The following is a brief description of some of MOBIUS Corporation's ongoing and completed projects.
Partnership to Ensure Quality in Assessing, Documenting, and Reporting Head Start Child Outcomes
This large-scale, two-year project is designed to collect and analyze child outcomes data from delegate agencies and collaborative childcare sites funded by the Administration of Children's Services in New York City, New York. Data from approximately 10,000 children will be collected and analyzed to determine the progress children are demonstrating in Language Development, Literacy, Mathematics, and Social and Emotional Development. Over time it will be possible to use these data to investigate key questions regarding trends. The areas of inquiry include the following:
- What are the patterns of progress and accomplishments for groups of children in different domains and indicators of learning and development?
- What are the patterns of outcomes for children in different program option, forms of service, and service areas?
- What are the patterns of outcome data for different groups of children, such as
(a) those who begin at different levels of functioning and
(b) children who receive one or two years of services?
- What are the trends in outcomes data from year to year, in terms of stability and change in patterns of progress and levels of accomplishment?
These children are enrolled in 37 delegate agencies across the five boroughs in New York City. More than 825 administrative, management, teaching staff and parents require training in procedures that ensure quality of child assessment data collection. For classroom staff, the focus of training is using the computer as a tool for assessment and incorporating assessment results into curriculum planning. Administrative and management staff support focuses on interpretation and understanding the results of data aggregation across classrooms and centers funded by the delegate. Including parents extends the participation of the community as part of this process of interpreting and understanding the data.
For this project MOBIUS Corporation provides Outcomes Express software for each classroom; scores and statistically analyzes assessments; prepares data summaries and reports; develops protocols for use by delegate administrative to present findings to planning groups; documents improvements and recommends implementation strategies; plans and delivers workshops for all ACS/NYC project participants; and provides ongoing technical assistance and support for all 37 delegates involved in the project.
State of Pennsylvania CyberStart On-line Classroom Computer Integration Project
MOBIUS Corporation developed the curriculum for the on-line course designed to support the integration of classroom computers into childcare centers throughout the state. The course provides early childhood educators, who are recipients of CyberStart Grants, with practical information on effective use of classroom computers. Additionally, the course includes on-line discussion forums that promote reflection and allow educators to participate in a learning community with their colleagues. This three-week course is offered through Northampton College. The entire course content is delivered on-line using Blackboard. It is estimated that at least 9000 early childhood educators and program directors will have completed the course by July 2003.
The Head Start Migrant Computer Network Project
MOBIUS Corporation is assisting Migrant Head Start grantees across the nation, first, to computerize their internal child and family record keeping operations, and second, to share data with other migrant grantees using a national telephone-system based communications system. The long-range purpose of this three-year project was to improve services to the highly mobile migrant population by coordinating the efforts of all grantees as families travel up and down the migrant agricultural streams.
The Head Start/IBM Partnership Project
MOBIUS was chosen by IBM Corporation and ACF to conduct all design, development, field installation, training, and evaluation activities for the Head Start/IBM Partnership Project. This project involved installing custom-designed children's software in 46 Head Start classrooms across the nation. The results of this project were published in a report by MOBIUS Corporation that lead to a major national policy change by the Commissioner of ACF. The MOBIUS funding for this project was provided by IBM Corporation. Read more about the conclusions based on this project in The Future of Early Childhood Computing by Kathleen Hurley.
IBM/Memphis City School Writing to Read Evaluation
International Business Machines Corporation contracted MOBIUS Corporation to conduct an evaluation of IBM's multisensory Writing to Read instructional program in
nine public schools in the Memphis City School System.
The Head Start National Health Survey Analysis
MOBIUS Corporation was contracted by ACF to statistically analyze national survey data collected by the Bureau of the Census under the direction of the National Center for Health Statistics. This important data is the first nationally representative sample of data on Head Start children ever collected, and represents a landmark in the history of Head Start evaluation.
