Model lab for elementary science.
DIR was chosen by Rice University’s Center for Education to help design an evaluation of their Model Science Lab for elementary classrooms, which is based at Treasure Forest Elementary School in the Spring Branch Independent School District. Model Science Labs are closely linked to Rice’s School Science and Technology Program. Initially, DIR will consult on the study design, random assignment and sampling, and instrumentation and measurement.
New contracts continue DIR’s long collaboration with MDRC
These two new projects continue DIR’s long-standing relationship with MDRC as a data-collection resource for some of their major demonstration evaluations.
For one project, DIR will conduct follow-up surveys as part of a longitudinal evaluation of the Opportunity New York City (ONYC) Family Rewards and Work Rewards programs. These programs are part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s antipoverty initiative. Over the 5-year contract period, DIR will conduct CATI and field-based interviews to help MDRC measure the long-term impact of the use of conditional cash transfers on families with school-age children and on housing authority clients.
For the other project, DIR will conduct surveys for MDRC’s evaluation of the Achieving the Dream project, which is designed to assist low-income students and students of color to persist and succeed throughout their community-college experiences. DIR will use Web-based surveys, self-administered classroom surveys, and phone surveys from DIR’s CATI center to collect data from students at North Carolina’s Guilford Technical Community College.
McNair Report
The U.S. Department of Education (Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development; Policy and Program Studies Service) has printed DIR's evaluation report of the McNair Program, dated 2008. For a copy of Education and Employment Outcomes of the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program Alumni, go to http://edpubs.ed.gov/. In the search box, type Education and Employment Outcomes, and click Go.
Joint City/County Commission on Children (JCCCC)
The Hogg Foundation awarded a grant to the Joint City/County Commission on Children (JCCCC) to develop a comprehensive, long-range mental-health plan for children and their families in Houston and Harris County. JCCCC contracted with DIR to conduct approximately 10 listening sessions with key stakeholder groups, including parents and caregivers of children and professionals in the fields of early-childhood services, education, mental health, finance, medicine, business, and insurance. DIR will invite elected officials from Houston and Harris County to attend the sessions and provide input. Each stakeholder group will include users and nonusers of the mental health system in Houston and Harris County.
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