SELECT PROJECTS
Research and Development 2014: Assessment, Planning, and Analysis – U.S. Bureau of Census
As the leading source of quality data about the nation's people and economy, the Census Bureau needs to stay abreast of the latest statistical, methodological, and technological advances. Under this five-year multiple-award IDIQ contract, Avar will provide the Census Bureau with research and development support and services in six (6) sub-areas: survey planning, cost and workload modeling, survey assessment, survey management assistance, technical analyses, and technology assessment.
Technical Assistance for the Young Parents Demonstration Grant – Employment Training Administration (ETA), U.S. Department of Labor
Funded by the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Pilot, Demonstration and Research funds, the Young Parents Demonstration (YPD) program is designed to add enhancement services to existing education/training programs that target young parents or serve a broader population of youth that includes young parents. A quasi-experimental design is employed to systematically evaluate the added value of the enhancement strategies or service components. Program participants are randomly assigned to a “bump-up” experiment group in which they will receive the additional services or a “control” group in which they will receive the existing services offered by the original program. Under a contract with ETA, Avar Consulting is responsible for providing technical assistance (TA) to all the grantees to ensure that the evaluation design is rigorously implemented. Specific tasks include, but are not limited to, working and coordinating with the evaluation contractors to design and develop a structured form to collect grantee-level data; conducting in-depth follow-ups via conference calls, telephone interviews, and site visits; using data collected at the grantee level to design and develop a web-based Participant Tracking System for program participant-level data collection; conducting daily and weekly data quality control/analysis; preparing data for evaluation; and providing grantee feedback to ETA staff and the evaluation contractors. In addition, Avar also coordinates with other TA partners in planning and convening grantee meetings, workshops, and training sessions; developing and managing an on-line system to facilitate the random assignment of program participants; and providing on-site TA in addition to a toll-free help hotline.
Review of Exchange Alumni Coordination – U.S. Department of State
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) at the U.S. State Department fosters mutual understanding and respect between the United States and other countries through international educational, professional and cultural exchanges and programs. ECA exchange alumni play a key role in multiplying and sustaining exchange benefits, and fostering mutual understanding in their home countries. A growing number of U.S. Missions overseas have designated full- or part-time Alumni Coordinators to promote greater contact and cooperation among host country alumni of ECA-sponsored exchange programs. Under a contract with ECA, Avar is conducting a 12- to 18-month study to examine the functions of the designated alumni coordinators and the implementation process of the State Department’s overseas exchange alumni coordination, identify best practices, and recommend future strategies. The study will be implemented in two phases. Phase I will serve as a pilot study to conduct preliminary research on alumni programming and coordination in preparation for the main study in Phase II. An integrated systems approach will be employed to address the research questions from different perspectives of the stakeholders. Data will be collected using a variety of methods such as overseas site visits, in-depth interviews, focus groups, web-based surveys, as well as on-site observations. Avar is currently conducting two global online surveys, one of alumni coordinators at the U.S. embassies and consulates and the other of alumni leaders around world. Tasks include sampling frame construction, questionnaire development, testing, and programming; survey management, data processing, statistical analyses and report writing.
Maryland Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) Monitoring and Coordination – Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE)
The Youth Risk Behavior Survey was developed in 1990 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to monitor priority health risk behaviors such as tobacco use, unhealthy dietary behaviors, physical inactivity, alcohol and other drug use, sexual behavior/std’s/hiv/aids/unintended pregnancies and violence/injury. Maryland began participating in the YRBS in 2005. Students in grades 9-12 are surveyed in the spring of odd years. Avar is under contract with MSDE to coordinate the 2009 Maryland YRBS sampling and data collection activities, monitor its data analyses and report writing, and perform additional analyses to compare the Maryland YRBS results with those of the National YRBS.
Development of a National Online Library of Healthcare Services Datasets and Databases - Agency for Healthcare Research Quality (AHRQ)
With the increasing costs of health care, it has become more important than ever to use health services efficiently, yet care and information about care is often collected and delivered in isolation without coordination across sites or providers of care. Data collection initiatives, tools and resources need further development and coordinated standardization in order to effectively inform policymakers, clinicians and consumers what healthcare services data have been collected in the United States, by whom, and where to locate them. Funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research Quality (AHRQ), it is a project to comprehensively inventory all health care data collection initiatives (e.g., administrative datasets, survey data, distributed datasets) that can be used to inform policymakers, clinicians and consumers about health care in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, as well as other specific geographic areas of particular interest (e.g., health planning areas, multi-state regions); and to provide guidance to the AHRQ on the potential synergy across such initiatives and how the data and information that they collect and maintain might be used to inform Federal, state and local health care policymakers, clinicians and consumers. As a subcontractor with Econometrica, Inc., Avar has designed and developed an online inventory of all the relevant databases and datasets. The on-line inventory consists of a backend relational database and a front-end web portal to enable both public and security-protected online search and data access. The backend database was developed in Access and converted into Oracle. All the design and development of the database were in compliance with the regulations stipulated in Section 208 of the Privacy Provisions of the E-Government Act of 2002. All the design and development of the web portal were in compliance with the regulations stipulated in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.
