The purpose of this study is to assess the impacts of VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) on the effectiveness of local sponsoring organizations and to develop an evaluation tool for future use by the Corporation for National and Community Service to evaluate the impacts of VISTA support. AMSAQ provides technical and operational support to Westat for implementing the 18-month evaluation, including responsibilities for evaluation design, data collection, analysis, and reporting
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Evaluating Cultural Competency in Behavioral Health Care and Training
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the Department of Health and Human Services is funding this national evaluation with the goals of 1) facilitating the entry of ethnic minority and other socially disadvantaged students into mental health careers and 2) increasing the number of psychologists, psychiatric nurses, psychiatrists, and social workers trained to teach, administer, and provide mental health and substance abuse services to ethnic minority and other disadvantaged groups. AMSAQ is conducting this two-year evaluation project for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The project has three objectives:
AMSAQ is reviewing standards of cultural competency developed by the relevant professional associations and accrediting organizations; constructing a database of accredited behavioral healthcare education and training programs; and reviewing and rating curriculum materials from a sample of programs. In addition, we are surveying faculty, graduates, deans and other administrators from a sample of programs.
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Inventory and Evaluation of Clinical Research Networks (IECRN)
The goals of the IECRN project were to describe the operations of clinical research networks and identify best practices in those networks. The primary project activities of this National Institutes of Health-funded project included conducting an inventory and survey of existing networks to examine characteristics relating to their focus (such as types and volume of studies, organizational and management structure, definitions and descriptions of the network structure and goals, evaluation of network performance, informatics infrastructure, training procedures, and other important characteristics related to the success of clinical networks). This project was a significant component in NIH’s Roadmap Initiative, which provides directions for a more efficient and productive system of medical research. AMSAQ provided support as a subcontractor to Westat by conducting qualitative studies of selected public and private-sector networks to provide detailed descriptions of current practices and identify best practices. Overall, these in-depth assessments were designed to assist in the definition of the characteristics that promote, or serve as barriers to, successful clinical research interactivity, productivity, and expansion or broadening of research scope, including training of investigators.
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Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Operations Support
MEPS was designed in 1994 as the source for a comprehensive database of information on health care utilization and expenditures for the non-institutionalized US civilian population. AMSAQ, as a subcontractor, provided Westat with survey operations support for managing the sample for the Medical Provider Component of the survey. The activities included managing the post-data collection receipt control and accounting for the sample. The receipt-control task involved a final disposition for all of the elements in the sample. In addition to recording final dispositions for all cases, the task required an accounting for sample changes during data collection, e.g., for providers found to have merged or split since initially reported. The Westat prime contract is with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Center for Health Statistics.
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Data Archive, Analysis, and Management Center for the National Survey of Parents and Youth (NSPY Center Joint Venture)
The NSPY Center is a joint venture established by AMSAQ and Westat to initiate and operate the Data Archive, Analysis, and Management Center for the National Survey of Parents and Youth (NSPY). AMSAQ is the lead organization in the joint venture. This five-year project is supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the National Institutes of Health. NSPY is a set of longitudinal survey files of youth and parent dyads covering four rounds of data collection. The survey addresses substance abuse behaviors, attitudes toward drug abuse, and mass media usage patterns by children and youth (age 9-18) and their parents. The purpose of this project is to make the NSPY restricted use data files available to responsible researchers so additional information can be produced from this valuable data source.
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Perceptions of Health Care in Military Treatment Facilities
The purpose of this study was to assess the relationships between the perceptions of patients about treatment they receive in Military Treatment Facilities and indicator data on patient clinical outcomes in those facilities. The TriCare Management Activity used the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Survey to measure patient perceptions of their health care experiences and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations' ORYX performance data to assess clinical outcomes. AMSAQ, as a subcontractor to Westat, developed and implemented procedures for analyzing these two distinct data systems together.
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Support and Training for the Media Campaign Evaluation
The National Survey of Parents and Youth (NSPY) was conducted between 1999 and 2004 to evaluate the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign (the Media Campaign). The implementation of the NSPY yielded longitudinal datafiles containing the repeated surveys of youth and their parents. The NSPY asked detailed questions about substance abuse and related social and personal information as well as questions about the media campaign. Because of the extremely sensitive nature of the data and the risk to respondents if confidentiality were to be breached, AMSAQ developed procedures for selected researchers to conduct additional analyses from the NSPY while ensuring the highest levels of data security and respondent protection. In addition, AMSAQ assisted Westat in developing a training workshop for NIDA grantees that will be conducting secondary analyses of NSPY data. The results of this project were used as the starting point for operations in the NSPY Data Archive, Analysis, and Management Center (NSPY Center) managed by AMSAQ for NIDA.
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Classroom Literacy Interventions and Outcomes
AMSAQ provides data analysis and processing as well as travel support to Westat as a subcontractor on this project. The current project is a follow-up to a study previously completed by Westat, which was a random assignment impact study of the effects of participation in the Even Start program on children and their families. The follow-up will extend the study to measure impacts through age 9 for the original participating children. AMSAQ is responsible for planning and implementing supervisor and interviewer training, interviewer travel for data collection, and planning and travel support for meetings of the project’s Technical Work Group. In addition, AMSAQ is responsible for coding and analysis of qualitative data collected as part of the project.
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Professional and Administrative Management Support Services
The purpose of the Professional and Administrative Support Services contract is to assist the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) of the US Department of Labor (DOL) as it carries out its missions of advising Congress and the Secretary of DOL on the nation's employment and training policies and programs, bringing together a wide range of individuals in meetings and conferences to share their ideas and perspectives, and providing high-quality qualitative and quantitative analysis of programs and policies. To conduct the work under this task order contract, AMSAQ and Westat formed a joint venture, the ETA Support Center, with AMSAQ as the lead organization. The 5-year project includes work in the following task areas:
The initial task assigned is to develop, implement, and test a writing workshop for ETA staff and managers as a first step in developing an array of staff development workshops.
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Head Start Impact Study
AMSAQ provides operational support to Westat for implementing the longitudinal follow-up to its 5-year study of the impacts of the Head Start program on children and their families. The follow up study continues the random assignment design of the original study, extending the study through the third grade for the former participants and controls. AMSAQ is providing support for training data collectors and is conducting quality control visits to ensure data are collected properly. AMSAQ is a subcontractor on this project that is conducted under contract to the Administration for Children and Families, HHS.
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Pilot study of data collection methods for the In-Flight Survey of the Office of Travel and Tourism Industries/Department of Commerce
The In-Flight Survey of International Air Travelers (the Survey) has been implemented since 1983 to provide comprehensive, comparable data on overseas travel patterns and characteristics and spending patterns of international travelers to and from the United States. Data from the survey is used to analyze behavior of specific visitor segments for planning and marketing activities. The team consisting of AMSAQ, Westat, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers was selected to pilot test varying administration methods of the Survey with international air travelers. These air travelers were surveyed in departure gate areas for international flights at Dulles International Airport. The results of this pilot test were used to inform and refine future Survey administration methods.
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