Los Angeles, CA – August 2014
Juárez & Associates is proud to announce the “Assistance to Basic Education: All Children Reading (ABE-ACR)” indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract, effective from July 2014 through July 2019.
The purpose of this ABE-ACR IDIQ contract is to provide technical assistance and services to improve student reading in the primary grades in developing countries, particularly in grades 1 to 3. Through the mechanism of task orders, J&A may be charged with providing support for:
- Improving teacher effectiveness
- Strengthening student assessment at different levels of education systems
- Strengthening student assessment for different purposes
- Increasing the quality, availability and use of reading materials
- Strengthening classroom and school management
- Improving instruction through strengthening host country education systems
- Supporting other delivery mechanisms to improve student reading
- Monitoring and evaluation, and applied research
- Other reading-related activities
The contract builds on services provided by a predecessor IDIQ Contract: Assistance to Basic Education (ABE) which expired in September 2010. Under the first ABE mechanism, previously-awarded task orders continued through September 2013 (e.g., J&A’s USAID/Guatemala Education Reform in the Classroom project – REAULA.) Our Jamaica Basic Education Project (2010-2013) was also an ABE task order, as was our Assessment of Basic Education in Kosovo project (2009).
Prior to ABE, USAID supported cost-effective access to technical expertise and implementation support to meet evolving needs of developing countries through Basic Education and Policy Support (BEPS) IQCs, 2001 to 2006.
The objective of the current ABE-ACR contract is to support USAID Missions and Bureaus in the implementation of Goal One of USAID’s 2011-2015 Education Strategy: Improved reading skills for 100 million children in primary grades by 2015. The focus of Goal One (to improve education quality as measured by student learning outcomes during the primary grades) is an explicit policy choice made in response to evidence demonstrating that years of investment by governments, USAID, and other donors have not succeeded in producing acceptable levels of student learning outcomes.
The Strategy notes that “effective reading is a necessary precondition for skill development in all other areas and, as such, is the primary target by which [USAID] will hold [itself] accountable for results in basic education.” (USAID Education Strategy, 2011-2015, dated February 2011). USAID Task Order Contracting Officers (TOCOs) will request the implementation of projects through the issuance of task orders.
Thus, the ultimate goal of ABE-ACR is to assist Missions and Bureaus, in collaboration with governments, civil society, the private sector and other donors, to produce significant and reliably-measured improvements in student reading outcomes for the largest possible number of children attending primary school.