U.S. Participation in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011 and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2011 – U. S. Department of Education
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education supports a variety of international activities to collect and report data on education in the United States and other countries. These include TIMSS, PIRLS, and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). TIMSS is an international assessment that focuses on the mathematics and science knowledge and skill of fourth-and eighth-graders while PIRLS is an international assessment that focuses on the reading knowledge and skills of fourth-grade students. NAEP is a U.S. national assessment that measures fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-grade students; performance in reading, mathematics, and science. All three assessments are conducted regularly to allow the monitoring of student outcomes over time. Westat, Inc. is contracted with NCES to implement the U.S. participation in TIMSS and PIRLS. As a subcontractor to Westat, Avar is responsible for conducting a comparison study of NAEP, TIMSS, and PIRLS in terms of their goals, frameworks, and cognitive items. This study will result in two working papers, one comparing TIMSS with NAEP on mathematics and science at the 4th and 8th grade levels and the other comparing PIRLS with NAEP on reading at the 4th grade level. To accomplish this task, Avar will conduct several activities, including (1) a review of the NAEP, TIMSS, and PIRLS frameworks, (2) convening a meeting of external experts to review the items in the three tests, (3) performing analyses of the reading passages in PIRLS and NAEP, and (4) providing summary statistics and analysis of the outcomes of these reviews and comparison. Avar is also responsible for producing the released item sets of TIMSS and PIRLS and disseminating them to the U.S. public via a web portal, CDs/DVDs, and print media. The items sets will be in two formats: one with each release item accompanied by its associated scoring guide and statistics on the percentage of students in the participating countries that correctly answered the item; and the other with items alone without the scoring guide and statistics.
Transfer, Host, and Manage the Web-Based Transforming Church Index (TCI) Survey – TAG Consulting
Developed by Kevin Graham Ford and funded by TAG Consulting, the TCI survey is one of the most influential congregational surveys and assessment tools in the United States and around the world. It is an on-going web-based survey for different congregations to assess their needs for improvement by collecting opinions from their members using a multi-dimensional development index. Approximately 10,000 congregational members participate in the survey every year and the survey database currently contains data from over 50,000 respondents. The instrument consists of 15 function areas which are organized under five major domains/key indicators. Survey results are automatically generated in terms of mean scores, median scores, overall composite score, standard deviations, percentages, and presented in bar graphs, stars, and arrows. Domain and composite scores of each congregation are automatically compared to those of the national norm. Data are also reported about the characteristics of the respondents, the top and bottom scores, and the overall composite scores of the various subgroups. Under a long-term contract with TAG Consulting, Avar has successfully transferred the entire web-based survey software applications, survey databases, records, and other associated software applications from TAG’s old Citrix server to Avar’s multi-platform server without interrupting the survey operation. Avar’s multi-platform server is running on the latest version of Windows 2008 64bit server edition operating system. It features a 2.6Ghz dual-core Opteron processor, with 4024MB memory, 450GB expandable storage, and directs up to 100Mb of web traffic per second. All data are backed up automatically on a daily basis and protected by Cisco external firewall solution on top of the server’s own firewall. The web server sports a dedicated SSL certificate with 256-bit encryption for conducting Internet transactions of sensitive information with confidence. We are currently hosting the TCI survey; providing survey management, IT services, and statistical support; and conducting customized survey programming, data analysis, and report writing to meet additional needs of the clients.
Data Collection Support and Analytic Report Development – Maryland Health Care Commission (MHCC)
The Maryland Health Care Commission (MHCC) is required by law to analyze and report on health care utilization and spending in Maryland. To support these activities, the MHCC has developed the Maryland Medical Care Data Base (MCDB), which contains information on health professional services and prescription drugs provided to Maryland residents. Each year, all the healthcare providers and prescription drug providers in Maryland will submit their service records to MCDB. The Social & Scientific Systems (SSS), Inc. has contracted with the MHCC to collect, process, validate, edit, analyze, and report these data on an annual basis. The annual reports include: Report on State Health Care Expenditures for Maryland residents, Report on Practitioner Payments and Utilization, and Report on prescription drug spending in the State. All reports must contain possible comparison of Maryland spending and utilization patterns and trends to those in neighboring states and the national. As a subcontractor with SSS, Avar provides SAS programming and statistical analysis support for the above tasks.
