As provided by Section 776 of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020 (P.L. 116–94), the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) contracted with Insight to update our 2010 report, Implementing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in Puerto Rico: A Feasibility Study. Insight also developed a detailed implementation plan with specific steps and estimated timelines and costs for converting Puerto Rico’s Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP) to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
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The Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP) currently maintains four food plans that represent a nutritious diet for home consumption at different cost levels: Thrifty, Low Cost, Moderate Cost, and Liberal. The Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) serves as the “national standard for a nutritious diet at a minimal cost” and is used as the basis for the maximum Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) allotment.
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The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 required the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to conduct a demonstration to add Medicaid to the list of programs used to directly certify students for free school meals. Using Medicaid data presented the opportunity to enroll additional students in free school meals and potentially reduce burden on school food authority staff by reducing the number of paper applications received and the number of applications requiring verification.
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WIC Participant and Program Characteristics (PC) 2022 continues the compilation of WIC PC data that began in 1984 and became biennial starting in 1988, making these the latest such reports to help the Food and Nutrition Service address the need for program information on WIC. These reports are based on a complete census of all individuals certified to participate in WIC during April of the reference year. The reports address the topics of demographic, income, and nutritional risk characteristics of WIC participants; anthropometric and hematological data; national estimates of breastfeeding initiation and duration for infants; and food package data.
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In early 2021, FNS published a final rule titled, Employment and Training Opportunities in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. This rule required SNAP state agencies to provide a written notice to SNAP recipients describing all applicable work requirements for individuals residing in the household. States needed to begin meeting this notice requirement by October 1, 2021. SNAP notices are a critical aspect of administering SNAP. They are the primary source of communication with SNAP households, so lack of clarity in them can lead to problems for SNAP agencies and those applying for SNAP, including delayed application or benefit receipt processes and/or noncompliance and errors. The purpose of this work was to develop a Model Consolidated Work Notice that was useful to states in drafting their work notices and helpful to SNAP households as they attempt to comply with the work requirements.
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The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is our nation’s most powerful tool to combat hunger and ensure all Americans have access to healthy, affordable groceries. Eligibility for SNAP is determined through a complex set of eligibility policies—policies that can vary by state and by household circumstances. Given this complexity, a rigorous quality control (QC) system is necessary to ensure benefits are issued to those who meet the eligibility criteria and the amounts are correctly calculated.
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This study supports the Food and Nutrition Service’s efforts to measure program performance for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); understand the program’s reach; and identify potential unmet nutrition assistance needs, particularly at the state level and participant subgroup level. For this work, Insight team members explored options for enhancing the underlying methodologies used to estimate the number of women, infants, and children eligible for WIC benefits and the percentage of the eligible population covered by the program.
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The goal of the WIC Breastfeeding Policy Inventory II (WIC BPI-II) is to identify and describe state and local breastfeeding statistics, policies, procedures, and best practices to improve breastfeeding initiation and duration rates. It will also examine how policies and practices address inequities in the availability and delivery of WIC breastfeeding support. The work will build on the first WIC BPI-I study, published in 2015.
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State agencies that manage the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are required to operate a SNAP Employment and Training (E&T) program to help participants gain skills, education, training, work, and experience that lead to good, stable jobs and support local workforce needs. In 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture launched its SNAP to Skills Project to provide technical assistance to dozens of states, bringing new tools and resources to help them build highly effective employer-driven SNAP E&T programs. For this project, Insight will provide technical assistance to states to support them in their efforts to improve and expand their SNAP E&T programs.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service’s (FNS) mission is to increase food security and reduce hunger by providing children and households with low incomes access to food, a healthful diet, and nutrition education in a way that supports American agriculture and inspires public confidence. SNAP is administered at the federal level and implemented by state agencies at a local level. As part of this work, state agencies are required to develop plans and establish and collect on claims (e.g., an amount owed as a result of benefits being overpaid or trafficked). The purpose of this project is to apply a racial equity lens to assess how states make subjective claims decisions and the effects of these decisions in states with this flexibility.
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State agencies implementing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on behalf of the Federal Government are responsible for ensuring taxpayer dollars are used appropriately. When state agencies fail to meet minimum standards for payment error rates (PERs), case and procedural error rate (CAPER), and Quality Control (QC) caseload completion, states must engage in corrective action planning to identify the root causes of the errors and develop and implement a remediation plan. The U.S. Department of Agriculture requires rigorous approaches to corrective action planning, yet state agencies have had varying success in effectively developing and implementing them. This study seeks to identify best practices in corrective action plan (CAP) development and implementation and explore how state agencies develop and implement CAPs, including the barriers they face.
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This project supports Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) National Office and Regional Office staff in their efforts to help Puerto Rico consider a transition from the Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP) to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
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USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is committed to ensuring Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits reach eligible people in need, taxpayer dollars are spent prudently, and program integrity is maintained at the highest levels. In recent years, FNS has expanded efforts to review and update policy and program review. To strengthen these efforts, Insight provided expert policy support, technical assistance, and subject expertise in program evaluation and performance for SNAP in a wide variety of areas.
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Prior to launching the 3-year, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Process Improvement Learning Collaborative, Insight supported FNS in identifying state and local agencies to participate in this collaborative approach to business process and performance training and technical assistance. The selected state SNAP agencies learned how to improve everyday processes, such as SNAP application processing and eligibility determinations, through a dynamic and interactive engagement among leaders in process improvement methods and subject matter experts in SNAP policy and operations.
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Insight supported implementation of the 2021 Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (D-SNAP) Training Conference for USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). D-SNAP provides emergency nutrition assistance to people in the aftermath of a major disaster. FNS prepared the 2021 D-SNAP Training Conference to support state agencies at this critical time.
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Since 1992, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) has helped low-income children and adults lead healthier lives through evidence-based programs. Although positive outcomes linked to SNAP-Ed interventions have been documented, the program lacks the data to tell the SNAP-Ed story at a national level. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has long recognized the need for better SNAP-Ed data. Expert roundtables, federal audits (U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2019), and the 2018 Farm Bill (Pub. L. 115–334) have stressed the importance of modernizing data from the states to analyze the outcomes and effects of SNAP-Ed. FNS made substantial progress toward this goal through our recent collaboration, Updating SNAP-Ed Data Collection Practices, where we produced an agenda and action plan for improved SNAP-Ed data. With this project, Insight will help FNS build on this prior work.
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The goals of this project are to collect State Plan information for all 89 WIC state agencies; build a user-friendly, searchable Microsoft Access database; review, synthesize, and summarize the WIC State Plan policies in each of the 11 areas; and analyze variation in the policy implementation in a national profile report.
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Insight provided training and technical assistance to the Food and Nutrition Service headquarters and Regional Office staff in process improvement techniques, including Lean Six Sigma, Lean, and business process reengineering. The overall goal of this training was to teach FNS staff how to provide industry-standard best practice technical assistance and training to state and local SNAP agencies.
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The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) plays a vital role in providing supplemental nutrition assistance in the wake of a disaster. As part of this response, FNS administers the Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (D-SNAP), which provides short-term food assistance benefits to households affected by a disaster. In recent years, as weather-related disasters in the United States have become more frequent, the number of States providing D-SNAP benefits each year has increased. The primary purpose of this study is to identify and document best practices in D-SNAP planning and operations from across the country and for a variety of disaster types.
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Passed in March 2020 and amended by the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021, and Other Extensions Act (P.L. 116–159), the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) allowed the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to grant two types of waivers to Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) state agencies. First, FNS was authorized to grant waivers to state agencies to conduct certification and recertification appointments without the need for participants to be physically present at a WIC clinic and to defer the anthropometric (e.g., height, weight) and blood work requirements necessary to determine nutritional risk (called physical presence waiver). Second, FNS was authorized to grant a wide variety of other programmatic waivers, including vendor compliance requirements waivers and food package substitution requirements waivers. The primary purpose of this study is to report on the use and impact of WIC programmatic waivers granted to state agencies as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP) currently maintains four food plans that represent a nutritious diet for home consumption at different cost levels: Thrifty, Low Cost, Moderate Cost, and Liberal. The Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) serves as the “national standard for a nutritious diet at a minimal cost” and is used as the basis for the maximum Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) allotment. In 2020, CNPP received a Congressional Directive to examine the cost of a TFP in Puerto Rico.
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The goal of this study is to better understand how participants use various communication channels, such as smartphones, social media, internet, and other communication technologies, that can enhance SNAP communication and education activities. This study highlights best practices and lessons learned from various mobile communications strategies (MCS) operating in state SNAP agencies. The results are designed to help FNS and states improve communication and program outcomes.
