FR Doc E8-28478[Federal Register: December 1, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 231)]
[Notices]
[Page 72779-72781]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr01de08-44]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Notice Inviting Proposals for Ownership and Operation of the
Online English Literacy Portal, ``U.S.A. Learns Web Portal''
AGENCY: Office of Vocational and Adult Education, Department of
Education.
ACTION: Notice inviting proposals for ownership and operation of the
Online English Literacy Portal, ``U.S.A. Learns Web Portal.''
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SUMMARY: The President announced, as one of his initiatives to address
border security and immigration challenges in the United States, a plan
to have the U.S. Department of Education (Department) develop and
launch a free, web-based portal to help immigrants learn English to
help them expand their opportunities and make effective contributions
to American society. To implement the President's plan, the
Department's Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), as
authorized by the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act and through a
contract, has developed and created the U.S.A. Learns Web Portal, an
online learning environment designed for limited English proficient
(LEP) adults whose level of English proficiency is at a low level. The
portal was launched on November 7, 2008, on the Internet and is
available for use by the public at no cost. The portal is available at
the following Web address: http://www.usalearns.org.
The Department plans to turn over ownership and operation of the
portal to one or more entities outside of the Federal Government that
would, with its or their own resources, continue the maintenance and
upkeep of the portal, make improvements to it, and continue to make the
portal available at no cost to the public. Through this notice, we are
inviting proposals from entities interested in owning and operating the
portal.
DATES: To ensure that your proposal receives consideration, it must be
submitted to the Department no later than December 31, 2008. The
Department would like to turn over ownership and operation of the
portal by or about January 15, 2009.
[[Page 72780]]
Address for Submission of Proposals: Interested entities should
submit a proposal for owning and operating the portal, addressing the
factors and associated criteria outlined in this notice, by an express
carrier or by e-mail to: Daniel Miller, Deputy Director, Division of
Adult Education & Literacy, Office of Vocational and Adult Education,
U.S. Department of Education, 550 12th Street, SW., 11th Floor,
Washington, DC 20202-7240, or Daniel.Miller@ed.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Daniel Miller, (202) 245-7731.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
President Bush announced, in August 2007, a series of initiatives
to address border security and immigration challenges in the United
States. The President's plan consisted of 26 actions designed to secure
the borders and to address needed immigration reforms. Action 26 of the
plan stated: ``The Department of Education Will Launch A Free, Web-
Based Portal To Help Immigrants Learn English, And Expand This Model
Over Time. Knowledge of English is the most important component of
assimilation. An investment in tools to help new Americans learn
English will be repaid many times over in the contributions these
immigrants make to our political discourse, economy, and society.'' A
fact sheet with information about the President's plan to secure the
borders and to address needed immigration reforms, including the plan
for a portal is at the following Internet address:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/08/20070810.html.
To fulfill the President's plan, OVAE, through a contract, designed
and created the U.S.A. Learns Web Portal (http://www.usalearns.org), an
online learning environment for LEP adults. This contract and the
ensuing project to design and implement the portal are authorized under
the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, Title II of Public Law
105-220, Section 243, National Leadership Activities (20 U.S.C. 9253).
The portal was launched on November 7, 2008, on the Internet and is
available for use by the public at no cost.
The Department intends, through an appropriate agreement or
agreements signed by the Department and the selected entity or
entities, setting forth the rights and responsibilities of each party,
to transfer ownership and operation of the portal to an entity or
entities outside of the Federal Government, which would support the
portal with the entity's or entities' own resources. The agreement will
include, among other things, a privacy policy that protects the privacy
of the users of the portal, and limits the use of data about the users
by the entity or entities selected.
The Department is registering the U.S.A. Learns Web Portal
trademark, and, as part of the agreement, will also license the use of
its trademark to the entity or entities selected. The Department will
also license the use of the domain name for the portal to the entity or
entities selected, or to one of the entities selected.
The Department believes that the effectiveness of the portal will
be enhanced by an outside entity or entities taking responsibility for
the portal's ownership and continued operation. We expect to provide
the entity or entities selected with information we have gathered on
the early use of the portal, including the costs of operation, in order
to help it or them maintain, operate, and enhance the portal
effectively. We believe that turning over ownership and operation of
the portal to an entity or entities outside the Federal Government will
provide long-lasting benefits to the intended audience and to the
Nation.
Responsibilities of the Selected Entity or Entities
The duties of the portal owner or owners will include, at a
minimum: maintaining the portal in at least the same condition in which
it was received; making it readily available at all times to the public
at no cost; solving any implementation problems to keep the portal
running in at least the same condition in which it was received;
enhancing the quality of the content made available through the portal;
and making improvements to the operation of the portal, as appropriate.
A link to additional information on the portal, on such matters as its
functionalities, operating standards, and capacity, will be made
available in the near future on the Department's Internet Web site at
the following address:
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/AdultEd/index.html.
Based on these general expectations, an entity interested in
acquiring ownership of the portal should submit a proposal that
addresses the following key factors, which should demonstrate the
organization's commitment to, and ability to facilitate, adult
literacy, distance learning, and effective management of the portal:
Key Factors
A commitment to helping improve adult literacy.
A substantive interest in the goals of the U.S.A. Learns
Web Portal and an expertise in the interests of LEP adults, especially
those with low levels of English proficiency, the subgroup that the
Department has targeted as likely users of the portal.
