacher preparation, professional development and account-
     ability; adult learning, particularly effective methods of
     conveying new attitudes, knowledge and skills to prospective
     and practicing teachers; the nature of a Partnership for
     Excellence and Accountability in Teaching and the multitude of
     factors and problems inherent in, and surrounding, the
     creation and maintenance of such a partnership; and the
     critical need for teaching reform, especially for teachers of
     students at risk of educational failure and other students
     with special needs.  Maximum points:  20.

2.   Scope and quality of the proposed research design and work
     plan.  Maximum points:  20.

3.   Scope and quality of the proposed dissemination plan and
     proposed products.  Maximum points:  20.

4.   The quality of the proposed goals, performance measures, and
     management of the Partnership and the capacity of the proposed
     Partnership members to facilitate and analyze national efforts
     to support and sustain long-term improvements in teaching
     preparation and career-long learning.  Maximum points:  15.

5.   The quality and time commitments of proposed personnel, and
     the extent to which they have appropriate training and
     experience for conducting the proposed work, including
     demonstrated capacity to work with researchers and
     practitioners in the field.  Maximum points:  15.

6.   Facilities and equipment adequate to conduct the work
     proposed.  Maximum points:  10.