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Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) is the nutritional compass for the country’s largest food assistance program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). SNAP provides more than 40 million people with low incomes with more than $60 billion in supplemental benefits to purchase groceries each month. SNAP-Ed is essentially a grant program that funds projects in all U.S. states and territories; these projects encompass nutrition education; social marketing; and policy, systems, and environmental change. In response to the 2018 Farm Bill’s push for improved data on the outcomes and impacts of SNAP-Ed, this study examined the Food and Nutrition Service’s data collection processes and tools.
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Insight is building on the successes of the SNAP Certification Notices Technical Assistance for the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) Mountain Plains Region project by facilitating another 10-state collaborative; providing training on policy, communications, and improvement methods; and developing additional technical assistance tools for use nationwide.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) operates several child nutrition programs that provide nutritious breakfasts, lunches, and snacks to children during both the school year and summer months. This 5-month project will build a series of dashboards for FNS and state agencies to analyze trends and patterns in child nutrition program data. The dashboards will provide a user-friendly and accessible platform for FNS and state agencies to explore data on child nutrition programs at the national, state, and school food authority levels. Insight will develop a series of static wireframes and interactive prototypes to share with stakeholders throughout the project to seek rapid feedback and revise the dashboard design.
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In October 2017, in response to Hurricanes Irma and Maria, Congress appropriated $1.27 billion in disaster relief funds to expand eligibility for Puerto Rico ’s Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP) and increase benefit amounts for current and new participants. Following the distribution of those funds, Congress mandated that the Secretary of Agriculture conduct an independent study to assess the effects of the additional funding on NAP recipients and compare their level of food security, health status, and well-being with NAP-eligible residents who did not receive such benefits. The primary objective of this project is to collect representative survey data on household food security in Puerto Rico.
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Over the past 5 years, Insight has developed estimates of WIC eligibility for FNS. In this process, Insight identified several needed enhancements to the WIC eligibility methodology to improve the accuracy of the estimates and make them more transparent and replicable.
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For the U.S Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, Insight provided expert technical assistance to selected state agencies administering the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to improve their internal business processes and performance. As part of this work, a SNAP learning collaborative was formed to promote and support dynamic and interactive engagement among state and county agencies.
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Participants in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) may purchase fruits and vegetables using a cash-value benefit, or CVB. For this project, Insight is conducting 144 semistructured interviews with WIC participants and 4 semistructured interviews with state agency staff in 4 states to identify factors that influence households’ decisions about fruit and vegetable purchases using CVBs.
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In fiscal year 2014, the total federal expenditure for WIC was $6.4 billion. Of that amount, $4.3 billion was for food costs. Other costs were related to program administration and evaluation, the Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program, special projects, and infrastructure. Although the state agencies provide monthly data on total food costs, participant food costs, and total rebates received, the information is reported in aggregate. This study sought to supplement administrative data by estimating average per-participant food package costs by participant category and food package type and total food costs by WIC-eligible food category.
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As part of the certification process for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), WIC staff conduct a comprehensive nutrition assessment of applicants. This nutrition assessment has two purposes: enable WIC staff to (1) determine whether the applicant meets the nutritional risk eligibility requirement, and (2) tailor WIC benefits (supplemental foods, nutrition education, and referrals to other service providers) to meet the needs of the participant. The purpose of this study is to provide the Food and Nutrition Service with a comprehensive, detailed description of the WIC nutrition risk assessment process and identify ways participant benefits are tailored to address the assessment results.
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The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) provides free meals and snacks in congregate settings to children in areas with high concentrations of low-income households, primarily in the summer months from May to September. FNS conducted the Summer Food Service Program Integrity Study to investigate how state agencies and SFSP sponsors and sites administer and provide effective oversight and identify common SFSP integrity challenges and best practices.
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Insight provided technical assistance to the New Mexico Human Services Department Income Support Division to review their SNAP certification documents and notices for compliance with federal program requirements and provide recommendations for notice improvement.
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Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) certification notices are central to a client’s ability to obtain and maintain SNAP benefits. These notices must give clients enough information to understand the reasons for the state agency’s actions and should be written in easily understandable language. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) contracted with Insight to provide technical assistance and training to 10 states in FNS’s Mountain Plains Region. FNS’s overarching goal is to help these states draft, review, and continuously improve their notices, while creating models for all SNAP state agencies.
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The Food Security Act of 1985 established the SNAP E&T (employment and training) Program to help recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) gain the “skills, training, or experience that will increase their ability to obtain regular employment.” While all states must operate a SNAP E&T program, they have flexibility in designing their programs, including whether to make them mandatory or voluntary, what E&T components or activities to include, and what populations and locations to target.
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This study assessed the feasibility of revising the quality control (QC) system for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) from the current two-tier process to a one-tier federal system. The study identified all processes and components required for a one-tier process, including the procedural, staffing, and organizational changes; the technological infrastructure requirements; access to state and federal databases that would be required; the data-sharing agreements that would be needed; the costs and timeline of such a change; and other alternatives to the current QC process.
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The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP) provide nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free meals to children. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 resulted in the implementation of new nutrition standards for these school-based meals programs that improved the critical nutrition and hunger safety net for millions of children. The Food and Nutrition Service is undertaking the School Nutrition and Meal Cost Study-II (SNMC-II), a nationwide review of school meal programs, to obtain critical information on how school food authorities are implementing these reforms to meet program goals. SNMCS-II is the second study of its kind to examine school meal programs and their outcomes and costs on a representative national scale.
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This 5-year project provides FNS with specialized microsimulation and related analysis to estimate the impact of proposed changes to SNAP policy, updates and improves microsimulation models and their databases, as well as detailed legislative and policy research to inform FNS’s policy decisions affecting SNAP.
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The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the largest program in the domestic nutrition assistance safety net. Nearly all households receive benefits through an electronic benefit transfer, facilitating examination of the patterns of SNAP benefit redemption, particularly related to the timing and amount of transactions and the rate at which households exhaust their benefits. This study focused on redemption patterns in fiscal year (FY) 2017, made comparisons with findings from two similar studies conducted for FY 2003 and FY 2009, and used descriptive and regression analysis to identify spending behaviors identified as atypical.
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The Food and Nutrition Service’s nutrition assistance programs seek to increase food security and reduce hunger and obesity through access to affordable healthy food and nutrition education. This study is the fourth in a series to examine the relationship between diet quality and participation in three such programs: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); and the National School Lunch Program (NSLP).
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The Food Security Act of 1985 established the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) employment and training (E&T) program to help SNAP recipients gain the skills, training, and experience needed to achieve economic self-sufficiency. Although all states must operate a SNAP E&T program, they have flexibility in its design. For example, states may choose one or more of several SNAP E&T components, such as job search, on-the-job training, workfare, or vocational training, to offer to SNAP E&T participants. This study informs the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) about the types of job search activities offered through SNAP E&T programs and their effectiveness in moving participants toward employment.
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The state agencies that administer the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) are responsible for all aspects of vendor management, including identifying, investigating, and sanctioning vendors that violate regulations. This study aimed to identify empirical measures that could indicate which authorized retail vendors are most likely to commit program violations and provide resources state agencies might use to identify such vendors through analysis of their own electronic benefit transfer (EBT) data.
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Federal legislation in 2004 and 2010 amended the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act, which originated in 1946 to provide low-cost or free lunches to qualified students. With the amendments, state agencies are required to conduct additional reviews of local education agencies (LEAs) that administer the program, provide oversight and training of LEAs, and implement a more robust and unified system for accountability. As part of the 2010 legislation, via the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) established the Administrative Review—or AR—which mandated several changes to LEA reviews.
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The purpose of this study was to identify the individual, household, and environmental barriers that limit SNAP participants’ access to a healthy diet throughout the month and examine how these barriers vary by household demographics, economic characteristics, and geography. The study was the result of recommendations of an expert committee convened by the Institute of Medicine (IOM, now the National Academy of Medicine) to examine the feasibility of objectively defining the adequacy of SNAP allotments.
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The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) serves 8 million monthly participants at more than 48,000 approved vendors. As an analysis tool, WIC’s The Integrity Profile, known as TIP, provides a means for FNS, state agencies, and Indian tribal organizations to upload annual reports summarizing monitoring of vendor management and related activities. The National Information Technology Center hosts the WIC TIP environments. To implement change requests to the system, the Office of Information Technology requires a hybrid development approach related to both waterfall and agile scrum methodologies.
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This project assesses the technical requirements, user needs, potential barriers, and costs related to establishing a nationwide WIC EBT issuance and transaction data resource, which would give FNS access to EBT data for analysis and reporting. The study also examines the potential strengths and weaknesses of such a resource, including the impacts on state agencies and EBT processors, the costs of gathering the data, and the potential of research to inform program operations.
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This 5-year contract is designed to help the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) measure program performance of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). FNS uses participation statistics for general reporting and budgeting, tracking program performance, and other purposes. However, participation counts alone do not facilitate a complete assessment of program performance. As a result, FNS estimates how many individuals are eligible for program benefits to better understand the program’s reach and unmet nutrition assistance needs, particularly at state and participant levels. Over the past 5 years, Insight has developed estimates of WIC eligibility for FNS.
