Timing Of Program Implementation Research Articles

Feed the children, free the women? Evidence from the China rural nutrition improvement program

This study establishes a causal impact of China Rural Nutrition Improvement Program (CRNIP) on the labour force participation of Chinese rural mothers, utilizing quasi-exogenous variation in the timing of program implementation across the country. Drawing on 1% samples of the 2010 and 2015 Chinese Population Censuses, we find that the CRNIP, which provided free lunch meals to students during their compulsory education, significantly enhanced maternal labour force participation by an estimated 4.25 percentage points, while showing no effects for fathers. The provision of school lunches reduced the time mothers spent on childcare, primarily benefiting less-educated mothers, who opted for informal, off-farm work in their local area. While only small in magnitude, this finding has significant policy implications for a country facing a declining population in general, and declining female labour force participation in particular.

Peningkatan Kualitas Calistung melalui Permainan di Sekolah Dasar di Kelurahan Mangli

Literacy is literacy, namely the ability to write and read. In the Mangli sub-district there are several problems found, one of which is in elementary schools where the literacy and numeracy levels of students are still low. The form of service carried out by students in the field of education in the Mangli sub-district is by carrying out the calistung program through interesting learning in the form of word order games and multiplication smart board learning media. Calistung is an acronym for learning to read, write and count. In elementary school education students are required to learn basic things in the world of education, especially reading, writing, and arithmetic. The dedication methodology uses a method based on community empowerment. This program is implemented in 2 schools, namely SDN Mangli 1 and SDN Mangli 4. The aim of this program is to improve students' basic abilities by implementing interesting learning in the form of games so students don't feel bored when they have to receive monotonous lessons. At the time of program implementation, the enthusiasm of the students for the learning concepts that we had compiled was very high. The results of the dedication to implementing this program can run as expected with an increase in the quality of students' calistung abilities in

프로젝트 접근법 기반 유아 생태전환교육 프로그램 개발 및 적용

The purpose of this study is to develop and implement a young children's eco-logical transition education program based on the project approach, with the aim of exam-ining changes in young children's awareness of sustainable development, ecological liter-acy, and problem-solving abilities. The program was applied to 28 five-year-old children in E preschool located in S City focusing on the selected themes of ‘Marine Life’ and ‘Companion Animals and Animal Welfare’ during morning activities over an 8-week period. The collected data, including research journals, play observation logs, interviews, photo-graphs, etc., were qualitatively analyzed during the process of implementing the program To examine changes based on the timing of program implementation, quantitative data collected through observation checklists were subjected to repeated measures analysis of variance. The results of qualitative and quantitative analyses revealed positive changes in young children's awareness of sustainable development, ecological literacy, and prob-lem-solving skills as they engaged in play related to interesting topics they chose during the project-based activities. The significance of this research lies in presenting an eco-logical transition education program applied through children's expressive play with self-selected themes. The findings suggest that this approach could be utilized as a case for implementing play-centered and child-centered educational programs in early childhood education and care settings to promote ecological transition education for a sustainable society.

Museums as Classrooms: The Academic and Behavioral Impacts of “School in the Park”

Access to community cultural institutions such as museums, zoos, and theaters has the potential to improve students’ educational experiences. This article estimates the impact of School in the Park, a museum-based educational program for low-income students that takes place within the cultural institutions and museums of San Diego’s Balboa Park. We identify the impact of participation in the program on short- and long-term academic and behavioral outcomes using longitudinal, student-level data since 1996; natural variation in the timing of program implementation at two elementary schools; and control groups of students from schools that did not receive the program. Findings indicate that participation in the program has positive short-term impacts, but program impacts were insignificant in the long run.

Restorative Justice Approaches to Intimate Partner Violence: A Review of Interventions

Domestic violence, and specifically, violence against intimate partners, has generated a large research literature in the last few decades, particularly in the area of policy and community response and intervention. However, less attention has been given to the use of more innovative approaches in such situations, namely the use of restorative justice (RJ) interventions for intimate partner violence (IPV). The aim of this review is to provide a general overview of how RJ approaches have been utilized in the context of IPV, systematically examine the available literature on RJ approaches to IPV, describe the interventions that have been developed and empirically tested, and synthesize the findings. This review summarizes existing empirical research and literature on RJ interventions for IPV. APA PsychNet, CINAHL, Criminal Justice Abstracts, Embase, Medline PubMed, PsychInfo, PTSD Publications, SCOPUS, Social Services Abstracts, Social Work Reference Center, SocINDEX, Sociological Abstracts, and Web of Science were systematically searched for English-language publications with no restrictions on the year of publication. As a result, 14 articles and 5 book chapters (empirical studies and reviews) on interventions were included in this review. Synthesized findings highlight the awareness and meaning of RJ, significance of community, goals and outcomes of RJ, timing of program implementation, and what types of IPV cases are best suited for RJ. Additionally, the review describes current research gaps as well as the challenges and barriers of implementing RJ interventions.

