Conducting Baseline and Endline Evaluation of AIF’s Education Program – Request for Proposal

Apply by 31st Oct 22

The American India Foundation is committed to catalyzing social and economic change in India, and building a lasting bridge between the United States and India through high-impact interventions in education, livelihoods, public health, and leadership development. Working closely with local communities, AIF partners with NGOs to develop and test innovative solutions and with governments to create and scale sustainable impact. AIF’s programs emphasize inclusive models that focus on the unique needs of girls and women to achieve gender equity as a basis for sustainable change. Founded in 2001 at the initiative of President Bill Clinton following a suggestion from Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee, AIF has impacted the lives of 3.1 million of India’s poor by providing access to high-quality education, formal sector employment for urban youth and rickshaw drivers, and public health services to protect the health of mothers and their children, while building the next generation of global leaders through service. AIF is transforming lives across 23 states of India while addressing these issues on a regional, country, and international scale. President Bill Clinton serves as Honorary Chair and former Ambassador to India Frank Wisner chairs the Advisory Council.

From the very beginning, our founding members understood that the sheer magnitude of the task ahead would require the collective will, knowledge, and participation of all sectors in society. By engaging with a staggering range of stakeholders from young Americans and leading philanthropists to grassroots NGOs and government agencies, AIF has evolved to be more than a philanthropic organization over the last decade – it has become a social ecosystem designed upon principles of trust, transparency, and partnership, bringing people from all walks of life together in a movement to better whole communities and transform India into a more open, equitable, and vibrant democracy. In order to meet India’s long-term development challenges, we’ve realized the need to be responsive, open, and adaptable to rapidly changing needs on the ground and listen closely to the voices that often go unheard. AIF’s programs have an emphasis on inclusive models that focus on the unique needs of girls and women to achieve gender equity as a basis for sustainable change.

About the Project The project focusses on making adolescent girls the creators of technology instead of becoming mere consumers through infusion of 21st century skills such as problem solving, computational thinking and innovation. In alignment with NEP 2020, the project aims to build scientific temperament and 21st century skills in students, especially girls, through coding, life and career skills and financial literacy. The project will channelize essential skills as a path to building girls’ self-confidence and resilience, increasing their access to opportunities, ensuring their equal participation in the labor force, and promoting their empowerment. It will also break the gender stereotypes in the communities.

The following trainings/sessions will be conducted with teachers in intervention schools:

1. Training on content and integrating technology in the classroom.
2. Training on the usage of online government educational portals and proposed curriculum.

The program is a facilitator-led model where AIF’s facilitators will conduct sessions with the students of grades 8, 9 and 11 on the following:

1. STEM and career awareness
2. Basics of coding
3. Life skills
4. INSPIRE Manak awards
5. 5. Exposure to NFLAT exam – to be done by the volunteers from the donor organization

Project Reach Stages

Phase 1 Year – 2022-23 Schools – 250 Students – 50000 Teachers– 500

Phase 2 Year- 2023-24 Schools – 500 Students – 100000 Teachers – 500 additional teachers

Phase 3 Year – 2024-25 Schools  – Existing 500 schools + additional schools to reach target.

To be defined To be define

Project Outcomes

Impact on Teachers, BRC, CRC:

1. Improved Lesson Delivery: With the aid of online and offline mode, teachers will be able to understand the blended approach. Exposure to new concepts such as 21st century skills.
2. Improved Attentiveness amongst Students: Using interactive multimedia content and activity-based learning resources, the teachers will engage students more effectively.
3. Familiarization with New Tools: Exposure to new technologies will help teachers adopt innovative teaching-learning processes.
4. Awareness about national level competitions: Many schools are not aware of Inspire MANAK, NFLAT or similar competitions. Bringing the attention of HMs and teachers would be the first STEP. AIF will conduct ideation workshops in schools and support schools in registering and uploading ideas. Impact on Learners: The Learners as part of such projects have been the largest beneficiary; some of the key factors are as follows:
5. Exposure to new methods: With the aid of interactive tools including digital content, virtual experiments etc., students are able to learn more effectively and at a faster pace.
6. Understanding the 21st century skills and the career opportunities: With the aid of technology and activity-based teaching learning resources, the learners will be able to experience the 21st century skills. The exposure given to students to interact with role models will create a positive impact in their life.
7. Improved Creativity Skills:
8. Learning by doing and experiencing
9. Involving multiple senses in the learning process
10. Allowing different children to learn at a different pace
11. Learning through peer group activities e. Improving power of observation
12. Encouraging self-learning
13. Exposure to national level competitions
14. Improved Life Skills: Improved Communication skills, Problem solving and decision-making abilities.

Project Indicators Teachers

1. Increased self-efficacy of teachers from grades 8, 9 and 11 using technology in their classrooms.
2. Increased number of teachers using technology in their classrooms (year 2 onwards).

Students

1. Increased number of students in grades 8, 9 and 11 with increased awareness of life skills such as problem-solving, decision-making, communication etc.
2. Increased number of students in grades 8, 9 and 11 with increased awareness of gender stereotypes and harmful gender norms.
3. Increased number of students in grades 8, 9 and 11 with increased awareness of ICT and coding.
4. Increased number of students in grades 8, 9 and 11 with increased awareness of financial terms (for example, insurance, bonds, profit and loss etc.).
5. Increased number of students in grades 8, 9 and 11 more aware of STEM-based career opportunities.
6. Increased number of students in grades 8, 9 and 11 participating in national-level STEM-based competitions.
7. Increased number of students participating in annual school-level finance competitions (NFLAT).

