October 15, 2007
RMC Research is developing survey instruments and gathering sample information from sites. Northstar is preparing to pilot the instruments at correctional facilities in Colorado and finalizing state agreements. Preparations are underway for the Institutional Review Board process.
November 15, 2007
Dr. Stephen Meyer of RMC Research is continuing the survey instrument development process, including student surveys and site coordinator surveys. Northstar is making arrangements with Colorado prisons to pilot student surveys.
December 15, 2007
CEA, RMC Research, and Northstar meet by conference call every two weeks to continue work with the states. The Institutional Review Board Process for Human Subjects Review is ongoing in all states. Northstar is collecting information from institutions about current post secondary academic programming and eligible student numbers. One pilot test site for student surveys is scheduled this month.
January 15, 2008
All data collection instruments are nearing completion. RMC is pursuing a full collegiate institutional review board for all involved states. New states may be recruited to ensure a large enough sample for the requisite power analysis. Wisconsin is currently piloting the Site Coordinator Survey. The last pilot of the student survey is scheduled for completion on January 23.
February 15, 2008
Much to the disappointment of the Wisconsin DOC staff, CEA, RMC Research, and Northstar, Wisconsin will not be able to participate in the study. Unfortunately, in order to participate in this study, Wisconsin's exemplary College of the Air Program would have to cease for sites randomly selected as control sites.
One participant from each state will attend training at the CEA Forum in Annapolis, March 9-11. The training will be a jointly delivered by CEA, RMC, and Northstar.
RMC is working with the Institute of Education Sciences to slightly modify the power analysis. This study will target forty-four prison sites in six or seven states. New Mexico may also be joining the study. Each of the forty-four participating sites will be asked to sign MOU's, which will be distributed in Annapolis, if not before.
The pilot Site Coordinator Survey has been completed in Wisconsin. The survey took site coordinators 15-30 minutes to complete. A third student survey pilot will be completed this week at Wisconsin's Racine Youthful Offender Correctional Facility. Potentially 80 students could participate.
RMC Research is continuing the IRB process.
March 12, 2008
Four sites piloted the student survey: Lookout Mountain Academy, Golden, Colorado; Youth Offender System, Pueblo, Colorado; Racine Youthful Offender Correctional Facility, Racine, Wisconsin; Redgranite Correctional Institution, Redgranite, Wisconsin. RMC is analyzing the results of the four pilot sites to determine the validity of the instruments. The research team thanks all four sites for their important and generous contribution to this study.
Massachusetts and Nevada are joining the IES study. New Mexico is also a possibility. Participants from Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Nevada, Massachusetts, and New Mexico attended training at the CEA Forum in Annapolis, March 9-11. The training was jointly delivered by CEA, RMC, and Northstar. A slide presentation of the training can be downloaded by clicking the link on this page or the homepage.
March 17, 2008
CEA, TLN, and Northstar are preparing to order TLN equipment sets for intervention sites to allow adequate time for equipment installation. Courses will commence fall 2008. Northstar will be administering the CAAP Critical Thinking assessment and other study instruments fall and spring 2008-2011.
States are finalizing the number of participants at each site. The study can only include sites with at least 15 or more students between the ages of 18 and 25 which are expected to begin postsecondary academic programs this fall and those whose tuition will be paid by a grant, a foundation, or other state-sponsored means. Self-pay students cannot be included. If the IYO legislation changes and the age range is raised or eliminated, we should be able to include a much larger group of participants. The criteria for participating sites are:
- Site must not have delivered COA/TLN prior to random assignment in June 2008.
- Site must provide a minimum number of 15 IYO (or other) funded slots for students beginning PS academic programming in fall 2008.
- If assigned to experimental condition, COA/TLN must be provided as the primary institution-sponsored PS academic curriculum for the duration of the study.
- If assigned to control condition, alternative PS academic programming must be made available for the duration of the study. COA/TLN must not be provided.
March 31, 2008
As we have been confirming numbers of available offender students within each state, two states have been unable to continue participation in the study: Minnesota and New Mexico.
The six states now fully committed to the study are: Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oklahoma.
April 16, 2008
It's been a big week for the grant. Dr. Stephen Meyer of RMC Research has been working for several months on the IRB process. Yesterday he received news that it has been approved.
Random site selection was completed on Monday. For results, click Site Selection. Sites have been notified of the results of the random selection and have been sent MOU's to formally solidify commitments to participate in the study.
June 2, 2008
June 30 concludes the first year of the study; the first annual report is being prepared by Dr. Meyer of RMC and will include all activities including instrument preparation, IRB completion, and site preparation. RMC is also developing a Site Visit Data Collection Manual. Dr. Steurer of CEA is working on the fiscal accountability report due June 30.
MOU's for states were distributed. Satellite dishes and decoders were ordered last month for TLN sites. The equipment is arriving and installation procedures have begun.
Northstar will be sending a fall schedule for data collection and CAAP assessments for states. The schedule will also be posted here on the website.
June 20, 2008
Dr. Meyer of RMC Research is finalizing the annual report to be sent to Washington, D.C.
Dr. Steurer of CEA and Dr. Meyer met with IES grant officers last week in Washingtion, D.C., as required by the grant.
The data collection schedule for this fall has been sent to states. Northstar's Cindy Borden and Penny Richardson will be conducting all site visits.
State Visitation Schedule
FALL 2008 -
IES Study
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2008
Date |
State |
|
Date |
State |
Aug 25-29 |
Nevada |
Sept 15-19 |
Colorado |
Sept 2-5 |
Iowa |
Sept 22-26 |
Massachusetts |
Sept 8-12 |
Oklahoma |
|
Arizona was unable to continue in the study.
