The Supporting Network of HIV Care (SNHC) by Enhancing Primary Medical Care Evaluation Center

Health Resources and Services Administation

September 2006 – September 2009

The purpose of the SNHC by Enhancing Primary Medical Care Project is to develop, improve and expand comprehensive HIV primary medical care and treatment service delivery in racial/ethnic minority communities severely impacted by HIV/AIDS. The funding under this project is provided to non-profit, community and faith-based organizations that are not currently CARE Act grantees, to improve their capacity to provide primary medical care and treatment to people of color living with or affected by HIV/AIDS.

REDA is serving as a subcontractor to DB Consulting Group (DB) to establish an Evaluation Center to assess the impact and effectiveness of all components of the project, including “Technical Assistance”, “Intensive Capacity Building” and “Regional Meetings”. In addition to assessing the effectiveness of the technical assistance provided by SNHC, REDA examines the sustainability and quality of primary medical care provided by care organizations receiving technical assistance through the SNHC project. To accomplish these goals, REDA conducts the following activities: a) agency baseline and needs assessment prior to the delivery of technical assistance (TA), b) pre-post surveys of all technical assistance and training recipients, and follow-up assessments at regular intervals to measure sustainability; c) follow-up assessments at all agencies who received TA, and d) quantitative and qualitative case studies of agencies participating in intensive technical assistance.

To support the data collection and analysis requirements of the project, REDA has developed a web-based platform that provides for a flexible data entry process accessible to multiple users. The SNHC database processes both tracking and response data to facilitate the management of ongoing data collection efforts. The web-based platform facilitates reporting to easily track and monitor data collection, and the database also provides customized reports that convey preliminary analyses of incoming data. The flexibility of this process allows for rapid deployment of survey instruments, from development to data collection and analysis, allowing the Evaluation Center to provide timely feedback to its client.

Improving Literacy through School Libraries Program, School Library Media Center Survey

US Department of Education

October 2003 – October 2005 and September 2006 - September 2007

Evaluation of the Improving Literacy through School Libraries Program was established under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001. The purpose of this Program is to improve the reading achievement of students by providing them with access to up-to-date school library materials, technologically advanced school library media centers, and professionally certified school library media specialists. Under the Program, the U.S. Department of Education competitively awards 1-year grants to eligible districts. An eligible district is one in which 20% of the students are from families with incomes below the poverty line ($17, 000 for a family of four). Information will be collected from 800 schools districts; 400 grantee districts and 400 matched comparison schools.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Policy and Program Studies Service has contracted with Westat and REDA to conduct an evaluation of the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries (LSL) Program, which was established under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001. This study is required under Section 1251 of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation. The study includes schools that are participating in the program as well as a set of comparison schools in districts that are eligible to participate in the program, but so far have not received a grant. REDA is responsible for several activities: participating in the study design, including the sample design, participating in the questionnaire design, piloting the survey, administering and tracking of surveys and collection, cleaning, and storage of all survey data to be obtained during this study. REDA achieved 90.3% response rate which is higher than the required 85%.

The second year project followed a similar design to the first year project, however, the second one included 9 site visits to grantee school districts to evaluate their library media centers and to assess how they have utilized the grant money received by the U.S. Department of Education’s LSL program. In addition to the responsibilities of the data collection, REDA collaborated with Westat in conducting the site visits and preparing analytic site visit reports.

Evaluation of the Quentin N. Burdick Rural Interdisciplinary Training Program

Health Resources and Services Administration

September 2003 – December 2006

The Quentin N. Burdick Rural Interdisciplinary Training Grant Program is administered by BHPr and has been funding interdisciplinary training and education of health care professionals since 1990. Grantees include schools for health professions, academic health centers, state and local governments, and other nonprofit organizations. The purposes of the grants have included: 1) Use new and innovative methods to train health care practitioners to provide service in rural areas; 2) Demonstrate and evaluate methods and models that improve access to cost-effective, comprehensive health care; 3) Provide health care services to people in rural communities; 4) Expand research into rural health care issues; and 5) Recruit and retain health care providers in rural areas. Although BHPr has required performance reports from grantees and facilitated the sharing of promising practices among grantees, there has only been one formal overall evaluation of the Burdick Grant Program since its inception. Guided in part by OMB’s Program Assessment Rating Tool, an independent evaluation of the program provides important feedback to BHPr about the impact of its funding and will help to shape future policy decisions.

REDA conducted an evaluation of the program with three goals: 1) Assess the value of the Burdick Grant Program as an approach for meeting rural education and training needs; 2) Evaluate the success of Burdick grantees in achieving the program’s goals and identify factors that affected the degree of success; and 3) Identify strengths and weaknesses and make recommendations for improving the program. REDA examined the various institutional auspices of the grantees, the multiple disciplines represented in each program, the variety of methods used for training, and the unique demographic and health needs of each community. The evaluation included an examination of the history and evolution of the overall program, descriptions of over 22 grant-funded programs, comparisons among these grantees, and analyses of program impact through in-depth study of a sample of nine grantees. The case studies involved site visits and the use of multiple sources of quantitative and qualitative data. REDA received an add-on to develop a database of grantees between 1991 and 2000 (after which grantees began reporting their progress online). We developed a database similar to what is available for the current grantees which provided HRSA a more complete picture of the overall program.