Juarez & Associates (J&A) is one of three small businesses to hold the Assistance to Basic Education All Children Reading (ABE ACR) IDIQ (2014-2019). The purpose of the ABE ACR IDIQ is to provide technical assistance and services to improve student reading in the primary grades in developing countries, particularly in grades 1 to 3. The contract builds on services provided by a predecessor IQC: Assistance to Basic Education – Basic Education (ABE-BE), which expired in September 2010 (though task orders (TOs) continued through September 2013).
The objective of the current ABE ACR IDIQ 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 TOs. Areas of focus could include:
- 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