News

02/21/12

Expanded Requirements of Higher Education Act (HEA) Title II Accountability to Be Supported by Westat

Westat will support the expanded requirements of the Higher Education Act (HEA) Title II Accountability provisions. Westat has provided support to the U.S. Department of Education on the Title II data collection since its inception in 1998.

The 2008 reauthorization of HEA Title II greatly expanded data collection requirements, including far more detailed teacher preparation program (TPP) information.

All TPPs must report separately, effectively increasing the number of respondents to include 59 entities and outlying areas as well as nearly 1,500 traditional and alternative TPPs.

Westat is supporting both state and TPP reporting. General responsibilities include

• Customer service
• Outreach and training
• Enhancing and maintaining a data collection system and public web site
• Preparing the Secretary's annual report on teacher preparation and certification/licensure

For more information: Contact Westat

02/14/12

Digital Health Communication Conference Features Westat Expert

Amelia Burke, senior director of digital media in Westat's Health Communications Group, is a featured speaker at the Digital Health Communication Extravaganza (external site) (DHCX) in Orlando, Florida, from February 15–17, 2012. Her presentation, Connecting the Dots: Using Social Media to Measure Behavior Change in Public Health Campaigns, uses examples from CDC's influenza vaccination campaign to demonstrate how social media can promote and measure campaign success.

DHCX brings together researchers and practitioners from academia, government, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector to take a deep dive into the digital age as it relates to health communication, education, information, monitoring, marketing, and new media. Participants will discover, discuss, and develop new methods to effectively and efficiently apply digital resources in community and health care settings to obtain optimal behavior changes and health outcomes.

Check the Health Communication Group's Facebook(external site) page and Twitter(external site) feed for live updates from the conference.

For more information: Contact Westat

02/10/12

Westat Staff to Participate at Statistical Practice Conference

Westat staff will be participating at the inaugural American Statistical Association Conference on Statistical Practice (external site) on February 16-18 in Orlando, Florida.

The conference will provide opportunities for attendees to learn new statistical methodologies and best practices in statistical analysis, consulting, and statistical programming.

The program consists of sessions focusing on three main topics: research and development, engineering and operations; business analytics; and communications, impact and career development.

Westat staff participating at the conference are as follows:

• David Morganstein will give a presentation, Statistical Consulting: Best Practices, and then participate in a panel discussion on consulting.
• Barnali Das will present a poster, Novel Use of Predictive Marginals in Interpretation of Complex Models.
• Sylvia Dohrmann is on the organizing committee for the conference.

For more information: Contact Westat

01/17/12

Westat Staff to Participate in Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting

Westat staff will be participating in the 91st annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) to be held January 22-26, 2012. The theme for the meeting is Transportation: Putting Innovation and People to Work.

The meeting is held in Washington, DC, each year and attracts about 11,000 participants from the Federal and state governments, private industry, and academia worldwide. The TRB conference has 650 sessions covering all modes of transportation, including aviation, marine, rail, and highway, and also hosts workshops and committee meetings.

TRB is one of six major divisions of the National Research Council—a private, nonprofit institution that is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities.

Westat transportation experts serve as members and friends of numerous committees and are also active participants in conference sessions. Here is a brief rundown of staff activity at the conference. For more details on the time and location of each session, refer to the conference's (external site)interactive program.

• Mark Freedman has worked with the Travel Survey Methods Committee (ABJ40) for more than 10 years. He is also a friend of the Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Transportation Committee (ANB50), the Occupant Restraint Committee (ANB45), and the Vehicle User Characteristics/Young Drivers Subcommittee (ANB30(1)). Mr. Freedman is also a member of the TRB Task Force on Understanding New Directions for the National Household Travel Survey (ABJ45T).

• Neil Lerner, Ph.D., will be making an informal presentation on Westat's, Evaluation of a Prototype Safe Teen Car to the Young Driver Subcommittee (ANB30(1)). He also is active in the Vehicle User Characteristics Committee and regularly attends the Human Factors Workshop that immediately precedes the conference.
• Fran Bents is a friend of the Motorcycle Safety Committee (AND30) and the Truck and Bus Safety Subcommittee (ANB70). Ms. Bents also serves as a friend of the EMS Safety Subcommittee (ANB(10)5).
• James Jenness, Ph.D., is a member of the Vehicle User Characteristics Committee (AND10) and has served as the paper review coordinator for that committee for the past 2 years.
• Adele Polson is a member of the Occupant Protection Committee (ANB45) and will provide an update on Westat's restraint use observation projects to the committee.
• Susan Swain is a member of the TRB Travel Survey Methods Committee (ABJ40).

For more information: Contact Westat

01/01/12

Bob Fay, Ph.D., Elected AAAS Fellow

Westat Senior Scientist Bob Fay has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

AAAS cited Dr. Fay for his "major innovative contributions to Federal statistics, and survey sampling theory and practice, particularly in the areas of small area estimation, variance estimation, and imputation."

The election by the AAAS represents recognition by one of the nation's most prestigious science and mathematics bodies. AAAS has selected Fellows since 1874. It is the world's largest general scientific society and includes 262 affiliated societies and academies of science.

Dr. Fay came to Westat in 2008 after a distinguished career at the U.S. Census Bureau, where he served as senior mathematical statistician from 1990 to 2007. Since 2009, he's been a research professor at the University of Maryland and an adjunct professor at the University of Michigan (through the Joint Program in Survey Methodology).

A member of AAAS since 1987, Dr. Fay currently chairs the American Statistical Association Committee of Representatives to AAAS. He has served on the Board of Reviewing Editors of the AAAS journal, Science, as well as been a frequent peer reviewer of submissions to the journal. He has published in Science as well.

For more information: Contact Westat

01/06/12

Roger Tourangeau, Ph.D., Joins Westat

Roger Tourangeau, Ph.D., has joined Westat as a Vice President. Dr. Tourangeau is an internationally renowned survey methodologist with an extensive research background in statistics and survey research methods. He has authored several books and book chapters, and has published many articles in a wide variety of leading journals.

For the last decade, Dr. Tourangeau was a professor at the University of Michigan and served as the director of the Joint Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Maryland. Prior to that time he worked at various organizations, including NORC and Gallup.

Dr. Tourangeau will join J. Michael Brick, Ph.D., in directing Westat survey methods in the Statistical Group.

We look forward to working with Dr. Tourangeau as he joins our organization.

For more information: Contact Westat

01/04/12

Implementation of Title I/II Program Initiatives to Be Evaluated by Westat

For the U.S. Department of Education, Westat is leading the study design, data collection via web-based surveys, and analysis for an evaluation of the implementation of Titles I and II of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). ESEA is undergoing reauthorization. The uncertain timing of reauthorization and its final reforms as well as ESEA flexibility provisions are key challenges for the evaluation. The Westat team’s overall design strategy is to trace the potential effects of ESEA’s reauthorization and flexibility provisions on

• State, district, and school policies and programs
• Intermediate outcomes related to requirements and resources the reauthorization provides
• Student outcomes, particularly improved college and career-ready graduates

The proposed analyses will compare these potential effects across states, between high-poverty and other districts, and between Title I and non-Title I schools. The proposed data collection approach includes web-based surveys of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, 364 districts, 1,456 schools (principals), and 6 to 7 teachers per school (approximately 10,000 teachers) during the 2012-13, 2014-15, and 2016-17 school years.

For more information: Contact Westat