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Under the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 and the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act, the Food and Nutrition Service conducted a series of demonstration projects to evaluate the use of Medicaid data to identify students eligible to receive free or reduced-price meals through the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program. Seven states participated in school year 2016–2017 demonstrations and eight more States joined the demonstration in school year 2017–2018. The demonstrations were designed to expand student access to school meals, reduce administrative burden on districts and schools, and improve certification accuracy.
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The annual Child Nutrition Access and Accountability Through Technology (known as CNAAT) National Training Conference provides a forum for attendees to learn new skills, share successful practices, and collaborate on important issues that shape child nutrition technologies. Insight provided technical assistance to FNS and the Child Nutrition State Systems Workgroup as a subcontractor to PSA.
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The goal of this 6-year contract is to collect and compile data on participant and program characteristics to support the management, evaluation, and improvement of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). WIC provides supplemental nutritious foods, nutrition education, and breastfeeding promotion and support, as well as referrals to other services for low-income, nutritionally at-risk pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women; infants up to age 1; and children up to age 5.
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The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) relies on microsimulation models and their databases to estimate the effects of changes in SNAP policies on program eligibility, participation, and benefit amounts to support FNS policy decisions. This study provides FNS with microsimulation and related analysis to estimate the effects of proposed changes to SNAP policy, update and improve microsimulation models and their databases, and conduct research to inform FNS policy decisions affecting SNAP.
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The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides supplemental foods to low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women; infants; and children younger than 5 at nutritional risk. WIC state agencies (SAs) prescribe one of seven food packages—specifying which foods are authorized for purchase through the program—for each WIC participant.
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The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides supplemental foods for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women; infants up to age 1; and children up to age 5. Each participant is prescribed one of seven WIC food packages—specifying which foods are authorized for purchase through the program. The food packages were updated with the implementation of the Interim Food Package Rule in 2009 and again with the implementation of the Final Food Package Rule in 2014.
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The goal of this study was to determine whether and how the use of community-based organizations (CBOs) to conduct Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) applicant interviews affects program performance and outcomes.
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The purpose of this 3-year project was to examine the characteristics, circumstances, and spending patterns of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) households with zero income. The percentage of zero-income households has been steadily increasing, starting long before the economic downturn of 2008 and 2009. Generally, the SNAP caseload closely follows the national unemployment rate, but the relationship was less clear for zero-income households.
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This study assessed the feasibility of providing nutritional assistance to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) instead of through its Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP), funded by an annual block grant since 1982.
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A central component of the Food and Nutrition Service’s (FNS) program integrity efforts, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Quality Control (QC) system tracks and measures errors in eligibility and benefit determination for the program. States must conduct monthly QC reviews of households participating in SNAP (known as active SNAP cases) to assess the validity of SNAP cases, and ultimately, the SNAP payment error rate.
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This study evaluated a series of demonstrations underway in the United States that aimed to streamline the certification process for participation in the Food and Nutrition Service’s school nutrition programs.
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The 2014 Farm Bill authorized grants for up to 10 pilot sites to develop and test innovative employment and training (E&T) strategies designed to raise employment, increase earnings, and reduce reliance on public assistance. This study involves a rigorous evaluation of the 10 pilot projects to measure their impact on (1) helping participants find and retain employment, (2) increasing household income, (3) reducing reliance on public assistance, and (4) improving other measures of household well-being.
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This project evaluated four statewide, multiyear demonstrations to test new innovative strategies to increase participation in the Food and Nutrition Service’s (FNS) Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). The enhancements offered four distinct alternatives: (1) incentives to extend the duration of program operations, (2) funding for educational or recreational activities at summer sites, (3) noncongregate meal delivery in rural areas, and (4) backpack food packages for weekend and holiday use.
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Puerto Rico operates the Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP) under a block grant, issuing 25 percent of monthly benefits in the form of cash and the remaining noncash portion through electronic benefit transfer (EBT). Insight conducted a congressionally mandated study to assess the effects of discontinuing the cash portion of the NAP benefit, supporting the four main components of the study.
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This study identified and evaluated various data sources and geographic information system (GIS) tools that could be used to identify Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participant households who reside in food deserts. Food deserts are geographic areas where access to affordable, healthy food choices is restricted or nonexistent. Such access often is compromised in low-income areas where corner stores, convenience stores, and fast-food restaurants may outnumber or take the place of supermarkets and other food retailers that offer a variety of healthy foods. The findings from this study helped the Food and Nutrition Service determine whether additional GIS tools could help them improve access to a variety of high-quality, affordable food retailers among SNAP participant households.
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Trafficking is the exchange of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for cash instead of food. The practice is illegal and diverts resources from achieving the goal of the program, which is to improve the nutritional status of needy individuals. The trafficking of program benefits has been a longstanding concern. Insight conducted this study for the Food and Nutrition Service to determine the feasibility of using a national probability sample of SNAP-authorized retailers to calculate trafficking estimates and produce retailer trafficking estimates by store type.
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This study assessed the feasibility and effects of providing nutrition assistance to Puerto Rico under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) instead of through Puerto Rico’s Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP), which has been funded by an annual block grant for the past two decades.
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This project assessed underreporting of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation in four national surveys—the Current Population Survey (CPS), the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and the American Community Survey—to identify potential remedies for the problem.
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The Food Security Act of 1985 established the SNAP Employment and Training (E&T) Program to help recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) gain the “skills, training, or experience that will increase their ability to obtain regular employment.” This study was designed to gain a better understanding of the SNAP E&T program, including SNAP work registrants, SNAP E&T participants, and SNAP E&T service providers. The study included both a nationally representative survey of SNAP work registrants and SNAP E&T participants and qualitative research with SNAP E&T participants and SNAP E&T service providers across the United States.
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The trafficking of program benefits has been a longstanding concern in the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Trafficking, the exchange of SNAP benefits for cash rather than for food, is not only illegal, but also diverts resources from achieving the goal of the program, which is to impact the nutritional status of needy individuals. This study produced updated estimates using the extant statistical raking methodology; it also developed recommendations for new and improved methodologies to produce national and subnational estimates of SNAP trafficking.
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The purpose of this 4-year contract is to collect and compile data on participant and program characteristics to support the management, evaluation, and improvement of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
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The Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP) currently maintains four food plans that represent a nutritious diet for home consumption at different cost levels: Thrifty, Low Cost, Moderate Cost, and Liberal. The Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) serves as the “national standard for a nutritious diet at a minimal cost” and is used as the basis for the maximum Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) allotment. In 2020, CNPP received a Congressional Directive to examine the cost of a TFP in Puerto Rico.
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Insight provided training and technical assistance to the Food and Nutrition Service headquarters and Regional Office staff in process improvement techniques, including Lean Six Sigma, Lean, and business process reengineering. The overall goal of this training was to teach FNS staff how to provide industry-standard best practice technical assistance and training to state and local SNAP agencies.
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Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) is the nutritional compass for the country’s largest food assistance program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). SNAP provides more than 40 million people with low incomes with more than $60 billion in supplemental benefits to purchase groceries each month. SNAP-Ed is essentially a grant program that funds projects in all U.S. states and territories; these projects encompass nutrition education; social marketing; and policy, systems, and environmental change. In response to the 2018 Farm Bill’s push for improved data on the outcomes and impacts of SNAP-Ed, this study examined the Food and Nutrition Service’s data collection processes and tools.
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Insight is building on the successes of the SNAP Certification Notices Technical Assistance for the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) Mountain Plains Region project by facilitating another 10-state collaborative; providing training on policy, communications, and improvement methods; and developing additional technical assistance tools for use nationwide.
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For the U.S Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, Insight provided expert technical assistance to selected state agencies administering the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to improve their internal business processes and performance. As part of this work, a SNAP learning collaborative was formed to promote and support dynamic and interactive engagement among state and county agencies.
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The Census Bureau conducts the American Housing Survey (AHS) for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) every 2 years to measure specific characteristics of the housing stock of the United States. The survey was first conducted in 1973. With the inclusion of both a national sample and a metropolitan sample, policymakers and analysts use the data to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of federal housing programs that target various population groups.
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Education operates a $5M scholarship program that funds direct NOAA involvement through internships and partial tuition payments to students. Two programs support these scholarships: the Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship Program (HUSP) and the Educational Partnership Program (EPP). The overall goal of the programs is to train students, especially those from underrepresented minority communities, in NOAA mission fields.
