Dear CRESP Community,
With the sights and sounds of the changing seasons, we at CRESP are embracing this fall with several new projects and offering our warmest welcome to new staff members, including three who are featured in this newsletter. Together as we continue to grapple with the long-term impacts of COVID-19 and work to address disparities in health and education, our hope is that CRESPs work can inspire and contribute toward continued progress.
In this edition, we are excited to tell you about several projects that we have been working on over the past few months, including a study with the University's Center for Disabilities Studies (CDS) to understand personal and environmental barriers to COVID-19 vaccination among those with disabilities in the state. Another is a study of the home health nursing workforce in Delaware, including the way that COVID-19 impacted services and how telehealth was utilized during critical months. This issue also provides an update on a study examining the experiences of Black girls in Delaware, with voices from 186 Black girls aged 10 and older. Findings raise important questions about how efforts in the state are supporting the health and self-esteem of our Black girls and what more needs to be done to address racism and bias in schools and communities.
If you would like to learn more about these or other efforts, please reach out to CRESP at cresp-info@udel.edu.
Sincerely,
Co-Directors: Henry May, Ph.D. & Allison Karpyn, Ph.D.
Senior Associate Director: Sue Giancola, Ph.D.
Associate Director: Jeff Klein, Ed.D.
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Strengthening COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution for Delawareans with Disabilities
CRESP and the Center for Disabilities Studies (CDS) were contracted by the Delaware Division of Services for Aging and Adults with Physical Disabilities to understand and address personal and environmental barriers to receiving the COVID-19 vaccine for people with disabilities. CRESP and CDS will be conducting this study during fall 2021 and spring 2022; it will include a gap analysis focusing on barriers to access as well as interventions to create an accessible and inclusive experience for people with disabilities.
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Healthy food financing programs in the USA are about to get an enormous financial boost
A time for research reckoning: positioning
equity at the center of healthy food research
Dr. Allison Karpyn, for the past 17 years has worked to better understand the ways in which places with limited access to healthy food impact the people who live there, and the outcomes of interventions. Many have come to know the term “Food Deserts” as a way to characterize places with limited access to affordable nutritious food. A recent publication The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health brings to light the need for health-oriented research to re-think the ways in which improving food environments improve health. In the piece, Dr. Karpyn recognizes that there is a need for better aligning theory with research practice, including examining new outcome measures which recognize equity as a critical change agent toward health.
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Research that matters
Developing machine learning and
statistics for data in education and social policy
The MUDD lab was founded by Dr. Zachary K. Collier, an Assistant Professor in Educational Statistics and Research Methods at the University of Delaware (UD). His MUDD lab develops innovative analytical methods for the social and behavioral sciences, which can contain difficult to use (or muddy) data. The MUDD Lab is part of the larger Center for Research in Education and Social Policy and the Data Science Institute community at UD. To learn more contact Dr. Collier's MUDD Lab at colliermuddlab.com
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How can we learn how to support Black Girls to healthy adulthood? |
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Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (HPDP) Study Examines Health, Economic, Educational Outcomes and Other Issues Impacting Black girls living in Delaware
Black Girls in Delaware Study
In January 2020, the Delaware Chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women (NC100BW-DE), the University of Delaware’s (UD) Partnership for Healthy Communities (PHC), and Delaware Health and Social Services (DHSS) initiated a study to highlight the lived experiences of Black girls in Delaware. NC100BW-DE sought Delaware State University (DSU) Women and Gender Studies as a contributor of student narratives to the project and contracted with CRESP to conduct the study. In June 2020, the Delaware Clinical and Translational Research Program (DE-CTR) supported the partnership through its ACCEL Strategic Initiatives Partnership Program (ASIPP). The resulting Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (HPDP) Research-Practice Partnership includes NC100BW-DE, DHSS, DSU, UD-PHC, DE-CTR ACCEL, and UD-CRESP. Over the past year, CRESP conducted interviews and focus groups with 70 Black girls in Delaware between the ages of 10 and 19. In addition, a survey was administered to 186 Black girls ages 10 and up. Areas of focus include health, self-esteem, relationships, racism, school experiences, resilience, and social media use. Study findings will begin to be released by the NC100BW-DE on November 9th at 5:30pm. To register for the event, go to https://shoutout.wix.com/so/c5Nnrt56b?languageTag=en
