Evaluation of the Alliance for
Information on Maternal and Child Health (AIM) Grantee Collaborative
The AIM Collaborative
June
2007 – April 2010
The Alliance
for Information on Maternal and Child Health (AIM) Grantee Collaborative is a
Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) collaborative of 17 national membership
organizations and the MCHB. Its members include decision-makers within state
and local government, maternal and child health (MCH) professions, foundations,
the health insurance industry and business, as well as advocates for children
and families. The purpose of the AIM Collaborative is to help members of these
organizations make well-informed decisions affecting public health policies and
programs for women, children and families.
REDA was awarded a contract to evaluate the collective and
collaborative efforts of the AIM grantees. REDA and its subcontractor, J &
E Associates, will be responsible for: conducting interviews with all AIM
grantees; review of related documents and current evaluation tools; development
of an evaluation plan; training grantees in the required data collection;
providing technical assistance to grantees as needed; analyzing evaluation
data; conducting a literature review on collaboration issues and outcomes;
evaluating the AIM Collaborative’s semi-annual meetings; and preparing a
written final report that summarizes the evaluation findings.
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Evaluation
of the Effect of Increased State Aid to Local School Systems through the Bridge to Excellence (BTE) Act
Maryland
State Department of Education
November 2005 – January 2009
In 2003-2004, under the Bridge To Excellence Program, each local school system in Maryland developed and started implementing a five-year
comprehensive Plan describing the goals, objectives, and strategies that will
be used to improve student achievement and meet Maryland’s performance goals. The State
funding for education was increased to finance the initiative to equalize per
pupil spending across local school systems. The Maryland State Department of
Education (MSDE) awarded a contract to MGT
of America (MGT) and REDA International Inc. (REDA) to conduct a
comprehensive review and evaluation of the effect of increased state aid to
local school systems through The Bridge
to Excellence in Public Schools Act on
student, school, and school system performance. This study is mandated by the
Maryland General Assembly. Under this contract, MGT and REDA will evaluate how local school systems are using state education aid; a
comparison of school systems that show significant improvements in student and
school performance to school systems that do not show such improvements; an
assessment of the extent to which county boards are successful in implementing
the five-year plans; an analysis of the amount of funding that local
governments provide for education each year; and conduct a series of site
visits to school districts to compile a list of programs or factors that
consistently produce positive results for students, schools, and school systems.
During the first year of the evaluation (2006), REDA
conducted an analysis of the survey results of Maryland Local School System
(LSS) officials implemented by MGT. During the second year of the evaluation
(2007), REDA conducted site visits to schools and districts administrations,
processed and analyzed all site visit data, prepared a report on potential best
education practices for the Interim Report, and presented site visit findings
to MSDE and the MD General Assembly. During the third year (2008), REDA
developed and pilot tested two survey questionnaires for gathering data on
potential best educational practices (administered to all qualifying Maryland
teachers and principals via the web by MGT). REDA participated in the
quantitative analysis of the survey data, conduct site selection and develop
site visit protocols for in-depth case studies of educational best practices,
conduct the site visits to a select number of schools, and analyze the site
visit data. The final report on educational best practices incorporated
findings from all the surveys and site visits.
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Maryland
Governor's Office for Children, Youth and Families
January
2003 - February 2004
This evaluation was conducted
as a result of insufficient data to assess the availability and utilization of
the full range of residential resources for special needs children in the State
of Maryland. The Maryland Governor's Office for Children,
Youth and Families (OCYF) required the conduct of a study to determine the
resources of residential programs for children whose special mental health,
developmental, educational or other disability related needs require out-of-
home placement.
REDA was awarded a contract to
conduct a needs assessment of the residential programs that served special
needs children in the State of Maryland. The needs assessment model evaluated the gap
between needs and services for this population. We prepared the evaluation
plan, developed all data collection instruments including informed consent
documents, collected and analyzing the data, made a formal presentation of the
findings, and generated a written report.
The evaluation included data gathering from the service system (State
and Local Agencies, Services Providers), as well as the target population. REDA conducted the evaluation via interviews
with selected key personnel at the state level, telephone interviews with local
placement level personnel, a mail survey of service providers within
residential treatment centers and other residential programs/facilities,
on-site interviews and observations, record abstraction, and focus groups of
parents/stakeholders of children with special needs. The Schaefer
Center for Public Policy at the University of Baltimore assisted REDA with this
project as a subcontractor. The data
gathered informed policy decisions and planning activities for the State.
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