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The Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO) is responsible for all prevention, advocacy, response, and oversight activities related to sexual assault within the Department of Defense (DoD). SAPRO’s mission is to promote military readiness by reducing and eliminating sexual assault through the execution of policy, programs, and oversight across DoD to prevent sexual assault and facilitate recovery for survivors. Each year SAPRO produces two congressionally mandated reports—the Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military and the Annual Report on Sexual Harassment and Violence at the Military Service Academies.
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The Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS) provides advice and recommendations on matters and policies relating to the recruitment and retention, treatment, employment, integration, and well-being of women in the Armed Forces. To prepare the annual report, DACOWITS gathers diverse information through literature reviews, briefings with military representatives and subject matter experts, and data collected from interactions with Service members, including approximately 60 focus groups per year.
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The Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS) provides advice and recommendations on matters and policies relating to the recruitment and retention, treatment, employment, integration, and well-being of women in the Armed Forces. Under this contract, Insight provides research support to DACOWITS members and staff, with the goal of preparing and submitting the DACOWITS annual report.
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Insight provided research support to the Recovering Warrior Task Force (RWTF) to prepare its final annual report. Charged with assessing the effectiveness of programs and policies across the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) that support the care of recovering Service members, RWTF examines more than a dozen specific topics each year.
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The Regional Educational Laboratory–West (REL-West) serves state and local education agencies in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah. REL-West provides research, analytic support, and tools to increase policymakers’ and practitioners’ use of high-quality data and evidence in education decisionmaking. Insight supports projects for REL-West related to educator recruitment and retention, rural education, postsecondary readiness and success, learning loss and acceleration after the COVID-19 pandemic, general school improvement issues, and college and career pathways and postsecondary issues.
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Insight is providing the Department of Education’s (ED) Office of the Chief Data Officer (OCDO) with analytic and evaluation support services under the Data Analysis and Quality Assurance Support II task order. OCDO’s mission is to enhance ED’s ability to use data as a strategic asset.
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The Promise Neighborhoods program seeks to improve the educational and developmental outcomes of children and youth in these communities. Partnering with strong organizations, the program seeks to ensure all children and youth in a Promise Neighborhood have access to programs, services, and supports that help them succeed in school and beyond. Insight is delivering training and technical assistance to the Promise Neighborhoods grantees, aspiring grantees, and the U.S. Department of Education.
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The Region 5 Appalachia Regional Comprehensive Center is 1 of 19 centers making up the Comprehensive Center Network funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Program and Grantee Support Services. The purpose of the center is to provide state, regional, and local education agencies and schools with intensive technical assistance (TA) to improve educational outcomes for all students, close achievement gaps, and improve the quality of instruction. Insight is conducting an evaluation of the TA services provided to stakeholders in state educational agencies, local education agencies, and schools in states within the Appalachian region (Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia) according to the state priorities and needs.
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Insight manages the National Students Attendance, Engagement, and Success Center on behalf of the Department of Education’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. The center’s goal is to build state, district, and school capacity to improve student engagement and reduce chronic absenteeism. The center’s work is national in scope, with 36 states and the District of Columbia using chronic absenteeism as a metric in their accountability plans related to the Every Student Succeeds Act.
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Insight supports a pilot of the International Early Learning Study (IELS) on behalf of the National Center for Education Statistics in the U.S. Department of Education. Developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, IELS is designed to help countries improve children’s early learning experiences and better support their development and overall well-being. The U.S. pilot is being administered to roughly 450 five-year-olds at 30 schools and provides U.S. educators, policymakers, and parents the opportunity to better understand the skills and competencies of U.S. children at the beginning of primary school and how they compare with those of 5-year-olds in other countries.
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As a part of the Educational Technical Assistance and Support Services (EDTASS) BPA, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) contracted with Insight to provide technical assistance to program officers in the Higher Education Programs (HEP).
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On behalf of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) at the U.S. Department of Education, Insight is analyzing and reporting research data related to postsecondary education in the United States. These reports are designed to address a variety of topics, including costs associated with postsecondary education that are of interest to federal and state policymakers because of concerns about the affordability and accessibility of college, particularly given that individuals with at least some college often show improved economic outcomes (e.g., higher employment rates, higher earnings) compared to individuals with a high school diploma or equivalent.
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On behalf of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) at the U.S. Department of Education, Insight is updating publications regarding secondary and postsecondary career and technical education (CTE) across the United States. NCES routinely collects and publishes data on secondary and postsecondary CTE through several nationally representative surveys, which together provide unique and important opportunities to learn about the delivery and access of CTE and its effect on youth and adult learners in the United States. To better reflect the current economic conditions and recent policy changes, particularly those related to the passage of Perkins V in 2018 that funded CTE programs across a wide range of occupational areas for secondary and postsecondary students, NCES needed assistance in publishing updated national statistics on CTE and workforce preparations in the United States.
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Regional Advisory Committees (RACs) are groups of education stakeholders that help identify regional education needs and recommend priorities for Comprehensive Assistance Centers. For this project, Insight provided logistical and administrative support, technology services, technical assistance, and information to support the operation of the 10 RACs.
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Under this 5-year contract, Insight is producing a series of reports based on the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) 2016 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). Conducted by NCES, PIRLS is an international comparative study of the reading literacy of students in the fourth grade.
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The Regional Educational Laboratory–Appalachia (REL-Appalachia) supports the Kentucky College and Career Readiness Alliance (KyCCRA) in improving the college and career readiness of Kentucky students and building the capacity of local educators to understand and support student pathways from high school to college or the workforce. In response to a need from KyCCRA for information about the availability of data on dual enrollment and dual credit (DE/DC) programs across the state, Insight developed a data catalog.
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The Regional Educational Laboratory–Appalachia (REL-Appalachia) is part of a network of 10 labs across the country designed to conduct and disseminate research to support continuous improvement in student outcomes, help close achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students, and achieve other key goals of the No Child Left Behind Act. Insight provided research assistance regarding the programs and initiatives within REL-Appalachia.
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The Regional Educational Laboratory–Appalachia (REL-Appalachia) seeks to identify and meet the educational research needs of state and local education agencies, school districts, and schools in the Appalachian region (Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee). Emphasis is on long-term, rigorous evaluations of public education programs and short-term research projects investigating and analyzing education policies and practices. Insight developed a multitiered approach to evaluating the dissemination efforts of the REL–Appalachia to help assess the impact and effectiveness of its programs and initiatives.
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The Regional Educational Laboratory–Appalachia (REL-Appalachia) seeks to identify and meet the educational research needs of state and local education agencies, school districts, and schools in the Appalachian region (Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee). Insight led the coordination of professional development opportunities for stakeholders across the REL–Appalachia region aimed at bringing evidence-based practices to practitioners. These events were typically based on the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Practice Guides.
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Insight served as a subcontractor to CNA Corporation to conduct a needs assessment for the Regional Educational Laboratory– Appalachia (REL–Appalachia). Insight designed and implemented an annual needs assessment and provided analytical, data collection, and report writing services to the REL–Appalachia. Each year, Insight submitted an annual report to the National Center for Educational Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE) on the needs of stakeholders throughout the region.
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West Virginia’s Simulated Workplace initiative was designed to transform the traditional career and technical education (CTE) classroom into a real workplace environment, giving students an authentic workplace experience as they earn high school credit, work toward industry certifications, and in some cases, earn college credit. For the Regional Educational Laboratory–Appalachia, Insight worked with members of the West Virginia Department of Education to support the growth and quality of the Simulated Workplace Initiative.
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The 2015 Every Student Success Act (ESSA) required states to develop standardized
reclassification policies for students leaving their English learner (EL) status. Changing a student’s status from English learner to English proficient can affect institutional settings, language supports, and the opportunities available to students.
The Equity Summit is an important component of the Department of Education Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education’s (OCTAE) ongoing efforts to fully implement Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government. the Equity Summit also forwards OCTAE’s goals for all youth and adults to be ready for, have access to, and complete college and career pathways—and for all youth and adult students to have equitable access to high-quality learning opportunities on demand.
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Insight provides technical assistance to minority-serving community colleges sponsored by the Office of Career, Adult, and Technical Education at the U.S. Department of Education. For this work, Insight leads monthly technical assistance activities to faculty, staff, and administrators from two communities of practice: Predominantly Black Institutions and Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
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The Uninterrupted Scholars Act (USA) supports the sharing of information between state education agencies and child welfare agencies by permitting state education agencies to share educational records about children in the foster care system without parental consent. The information keeps child welfare workers informed about a child’s education history—including school enrollment and school stability—as they make placement recommendations to the court. Such information can help close gaps between students in foster care and their peers in graduation rates and achievement scores. Insight supported the collection and analysis of information about the data exchange policies between state education agencies and child welfare agencies to help ED understand the challenges and facilitators to best practices.
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Insight is supporting the Center to Improve Program and Project Performance on behalf of the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in the U.S. Department of Education in its efforts to provide technical assistance to OSEP program officers and grantees. Technical assistance activities center on evaluation design, grant implementation, and performance measurement with a goal to enhance the performance of programs and projects funded by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (known as IDEA).
