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2019-07-30
W.K. Kellogg Foundation;
As the country becomes more diverse, schools that successfully engage all families will transform learning and leadership. This executive summary captures "takeways" from partnerships forged by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) to create environments where teachers, families and community members can effectively collaborate and share power.
2018-03-07
Commonwealth Fund;
Issue: Managed care organizations (MCOs) are integral to Medicaid payment and delivery reform efforts. In states that expanded Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act, MCOs have experienced a surge in enrollment of adults with complex needs.
Goal: To understand MCO experiences in Medicaid expansion states and learn about innovations related to access to care, care delivery, payment, and integration of health and social services to address nonmedical needs.
Methods: Interviews with leaders of 17 MCOs in 10 states that have seen large Medicaid enrollment growth and have undertaken payment and delivery reforms.
Findings and Conclusions: MCO leaders regard their ability to enroll and serve the Medicaid expansion populations as a signal achievement. They have focused on identifying and helping high-risk populations and addressing the social determinants of health. MCOs are testing value-based payment strategies that link payment with performance and are increasingly focused on engaging patients in their care. Leaders report common challenges: setting appropriate payment rates; managing members whose needs differ from traditional Medicaid beneficiaries; ensuring access to specialty care; and effectively implementing payment reform and practice transformation. All point to the need for a stable policy environment and a strong working relationship with state Medicaid agencies.
2017-03-23
Environmental Working Group;
As the southern Great Plains get hotter and drier, is federal policy that encourages farmers not to adapt to climate change leading to another Dust Bowl?
That's the troubling question raised by a new EWG report that shows how a provision in the federal crop insurance program provides a strong financial incentive for growers to plant the same crops in the same way, year in and year out, regardless of changing climate conditions. What's worse, this program is focused on the same southern Great Plains counties hit hardest by the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, the worst man-made environmental disaster in American history.
The federal crop insurance program guarantees farmers' earnings from their crops won't fall below a percentage of their usual income. The percentage is set based on a multi-year average of a farmer's actual crop yields. Averaging good and bad years grounds the program in reality.
But a provision called the Actual Production History Yield Exclusion – snuck into the 2014 Farm Bill during conference negotiations – allows growers to drop bad years from their average crop yield calculations. The government simply pretends these bad years didn't happen. In some cases, more than 15 bad years can be thrown out when calculating the average yield, resulting in artificially inflated insurance payouts.
It makes sense for crop insurance to give growers a break if they're occasionally hit by one or two bad years, but keeping growers on a treadmill of failed crops and insurance payouts is foolish. Helping farmers adapt to the new weather conditions would be considerably better, and was exactly what helped growers survive the Dust Bowl and return to productivity.
The southern Great Plains are getting hotter and drier. Drought has been common over the last 10 years and forecasts show the number of days above 100 degrees quadrupling by 2050. Implementing conservation practices to adapt to changing climate conditions is vital for growers who want to stay in business.
Some, but not enough, growers are already adopting conservation techniques in this region. Savings from ending the misguided yield exclusion policy could be used to help more growers change the way they farm to face the challenges posed by a changing climate.
2017-01-01
Opportunity Fund;
As two of the nation's leading nonprofit small business lenders, Accion, The US Network (Accion) and Opportunity Fund help entrepreneurs thrive by providing affordable capital and support services so they can start a new business endeavor or grow an existing enterprise.
Accion and Opportunity Fund came together to develop a first-of-its-kind national longitudinal study of the impact of small business loans in the United States. With lead funding from The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, and with support from S&P Global, the study aims to uncover the qualitative impacts of lending on individuals, their businesses, and their broader communities. This study, conducted by Harder+Company Community Research, builds on the body of previous evaluation work that showed small businesses that receive loans create and retain jobs, increase revenue, and have high business survival rates. Following a cohort of more than 500 borrowers across the country, this study examines how business owners define success and how access to finance improves their entrepreneurial goals, financial health, and quality of life. By focusing on the longer-term impacts of small business lending while examining variations due to business type, geography, and other factors, the study will help deepen our understanding of how mission-based business lending impacts individuals, families, and communities.
This report includes preliminary findings collected during this first phase of the study. While entrepreneurs reported perceived and actual impact to date, these changes will be tracked over time to examine the ways in which they are or are not sustained, and how these changes compare across and within lending regions.
2016-09-28
Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.;
The Colorado Health Foundation (the Foundation) established a three-and-a-half year funding opportunity, the Team-based Care Initiative (TBCI), to support participating practices in optimizing their existing care teams to deliver high quality, coordinated care. In the planning phase, launched in February 2015, 30 practices received technical assistance to develop work plans and budgets for expanding team-based care (TBC). External coaches provided technical assistance and conducted assessments to support the practices and track progress. In the implementation phase, launched in June 2015, 20 of the 30 practices received funding to implement TBC. Technical assistance providers are delivering support to them through coaching, education, personal consultations, and learning forums.
Mathematica is evaluating participating practices on their progress incorporating the five principles of TBC: shared goals, clear roles, effective communication, mutual trust, and measurable processes and outcomes (Mitchell et al. 2012). These five principles align with the five domains of the TBC success rubric: patient engagement, patient experience, team member experience, practice change, and sustainability. The success rubric and TBC principles informed our evaluation design and research questions, which structure this report.
