Walter R. McDonald & Associates, Inc. (WRMA) has designed and implemented a comprehensive, multi-site evaluation of services for children ages 0 to 5 years and their parents in Sacramento County. Services for the current three-year funding cycle are provided directly to clients in the following "Result Areas": Nutrition, which includes lactation support and programs to address childhood obesity; Effective Parenting; Health Access, which enrolls children in health insurance programs; and School Readiness. The First 5 Sacramento Commission funds indirect services in three Result Areas: Community Building, Dental, and Early Care.
Multiple data collection activities have been implemented by WRMA to address the outcome indicators identified by the Commission. Each parent is presented with a consent and family intake form designed to obtain important demographic data about parents and their children. These forms are available in six languages to ensure that Sacramento's multi-ethnic population is represented in the evaluation. Levels of service usage and selected outcome data are recorded by program staff on forms developed by WRMA. These data are entered into a web-based system by program staff who have been trained and receive ongoing technical assistance by WRMA. The database is continually monitored for missing or discrepant data. WRMA provides regular feedback to contractors about the quality of their data, and provides the Commission with monthly and quarterly reports on each contractor's progress towards meeting contractual recruitment and service goals.
Parents have been sampled within each of the four result areas to participate in a longitudinal survey using a questionnaire designed with validated items and scales, and pilot tested with members of the target population. WRMA has provided extensive training to field staff who conducted 459 baseline interviews, in face-to face settings or via telephone, depending on the parents' preference. A number of procedures have been developed to track the initial sample over time to ensure limited attrition for the two subsequent annual surveys. These longitudinal data will be merged with the web-based data for complex analyses to examine service usage in relation to program outcomes.
WRMA is also evaluating First 5 Sacramento Cycle 2 School Readiness services that began on July 1, 2008. The evaluation design includes five instruments: Parent Survey, Child Assessment, Teacher Ratings of Children's Social Skills, Teacher/Provider Survey, and the Administrator Interview. The Parent Survey is administered during the fall and spring of the school year; data are collected on the remaining four instruments during the spring only.
