Teen Pregnancy Case Management 

• Study Participants: Young women enrolled in a case management program for pregnant and parenting teens
  
• Use: Add a human face to the quantitative data collected on pregnant teens
  

It is important to remember that not all pregnant teens walk the same path.  Many demonstrate a resiliency and a sense of self-efficacy that manifests despite or, in some cases, because of the odds placed against them.  I was hired by Aurora Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (Aurora, Colorado) to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of their case management program. The quantitative data we collected was good for describing program activities and outcomes in numeric terms but could not begin to describe the complexities and nuances in the life of a pregnant or parenting teen. To get at the whole story I conducted case studies with five very different young women enrolled in the program, each expressing their own brand of resiliency. See the case study report.

 Electronic Medical Records Implementation

• Study Participants: Small rural medical practices
• Use: Understand how best to support small medical practices in installing electronic medical record systems 
  

The recently approved Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act will provide at least $34 billion in electronic health record (EHR) adoption incentive payments to physicians who demonstrate "Meaningful Use" of electronic medical records. The California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) has funded a project which supports the adoption, integration, and "Meaningful Use" of electronic medical records in fifteen small/solo primary care practices in their state. In collaboration with Oregon Health and Science University Department of Medical Informatics, I conducted a series of case studies with eight of the California practices to gain an understanding of the challenges and rewards for solo providers attempting to incorporate electronic systems into their practices. The foundation will use lessons learned to design a replicable model for other small medical practices nationwide. See a summary report and the case study reports.

 In Depth Interviews

Specialized Day Care for Children Born with Disabilities

• Study Participants: Parents of children born with disabilities
• Use: Measure outcomes of a transitional day program for severely disabled children

KidStreet is a community-based day center associated with Children's Hospital in Denver that was designed to transition children born with complex medical needs from the hospital setting into the home and community.  Because these children are commonly dependent on medical technology that requires specialized nursing, therapies, and rehabilitative care, a multidisciplinary team of nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and speech therapists work together to maximize each child's potential while at the same time equipping family members with the confidence and knowledge to care for their child at home. As part of a comprehensive evaluation, I conducted interviews with 25 parents of KidStreet children to help KidStreet measure their effectiveness from the parents point of view. See the report.  

Volunteers for Rural Seniors Initiative

• Study participants: Rural community grantees
• Use: Explore under-utilization of technical assistance funding and program non-continuation
  

The Volunteers for Rural Seniors Initiative (VRSI), a grant-funded program of The Colorado Trust, was designed to provide volunteer-based services to seniors in rural Colorado to enable them to continue to live in their homes. After the initial three-year funding cycle ended, the 36 VRSI funded communities were offered small sustainability grants to continue on but 15 grantees declined the additional funding. I conducted interviews with the 15 to find out why they decided not to continue.  The following year I conducted interviews with the 21 continuing grantees to uncover reasons for their under-utilization of add-on technical assistance funds. 

WIC Fod Package Transition

• Study Participants: WIC (Women, Infants and Children) program staff and information systems (IS) staff
• Use: Improve implementation of future statewide projects

The Oregon WIC food packages program recently underwent the biggest transformation the program has seen in over 30 years. The change was designed to provide WIC families food that better meets the dietary requirements, is more closely matched to key nutrition messages, and is culturally acceptable to a greater number of participants. For the first time since the inception of WIC, vouchers were made available for fresh fruits and vegetables. Implementation of the new statewide program engaged 40 WIC staff--administrators,  educators, marketing and documentation staff--and five information systems staff in an 18-month process. WIC program officials asked me to conduct interviews with 23 of the most involved staff to capture their experiences with the implementation process so lessons learned could be harvested and applied to the implementation of future such projects.

