National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Contracts Operations Branch, 6701 Rockledge Drive, Room 6100, MSC 7902, Bethesda, MD 20892

R -- PROFESSIONAL, ADMINISTRATIVE AND MANAGEMENT SUPPORT SERVICES SOL NHLBI-PS-99-510 DUE 092999 POC Cecilia D. Morales, Purchasing Aent, (301)435-0369, Debra C. Hawkins, Chief, Procurement Section, (301)435-0366 The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute intends to negotiate on a non-competitive basis with Drug Strategies, 15715 Eye St. NW, Suite 210, Washington, D.C., 20005, to conduct a systematic study of the Implementation of drug abuse prevention programs for the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH). Drug Strategies has conducted three studies specifically designed to distill complex research literature down to the critical information pertinent to practitioners. These studies are (1) Key elements of effective drug abuse prevention and assessment of curricula; (2) Preliminary surveys of program developers and publishers of programs including state-of-the art, NIDA funded programs with respect to fidelity of implementation; and (3) Key elements of promising violence prevention and assessment of programs. This experience is especially relevant to the first general requirement of a comprehensive literature review. Most important is that Drug Strategies produced and prohibited "Making the Grade: A Guide to School Drug Prevention Programs". The guide is the most complete and comprehensive evaluation of school-based prevention programs and is with out equal. Drug Strategies is comprised of a strong and uniquely qualified, and experienced multi-disciplinary team. Based upon Drug Strategies, experience and accomplished and in-depth knowledge of the mission and programs of NIDA, and award to any other source for this requirement would result in a substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition. By having a strong multi-disciplinary team, with proven track record, substance abuse prevention experience and state-of-the-art knowledge, an award to any other source for this project would result in an extra and substantial expense to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition. The Statement of Work: Systematic study of the Implementation of Drug Abuse Prevention Programs: Fidelity of Implementation is as follows: Background: Fidelity of Implementation is the degree to which teachers apply elements of programs as intended by the program developers. Unfortunately, innovations are seldom implemented as planned. The research is clear that the more faithfully a teacher implements a program, the less likely students are to use drugs. The inverse is also true, when programs are not implemented as intended, they are likely not to be effective. Good evaluation of drug abuse prevention programs have been done in the context of rigorous filed trials, where there is considerable effort to get teachers to teach programs exactly as they are intended. However, even under these circumstances research suggests that there is tremendous variability in how consistently different teachers present program material. Many researchers do not measure or report quality of implementation. In the few studies that have, it has been discouraging to see that fidelity of implementation is rare. For example a major evaluation of theLife Skills Training Program (Botvin, Baker, Dusenbury, Botvin & Tortu, 1990) found that one-quarter of the students were instructed by teachers who implemented less than 60 percent of the important objectives in the program. An evaluation of STAR (Rohrbach et. Al., 1993) found that more than one in five teachers who had been trained to implement the program simply did not. Moreover, while almost four out of five did teach one or more lessons the first year, only one in four did in the second year. Those teachers who did implement in first year taught an average of 75 percent of the program. An assessment of implementation in a study of Know Your Body rated 37% of the teachers as "low implementers". Researchers agree that training is essential to promoting successful implementation. Indeed a study of Teenage Health Teaching Modules (Parcel, Ross, Lavin, Portnay, Nelson & Winters, 1991) found that teachers who received training were more likely to implement the curriculum with fidelity than teachers who did not. Beyond training, very little is know about what works in promoting fidelity of implementation. A review of existing research studies is needed to pull together information concerning fidelity of implementation. Research with publishers and program developers is needed to identify barriers to fidelity of implementation as well as any strategies that have been developed for overcoming them. Objectives: This contract will examine the extent of awareness among practitioners of the importance of fidelity of implementation and the factors that inhibit or encourage fidelity of implementation. The project will interview six groups of individuals to obtain their perspectives on issues related to fidelity of implementation: (1) researchers who have developed and evaluated prevention curricula; (20 publishers of drug abuse prevention curricula; (3) school administrators who have selected and purchased prevention curricula, and organized a structure for how the curriculum would be implemented; (4) teachers who have implemented prevention programs; (50 State Safe and Drug Free Schools Coordinators who are responsible for overseeing the implementation of a wide range of prevention programs in diverse school settings, and (6) individuals who have monitored implementation of drug abuse prevention programs in schools. Specific tasks: The contractor shall furnish the necessary expertise, services, materials, equipment and facilities for the following task: 1) Specifically, the contractor shall produce a well-written report summarizing the results of an extensive literature review on the fidelity of implementation over the pas 25 year period. 2) The contractor shall produce a detailed administrative report which included the results of the interviews with researchers, school personnel and others (a total of 9 interviews with each of six separate professional groups). 3) The contractor shall prepare a proposed research agenda on fidelity of implementation, identifying between 15 and 20 research questions that warrant further exploration by NIDA. An analysis of the status of each research question presented in the agenda will be provided. The research agenda shall be useable by NIDA to develop future funding initiatives. 