What is the Added Value of Preschool for Poor Children? Long-Term and Intergenerational Impacts and Interactions with an Infant Health Intervention

We study the impact of preschool targeted at children from low-income families over the life cycle and across generations, and examine its interaction with an infant health intervention. Using Danish administrative data with variation in the timing of program implementation over the period 1933–1960, we find lasting benefits of access to preschool on adult educational attainment, earnings, and survival beyond age 65. We also show that children of women exposed to pre-school obtain more education by age 25. However, exposure to a nurse home visiting program in infancy reduces the added value of preschool, implying that the programs serve as partial substitutes. (JEL I12, I18, I21, I26, J13, J24, J31)

A Natural Experiment to Test the Effect of Sanction Certainty and Celerity on Substance-Impaired Driving: North Dakota's 24/7 Sobriety Program.

Evaluate the deterrent effect of a program that increases the certainty and celerity of sanction for arrestees ordered to abstain from alcohol and other drugs on substance-impaired driving arrests. We examine participant compliance with orders to abstain from alcohol and other drug use via breathalyzer, body-worn continuous alcohol monitoring (CAM) devices, transdermal drug patches, and urinalyses. We then evaluate the impact of the 24/7 Sobriety program on substance-impaired driving arrests. Using variation across counties in the timing of program implementation in North Dakota as a natural experiment, we use differences-in-differences fixed effects Poisson regressions to measure the program's effect on county-level arrests for substance-impaired driving. Over half of participants ordered to abstain from substance use complete 24/7 Sobriety without a detected substance use event. At the county level, the program is associated with a 9 percent reduction in substance-impaired driving arrests after accounting for the impact of oil exploration in the Bakken region, law enforcement intensity, alcohol availability, whether the state's large universities were in session, and socio-demographic characteristics. The results suggest frequent monitoring combined with increased sanction celerity deters substance use-involved crime. While the results are generally consistent with an earlier study of 24/7 Sobriety in another state, differences in the study outcome measures and implementation choices across states make direct comparisons difficult. More can be learned by conducting randomized controlled trials that vary time on program, testing technology, and/or level of sanction.

Organizational readiness to implement population-based screening and genetic service delivery for hereditary cancer prevention and control.

Despite clinical guidelines, programs conducting population-based screening and genetic service delivery for hereditary cancer prevention and control are rare in practice. We interviewed individuals (n=13) instrumental in implementing seven unique clinical programs conducting either universal tumor screening for Lynch Syndrome or routine family history screening and provision of genetic services for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer in the United States. To characterize determinants of readiness to implement population-based cancer genetic service delivery models, interviews and deductive codes drew on Weiner's theory of organizational readiness for change. Qualitative analysis identified themes across programs. The degree to which organizational stakeholders valued moving to a population-based genetic service delivery model depended on the existence of aligned clinical guidelines at the time of program implementation. However, judgments of implementation capacity within the organization, particularly with respect to task demands and resource concerns, were more often barriers to readiness. Program champions were essential to facilitating readiness, frequently taking on substantial uncompensated work. These data suggest that developing interventions targeting change efficacy and cultivating practice change champions may be two promising ways to increase uptake of population-based hereditary cancer screening and genetic service delivery in clinical practice.

The Intergenerational Impact of China's New Rural Pension Scheme

The Intergenerational Impact of China's New Rural Pension Scheme

Can a conditional cash transfer reduce teen fertility? The case of Brazil’s Bolsa Familia

In 2008, Brazil's conditional cash transfer program expanded to cover a wider range of ages. Poor families are now given stipends for their children's school attendance up to age seventeen, whereas prior the maximum age was fifteen. Using a nationally representative household survey, we estimate the impact of this policy on teen fertility with a triple difference analysis on the fertility outcomes of treated cohorts vs. non-treated cohorts based on income eligibility, age eligibility, and timing of program implementation. We find a three percentage point drop in fertility among eligible teens within five years of program implementation. This offsets the difference in fertility between poor and non-poor teens. The impact is concentrated in urban areas, with no program effects found in rural areas. We are able to replicate these findings using National Birth Registry Data.

One Billion Euro Program for Early Childcare Services in Italy

In 2007 the Italian central government started a program by transferring funds to regional governments to develop both private and public early childcare services. Exploiting the different timing of program implementation across regions, we evaluate its effectiveness in boosting the public supply of early childhood educational services. We find that the ratio between the available slots in public early childhood education and the population of those aged 0-2 increased by 18.1% three years after the start of the program, with respect to the pre-program level. The program impact was however nil in the South and totally driven by the Center-North.