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The 2015 Every Student Success Act (ESSA) required states to develop standardized
reclassification policies for students leaving their English learner (EL) status. Changing a student’s status from English learner to English proficient can affect institutional settings, language supports, and the opportunities available to students.
Since 2006, the Administration for Children and Families has funded Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) grants to promote healthy marriage and relationship education, youth-focused relationship education, and multifaceted responsible fatherhood programs. About one quarter of individuals served by HMRF grantees are Black. While HMRF programs have made important efforts to consider race and culture in program design and operations, this project will advance this work through recommendations rooted in understanding the complexity of interpersonal, historical, and systemic inequities apparent in the lives of Black individuals and families. The goal of this project is to bring an equity focus to HMRF programs to better support well-being in Black families.
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The goals of this project are to support OPRE in advancing the knowledge base about research and evaluation methods, enhancing the use of rigorous research methods and evidence-based policy, and developing technical assistance resources to support the evaluation capacity of human services programs and other external stakeholders.
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Research demonstrates a connection between a father’s involvement in his child’s life and the development and well-being of the child across behavioral, social-emotional, and cognitive domains. Small but growing evidence suggests the effectiveness of federally funded responsible fatherhood programs in improving fathers’ nurturing behavior, their engagement in age-appropriate activities with their children, and increased length of time fathers are continuously employed. However, implementation challenges—such as program recruitment, retention, and engagement—make it difficult to develop rigorous data on program effectiveness.
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This project sought to develop evidence-informed or innovative strategies to improve engagement in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) services and readiness for customers’ current and future employment. The goal was to assist the Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Family Assistance (OFA) in its efforts to understand the unique circumstances and needs of subgroups of TANF customers.
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The Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation’s (OPRE) research portfolio addresses poverty, employment and training, child and youth development, child welfare, family strengthening and fatherhood, childcare and other work supports, and cash assistance.
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The Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) Program was authorized by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 to provide education and training to recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and other individuals with low incomes. The goal of the program is to train individuals for healthcare occupations that pay well and are in high demand.
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The Administration for Community Living (ACL) provides services and supports to adults aged 60 and older to help them maintain as much independence as possible, both in their homes and in their communities. Insight is conducting research to help ACL better understand caregiving for older adults, specifically caregiving for older adults in African American/Black, Asian, Latino/Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander communities.
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This study is designed to define the social risks, social needs, and social determinants of health that intersect with ACL programs; explain how ACL programs funded under the Older Americans Act (OAA) are addressing social determinants of health; and advise on how to measure the effectiveness of ACL programs in these areas.
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The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) National Nursing Home COVID-19 Action Network (the Network) provides training to nursing homes nationwide on preventing and containing COVID-19. To complement and support this work, AHRQ established the Nursing Home COVID-19 Coordinating Center (NHCCC). NHCCC’s tasks include engaging scientific and policy stakeholders to identify needs and best practices to inform the Network’s activities and content, developing and disseminating quality improvement tools and other resources for the Network, and assessing the Network’s success. Insight leads the stakeholder engagement task of this contract and contributes to the Network assessment.
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The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) leads federal efforts in patient safety research and oversees the implementation of the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act (PSQIA). Congress enacted PSQIA in 1995, largely in response to a 1999 report, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System, by the then-named Institute of Medicine. The report raised awareness of “the nation’s epidemic of medical errors” and recommended a comprehensive strategy for making healthcare safer. PSQIA authorized AHRQ to implement a Network of Patient Safety Databases (NPSD) and establish a system of patient safety organizations (PSOs) charged with collecting and analyzing confidential patient safety data.
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Insight assessed risks and outcomes associated with retinal prosthetic sight restoration technology in the Medicare population. Retinal prostheses might significantly improve the eyesight of severely visually impaired patients with retina-related vision loss, including macular degeneration. Such improvements might enhance health-related quality of life and daily living activities measures for these patients.
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This project characterized the methods individuals use to manage their health information, establish an action agenda for how personal health information management (PHIM) practices can be supported by health information technology (IT), and proposed recommendations for moving the agenda forward.
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In 2009, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) instituted the National Action Plan to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) as a systematic effort to reduce HAIs and associated morbidity, mortality, and costs. Under this contract, Insight expanded on an iterative longitudinal evaluation of the plan, which included quality improvement activities and evaluations conducted by individual operational divisions in agencies across HHS.
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Means-tested benefit programs that target working families can produce both work incentives, as benefits phase in, and disincentives, as benefits phase out at higher levels of income. Economists have studied the relationship between assistance programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Earned Income Tax Credit, and participation in the labor force. One potential influence on work effort is the effective marginal tax, which quantifies the portion of new earnings not retained by families after factoring in taxes on the new earnings and reduction in government benefits resulting from the new earnings. Little is known, however, about this marginal tax rate and families’ perceptions and understanding of how program benefits change with additional earnings. This study explores whether fear of losing access to benefit programs creates perceived work disincentives and the potential effects of perceived disincentives on subsequent labor force decisions.
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This 3-year study provided the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation with a formative, short-term assessment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)-funded comparative effectiveness research (CER) portfolio. The evaluation catalogued how CER funding was invested to achieve the vision of the Federal Coordinating Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research, develop tools for ongoing assessment of the ARRA CER portfolio, and provide guidance to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regarding future CER evaluations and investments.
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Insight partnered with ICF International to update a 1999 survey of physicians providing healthcare related to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), cognitively test and pilot the new version, and disseminate the survey to a nationally representative sample of physicians across the United States.
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) provides oversight for the certification process required for long-term care facilities that receive Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement. This project supports CMS in the implementation of the system used by all state agencies to conduct the required survey and certification activities. Insight and partners have been working closely with CMS and other experts to revise and test this certification system and its process for collecting survey data, referred to as the Long-Term Care Survey Process.
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For this important work, Insight is monitoring and evaluating healthcare quality and outcomes among maintenance dialysis patients. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented the End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Prospective Payment System (PPS) in 2011 and the ESRD Quality Incentive Program (QIP) in 2012 to improve the quality and efficiency of ESRD treatment across the United States.
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Quality Safety and Oversight Group (QSOG) provides oversight and ensures compliance for providers serving Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. State survey agencies support QSOG by conducting facility surveys to verify compliance with Conditions of Participation or Requirements for Participation, and they complete the certification process and investigate complaints from beneficiaries or their families. To assess how well the agencies perform their activities, CMS established a comprehensive set of standards called the State Performance Standards System (SPSS). This project assists CMS in efforts to evaluate and redesign the SPSS to improve the oversight of provider certification processes and enforcement protocols of long-term care facilities (e.g., nursing homes).
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Quality Safety and Oversight Group (QSOG) provides oversight and ensures compliance for providers serving Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. State survey agencies support QSOG by conducting facility surveys to verify compliance with Conditions of Participation or Requirements for Participation, and they complete the certification process and investigate complaints from beneficiaries or their families. For what is sometimes referred to as the “survey and certification” process, state survey agencies are required to provide data and reports to CMS via the 10 Regional Offices. To assess how well the agencies perform their activities, CMS established a comprehensive set of standards called the State Performance Standards System (SPSS).
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has established arrangements with Medicare Advantage Organizations (MAOs), Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug Plans (MA-PDs), Prescription Drug Plans (PDPs), and Medicare-Medicaid Plans (MMPs) to provide Medicare coverage. Organizations that provide Part C (medical coverage) and/or Part D (prescription drug) benefits, including MMPs, must meet certain standards for providing information to current and potential enrollees and contracted providers. For this project, Insight monitors and evaluates Medicare Part C and D plan sponsors’ customer service and pharmacy technical assistance call centers for CMS to determine if they meet or exceed certain standards.
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To address the significant problem of opioid use in pregnancy and associated high numbers of babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome or neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) awarded cooperative agreements to 10 state Medicaid agencies to implement the Maternal Opioid Misuse (MOM) Model. Insight is developing qualitative, process, and impact evaluation designs to conduct 10 individual model awardee evaluations and a cross-site evaluation.
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) relies on rigorous, rapid-cycle research to understand its target audiences and develop compelling communications that inspire beneficiaries to take action. Such research becomes essential as Medicare audiences continue to change, along with their information needs and preferences. Insight is supporting CMS’s Office of Communications in efforts to conduct stakeholder-focused research to gain critical insights into the communication needs of Medicare audience segments.
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Integrated Care for Kids (InCK) is a child-centered local service delivery and state payment model. It aims to reduce expenditures and improve the quality of care for children under 21 covered by Medicaid through prevention, early identification, and treatment of behavioral and physical health needs. Insight is partnering with Abt Associates to design and implement a mixed-methods evaluation of the InCK model.
