The Department of Education awarded a $420,000 contract last week to a group of researchers to lay the groundwork for a long-term evaluation of the new school voucher program for the District of Columbia.

Westat, a for-profit research organization based in Rockville, Md., was awarded the 10-month contract, along with scholars at Georgetown University’s public-policy institute in Washington and Chesapeake Research Associates, a consulting firm based in Annapolis, Md.

Chief among the researchers’ responsibilities will be to design and monitor a lottery to randomly select applicants to receive vouchers, under the assumption that demand for the program will outstrip available funding. Collecting achievement data on students, preparing a report for Congress on participants, and setting up data files for the long-term evaluation are the other major tasks required by the initial contract.

The department expects to award a second contract in June for the evaluation of the federally financed, five-year program, which is to provide $13 million annually for vouchers of up to $7,500 apiece to pay for students from low-income families to attend secular or religious private schools.