Hambatan Komunikasi Internal di Organisasi Pemerintahan

The Budget Execution Evaluation and Monitoring Program owned by the Ministry of Finance’s Directorate of Budget Execution has a strategic role in safeguarding the implementation of the Ministry atau Institution budget so that the Indonesian Budget (APBN) can run more optimally. The smoothness of the program depends on the effective communication system at the time of program implementation. This study aims to determine the internal communication barriers in the Directorate of Budget Execution that should be removed for effective communication can occur in the implementation of The Budget Execution Evaluation and Monitoring Program. The research uses descriptive qualitative method with case study, where data is obtained through in-depth interview and observation of informants (officials and staff at Directorate of Budget Execution). The result of the research shows that the internal communication barrier faced by the Directorate of Budget Execution is the difference of perception between the leader and the subordinate about the implementation of the activity, the limited sharing of information practice from the management to the staff, and the leadership style that influences the implementation of the program activity.

What is the Added Value of Preschool? Long-Term Impacts and Interactions with a Health Intervention

We study the impact of targeted high quality preschool over the life cycle and across generations, and examine its interaction with a health intervention during infancy. Using administrative data from Denmark together with variation in the timing of program implementation between 1933 and 1960, we find lasting benefits of access to preschool at age 3 on outcomes through age 65 – educational attainment increases, income rises (for men), and the probability of survival increases (for women). Further, the benefits persist to the next generation, who experience higher educational attainment by age 25. However, exposure to a nurse home visiting program in infancy reduces the added value of preschool. The positive effect of preschool is lowered by 85 percent for years of schooling (of the first generation) and by 86 percent for adult income among men.

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis in Development: Accounting for Local Costs and Noisy Impacts

Effective evidence-based policy making in development requires rigorous measurement of costs as well as impacts. This paper discusses important challenges and relevant solutions for implementing cost-effectiveness analysis and comparing the relative cost-effectiveness of programs across settings in the context of education. Adapting development programs from one context to another requires many assumptions. Most of the discussion of those assumptions, to date, has focused on the context-specificity (or external validity) of impact estimates. This study examines the sensitivity of cost-effectiveness analysis to errors in impact estimates, as well as the sensitivity of costs to context, and explores how biases such as recall and pilot bias may lead to over- or under-estimates of cost-effectiveness. We use data on the cost-effectiveness of 27 student learning programs and 16 attendance-boosting programs across Africa and Asia to demonstrate the magnitude of these challenges, as well as potential solutions. We show that comparing Monte Carlo simulations of cost-effectiveness to certain benchmarks and adapting the largest cost elements to local prices (i.e., parameter variation analysis) can remove much of the uncertainty surrounding cost-effectiveness estimates, and we propose that biases can be minimized through the use of detailed templates for cost reporting at the time of program implementation. Thus, this paper not only provides evidence of previously neglected challenges for cost-effectiveness analysis, but – more importantly – provides practical recommendations for undertaking this crucial stage in development planning well.

The Effect of Providing Breakfast in Class on Student Performance

AbstractMany schools have recently experimented with moving breakfast from the cafeteria to the classroom. We examine whether such a program increases achievement, grades, and attendance rates. We exploit quasi‐random timing of program implementation that allows for a difference‐in‐differences identification strategy. We find that providing breakfast in class relative to the cafeteria raises math and reading achievement by 0.09 and 0.06 standard deviations, respectively. These effects are most pronounced for low‐performing, free lunch‐eligible, Hispanic, and low body mass index students. A lack of differences by exposure time and effects on grades suggest that these impacts are on test‐taking performance rather than learning. At the same time, the results highlight the possibility that measured achievement may be biased downwards, and accountability penalties may be inappropriately applied, in schools where many students do not consume breakfast.

Implementation of a Training and Structured Skills Assessment Program for Medical Assistants in a Primary Care Setting

As part of ongoing efforts to improve quality of care through clinical education of our medical assisting staff, we developed a competency-based training and assessment program. At the time of program implementation, we assessed clinical skills of 111 certified medical assistants and found that 10% were unable to accurately measure blood pressure, 9% were unable to correctly perform an intradermal injection, and 48% were unable to correctly draw specified volumes into syringes. More than 10 years after program implementation, we continue to detect and remediate clinical skills in newly hired employees. This case study report describes the evolution of the program and assessment findings.