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has used the Medicare Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) since 1998 to fulfill requirements of the 1997 Balanced Budget Act, the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act, and the 2010 Affordable Care Act. The survey provides measures of patient experience and quality of care provided to Medicare beneficiaries. Beginning in 2000, persons enrolled in the Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) program have also been included in the CAHPS survey.
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) developed and tested a new long-term care survey process for nationwide use that will replace the Quality Indicator Survey (QIS), previously used by 27 states and the District of Columbia for nursing home inspections. This project provided support to CMS in the implementation of the new system and the streamlined close-out of the QIS. Earlier, Insight, along with collaborators at the University of Colorado at Denver (UCD), worked closely with CMS and other experts for several years to plan and test the new survey process. The new survey complied with the Final Rule to Reform the Requirements for Long-Term Care Facilities of 2016.
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented the End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Services Prospective Payment System (PPS) in 2011 and the ESRD Quality Incentive Program (QIP) in 2012 to improve the quality and efficiency of treatment for ESRD, a condition of permanent kidney failure. Insight is studying the effects of the QIP and the PPS on specific patient subpopulations that may have higher unreimbursed treatment costs.
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In 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a new billing code to allow eligible professionals to be reimbursed for chronic care management (CCM) activities. The fee was designed to support primary care through financial investment in care management services. Under the program, eligible professionals can bill CMS and participating patients for coordination and care management activities conducted by telephone or online rather than in person. Eligible professionals are required to obtain patient consent and review the terms of participation, including copays, prior to billing for CCM services.
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This project evaluated the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Investment Model (AIM). It assessed whether infrastructure funding provided to AIM ACOs resulted in increased ACO participation in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), sustained ACO participation in those programs that were previously MSSPs, and increased willingness by ACOs to accept greater financial risk.
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services launched its From Coverage to Care Initiative (C2C) in 2014 to help the newly insured understand what it means to have health insurance, how to find a provider, and when and where to seek health services. The initiative also aimed to educate consumers on the importance of prevention and partnering with a provider.
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This study explored whether and how a business case could be made for addressing health equity and disparities. For the purposes of this project, a “business case” was identified as an investment in a socially responsible action (e.g., reducing health disparities) that also promised the investing entity financial return within a reasonable timeframe through cost reduction, increased revenues, or both.
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Project Overview The study investigated personal responsibility and health insurance choice, coverage, and payment to develop strategies for encouraging increased personal responsibility among Medicare beneficiaries. The study explored the relationship between personal responsibility and beneficiary willingness to navigate the healthcare system as guided by t wo research questions: (1) Who do beneficiaries believe is responsible… Read more »
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) supported a pilot of the mobile health (mHealth) program Text4baby. This pilot assessed the effect of Text4baby on enrollment in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and on health knowledge, health behaviors, and healthcare engagement among those eligible for CHIP.
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This 3-year demonstration assessed the effectiveness of using Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) to identify and recover over- and underpayments made to Medicare providers while also incurring minimal burden on the provider community (e.g., physicians, providers, suppliers who provide services paid under Medicare). California, New York, and Florida were selected for this demonstration based on their high per capita Medicare expenditure amounts.
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Insight provided statistical support for the Medicare Advantage Risk Adjustment Data Validation (RADV) contract for Medicare Advantage Plans. The wide range of tasks included development of a sample design and analysis plan and implementation of three samples (national, targeted, and random) of continuously enrolled Medicare Advantage enrollees for whom the contract received a Part C risk-adjusted payment during the calendar year.
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This project was part of an effort by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to improve outreach to beneficiaries who were not enrolled in Part D and/or the Part D Low Income Subsidy. The Low Income Subsidy available under the Medicare Part D prescription drug program to help individuals lower their prescription drug coverage costs.
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) first implemented the Quality Indicator Survey (QIS) in 2007 to determine if Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing homes meet federal requirements. In collaboration with the University of Colorado Denver (UC Denver) School of Medicine, Insight provides operational support and analysis for the QIS.
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The Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) Initiative sought to promote collaboration between public and privat healthcare payers to help primary care practices achieve a three-part goal in healthcare delivery: better care for the individual, better health outcomes for populations, and lower costs through improvement of the care delivery processes. CPC was launched in 7 markets, with each containing approximately 75 participating primary care practices.
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Causal inference, originally developed for epidemiology studies, considers statistical methods for estimation and inference related to causal effects; it applies to both observational and randomized studies. Insight directed the research, analysis, and training on statistical issues related to establishing a causal link between reported adverse events and prior treatment with an HIV drug/medical device.
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This evaluation identified, described, and evaluated the strengths and limitations of data sources that potentially could be included in the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Sentinel Initiative. FDA’s Sentinel System was designed for near real-time monitoring of the postmarket performance of regulated medical products. This phase of the Sentinel work aimed to assess the feasibility of expanding the project to include animal drugs used in veterinary medicine.
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This project developed and updated four independent models for the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN). The models investigated the impacts of FDA regulations on small entities, in compliance with the Regulatory Flexibility Act. Small business entities have fewer resources to devote to regulatory compliance and may be unduly burdened by regulatory-related costs.
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For more than a decade, Take Time to Care (TTTC)—the major outreach initiative for the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Office of Women’s Health (OWH)—has been a leader in providing lifesaving information to women across the United States. TTTC recognizes the many roles of American women as family caretakers, educators, nurturers, and leaders and provides accurate information women need to make healthy choices for themselves, their families, and their communities.
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The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) established the Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Strategies (RMOMS) pilot program to improve access to and continuity of maternal and obstetrics care in rural communities. The program is implementing innovative models designed to address the unique barriers rural mothers face in accessing continuous, coordinated, and risk-appropriate maternal and obstetrics care. This evaluation seeks to assess the implementation and impact of the RMOMS networks across cohort 2 grantees.
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Congress established the Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC) program in 1984 to expand and improve emergency medical services for children who need treatment for trauma or critical care. Since the program’s creation, its annual budget has increased to approximately $22 million to support research, systems improvements, and technical assistance grants across six programs in all states, the U.S. territories, and the Freely Associated States.
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Through its Federal Office of Rural Health Policy and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, the Health Resources and Services Administration launched the Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Strategies (RMOMS) pilot program. This program tests the effectiveness of innovative medical models designed to address the unique barriers rural mothers face in accessing high-quality, comprehensive maternal and obstetrics care. Insight is partnering with Mission Analytics Group to evaluate the program.
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This project developed an evaluation framework and plan for a prospective longitudinal evaluation of four diversity grant programs administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Bureau of Health Workforce: Nursing Workforce Diversity, Centers of Excellence, Health Careers Opportunity Program, and Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students.
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Insight worked with the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Advisory Committee on Interdisciplinary, Community-Based Linkages (ACICBL) to develop a congressional report on the supply, access, quality of care, and demographic issues that affect the healthcare delivery system in rural America.
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Since 1998, the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Advisory Committee on Training and Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry (ACTPCMD) has advised Congress and the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on issues under the domain of Title VII, Section 747 programs. Insight worked with ACTPCMD to develop a Report to Congress on the potential use and application of Primary Care Medical-Dental Homes (PCM-DHs) and corresponding recommendations on how Title VII programs can influence and support their development.
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Health information technology (HIT) is widely viewed as the solution to the nation’s problem of spiraling healthcare costs and a way to improve the quality and safety of medical care delivery. For this 2-year project, Insight provided leadership and technical assistance in the areas of communication, outreach, dissemination, evaluation, and analysis to support the technical needs and education of all HRSA grantees in moving toward using HIT as a tool for improving quality of care.
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This project assessed the effectiveness of the Comprehensive Geriatric Education Program (CGEP) as an approach to achieving national geriatric education objectives. Insight provided descriptive information on grantee programs and activities to illustrate how CGEP best supported geriatric training and education for nurses and nurse aides.
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Insight conducted a 5-year evaluation of two Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) programs—the Nursing Education Loan Repayment Program and the Nursing Scholarship Program. The evaluation assessed the impact of these programs on critical shortage facilities and the communities they serve.
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In 2011, Congress passed the Combating Autism Reauthorization Act (CARA) and appropriated funds to the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) to support grants focusing on autism and related developmental disability education, early detection, and intervention. Under this contract and building on previous efforts, Insight conducted a comprehensive evaluation of MCHB’s CARA-supported initiatives.
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This project evaluated an electronic data collection instrument (EDCI) to improve the availability, quality, and timeliness of grantee data through the Uniform Progress Report (UPR) and the Comprehensive Performance Management System (CPMS).
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Insight worked with the Advisory Committee on Interdisciplinary, Community-Based Linkages (ACICBL) to develop a Report to Congress on the interdisciplinary challenges of and opportunities for further use of health information technology (HIT) and electronic health records (EHRs).
