Multiple Award Task Order (MATO):

In June 2004, Education Development Center qualified as an U.S. Department of Education MATO vendor in all five areas of services listed under MATO:

• Research and policy analysis/assessment
• Research and evaluation design, data collection and analysis
• Performance measurement
• Program Assessments
• Technical support in all phases of product development and dissemination

EDC is an international not-for-profit research and development agency with a long and successful history of providing these services in a wide range expert areas, including the following:

• Preprimary Education:

  For more than two decades EDC has led efforts to improve the quality and availability of preprimary education and child care by supporting the professionals who care for young children. We develop programs that enhance the stature, improve the professional opportunities, and raise the expectations of these caretakers–a group who are historically underpaid and undervalued. We partner with local, regional, and national child care providers to develop resource centers, design professional development programs, offer on-site technical assistance, and conduct research in areas including curriculum and materials development, literacy enhancement, special education, parent involvement, performance assessment, and management and supervision.

• Family literacy:

  EDC’s literacy work includes research, evaluation, professional training, and advocacy. We have developed multimedia initiatives to build adult literacy and worked to span the gap between teachers and non-English-speaking family members. We believe that family involvement is the foundation of literacy initiatives and build such involvement into all literacy efforts.

• Elementary/Secondary Education:

  Our projects span academic disciplines and address all aspects of elementary/secondary education—including professional development for administrators and teachers, curriculum development and implementation, student health and safety, technology integration, school/community/university partnerships, education policy, and research and evaluation.

• Vocational Education:

  Working with schools and the business community, EDC develops career pathways for young people. We produce curricula that integrate academic and technical education, preparing young people for careers in growth industries like information technology, bioscience, and health care. Collaborating with educators and business leaders, we draft national skills standards for many industries and provide the support schools need to meet those standards.

• Postsecondary Education:

  EDC has both led and worked in partnership to strengthen preservice education for future teachers; build pathways from K–12 education to college to careers (with a special emphasis on community colleges); and to prevent alcohol, other drug abuse, and violence on college campuses.

• Adult Education:

  EDC creates innovative, educationally sound, and engaging teaching materials and fosters community networks to support adult learners. We cultivate service partners nationwide, including state departments of education and a wide variety of community-based organizations such as health clinics, public schools, correctional agencies, homeless shelters, workplace training programs, adult education programs, libraries, and community colleges.

• Vocational Rehabilitation:

  Working side by side with groups and organizations, EDC helps disadvantaged people—those facing mental illness, substance abuse, poverty, homelessness, and reintegration into society—surmount barriers to career development, literacy, and health care.

• International Comparisons:

  EDC projects work globally to strengthen early child development, family literacy, K–12 education, health promotion, workforce preparation, community development, learning technologies, basic and adult education, special education, institutional reform, and social justice. Our work in more than 40 countries—including field offices in more than a dozen international locations—provides us with the expertise, experience, and global reach for making international comparisons. We have designed and carried out a number of multicountry field tests, convened international working groups, and organized cross-cultural study groups and site visits.

• Special Education:

  One of the many challenges facing school districts today is ensuring that students with physical, cognitive, sensory, and social/emotional disabilities succeed in school. EDC works to develop and support—at the classroom, school, district, and national levels—inclusive practices that help improve education for all students, including students with disabilities. We specialize in designing and implementing innovative curricula and technology applications that make rigorous academic content accessible to all students.

• Bilingual Education:

  EDC projects create resources in numerous languages in order to reach out to diverse audiences. EDC's efforts in bilingual education include school curriculum, public health campaigns, job training and work preparedness, professional development materials for educators and health officials, and advocacy for the availability of government and other agency material in multiple languages.

• Health Research, Evaluation, and Promotion:

  One of EDC's key roles is to build bridges between research and real-life practice. Focusing on strategies that can be tested and confirmed to work—EDC creates tools, offers training, and builds partnerships to draw on the best practices in the field of health promotion.

• Disease, Substance Abuse, and Violence Prevention:

  EDC's prevention work grows from the conviction that successful efforts are comprehensive, multi-faceted, and committed to changing the environments in which destructive behaviors thrive. In all our efforts, we work with communities to devise programs that are sensitive and responsive to local needs, concerns, and resources.

• Training for Healthcare Professionals:

  To help schools, communities and agencies master and apply the most effective strategies to promote health, EDC offers on-site technical assistance and professional consultation. EDC teams are able to present customized trainings and assistance.

• End-of-Life Care:

  EDC focuses on identifying effective and humane ways that health care institutions provide care to dying patients and their families, with a special emphasis on the administrative processes and organizational steps that were necessary for initiating and maintaining these improvements.

• Medical Ethics:

  EDC is experienced in conducting research to better understand the clinical, psychological, organizational, cross-cultural, and ethical complexities associated with advances in medical knowledge and technology. Based on that research, EDC designs educational programs and other interventions aimed at improving clinical practice, health care decision-making, and, ultimately, patient and family well-being.

For more information, contact:

Michael Pelletier (E-mail: Mpelletier@edc.org)