GAO Analysis of State Vocational Educational Reform
The U.S. General Accounting Office contracted MOBIUS Corporation to perform the preliminary data preparation and statistical analysis of data from five major city school
systems across the nation. This analysis was conducted on the NIH mainframe computer system using several state-of-the-art database and statistical analysis software systems.
The Pell Grant Study
MOBIUS staff assisted the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) in research on the administration and management of Pell Grants to college students. Data from surveys of colleges and universities in the United States were analyzed. A special feature of MOBIUS' participation in this effort was the use of a microcomputer-based database editing system, Genedit. This is an innovative software product that MOBIUS has developed for use in statistical analysis of data with microcomputers to analyze and "flag" bad data (illogical entries, improper characters, out of range item responses, etc.) in microcomputer-based data files.
The Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service Project (SITES)
MOBIUS staff worked with the staff of SITES on three important projects: the design of exhibit-specific components for evaluation of their exhibition services; a long term market research plan including the development of a microcomputer based software for exhibitor management functions including the development of database functions for importing and exporting data to and from microcomputers and mainframe computers; and a ten-minute color graphics software on lasers to support the traveling exhibit "LASER AT 25".
Office of Civil Rights (OCR) Vocational Education Survey
MOBIUS staff assisted the Office of Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education, in the development of populations and sampling frames for OCR's survey of vocational education providers in the United States. MOBIUS was responsible for helping OCR to identify and sample institutions that entered the vocational education field after 1979, and categories of institutions that were not included in earlier surveys (e.g., non-collegiate post-secondary programs).
An innovative practice introduced by MOBIUS to OCR for this effort was the integrated use of mainframe and microcomputers for database manipulation. Large scale database operations were performed on mainframe computers; working database files were then down-loaded to a microcomputer; special smaller-scale database operations were implemented on the microcomputer; results were then uploaded to data files on the mainframe computer system. This state-of-the-art integration of micros and mainframes for a database application produced greater efficiency of time and costs that was innovative for its time.
PRC Real Estate: Computerized Personnel Management System
PRC contracted with MOBIUS to develop a computerized personnel record keeping system. This system was designed to store, maintain, and produce custom reports summarizing all personnel information for every one of PRC's employees across the nation. The reports were also designed to incorporate several automatic computation features and to enable multilayered access restrictions by authorized persons to certain sets of data fields.
University of Maryland, University College Projects
MOBIUS has worked with Region III Administration for Children and Families Contractor on several projects providing database definition and development, training, technical assistance, and consultation. Some of the projects are described below.
Talent Pool: MOBIUS staff developed a comprehensive database system to enable special resources (materials, organizations, and consultants/trainers) to be computerized along with key features of the resource (type, target audience, and Head Start objective). Written telephone requests for resources that meet certain request criteria can be entered interactively with the software and then a report ready to be mailed can be generated.
Training Needs Assessment: MOBIUS staff have developed a software program to automate the calculation and report generation from Needs Assessment surveys that the University conducts with all Head Start grantees in Region III. This software program permits rapid entry of survey items, easy user maintenance of the database and the survey instrument, and automatic calculation of relative weights of ranked needs for each grantee, for each state, and for Region III as a whole.
Individual Consultation: MOBIUS staff have also provided extensive administrative and managerial consultation for goal setting, organization development, and strategic planning related to computerization of administrative and management functions.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) Project
MOBIUS has designed and installed an integrated microcomputer database system for administration and management of CBF's 100,000-plus membership records. This system incorporates accounting software, special proprietary membership software, statistical support, and customized report generation.
A second project for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation is a software database program designed for use by the Grassroots program (the BayWatchers). This database program permits the Grassroots staff to use a subset of the main membership and to create a separate record containing much more extensive data on these individuals (the BayWatchers). This software permits Grassroots staff to select precise subsets of individuals who meet many criteria (geography, skill and or interest, access to special equipment, etc.). In this way, appropriately skilled individuals can be quickly mobilized for special issues.
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