Early interventions and infant health: Evidence from the Danish home visiting program

This paper uses unique historical data from Denmark to estimate the effects of the introduction of a universal home visiting program for mothers and their infants from 1937 through 1949. To identify the effects of the program on infant survival rates, the paper exploits exogenous variation in the timing of program implementation across municipalities. Using data for all Danish towns, I find a significant and positive effect on infant survival rates of around 0.5–0.8% or around 5–8 lives saved per 1000 live births at the mean infant survival rate for the period. The program was effective in the great majority of relatively small Danish towns of the time, where the treatment constituted the first large-scale and publicly funded initiative to combat infant mortality. My main finding is robust to the inclusion of town-specific time trends, the control for time-varying socio-economic town characteristics, and the omission of towns with potentially confounding efforts to fight infant mortality. Using complementary data at higher levels of aggregation, I find some indication for the program contributing to the decrease of mortality from acute enteritis, a major cause of infant death at the time. This finding suggests that an important mechanism behind the program's effect was the nurses' promotion of breastfeeding and proper infant nutrition. Finally, a stylized analysis of the costs of the home visiting program shows that they were modest when compared to estimates from similar contexts, namely, home visiting in the U.S. and clean water supply. Future research should use comprehensive Danish register data to examine potential long-run returns to home visiting.

Clinical Outcomes and Pharmacists' Acceptance of a Community Hospital's Anticoagulation Management Service Utilizing Decentralized Clinical Staff Pharmacists

In 2008, the Joint Commission released an updated National Patient Safety Goals document that requires institutions to implement practices that reduce the likelihood of patient harm associated with use of anticoagulation therapy. One of the expectations associated with this goal was that each organization would establish an anticoagulant management program. To our knowledge, few data exist to describe the implementation and assessment of anticoagulation programs in smaller, nonteaching community hospitals using decentralized pharmacists in an integrated practice model. To compare the performance of a protocol-driven anticoagulation management service led by decentralized pharmacists in a nonteaching community hospital with that of usual medical care provided by hospitalist physicians before this program was implemented. Based on these results, as well as a pharmacist satisfaction survey, evaluate the service and identify barriers to expansion. We conducted a retrospective cohort study comparing 50 consecutive patients who were starting warfarin for the first time beginning in November 2003 with 50 patients managed by hospitalist physicians prior to November 2002 (the time of program implementation). There were no significant differences between groups with regard to time in therapeutic range once therapeutic, length of stay, international normalized ratios (INRs) greater than 3.5, or INRs less than 2. Patients in the pharmacy management group had significantly fewer drug interactions with antimicrobials than did the usual medical care group. Although time to therapeutic range was longer in the pharmacy protocol group, there were fewer patients with INRs greater than 3.5, although this did not reach statistical significance. The efficacy of the pharmacist-led anticoagulation management service was no different from that of usual medical care. Patient safety appeared improved, in part due to more careful initial dose selection based on patient-specific factors. Although this program was accepted by pharmacists, time limitations were perceived to be a major barrier to quality care and expansion of the service.

Effects of the Communities That Care Model in Pennsylvania on Youth Risk and Problem Behaviors

We undertook the first broad-scale quasi-experimental evaluation of youth outcomes in communities using the Communities That Care program (Hawkins, J. D., & Catalano, R. F., Jr. San Francisco, CA, USA: Jossey-Bass Inc, Publishers, 1992a), which targets adolescent problem behaviors. We evaluated 15 risk factors and 6 outcomes (substance use and delinquent behaviors) for 38,107 youth in 2001 and 98,436 youth in 2003 in Pennsylvania schools. Multilevel analyses compared student reports in communities with CTC programs to comparable communities without CTC, while controlling for level of poverty in the community. Results favored the CTC communities at greater than chance levels in terms of lower rates of some risk factors and outcomes. In a follow-up analysis, CTC community grade cohorts were included only if the grade cohort was expected to benefit from a CTC sponsored program (based on timing of program implementation and target age of the program). Evidence of CTC effects for grade cohorts that received evidence-based programs was even stronger. These findings suggest that community coalitions can affect adolescent public health problems at a population level, especially when evidence-based programs are utilized.

Testing for Structural Breaks in the Evaluation of Programs

A youth homicide reduction initiative in Boston in the mid- 1990s poses particular difficulties for program evaluation because it did not have a control group and the exact implementation date is unknown. A standard methodology in program evaluation is to use time series variation to compare pre- and postprogram outcomes. Such an approach is not valid, however, when the timing of program implementation or effect is unknown. To evaluate the Boston initiative, we adapt from the time series literature an unknown-breakpoint test to test for a change in regime. Tests for parameter instability provide a flexible framework for testing a range of hypotheses commonly posed in program evaluation. These tests both pinpoint the timing of maximal break and provide a valid test of statistical significance. We evaluate the results of the estimation using the asymptotic results in the literature and with our own Monte Carlo analyses. We conclude there was a statistically significant discontinuity in youth homicide incide...