 

Promising Practices for Building an African American Teaching Force

• Study Participants: Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
• Use: Catalog the most promising practices for recruiting and retaining African American teacher education students
  

Education used to be the most popular major for Black college students; today fewer than 7% pursue careers in teaching. The continually declining number of Black teacher graduates only amplifies the already sizable gap between teachers of color and students of color: if every minority who graduated from college today became a teacher, minorities would still be underrepresented. Under a three-year initiative sponsored by the United Negro College Fund and funded by the Annenberg Foundation, ten historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) instituted various strategies intended to reverse the decline of the Black teacher population. Interventions varied widely from the institution of cohort support groups for incoming students to nontraditional approaches like community college collaborations, apprenticeship programs, and lateral entry programs. Over a two-year period, I conducted a series of phone interviews, in-person interviews, and site visits with school officials at the ten participating HBCUs in an effort to understand and document the most promising strategies.  These promising strategies and several other evidence-based strategies that I extracted from the literature are cataloged in a 49-page manual published by UNCF.

Physician Perspectives on Inadequate Pregnancy Weight Gain

• Study Participants: Obstetricians and Family Practitioners
• Use: Inform strategies targeting improved birth weight in Colorado

Inadequate weight gain during pregnancy is a potentially modifiable risk factor.  In an effort to better understand how to ameliorate this risk factor among Colorado's pregnant women, public health officials within the Womens Health Section of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment decided to solicit information from physicians who provide prenatal care.  They wanted to understand current physician practices in managing inadequate weight gain during pregnancy and to identify types of assistance or support that physicians might find beneficial in addressing this issue with their pregnant clients. I conducted a mix of focus groups and personal interviews with 20 physicians to find out. See the report.

 Child Care Licensing Models: Pilot Project

• Study Participants: Three counties in Colorado: El Paso, Denver, Larimer
  
• Use:  Improve current state licensing system and recommend changes 

Recognizing a need for improvement in the way child care facilities were licensed, Colorado Senate Bill 99-226 provided an opportunity for communities to design and implement (on a pilot basis) up to four new licensing models. Three Colorado communities took the challenge. Denver/Triad researched the licensing models of several other states as well as the military before designing a model that combined successful aspects of each.  El Paso called on members of their local Early Childhood Council to discuss what was working and what was not working with current licensing rules and regulations.  And a committee of interested parties in Larimer County met with local child care providers and state licensing staff to design their model.  All three experimental models were granted federal funding through the Colorado Department of Education to implement and evaluate their models.  They also received waivers from existing state licensing regulations from the Colorado Department of Human Services. I conducted an evaluation that included detailed interviews with child care providers, a parent survey, monthly monitoring of activities, and a cost benefit analysis. See the report.

Colorado Child Care Corps: Developmental Evaluation

• Study Participants: AmeriCorps Members and their sponsors
  
• Use: Improve implementation and ensure that program participants are progressing in the right direction toward desired outcomes.

This evaluation examined the formative activities during the first year of the Colorado Child Care Corps (CCCC) project. CCCC was a two year project designed to engage the services of AmeriCorps Members to help identify and meet local child care needs throughout the state. The project represented a partnership among several state agencies, headed up by the Colorado Office of Resource and Referral Agencies (CORRA). CORRA was established in 1991 to coordinate Colorado's childcare resources statewide. CCCC was designed to extend the Colorado Resource and Referral Agency's efforts to build the capacity of communities to meet local demand for affordable, accessible, and quality child care. Seventeen AmeriCorps Members were assigned to positions in twelve regional agencies throughout Colorado. To answer the evaluation questions posed by the study sponsors, I used a mix of methods including interviews with AmeriCorps Members and Member dropouts,  surveys, and document reviews.  The final report describes strengths, weaknesses, best practices, lessons learned, and progress/ barriers toward accomplishing program objectives. See the report. See related report: Who's Watching Our Kids?.

The Delphi Technique

Envisioning Libraries of 2020

• Study Participants: Library leaders, librarians, library specialists
• Use: Develop a ten-year plan for addressing the future needs of Oregon's libraries