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Insight assisted the National Advisory Council on Nursing Education and Practice (NACNEP) in analyzing the state of geriatric healthcare and the effects of the aging population on the nurse workforce. NACNEP advises Congress and the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on policy issues related to the Title VIII programs administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Bureau of Health Professions’ Division of Nursing, including nurse workforce supply, education, and practice improvement.
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This project reviewed the progress made in the implementation of recommendations of prior discipline-specific reports developed for the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Office of Women’s Health (OWH).
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For this 3-year project, Insight designed and implemented an evaluation of the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Maternal and Child Health Bureau’s (MCHB) Combating Autism Act Initiative (CAAI). The CAAI aimed to enable all children to reach their full potential by developing a system of services that included screening children early for possible autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other developmental disabilities (DDs); conducting early, interdisciplinary evaluations to confirm or rule out ASD and other DDs; and if a diagnosis was confirmed, providing evidence-based, early interventions.
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The National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) helps state licensing boards, hospitals, other healthcare entities, and professional societies identify practitioners who engage in unprofessional behavior. It also seeks to restrict the ability of incompetent practitioners to move from state to state without disclosure or discovery of previous medical malpractice payment and adverse actions. Another organization that helps prevent fraud and malpractice in the healthcare system—the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank (HIPDB)—contains national information on healthcare-related adverse actions from a variety of providers, suppliers, and entities. Surveys were conducted of both these organizations.
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Insight worked with the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Council on Graduate Medical Education (COGME) to develop a congressional report on the problems caused by limited access to healthcare for rural and urban uninsured populations. For more than 25 years, COGME has advised Congress and the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on the adequacy of the supply and distribution of physicians in the United States; current and future shortages of physicians; and related graduate medical education, accreditation, and financing issues.
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This evaluation helped the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) determine how to achieve the best possible outcomes given recent changes in program legislation that included an increase in funding, the ability to include additional provider types, and greater flexibility in dividing awards between scholarships and loan-repayment programs.
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The Office of Management and Budget developed the Performance Assistance Rating Tool—known as PART—to assess the performance of all Government programs once every 5 years. For the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), Insight developed PART long-term and annual performance measures and efficiency measures for five new MCHB programs.
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This project helped train community health centers (CHCs) and other providers to meet the challenges of selecting and migrating to use of electronic health records (EHRs). Each medical setting needs a clinician champion and a team of healthcare professionals with training in informatics to support the workflow redesign and challenges of selecting and migrating to an electronic system. This project was in part a response to various studies that identified a need for at least 50,000 additional qualified health information technology (HIT) workers to assist hospitals, CHCs, and physicians in adopting and using EHRs.
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This project aimed to reduce and eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities. Prior to this project, there were many programmatic efforts, initiatives, and accomplishments within the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) aimed at eliminating health disparities but no comprehensive inventory to describe the efforts.
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The National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses (NSSRN), conducted every 4 years, monitors the number and characteristics of the registered nurse (RN) population and develops supply and demand projections to inform policymakers about RN workforce needs. Approximately 58,000 RNs across the United States participate in the study, conducted primarily by mail, with computer-assisted telephone interviewing follow-up for nonrespondents; a web-based reporting option is available.
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Insight worked with the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Advisory Committee on Training and Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry (ACTPCMD) to develop a congressional report on preparing future primary care providers to meet the changing challenges of the U.S. population.
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Insight worked with the Advisory Committee on Training and Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry (ACTPCMD) to address the complex and intertwined relationships among health disparities and cultural competency and make recommendations on how Title VII programs can best influence health disparities and affect overall quality of care.
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This 3-year, mixed-methods study evaluated efforts of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to provide research, screening, and education related to autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities (ASD/DDs).
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In this work, Insight assisted the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in a review of the portfolio of behavioral and social science interventions to assess how many studies tested a novel intervention and how many tested an adaptation of an existing intervention.
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In December 2018, the National Institute on Aging’s Division of Neuroscience and Division of Aging Biology within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will convene a workshop on system biology approaches to aging and Alzheimer’s. This project provides all operational support for this critical workshop by national experts, including directing travel and accommodation logistics for participants, ensuring regulatory and policy compliance, troubleshooting, providing real-time onsite support, and developing a final report of the progress and results.
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This 2-year study utilized de‐identified health insurance claims data to describe the range of medical conditions experienced by children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the health outcomes of the children and their families. The study addressed a significant gap in the empirical knowledge base about the trajectories of health outcomes and utilization of healthcare services among children with ASD, their siblings, and their parents.
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This project assessed programs funded under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH). The evaluation aimed to help the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) ensure vital connections were made across HITECH initiatives by examining the critical linkages among those initiatives and between the initiatives and meaningful use of health information technology (HIT).
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The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program provides annual grants to states, cities, and counties to support the development of viable urban communities by providing suitable housing and living environments, and by expanding economic opportunities, principally for individuals with low and moderate incomes. Many communities in the United States rely on CDBGs to fund important public projects such as free health clinics, affordable/low-income housing, economic development, job training programs, infrastructure (sewer and water systems), and other activities.
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The ConnectHome initiative, launched in July 2015, was a collaboration of communities, the private sector, and the federal government to expand high-speed internet across the country and bridge the digital divide for families with school-aged children. The initiative sought to enable more than 275,000 low-income households—and nearly 200,000 children—to access the internet at home.
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Insight designed, implemented, and analyzed this inaugural survey for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to determine the customer service quality ratings of Performance-Based Contract Administrators (PBCAs), which administer Section 8 Housing Assistance Program contracts within their geographical regions. Insight developed and implemented confidential customer service surveys of housing owners and managers the PBCAs serve.
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For this project, Insight expanded its prior annual survey for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to determine the customer service quality ratings of Performance-Based Contract Administrators (PBCAs)—the entities that administer Section 8 Housing Assistance Program contracts within their geographical regions.
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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) provides essential analytic and evaluation support to DOL’s operating agencies. One of CEO’s key roles is to assist these agencies with analysis of administrative data, data from related programs, and survey data. These analyses facilitate measurement of performance, identify characteristics of program participants and other populations, reveal factors affecting program performance, and improve data quality to ensure accuracy of findings.
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This project assessed the status of drinking and driving attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors among the U.S. driving-age public (with particular attention to young adult drivers aged 16–24). The study used the 2008 National Survey of Drinking and Driving Attitudes and Behaviors. Data were collected by Gallup using a stratified RDD sample design, supplemented with an independent sample of cell phones.
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The Survey of Healthcare Experiences of Patients (SHEP) measures the experiences of patients who receive care from a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital, with the goal of ensuring high-quality care for veterans. The survey addresses important aspects of the patient experience, including communication with doctors, communication with nurses, responsiveness of hospital staff, pain management, communication about medication, discharge information, cleanliness of the hospital environment, quietness of the hospital environment, and transition of care. Facilities are scored on various dimensions of the patient experience, based on patient responses to the survey. Insight’s work is to first support continuous quality improvement of VA inpatient experiences through facility summits.
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The U.S. Marine Corps funded this study to provide an assessment of the Marine Corps’ current approach to gender integration at entry-level training (ELT) and make recommendations for models that integrate genders to the greatest extent possible while continuing to train Marines to established standards. Specifically, this work addresses the sociological effects of increased gender integration and considers training models that maintain the established levels of discipline, physical fitness, attention to detail, and camaraderie.
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The U.S. Social Security Administration is undertaking the Promoting Opportunity Demonstration (POD) as a field test and evaluation of policy changes to the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program. The initiative seeks to produce strong evidence about the effectiveness of potential solutions to improve the historically low rate of return to work among SSDI beneficiaries. The new rules—which also simplify work incentives—are intended to promote employment and reduce dependence on disability benefits.
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Veteran entrepreneurs provide important contributions to the U.S. economy as business owners and as those who have served the nation. However, little has been known about veteran entrepreneurs—and even less about millennial post-9/11 veteran entrepreneurs. With declining rates of entrepreneurship across the country, the Small Business Administration sought to understand the barriers and challenges to entrepreneurship for veteran entrepreneurs.
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The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) partnered with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and co-sponsor Justine PETERSEN to pilot the Aspire Entrepreneurship Initiative program in four cities. The initiative aimed to help returning citizens with young children cultivate the skills and business savvy necessary for economic stability, enhanced opportunity, and employability by providing them with intensive entrepreneurship education and access to capital.
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While some surveys collect information from federal agencies on their external research and development (R&D) funding, comprehensive data are lacking on intramural R&D expenditures, the number of federal R&D personnel, and the amount of space within federal laboratories dedicated to R&D activities. The National Science Foundation is collecting this information to inform international comparisons of R&D performance and provide policymakers with more complete data on the federal government’s own R&D activities. The goal of this project is to identify the eligible universe of federal laboratories and design and implement a new survey to gather detailed information on their R&D activities to produce valid and reliable estimates of government intramural expenditures on R&D.
