Project Details

Agency Name: Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA)

Agency Type: Federal

Services: Technical Assistance and Technology Solutions

Client Goals

The DoDEA Education Partnership and Resources Branch provides outreach to military-connected local education agencies (LEAs) to support academic achievement and positive educational opportunities outcomes for military children. Through a variety of outreach initiatives, such as working collaboratively with the U.S. Department of Education, managing a robust grant program, and providing training and development opportunities, the DoDEA Education Partnership and Resources branch champions quality educational opportunities for all military children. Since 2009, DoDEA has awarded 475 grants, totaling over $522 million. These grants serve more than 3.2 million students, including more than 713,000 military-connected students in more than 3,129 schools.

Safal Approach

Safal is engaged to operate the Evaluation Technical Assistance Center (ETAC) for the DoDEA Education Resources and Partnership grant. The DoDEA ETAC provides  technical assistance to about the more than 150 DoDEA grantees, including in-depth, targeted TA to new grantees. Major activities include: (1) Development, launch, and maintenance of comprehensive a virtual community of practice (CoP) among grantees; (2) conceptualization, design, and build of a new website with toll-free phone support and an embedded grantee data collection and reporting system; (3) Design of a comprehensive, feasible, and cost-effective TA plan with multiple strategies, such as regional meetings, virtual webinar events, and online professional learning modules to build grantees’ capacity to implement and sustain grant strategic activities and positive outcomes; (4) Competition and award process management from pre-competition to award to closeout; (5) Analysis, visualization, and presentation of data for reports to congress, grantees, military leadership, and other stakeholders through slide deck presentations, written narrative reports, interactive dashboards, and ad hoc briefs; (6) On-site grant capacity building site visits with post-visit support/reporting; and (7) Logistics, agenda, on-site event management, and speakers/presenters for an annual grantee convening of approximately 150 participants.