This is the first of three annual reports that focus on how practice teams plan for and change the ways they deliver care, the barriers and facilitators to change, how technical assistance supports change, and how changes are affecting clinician, staff, and patient satisfaction. This report focuses on practices' initial experiences during the implementation phase of TBCI, including their plans for change. Our analyses rely on data from the baseline survey of clinicians and staff (August 2015), baseline telephone interviews with practice leaders (November and December 2015), baseline and follow-up primary care team guide assessment (PCTGA; May 2015 and February 2016), and the baseline patient survey (May and June 2016). We thank the members of the participating practices, the Technical Assistance Provider team, the practice coaches, and Foundation staff for their contributions to this report.
2016-08-23
Colorado Trust;
In 2013, The Colorado Trust began funding the Health Equity Learning Series (HELS). The purpose of HELS was to increase knowledge and awareness of the social determinants of health (SDOH) in Colorado. A series of speakers annually spoke in Denver, primarily to the local nonprofit community. At the same time, grants were awarded to nonprofit organizations in 65 communities around the state to host "viewing parties," giving others outside of Denver the opportunity to hear the speaker and have a discussion. Among the 65 organizations over the course of three years, seven were awarded grants all three years, thereby hosting community events for approximately 12 speakers. This report is based on qualitative interviews conducted with these seven grantees. The purpose of the interviews was to understand how these organizations and communities applied lessons from HELS speakers to their daily work, how HELS impacted their efforts and how they were able to implement informed action as a result.
2016-08-23
Colorado Trust;
Is Colorado ready to talk about the role of racism in health equity? This is one of the questions grantees raised and discussed at the end of the 2015 Health Equity Learning Series (HELS). To better understand the answer, and explore perceptions of racism and its role in preventing health equity in their communities, the 22 Colorado Trust grantees were interviewed by project evaluator Melanie Tran of the University of Colorado Denver.
At the last HELS event of 2015, john a. powell, JD, executive director of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at University of California, Berkeley, spoke powerfully about racism as a social determinant of health. Many of the HELS grantees felt it was time for racism to be at the center of conversations around health equity, despite it being a difficult subject from which many people steer away. With what one interviewee called the "privilege of ignorance" in mind, grantees expressed varying perspectives on racism as a factor in health equity, community readiness to address racism issues and strategies to combat racism in their communities.
2016-08-01
Colorado Trust;
Is Colorado ready to talk about the role of racism in health equity? This is one of the questions grantees raised and discussed at the end of the 2015 Health Equity Learning Series (HELS). To better understand the answer, and explore perceptions of racism and its role in preventing health equity in their communities, the 22 Colorado Trust grantees were interviewed by project evaluator Melanie Tran of the University of Colorado Denver.
2016-08-01
Colorado Trust;
In 2013, The Colorado Trust began funding the Health Equity Learning Series (HELS). The purpose of HELS was to increase knowledge and awareness of the social determinants of health (SDOH) in Colorado. A series of speakers annually spoke in Denver, primarily to the local nonprofit community. At the same time, grants were awarded to nonprofit organizations in 65 communities around the state to host "viewing parties," giving others outside of Denver the opportunity to hear the speaker and have a discussion.
Among the 65 organizations over the course of three years, seven were awarded grants all three years, thereby hosting community events for approximately 12 speakers. This report is based on qualitative interviews conducted with these seven grantees. The purpose of the interviews was to understand how these organizations and communities applied lessons from HELS speakers to their daily work, how HELS impacted their efforts and how they were able to implement informed action as a result.
2016-07-15
Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice;
Prison and parole population rates are similar in Colorado compared to the states as a whole. However, parolees are more likely to be reincarcerated compared to the states as a whole. Just over one-quarter of parole hearings lead to a discretionary release, while the remaining hearings lead to a deferral of some type. Colorado currently practices discretionary release for the majority of offenders, including violent offenders, sex offenders, property offenders, drug offenders, and public order offenders.
2016-05-03
Hispanics in Philanthropy;
For the past three-and-a-half years, through the HIP to College initiative, Hispanicsin Philanthropy has worked diligently to strengthen the academic success of Latino students and the long-term community advancement that results from their earning postsecondary degrees. With the support of generous partners, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the HIP to College initiative in North Carolina and Colorado worked to develop networks that support Latino students through high school and into college. Improving outcomes for Latino students is the priority of the HIP Education Focused Initiative. The success of this initiative has been remarkable. HIP is optimistic about the future of this work and its role in cultivating an educational landscape and partnerships in the United States that help Latino students thrive.
2016-03-01
WestEd;
The evaluation team collected general data on states' Common Core efforts by reviewing recent news articles, journals, online documents, and systems-change literature. Using this knowledge base, the team drafted driving research questions for this final report that focused on exploring how states' higher education systems are involved in standards efforts today, including aligning course sequences, updating placement policies, and supporting faculty awareness of college readiness standards. These research questions informed an interview protocol through which the team engaged several Core to College states in semi-structured conversations.
The WestEd team spoke by phone with key Core to College contacts from seven of the Core to College states: Colorado, Hawai'i, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington. These individuals (many held the title of Alignment Director under the grant) had been part of the Core to College work and, for the most part, are still involved in work that has evolved from the initiative. The other four states involved in the initiative did not have applicable staff for the team to speak with.
This report uses a case-study approach to describe how three of the Core to College states -- Washington, Hawai'i, and Louisiana -- continue their Core to College–initiated efforts of aligning K–12 and postsecondary education systems to better prepare students for college. The case studies include details about key components of each state's respective Core to College work, including the state's history with systemschange efforts in education; key staff and organizations that "championed" the Core to College efforts and promoted cross‑system collaboration; specific strategies used to align the state's K–12 and higher education systems; the state's approach to standardized assessments and course-placement policies; and key outcomes of the Core to Collegerelated efforts.