Scope of Work

Potential Research Design:

A mixed-methods study featuring a cross-sectional design for the quantitative component is envisaged. Agencies will recommend an appropriate sample size. While the quantitative component will help with establishing empirical evidence of the current level of awareness among the school children on the content, the qualitative component will help in understanding the nature and reason of gap in awareness on the content

Component A: Quantitative

1. Structured/semi-structured tools.
2. Questionnaires should be designed to capture close-end responses through multiple choice questions.
3. Student’s interviews could be self-administered by students themselves.

Component B: Qualitative

1. We recommend using Focused Group Discussions (FGDs) in schools to understand students’ views on life skills, gender awareness, career skills and STEM enrichment.
2. We also recommend using In-depth Interviews (IDIs), especially for teachers and principals and key community leaders/ community-based organisation representatives.
3. We would appreciate the application of non-conventional qualitative methodologies such as workshops, behaviour modelling and so on with rich-stimuli, so that case-stories may emerge from the effort put in.

Component C: White Paper

1. Create a whitepaper based on the quantitative and qualitative findings of the project.
2. The whitepaper should include the background of the problem, a set of tips, questions or points about the issue, and recommend a solution for the problem.

Responsibilities of the Agency The responsibilities of the agency would include, but are not limited to:

1. Hiring, training and deployment of field surveyors, supervisors, monitors and field executives for the baseline and endline survey.
2. Hiring of sectoral experts (at least 2) for research oversight.
3. Optimizing survey team structure to ensure highest quality data collection within budget.
4. Provide an inception report detailing the implementation plan for the study.
5. Finalize research tools in consultation with AIFT.
6. Translate research tools into local languages.
7. Provide oversight and management control to ensure adherence to protocols and excellent data quality.
8. Provide a mechanism for regular relay of field data transfer, including reports commenting on data quality.
9. Develop codebooks for the dataset. 10. Prepare data tables as per approved analysis plan.
10. Present top line findings highlighting key findings (not more than 20 slides).
11. Prepare report as per approved chapterization plan.
12. Be available to the research team at AIFT in answering questions pertaining to the survey and the data.
13. Collaborate with the research team at AIF to revise the survey plan, survey, and survey methods to ensure the objectives of the project are realized.
14. Submit a final detailed report and presentation with findings and outlining the survey process, relevant survey statistics, and a section commenting on the quality of the data
15. Liaise with key stakeholders on the government side (with help from AIF) to ensure full cooperation from relevant government agencies in undertaking the survey.
16. Staff this project with team leaders and members with demonstrable experience in leading social sector surveys of this nature (especially on education).
17. Ensure consistency of project team leaders as turnover hampers data collection quality and risks loss of information on survey methods and implementation.

Key Deliverables

• Research methodology designed for evaluating the programme for baseline activity and end-line activity.
• Inception Report (including the first draft of tools).
• Report on pretesting of tools.
• Final data collection tools prepared in consultation with AIF.
• Training report along with final translated tools.
• Operationalization plan: field plans, field progress reports.
• Analysis plan.
• Chapterization plan for the report.
• Top-line presentation.
• 1 or 2 whitepapers.
• A comprehensive evaluation report based on the aforementioned information areas which also documents 2 success stories in each state at the end of the programme.

Timelines Activity 

October-December 2022  Field Activity Tool finalization + Pre-test + Baseline Survey

Deliverables Endline Report + PPT + Whitepaper

November – December 2023 – Endline Survey

Deliverables Inception report + Pre-Test Report + Finalized Tools +Baseline Report + Research brief.

Payment Terms
S.No. Activity Payment
1 Signing of contract 10%
2 Submission of Inception report (including finalized & translated tools) 20%
3 Completion of data collection for baseline 15%
4 Submission of baseline report and whitepaper 20%
5 Completion of data collection for end-line 15%
6 Submission of Final report, presentation, and whitepaper 20%

Proposals Proposals need to include CVs of key personnel, organizational credentials including data collection capabilities in specified geographies, detailed costing. Please include a Gantt chart showing timelines and dependencies as well. The proposal should include the following elements:

1. General – Cover page- 1 page in PDF
2. Identifying the proposed Project Team Leader and team members
3. The total amount of financing needed to execute the study
4. Suggested start date and end dates for the study and mention total duration d. Brief mention of why the survey and data collection firm is uniquely qualified to deliver this assignment
5. Technical Proposal in PDF – no more than 10 pages
6. Present plan of action for delivering this assignment including
7. Tentative field team structure ex: how many surveyors, monitors, back checkers and how will they be organized
8. Plan for monitoring field teams d. Plan for monitoring data quality
9. Plan for ensuring activities is not over budget
10. Robust sample size and methodology
11. Plan for security of data gathered and its transmission to Research Staff at AIF
12. Tentative Timeline of Activities
13. Resumes of Team Leader and Team Members
14. Short Descriptions of Other Relevant Projects

Financial Proposal in PDF – no more than 5 pages

1. Budget should clearly lay out the following costs and should be between 18 lakhs and 21 lakhs including GST (if applicable)
2. Survey and Data Collection Firm Staff Costs
3. Survey and Data Collection Firm Travel Costs
4. Survey and Data Collection Firm Overhead Costs
5. Field Operations Staff Costs
6. Field Operations Office & Equipment Costs
7. Field Operations Travel Costs
8. Please present two budgets – one each for conducting paper-based and electronic surveys

Agencies are requested to submit a single PDF document for all of the above and name the file as AIF Proposal GDS_ [Agency Name] _DD.MM. YY. We request you to submit your proposal (as a single PDF file) by 31/10/2022 at 05:00pm India Time to ebid@aif.org. Proposals submitted after this deadline will not be considered.

For any queries, contact Darad Harsh on ebid@aif.org by 31/10/2022 and 05:00pm

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