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Session Title: Quality by Design: Statewide Human Services Workforce Evaluation Using an Integrated Framework
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Panel Session 379 to be held in INDEPENDENCE on Thursday, Nov 11, 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM
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Sponsored by the Human Services Evaluation TIG
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| Chair(s): |
| Chris Mathias, California Social Work Education Center, cmathias@berkeley.edu
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| Discussant(s):
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| Todd Franke, University of California, Los Angeles, tfranke@ucla.edu
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| Abstract:
This states university and human services agency partnership is a consortium of the states schools of social work, public human service agencies, and other related professional organizations. It facilitates the integration of education and practice to assure effective, culturally competent service delivery in the human services. The partnerships goals are to: re-professionalize public human service through a specialized education program for public human services, develop a continuum that connects pre service education to in service training, engage in research and evaluation to develop evidence based practices and finally advocate for responsive policies and resources to support practice improvement and client outcomes.
Evaluations from three of the partnerships programs will be presented. Plans for integrating the evaluations using theoretical constructs and longitudinal design as guiding principles will be discussed with the goal of improving the ability to better assess the impact of these programs on practice and client outcomes.
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Evaluating a Statewide Public Child Welfare Education Program
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| Susan Jacquet, California Social Work Education Center, sjacquet@berkeley.edu
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| Elizabeth Gilman, California Social Work Education Center, egilman@berkeley.edu
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The child welfare educational stipend program evaluation addresses the goal of recruiting and preparing a diverse group of social workers for professional careers in public human services, with child welfare emphasis through several research questions:
1. Is the curriculum being delivered as intended?
2. Are the students learning the curriculum?
3. To what extent are the graduates able to practice what they learned within the public child welfare agencies?
4. Do graduates remain in public child welfare?
5. What effects, if any, has the project had on the public child welfare agencies and workforce?
6. Does the program have effects on child and family outcomes?
Over the last 20 years the state partnership has conducted seven targeted studies and sponsored research-based curriculum projects to address these questions and evaluate the program. The evolution of these efforts and basic findings will be presented by project research and curriculum specialists.
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Statewide Evaluation of In-service Training
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| Barrett Johnson, California Social Work Education Center, barrettj@berkeley.edu
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| Leslie Zeitler, California Social Work Education Center, lzeitler@berkeley.edu
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| Chris Lee, California Social Work Education Center, clee07@berkeley.edu
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Given the resources expended on training, a systematic approach to training evaluation is called for – one that evaluates the impact of training at multiple levels, provides data on trainee learning and transfer, and provides a structure for making specific decisions about which evaluation projects to pursue and why. Such an evaluation system requires extensive planning and a strategic approach to implementation.
The first five years of a comprehensive evaluation of in-service training was recently completed for a complex state-supervised, county-administered child welfare system in a large state. This portion of the panel will present the evaluation results and outline the strategic plan for the next three-year period. In addition, we will also discuss how the strategic plan for in-service training evaluation intersects with a statewide evaluation framework involving preparatory social work education stipend programs for service in public child welfare and mental health in the same state.
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Evaluation of the Mental Health Educational Stipend Program
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| Gwen Foster, California Social Work Education Center, gwen77f@berkeley.edu
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| Sevaughn Banks, California Social Work Education Center, sevaughn@berkeley.edu
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A new workforce development program for mental health social work professionals was introduced in California in 2005. The Mental Health Educational Stipend Program works in partnership with key state and county mental health agencies and graduate schools of social work to: (1) build and refine a mental health core curriculum that has been implemented in every participating school and internship agency, (2) distribute funds for stipends for approximately 200 students each year who have demonstrated an interest in professional careers in public or nonprofit mental health settings, and (3) conduct process and outcome studies to improve the program and evaluate its impact on workforce quantity and quality. The presenter will discuss evaluation methods and key findings that inform the further collaborative development of this innovative program that aims to enable students from diverse backgrounds to become highly skilled, culturally competent mental health social workers.
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Integration Framework
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| Sherrill Clark, California Social Work Education Center, sjclark@berkeley.edu
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| Amy Benton, California Social Work Education Center, ymanotneb@berkeley.edu
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An integrated evaluation framework that incorporates the child welfare and mental health education programs and in service training is under development to address the partnerships goals. Using relevant theories as the underpinning of the basic research questions of the framework, the following questions are asked:
To what extent is the curriculum being delivered to the students?
To what extent are the graduates prepared to practice?
What factors contribute to retention of the graduates?
What are the career paths of the graduates?
To what extent do the graduates perceive influence on agency, program, and policy?
These questions are posed at crucial points in the graduate’s career using pre-post comparison group design administered in graduate school, during new worker core training and at 3, 6 and 10 years post graduation. The intervals were chosen based on a survival analysis of 416 graduates who have been in the workforce from 5 to 15 years.
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