roject Objective: To procure an external evaluator for the Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration’s Strengthening Community program. This program has a performance period of 4 years that runs from Feb 1, 2025 through Jan 31, 2029. Once selected, the evaluator will develop a draft detailed evaluation design within 3 months for the college’s Strengthening Community Colleges program. This detailed evaluation design will be finalized within 4 months. The selected evaluator will include these components in their draft detailed evaluation design, utilizing the Project Narrative and Notice of Award, and working in collaboration with the Ozarks Tech grant personnel: Formative and summative evaluation reports Interim Developmental Evaluation Report at the program midpoint (2 years) Final Developmental Evaluation Report (at 4 years) Completing sections of the Annual Performance Reports Developing student surveys Attending an SCC partnership meeting annually (in Years 2, 3, and 4) to review student metrics and outcomes with SCC partners The selected evaluator will support the program in documenting outcomes, providing real-time feedback to inform the development of the intervention, and identify potential adaptations to the intervention to address systemic barriers and dynamic environments. To this end, the selected evaluator will attend an SCC partnership meeting annually (in Years 2, 3, and 4) to review student metrics and outcomes with the partnership entities. At this meeting, the evaluator will lead a discussion between the academic partners and employers to discuss the ongoing viability of the programs and whether any adjustments are needed to increase participants’ ability to earn a good wage at graduation and continue to progress in their careers in the future. Interested respondents should Prepare materials that display expertise and experience in evaluation by providing information related to their past work in evaluating DOL grants; community college grant funded programs; or grants related to healthcare workforce development or a related subject area. This description should include references or project/institution names when possible. Submit a budget for evaluation activities and provide sufficient detail to substantiate the total budget requested. Submit a one-page outline of an evaluation plan. This will be developed into the draft detailed evaluation design after selection of the external evaluator.