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Private Duty Nursing Workforce Capacity Study |
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Children with medical complexities (CMC) are a group of medically fragile children and youth with a wide range of multiple and diverse care needs depending on their health conditions. This population of children receives health services from multiple medical and community providers in order to maintain their health, well-being, and quality of life. A recurring concern is whether the current private duty nursing workforce is sufficient to meet the needs of children with medically complex needs in Delaware. In 2020, Delaware Health and Social Services (DHSS) Division of Medicaid and Medical Assistance (DMMA) contracted with the University of Delaware Center for Disabilities Studies (CDS) and CRESP to conduct a study examining the capacity of the home health nursing workforce to serve CMCs. CDS and CRESP jointly designed the study, while CRESP conducted the study in the spring and summer of 2021. CRESP has recently completed a series of reports addressing private duty nursing workforce capacity for CMC from the perspectives of stakeholder groups (families, nurses, and agencies), as well as speaking to the particular impact of COVID-19 on services for CMC and how telehealth was utilized during the pandemic by nurses and families.
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Learning about District Research Leaders
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Dr. Samantha Shewchuk and Dr. Elizabeth Farley-Ripple of CRESP have been involved in a project to develop infrastructure to support greater opportunities to use research evidence in education practice. As part of the project, they are working with researchers who are district leaders in school districts across the U.S, who are responsible for leading their district’s research portfolio and knowledge mobilization efforts. Shewchuk and Farley-Ripple conducted a job and resume analysis in order to construct an initial profile of district research leaders (DRLs). Through this work, insights were gained regarding the individual characteristics, job demands, and organizational contexts of DRLs. From this analysis came the Taxonomy of DRL Job Tasks. The taxonomy is designed to be useful to districts working on job design and developing job candidate assessments. Those who are currently DRLs and those who aspire to be can use it to reflect on and expand their knowledge, skills, and experiences. Shewchuk and Farley-Ripple built on these findings with a survey of DRLs to better understand their actual work as knowledge mobilizers. The survey and survey brief can both be found on the CRESP website. Case studies are currently underway to learn more about the role of DRLs by examining the strategies, challenges, and successes of DRLs when mobilizing research to inform and improve policy, program, and practice decisions and actions across school districts. The purpose of the case studies is to gain insights into whether knowledge mobilization is occurring within districts and under what conditions knowledge mobilization is successful. Dr. Shewchuk recently presented this work at the Society of Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE) at its Annual Meeting in September. Dr. Henry May, Director of CRESP and Atnre Alleyne, a CRESP Advisory Committee member, chaired this Annual Meeting.
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CRESP Presentations and Workshops |
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November 9th 2021
5:30 PM – 6:30 PM
Zoom
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IES PI Meeting
Jan. 25-27, 2022
Washington, D.C.
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Dr. Katrina Morrison, CRESP Research Associate, will present on Black Girls in Delaware Study. Areas of focus include health, self-esteem, relationships, racism, school experiences, resilience, and social media use. Study findings will begin to be released by the NC100BW-DE To register for the event, go to https://shoutout.wix.com/so/c5Nnrt56b?
Dr. Henry May, Dr. Elizabeth Farley-Ripple, and Dr. Samantha Shewchuk from the Center for Research Use in Education (CRUE) will present their findings from their work surveying educators and education researchers. They will be making recommendations for the education research community to facilitate the understanding and use of evidence in practice.