Satellite dish installation is underway. States, please contact Northstar at 303-438-8913 if you need assistance. Do not contact TBC for installation assistance.
July 14, 2008
MOU's are in place between CEA and Massachusetts, Iowa, and Colorado. Satellite dishes have been installed at several intervention (TLN) sites.
The annual performance and fiscal reports for IES have been completed and sent to the U.S. Department of Education.
Northstar has been contacting individual study sites to coordinate Fall 2008 site visits. We request two or three hours per site with the study participants to complete participant consent procedures, administer a 40-minute assessment, distribute and collect surveys from participants, and conduct some focus group interviews.
We are contacting each site for assistance with:
1. arranging security clearance for Northstar’s Cindy Borden and Penny Richardson;
2. acquiring a complete list of eligible students for Fall ‘08 semester by mid August;
3. coordinating a specific time block on the scheduled day;
4. arranging classroom/meeting space for meeting with participants;
5. arranging for participants to be present at the appointed time.
Northstar will be available at the CEA International Conference in Denver this month to answer any questions regarding the study.
A list of COA/MATC courses and registration forms is available at: http://coa.matc.edu/. Go to “Academic Programs,” then “Current Schedule.”
Fall classes begin August 25.
August 11, 2008
Today is the MATC registration deadline for Fall classes for TLN
sites. This morning’s conference call allowed an opportunity for all
TLN sites to ask last minute questions. Iowa and Oklahoma sites
participated. Betsy Rezel from MATC; Anne Charles, TLN Project
Director; Steve Steurer, CEA Executive Director; Cindy Borden and
Penny Richardson, Northstar Correctional Education Services; and
several administrators and site coordinators from Iowa and Oklahoma
participated.
MATC extended the Fall registration deadline an extra day. Some sites assigned to deliver College of the Air on the Transforming Lives Network (COA/TLN) already have strong postsecondary programs. In these sites, both programs will be provided. To ensure that the same types of students are assigned to each program, students were randomly assigned to programs using the following procedure:
- The prison provided a list of all eligible students to the research team.
- The research team randomly assigned each student to participate in one or the other program and will provide two lists to each prison.
Several TLN sites are still struggling with satellite dish installation,
but working feverishly to complete the task. Northstar is preparing
for fall site visits and is requesting assistance from all sites,
control and TLN, for security clearance. The list of materials
Northstar will be bringing is:
- Paper surveys including
- CAAP Critical Thinking exam (15-30)
- College Student Survey (15-30)
- Site Coordinator Survey (1)
- Participant Information Form (15-30)
- Facility Information Form (1)
- Case Study Data Collection Form (10)
- Mini digital voice recorder (one AA and one AAA battery)
- Small clear plastic box of test materials
- 40 golf pencils (no metal rings)
- 20 pencil-top erasers
- one small kitchen timer (including one AAA battery)
- one plastic pencil sharpener
During site visits, Northstar will also be obtaining consent signatures from students interested in participating in the study.
September 1, 2008
Dr. Stephen Meyer of RMC Research and Cindy Borden & Penny Richardson of Northstar Correctional Education Services just returned from Nevada where they began data collection last week. The team visited seven prisons where they solicited consent from students, administered CAAP Critical Thinking Skills tests, distributed and collected student surveys, interviewed site coordinators, and when possible, collected facility demographic information.
Normal prison interruptions such as pill call, commissary, and recalls occurred during visits, but the team successfully worked around them. Next week, Northstar will travel to six Iowa prisons to continue their five state data collection tour.
Dr. Meyer and Northstar would like to thank all involved parties who helped gain security clearance, provided escorts, arranged classrooms, and contributed this important project.
September 5, 2008
Northstar completed data collection at six Iowa sites this week.
RMC Research is aggregating data from last week’s seven sites in
Nevada. Next week, Northstar will travel to nine sites in Oklahoma.
Focus group discussions at case study sites are proving to be
extremely insightful. We’re anxious to see preliminary
results from fall data collection.
September 15, 2008
Northstar has returned from visiting Oklahoma’s nine sites. Data collection has been completed in three states so far this fall, Nevada, Iowa, and Oklahoma. Next week, Northstar travels to Massachusetts to collect data at eight sites.
Northstar Correctional Education Services, the Correctional Education Association, and RMC Research would like to thank all of those involved to make this data collection possible. Site coordinators have stepped in to make this study a success despite already full plates. The challenge of the study is also its strength: sites must enroll students in TLN randomly, away from existing post secondary programs, in order to isolate potential effects. We know this is difficult at the site level and we’re grateful to all states who have agreed to contribute to this important body of research.
September 29, 2008
Northstar finished final data collection for Fall ’08 last week in Massachusetts after visiting eight more prisons. Consent forms were presented and signatures collected from students and site coordinators, and CAAP (Critical Thinking Skills) assessments and surveys were administered to students. Additionally, at three case study sites in each state, Northstar led student focus group discussions and conducted site coordinator interviews. Data collection is scheduled again for Spring ’09, followed by fall and spring the next two years.
Throughout the fall data collection, participating sites endeavored to contribute as many subjects as possible, however, the numbers fell lower than anticipated overall. The research team is hopeful about adding one more state in January, which could contribute another 10-15 sites. The new state would possibly provide data collection for the January ’09 semester and Summer ’09, and then join the other states for the second year of data collection in the Fall ’09.
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