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Each year, the National Science Foundation (NSF) reviews nearly 50,000 research proposals in all fields of science and science education, with the goal of identifying the highest quality proposals to receive funding. Currently, NSF project officers assign each proposal to a technical panel of reviewers with relevant content expertise to read and evaluate the proposal based on two criteria set by the National Science Board: intellectual merit and broader impacts. Proposals may also be evaluated on specific goals that programs or divisions set forth in the solicitation. However, studies show that reviewer evaluations in many settings can depend on applicant characteristics unrelated to selection criteria. For example, applications for grants administered by the National Institutes of Health are less likely to be successful when the principal investigator (PI) is Black.
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The Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) Program promotes innovative, interdisciplinary initiatives in engineering research and education. EFRI pursues research projects that embrace new frontiers in engineering research and supports projects that generate transformative ideas in areas with a demonstrated need.
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This study evaluated the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program. The ATE program seeks to produce more highly qualified science and engineering technicians to meet workforce demands in strategic advanced technology fields and improve the technical skills and general science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (known as STEM) preparation of these technicians and the educators who prepare them.
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Insight developed a formative evaluation of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Career-Life Balance (CLB) initiative. The CLB is a 10-year initiative that supports family-friendly policy solutions to promote work-life balance among science and engineering graduate students, postdoctorate fellows, and faculty at institutions of higher education.
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The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Math and Science Partnership (MSP) program responds to a growing national concern about improving the educational performance of U.S. children in mathematics and science. Through MSP, NSF awards competitive merit-based grants to teams of institutions of higher education, local K–12 school systems, and their supporting partners.
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Insight is leading an evaluation of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Merit Review Process. Principal investigators (PIs) submit approximately 50,000 proposals to NSF each year, and reviewers evaluate each one against two main criteria: intellectual merit and broader impacts. The goal of this study is to conduct a biennial web survey of PIs’ and reviewers’ experiences with NSF’s review process, with particular focus on burden, satisfaction, and quality.
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Insight conducted an evaluation of three grant opportunities the National Science Foundation (NSF) administers as part of the Gender in Science and Engineering (GSE) program: research, diffusion, and extension projects. The overall goal of the GSE program is to promote a larger and more diverse domestic science and engineering workforce by increasing the number of girls and young women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
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To support the Deployment Health Department at the Naval Health Research Center (NHRC), Insight conducts multiple projects designed to assess the risk and protective factors for military family well-being and evaluate the interventions that could promote family well-being in military populations. These include the Millennium Cohort Family Study and the Military Community and Family Policy Healthy Steps program of the current Department of Defense (DoD) pilot ongoing at DoD military treatment facilities.
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In partnership with the California Department of Social Services (CDSS), the County Welfare Directors Association of California, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), Insight brought together California county agencies to form a Learning Collaborative to improve CalFresh administration and customer service. CalFresh (known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, nationally) is administered jointly by the State of California and its county agency partners.
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The Delaware Department of Education (DDOE) and the Diversifying Delaware’s Educational Workforce (DDEW) professional learning community partnered on an initiative to identify and narrow diversity gaps in Delaware’s educator workforce. DDOE and DDEW meet regularly to discuss workforce data and develop strategies for recruiting, hiring, developing, and training a diverse and culturally responsive educator workforce. In support of the initiative, Insight is currently providing high-intensity technical assistance focused on assessing diversity gaps, identifying barriers to hiring a diverse workforce, examining root causes of those barriers, and developing strategies for addressing the barriers and narrowing diversity gaps.
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Insight is providing technical assistance to the District of Columbia Department of Human Services’ Economic Security Administration and Department of Health Care Finance to help determine whether the District is in compliance with federal and District program requirements related to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The results will inform and prioritize corrective actions throughout social service agencies in the District.
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In response to Florida’s performance on the 2015 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), House Bill 293 required the Florida Department of Education to conduct a comprehensive study of states in which fourth- and eighth-grade students performed well on the NAEP. The objective was to identify factors that might support achievement in Florida schools, and Insight was contracted to conduct this study.
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The Insight team provided technical assistance to New Mexico’s Human Services Department’s Income Support Division to review and improve the multiprogram online application (e.g., for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP], Temporary Assistance for Needy Families [TANF], Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program [LIHEAP], Medicaid) for federal compliance and adherence to best practices in comprehension, readability, usability, and presentation.
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Insight conducted an evaluation of two Washington State programs: the Maternal Substance Abuse Screening Initiative for Providers and the Perinatal Partnership Against Domestic Violence Training Program. Together, these programs were designed to train and educate healthcare providers to effectively screen for, identify, and provide effective interventions for pregnant women with tobacco, alcohol, and/or drug use problems and those who are victims of domestic violence.
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While no rigorous experimental research has explored the role of childcare on the outcomes of undergraduate college student parents, descriptive evidence suggests access to affordable childcare is critical. Insight is studying the feasibility of conducting a rigorous evaluation of campus-based childcare programs.
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More than 3.8 million U.S. undergraduate college students (22 percent) were parents of dependent children as of academic year 2015–2016. Despite the importance of education for students who are parents, their educational outcomes significantly lag behind their peers; just 17 percent of student parents earned an associate’s or bachelor’s degree within 6 years of enrolling in college. To address this issue, Ascend at the Aspen Institute (Ascend) recently awarded Policy Acceleration Partnership (PAP) grants to six public sector entities to aid building and improving policies and programs that support postsecondary attainment among student parents. The purpose of this contract is for Insight’s educational experts to provide the grantees technical assistance and evaluation support.
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This study provided a better understanding of loneliness among adults aged 45 and older. In addition to examining prevalence rates across and within groups of older Americans, the study provided a descriptive profile of lonely older adults and examined the relationships between loneliness and health, health behaviors, involvement in a social network, and use of technology for social communications and networking.
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Insight partnered with the Barbara Bush Foundation to conduct an evaluation of its Story Mentors program pilot in the State of Mississippi. Story Mentors is a free online product consisting of digital books and guides that assist emerging readers in the first grade and readers in the second grade who could use supplemental assistance.
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In 2015 the Barbara Bush Foundation, XPRIZE Foundation, and Dollar General Literacy Foundation joined forces to tackle the largest obstacles to achieving basic literacy—access, retention, and scale. The organizations collaborated to launch the $7 million Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy XPRIZE competition.
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Many of the best early learning programs support children by monitoring their development, but the selection of an assessment appropriate for children of varied backgrounds is challenging. Researchers, educators, and advocacy groups have raised concerns about the potential for bias in assessments because children of similar ability may have unequal access to cultural environments and family resources that can independently affect assessment scores.
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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Networks for School Improvements (NSI) initiative provides grants to organizations across the United States to support middle schools and high schools in identifying promising approaches for addressing common challenges. NSI supports continuous improvement projects for over 20 networks across more than 400 K–12 schools. Insight is leading and developing a series of interactive Tableau dashboards that communicate information on school and network characteristics.
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Insight partnered with Cooper University Health Care System and the New Jersey Department of Health on a study to improve outreach and broaden access to care for veterans residing in southern New Jersey. Insight led the development of a self-assessment tool in the form of a web survey designed to ascertain veterans’ need for mental or behavioral health services and connect veterans in need of those services to professional healthcare.
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Education Design Lab administers the Single Moms Success Design Challenge, which supports community colleges as they develop and pilot innovative solutions to improve completion rates for single mothers through intentional targeting of their unique needs. Four regionally accredited, public community colleges designed, launched, and tested scalable interventions to improve degree attainment rates for this population. Each institution has a goal of improving degree attainment by 30 percent by 2024 for between 6,000 and 8,000 single mothers. Insight’s evaluation will assess the design and outcomes of each intervention.
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The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a complex and highly regulated program that can be challenging to understand—even for policy-savvy legislators, civil servants, academics, and advocates. However, because SNAP is state administered, it offers significant opportunity for states to customize materials and processes to meet communities’ needs.
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The Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC) is an agreement among participating states to mutually recognize one another’s licenses for Registered Nurse, Licensed Practical Nurse, and Licensed Vocational Nurse. Initiated in 2000 when it was passed into law by the first five participating states, the agreement allows nurses to hold a single license and be eligible to practice in the licensing state and all other states participating in the NLC.
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The National Urban League (NUL) is developing a vision for the next generation of assessments and accountability in K–12 education. The work seeks to develop a plan in the best interests of students of color and vulnerable students that identifies and upends inequity and advances better student outcomes. The plan development process will include input from NUL affiliates, civil rights legal community representatives, out-of-school-time staff, parents and guardians, researchers and psychometricians, students, and counselors. Insight is facilitating this effort by analyzing the data NUL collected as part of this work and summarizing major themes.
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