The technological infrastructure and other resources to
operate and maintain the U.S.A. Learns Web Portal and make the portal
available to the public free of charge.
Staff expertise in Web site development, maintenance, and
on-line instruction.
A plan to use an advisory committee with appropriate
expertise to help the entity administer the portal.
Note: The offeror has significant flexibility in deciding on the
composition of the advisory committee.
Fiscal and management responsibility.
The Department will use the following criteria to evaluate how well
the proposals submitted in response to this notice address these
factors:
Note: The maximum total score any proposal can receive is 100
points. The maximum score for each criterion is indicated in
parentheses below.
Technical Approach (35 points)
The extent to which the entity that submits a proposal
(the ``offeror'') demonstrates a commitment to adult literacy through
previous projects and thorough knowledge of the field. (15 points)
The extent to which the offeror has a thorough
understanding of the target population and of how to provide
appropriate instructional resources to that target population. (10
points)
The extent to which the offeror describes a clear vision
for the portal and plans for the enhancement and continued operation of
U.S.A. Learns Web Portal. (10 points)
Organizational Capacity (30 points)
The quality of the proposed project personnel, and the
extent to which the personnel have the appropriate qualifications,
competencies, and experience in the management of this type of portal
or related distance learning mechanisms. (15 points)
The extent to which the offeror has the technological and
financial resources to maintain and operate U.S.A. Learns Web Portal
and ensure that the portal is made available to the public free of
charge. (15 points)
[[Page 72781]]
Management Plan (35 points)
The extent to which the offeror provides a description of
its plan for managing the project in a clear and sequential fashion,
and the extent to which that plan provides credible evidence that the
management of personnel, physical resources, activities, and work
production will result in a robust portal with a 99.99 percent ``uptime
rate.'' (20 points)
The quality of the offeror's plans to establish and work
with an advisory committee that has appropriate expertise to advise the
offeror on its implementation of the project. (5 points)
The extent to which the time commitments of the offeror's
staff are appropriate to operating and maintaining U.S.A. Learns Web
Portal. (5 points)
The extent to which the offeror submitted a summary of a
plan to evaluate the use and effectiveness of the portal, so that it
can be improved. (5 points)
Other Requirements for the Content of Proposals
Proposals submitted in response to this notice also must include
the following information:
Name, address, and contact information for the entity
submitting the proposal.
Mission statement of the entity.
Capability statement (must address the key factors and
each component of the selection criteria).
Entity's Web site URL.
Annual report or similar report on the condition of the
entity.
Description of existing programs owned and operated by the
entity that could support the goals of the U.S.A. Learns Web Portal.
A signed assurance by an appropriate officer of the entity
indicating that the entity agrees to own and operate the portal
consistent with its proposal and with the purposes and provisions of
this notice, and understands that, if it does not do so, the ownership
of the portal, all content therein provided by the Department, and all
databases needed to operate the portal will revert to the Department,
which can award it to another entity or entities in accordance with a
notice published in the Federal Register. The signed assurance shall
acknowledge that the Department shall transfer its specific rights and
interest in data and content of the portal. In addition, the assurance
shall acknowledge that in the event of any reversion of the portal to
the Department, the Department shall possess the rights and interest in
data and content of the portal provided by the Department, including
all databases needed to operate the portal. In the assurance the entity
will also agree to submit semi-annual reports on the operation and use
of the portal in such detail as the Department specifies in the
agreement that the parties will sign.
Availability of Funds
There are no Federal funds available to support the portal once
ownership and operation have been transferred from the Federal
Government. It will be the sole responsibility of the selected entity
or entities to bear all costs associated with ownership and operation
of the portal.
Interests of the Federal Government
The Department will transfer ownership of the portal and its
content to the entity or entities selected. The Department will
transfer the rights and interest it possesses in data and content
transferred to the entity or entities. In addition, as noted elsewhere
in this notice, if the entity or entities selected operates the portal
in a manner that is not consistent with its or their proposal or
proposals and with the purposes and provisions of this notice, or if
the entity or entities ceases to operate the portal, the ownership of
the portal, all content therein provided by the Department, and all
databases needed to operate the portal will revert to the Department,
and the entity or entities will not be authorized to operate the
portal. Upon such a reversion, the Federal Government shall possess the
rights and interest in data and content of the portal originally
provided by the Department, including all databases needed to operate
the portal. Under these circumstances, the Department may award the
ownership of the portal to another entity or entities in accordance
with a notice published in the Federal Register.
Electronic Access to This Document: You can view this document, as
well as all other documents of this Department published in the Federal
Register, in text or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) on the
Internet at the following site: http://www.ed.gov/news/fedregister.
To use PDF, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available
free at this site. If you have questions about using PDF, call the U.S.
Government Printing Office (GPO), toll free, at 1-888-293-6498; or in
the Washington, DC, area at (202) 512-1530.
Note: The official version of this document is the document
published in the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the
official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal
Regulations is available on GPO Access at:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/index.html.
(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number: 84.191X Adult
Education--National Leadership Activities)
Dated: November 25, 2008.
Troy R. Justesen,
Assistant Secretary for Vocational and Adult Education.
[FR Doc. E8-28478 Filed 11-28-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P