In the spring of 2022, CRUE will be sponsoring a webinar series for educators on evidence-based decision-making based on the findings from our research. The four webinars will include:
- findings from research to increase evidence-based decision-making
- tools schools and districts can use to assess research use
- strategies that support research use
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establishing networks to connect with and mobilize research
For dates of the webinars for educators and for researchers, contact crue-info@udel.edu
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Published in Journals & Effective Evaluations |
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UD CRESP team evaluated and highlighted these findings below in 2021
"Barriers and Facilitators to Discussing Parent Mental Health within Child Health Care: Perspectives of Parents Raising a Child with Congenital Heart Disease. Journal of Child Health Care
Franklin MK, Karpyn A., Christofferson J., McWhorter LG., Demianczyk AC., Brosig CL., Jackson EA., Lihn S., Zyblewski SC., Kazak AE., Sood E. (forthcoming)
Karpyn, A., Headley, MG., Knowles, Z., Hepburn, E., Kennedy N., Wolgast, H., Riser, D., Osei Sarfo, Akisha R.
Brousseau, N. M., Farmer, H., Karpyn, A., Laurenceau, JP., Kelly, J.F., Hill, E.C., Earnshaw, V.A.
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McKenna Halverson is a first-year PhD student in the Human Development and Family Sciences program. "CRESP is a great fit for me because I am interested in conducting policy-relevant research focused on improving healthy food access and making food systems more equitable. I appreciate CRESP's commitment to community-driven work and look forward to learning more about the team's current partnerships." Prior to UD, McKenna obtained her master's degree from Villanova University where she worked in the Adversity and Resilience in Development Lab.
Fun fact, she is a member of the 2016 South Dakota Farm Family of the Year. Although she is a city girl at heart, she grew up driving tractors, fixing fences, and working cattle. She is currently working on the farmers' market incentive outcomes paper with Allison Karpyn. She just published a commentary with Dr. Karpyn and two other co-authors titled, "A time for research reckoning: Positioning equity at the centre of healthy food research."
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Zoey Lu is a new CRESP Postdoctoral Associate, who was drawn to CRESP because of her skills and research interests. The College Readiness project, her primary project, is a great fit for her extensive expertise analyzing and managing longitudinal educational data using advanced statistical analytic techniques. In addition, Zoey is really interested in what CRESP is doing to bridge the gap between secondary and postsecondary education to improve enrollment and retention in higher education. Zoey appreciates the opportunity to be here and looks forward to highlighting how she will excel in this role.
Zoey spent most of her teenage years living in Uruguay and Argentina. She misses the food and the Latina culture that she was exposed to as a young child. Zoey enjoys traveling, but owing to school, COVID, and life in general, Zoey hasn't been able to do much traveling, recently. In addition, she enjoys playing the piano. Because of the government shutdown last year, she bought an electric piano to brush up on her piano skills. It has proven to be a great investment in helping her to relax and remain focused through tough circumstances. Last but not least, Zoey is extremely pleased to see the rising influence that the Korean entertainment is having on western culture. I was first introduced to K-music and K-drama when I was in 8th grade. Since then, Zoey has been a fan of K-entertainment. Zoey spoke about the most talked about K-drama on Twitter right now, “Squid Games”. She highly recommends it for adults.
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Sam Van Horne is a Data Scientist who was interested in returning to work on research projects that are centered on evaluating the efficacy of different kinds of interventions. His first position after graduate school involved examining the adoption and efficacy of different instructional interventions or learning environments that could promote student learning. "I very much enjoyed that work because we were making a difference for instructors and students." So when he saw the ad for the data scientist position, he was attracted to the mission of CRESP and wanted to work on the kinds of projects that CRESP has in its large portfolio.
"I love to fly fish and enjoy finding new trout streams to visit. I also enjoy building LEGOs. My wife and I are avid board game players. Currently, we are obsessed with Wingspan.
Most of his time is devoted to working with CRUE on the educator and researcher surveys. I will also be working on an evaluation project for CTR-ACCEL, a project to help the Center for Disabilities Studies develop a reporting mechanism based on data from several surveys. In the near future, I also expect to be working on a project in math instruction with Dr. Cirillo and on analyzing the outcomes of a writing curriculum with Dr. MacArthur.
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With Covid-19 numbers decreasing, CRESP is looking forward to times when we will all be able to work in the same space again and go to conferences beyond Zoom. The UD community and CRESP continues to work diligently on our center and community goals. |
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Pearson Hall
125 Academy Street
Newark, DE 19716
Phone: 302-831-2928
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