While I am no longer directly involved in performing tasks as a program evaluator, I keep in close contact with leadership in both the state agency and the state rehabilitation council (SRC).  I feel strongly that the partnership between the state VR program and the local SRC office should be one that is collaborative and facilitates learning, and one that serves toward the goals of improving VR performance and organizational effectiveness.

1) What thoughts do you have about the partnership between these two entities?

2) How can we foster a more collaborative relationship whereby we extend beyond participation in the development of the statewide needs assessment, customer satisfaction surveys, and State Plan development?

3) What other ways do you network with your SRC members?

If you have comments or questions and do not wish to post to the blog, please feel free to contact me:

Darlene Groomes

Associate Professor, School of Education and Human Services, Oakland University

By email: groomes@oakland.edu 

By telephone:  248-370-4237

March 4, 2013 groomes RPEN Comments Off on March 2013 Program Evaluator’s Moment

Webinar: New research tools for exploring disability, rehabilitation-related national-survey and administrative claims data 

When: February 20, 2013 2:00 -3:00 pm (EST)

Population-based data sources such as national surveys and administrative claims data are valuable resources for testing hypotheses and generating national-level estimates about disability and rehabilitation related-issues. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to identify what datasets are available and further what data are most appropriate for addressing a specific research interest.

This presentation will introduce two new innovative web-based free resources designed to help researchers learn:

• ·           What datasets related to disability and rehabilitation are out there?
• ·           What topics are covered in each dataset?
• ·           What are the dataset strengths and limitations?
• ·           How do I access the datasets?

Presenters:

William Erickson and Arun Karpur

Employment & Disability Institute

Cornell University

The Rehabilitation Dataset Directory is a browse-able/searchable database providing an overview, description, sample and other pertinent information for over 30 datasets. The Rehabilitation Research Cross-dataset Variable Catalogallows the exploration of variables organized by topics (including disability and health conditions, healthcare, health behaviors and more) simultaneously across 6 major datasets.

To register for this free webinar, please go to: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/edi/register/index.cfm?event=4211

The tools were developed by the Employment and Disability Institute (EDI) at Cornell University in collaboration with the Center for Rehabilitation Research using Large Datasets (CRRLD ) at University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB). This work was funded by a sub-contract to EDI through funding from the CRRLD.

The Center for Rehabilitation Research using Large Datasets (CRRLD) is funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and is part of the Medical Rehabilitation Infrastructure Network (Grant # R24 HD065702).

February 8, 2013 mtshoe RPEN Comments Off on A Future Webinar

To all RPEN members,

Last week I had a unique experience. A District Director (Regional Manager) in my agency contacted me and asked what the

agency’s customer satisfaction survey reveals about how they are doing in their district and for what I saw in the data that

would suggest a direction for program improvement. I wish I could say that such a dialogue was commonplace. The reality

is that it is the first time since I started my position five and a half years ago that a District Director got curious about

outcomes from the agency’s customer satisfaction survey and communicated it.

Your experience may be different where you work. Regardless, what can we do to foster curiosity about data and what

can it  mean to Vocational Rehabilitation if it is used effectively?

Michael Shoemaker, M.A., CRC, LVRC, CPM

Utah State Office of Rehabilitation 

Program Planning and Evaluation Specialist

February 8, 2013 mtshoe RPEN Comments Off on February Program Evaluator’s Moment

In Utilization-Focused Evaluation, Dr. Michael Quinn explains, “In the simplest terms, evaluations are said to answer three questions: What? So What? Now What?”

Similarly, state Vocational Rehabilitation Programs have a need to answer these questions as they participate in program evaluation.

Today let’s look at the first question: What?

The Utah State Office of Rehabilitation has decided to measure or monitor in four major areas: Customer Service, Staff Professional Development, Financial and Policy and Procedure. You can view the diagram on page 5 that defines activities around each of these four areas at http://media.ncrtm.org/presentations/QA/UTmanual.pdf

What does your organization measure or monitor to move towards continuous quality improvement?

Michael Shoemaker, M.A., CRC, LVRC, CPM

Utah State Office of Rehabilitation

mtshoemaker@utah.gov

January 2, 2013 mtshoe RPEN Comments Off on The Program Evaluator’s Moment