4) The contractor shall produce up to three revisions of each of the three above documents in hard copy and disk in Word 6.0 after final approval by the government Project Officer (P.O.) And 5) All the work under this contract shall be monitored by the NIDA P.O. Specific task requirements: Task 1. No later than one week after award of this contract, the Vendor shall travel to the P.O. and review the scope of work. Task 2. Conduct a comprehensive review of the literature on fidelity of implementation for the past 25 years in the fields of education, mental health and substance abuse. The completed literature review shall be delivered to the P.O. for his approval at the end of the fourth month of this contract. Task 3. Identify and interview nine researchers currently involved in school-based prevention research. At least six, but preferably all nine, of the researchers interviewed would be chosen from among nine doctors. These researchers are to be asked about their experience, findings, and hypotheses concerning fidelity of implementation. Specific questions will include whether and how they measured fidelity of implementation, barriers to implementation they encountered, and strategies they developed for overcoming these. In addition, these researchers should be asked to help refine the definition of fidelity of implementation, addressing issues of both dosage and fidelity. These interviews are to be conducted by the consultant. Task 4. The purpose of this task is to determine exactly what measures prevention program developers and distributors use to promote fidelity of implementation, to explore whether there is a convergence between what research suggests may be useful in promoting fidelity of implementation, and what actually happens in practice. Towards this end, the vendor shall conduct a total of nine interviews, four with the publishers of the four leading nationally available drug abuse prevention curricula DARE, Quest, Here's Looking at You, Project Charlie, and five of the nationally available research-based prevention curricula, Life Skills Training, All Stars, Project Northland, STAR, and Reconnecting Youth. These interviews are to explore how often particular implementation strategies are used and how precisely these strategies were implemented (e.g., were schools required to use the strategies? How was use monitored?). This survey will also investigate whether there is any process or outcome evaluation data concerning the effectiveness of these strategies. Task 5. In order to examine how fidelity of implementation is understood and addressed by school administrators, the contractor will interview nine administrators who have selected and purchased a drug abuse prevention curricula. Via a structured interview, five individual administrators who have purchased a research-based program (Life Skills Training, All Stars, Project Northland, STAR and Reconnecting Youth) and four who have purchased an aggressively marketed program (e.g., DARE, Quest, Here's Looking at You, Project Charlie) will be asked a series of questions that explore how they chose the curricula, what they understood about the importance of fidelity of implementation, and what strategies they adopted to support fidelity of implementation. Additional questions shall include who implements the prevention programs, how these individuals are selected, what is their background, how are they trained, how are the supported by the school and how is implementation monitored?. Task 6. In order to examine how fidelity of implementation is understood and addressed by teachers, the vendor will interview nine teachers who have implemented a drug abuse prevention curricula. Via a structured interview, the teachers will be asked to what extent they implement programs exactly as intended by the program developers and asked to identify barriers to effective implementation as well as any strategies they have used to overcome them. They shall also be asked a series of questions designed to assess how well they understand the critical ingredients of drug abuse prevention, including fidelity of implementation. Task 7. The contractor will interview nine state Safe and Drug Free School Coordinators for their views on strategies to promote fidelity of implementation, as well as perceived barriers to successful implementation. Task 8. The contractor will interview nine individuals from within school systems or publishing companies who have the responsibility of monitoring implementation in order to explore their views on the quality of implementation and the factors that affect it. It is recognized that such a group of individuals may not exist and that this Task may not be possible. The vendor shall make a good faith effort to identify these individuals if they in fact exist. Task 9. The contractor shall perform an analysis of the above content interviews (Tasks 3 through 8) that will focus on, but not be limited to, the following questions: (1) How aware are school personnel of the importance of fidelity of implementation; (2) Are thee naturally occurring factors in districts or communities which promote fidelity of implementation; (3) How is fidelity of implementation monitored and supported by program developers, school, district and community resources; (4) Which of these methods appears most successful in promoting fidelity of implementation; (5) Does the training and background of prevention providers affect fidelity of implementation; (6) How well supported are these individuals by program distributors, community, district and school personnel, and how does this affect fidelity of implementation; And (7) How closely do school systems and communities follow implementation guidelines set out by curriculum developers. Task10. The contractor shall prepare a detailed administrative report summarizing the results of the analysis performed in Task 9 from the information obtained in Tasks 3 through 8. Task 11. The contractor shall prepare a proposed research agenda on fidelity of implementation which includes between 15 and 20 research questions that warrant further exploration by NIDA. An analysis of the status of each research question presented in the agenda shall be provided. The research agenda shall be useable by NIDA to develop future funding initiatives. Period of performance: The period of performance is twelve months from the date of a contract award. This acquisition is being conducted under simplified acquisition procedures and is exempt from the requirements of FAR Part 6. The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Code is 8733, Size Standard $5.0 million. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals. Interested parties may identify their interest and capabilities in response to this requirement. The determination by the Government not to compete the proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct future competitive procurement. Responses to this announcement, referencing synopsis number NHLBI-PS-99-510 may be submitted to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Contracts Operations Branch, Procurement Section, Building RKL2, Room 6149, 6701 Rockledge Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892-7902, Attention Ms. Cecilia D. Morales, Purchasing Agent. All responsible sources may submit a quotation, which if timely received, shall be considered by the agency Posted 09/14/99 (W-SN380086). (0257)

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