2006-2009 Annual Surveys of Refugees -- Office of Refugee Resettlement, Department of Health and Human Services
To follow up and assess the refugees' adjustment to the United States, a telephone survey of approximately 2,500 refugee households and 5,000 individuals has been conducted every year since 1990s to collect data on the status of their English proficiency, education, employment, income, self sufficiency, and use of available government programs. Some of the issues are addressed at the individual level while others at the household level. Each cohort of the sample refugees is followed up for 5 years, and each year a new cohort is added to the sample while an old cohort retires. Under a consulting agreement with DB Consulting Group, Inc., over the past four iterations since 2006, Avar has been responsible for constructing the sampling frame; editing, cleaning, validating, and weighting the survey data; performing data imputation where necessary; creating cross-sectional and longitudinal datasets; furnishing documentation for the data files; conducting both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses using univariate, bivariate, and multivariate statistical techniques; producing graphic presentations; and participating in the preparation of the final report. Data validation/processing involves logic checks to identify out-of-range values and data elements inconsistent with the design format; internal consistency tests of key measures; identification of outliers; and cross-validation of key variables with baseline data, with other similar studies, or with known population statistics (Census, etc.).
Evaluation of the “Communities Choosing” Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program – Administration for Children and Families (ACF)
Funded by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), this is a multi-year program implemented in the San Francisco middle schools. The multi-year evaluation was conducted by the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. Avar was contracted with UC Berkeley to perform statistical analysis of the pre- and post intervention survey data and prepare the quantitative analysis report.
Evaluation of the Effect of Increased State Aid to Local School Systems through the Bridge To Excellence Act -- Maryland State Department of Education
Under the Bridge To Excellence Act in 2003-04, each local school system in Maryland developed and started implementing a five-year comprehensive Master Plan outlining the goals, objectives, and strategies for improving student achievement and meeting Maryland’s performance standards. The State funding for education was increased to finance the initiative. The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) awarded a contract to MGT of America, along with REDA International Inc., to conduct a comprehensive review and evaluation of the effect of increased state aid to local school systems on student, school, and school system performance. Under a consulting agreement with the MGT/REDA team, Avar was responsible for editing and weighting survey data collected from the school principals and Master Plan committee members, performing statistical analyses to address the relevant evaluation questions, and assisting in the preparation of the survey report.
Under the No Child Left Behind legislation, the U.S. Department of Education contracted with the American Institutes for Research (AIR), along with MDRC, Sopris West and REDA International, to conduct a five-year quasi-experimental study to assess the impact of professional development on reading instruction and student achievement. The study is focused on second grade teachers who are already using popular scientifically based reading programs: Open Court Reading or Houghton-Mifflin’s Nation’s Choice or Legacy of Literacy. Under a consulting agreement with the AIR/REDA team, Avar participated in classroom observations to identify the difference in teaching instructions between teachers in the experimental and control groups as well their behavioral change over time.
Study of Rural Egypt 2005 -- Chemonics International
Sponsored by the Chenomics International and the University of Utah, it was part of a 4-decade longitudinal study of the social, economic, and political changes in rural Egypt. Five surveys were conducted respectively of Egyptian rural households, farmers, women, village council members, and district agencies. Under a consulting agreement with REDA International, Avar was responsible for data cleaning, data management, data analysis, and consultation in statistical modeling and interpreting the analysis results. Data management techniques included merging and transposing datasets, computing and recoding variables, creating scales, and integrating multi-level data into an analysis database. Statistical techniques included frequency analysis, mean comparison, cross-tabulation, scaling, factor analysis, regression, and multi-level analysis.
Web-Based Database and Data Collection for the Mulan Foundation
The Mulan Foundation is a non-profit performing art organization devoted to promoting the Sino-US cultural exchange in Chinese and Western classic music. Avar Consulting’s IT specialists developed the foundation’s online data management and collection mechanism to collect customer contact information and conduct financial data transaction. An online customer survey was also conducted by the Avar team to collect data for the foundation on market needs and customer satisfaction. Using Access in the Microsoft Windows environment, data collected via the website were stored automatically into an Access database on a secured server and retrieved to produce customized summary reports as needed.
Server Hosting and Management
TAG is an organizational consulting firm based in Virginia. It uses a multi-functional virtual desktop to connect all its partners, staff, and consultants across the country via internet. This virtual desktop also supports PDA accessible corporate e-mails, three (3) online surveys, and several online data analysis and reporting tools. Avar is hosing this entire virtual desktop on our multi-platform server which is running on the latest version of Windows 2008 64bit server edition operating system. It features a 2.6Ghz dual-core Opteron processor, with 4024MB memory, 450GB expandable storage, and directs up to 100Mb of web traffic per second. All data are backed up automatically on a daily basis and protected by Cisco external firewall solution on top of the server’s own firewall. The web server sports a dedicated SSL certificate with 256-bit encryption for conducting Internet transactions of sensitive information with confidence. and Avar is responsible for providing hosting, maintenance, and technical support services for all its functions.