A SAMPLER OF COSMOS'S PROJECTS

COSMOS’s projects demonstrate the firm’s ability to carry out a broad variety of assignments. Below are summaries of a cross-section of recent assignments that reflect the diverse capabilities of COSMOS’s staff.

COSMOS, teamed with Brown University and George Mason University, is conducting an evaluation of the MSP program in its entirety.  The evaluation consists of a series of substudies.
SPONSOR: 
Directorate for Education and Human Resources
National Science Foundation
2004-2007

COSMOS, teamed with WestEd (a West Coast education firm), is conducting a multi-year evaluation of comprehensive school reform efforts supported by the U.S. Department of Education. The evaluation includes multiple rounds of surveys to 800 schools and case studies of 30 target and comparison schools.
SPONSOR: 
Policy and Program Studies Service
U.S. Department of Education
2001-2008

TOPIC: National Evaluation of the Voluntary Public School Choice Program

COSMOS is conducting a multi-method evaluation of the U.S. Department of Education’s Voluntary Public School Choice (VPSC) program and its 13 grants. The evaluation team will do case studies, conduct surveys and focus groups, and analyze student achievement data. The evaluation will provide data about the system of schools, programmatic conditions in the implementation of VPSC, and the program’s promotion of educational equity and excellence.
SPONSOR: 
Policy and Program Studies Service
U.S. Department of Education
2002-2008

TOPIC: Designing an Evaluation Strategy for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Research Centers

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) supports 28 prevention research centers nationwide, to conduct research on health promotion and disease prevention. All centers are housed at major academic health centers and schools of public health. COSMOS developed a set of strategies for evaluating these centers, using a combined stakeholder and site visit model, and is creating a training manual to assist with implementation.
SPONSOR: 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
2001-2004

TOPIC: Evaluation of the Urban Systemic Program (USP)

USP seeks to improve K-12 student achievement in mathematics and science education through standards-based reform. The program includes 27 major urban school districts. COSMOS’s evaluation will collect student performance data and also conduct case studies of each of the districts, to determine the extent to which reform was associated with student achievement.
SPONSOR: 
Directorate for Education and Human Resources
National Science Foundation
1999-2006

TOPIC: Evaluation of the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant Program

As one of the largest federal investments in local law enforcement, the U.S. Department of Justice has awarded over $500 million annually to over 3,000 jurisdictions since FY1996. COSMOS’s evaluation has surveyed the jurisdictions, (to determine how they used funds) and did case studies (to investigate the more innovative uses). A surprise finding has been the strong “outcome” orientation of the grantees.
SPONSOR: 
National Institute of Justice
U.S. Department of Justice
1997-2003

TOPIC: Evaluation of SMART START KANSAS

The State of Kansas started Smart Start Kansas, to ensure that all Kansas children enter school ready to learn, by implementing childcare, early childhood education, health, and family support services for children aged zero to five in an array of community partnerships. COSMOS’s evaluation has been reviewing program documents, making site visits, and analyzing archival indicators.
SPONSOR: 
Kansas Children’s Cabinet and Trust Fund
State of Kansas
2001-2006

TOPIC: Evaluation of the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) Program

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) initiated the CSRD program as a major new attempt to reform schools serving disadvantaged students. ED supported COSMOS in conducting field-based studies and collecting student achievement data in a wide array of schools. COSMOS site-visited each school four times, over a two-year period.
SPONSOR: 
Policy and Program Studies Service
U.S. Department of Education
1999-2003

TOPIC: Evaluation of NASA’s HEDS Education Program and Outreach Activities

COSMOS conducted an evaluation of the Human Exploration and Development of Space (HEDS)-sponsored education programs and outreach activities. The final evaluation report provided program abstracts, identified emerging trends, showed alignment of activities and goals, and recommended a series of next steps for the continuation of the education programs and outreach activities.
SPONSOR: 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
2002

TOPIC: National Evaluation of the Comprehensive Gang Model: An Enhanced School/Community Approach to Reducing Youth Gang Crime (also known as the Gang-Free Schools Initiative)

COSMOS is conducting the national cross-site evaluation of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's Gang-Free Schools Initiative at four demonstration sites.  The first phase of the evaluation focused on documenting each site's collaborative planning process.  The second phase of the evaluation will focus on assessing the program's impact by measuring the effect of the grantee's gang-reduction strategies.
SPONSOR: 
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
U.S. Department of Justice
2001-2006

TOPIC: Evaluation of the Office of Minority Health (OMH) Resource Center

COSMOS evaluated OMH's Resource Center (OMH-RC), to determine its effectiveness in developing and disseminating minority health information, as well as to assess the quality and usefulness of services provided to target audiences.  The evaluation also analyzed the extent to which recommendations from previous evaluations have improved customer service and satisfaction.
SPONSOR: 
Office of Minority Health
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
2002-2005

TOPIC: Evaluation of Coalitions for Youth Violence Prevention

COSMOS conducted an evaluation of 29 grants awarded to implement the Coalitions for Youth Violence Prevention Program to decrease violence and victimization among youth. The evaluation documented outcomes, identified successful practices, examined coalition partnerships, documented sustainability activities, and provided recommendations for technical assistance.
SPONSOR: 
Center for Mental Health Services
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
2002-2003

COSMOS assessed the language assistance activities offered by family planning clinics through Title X of the Public Health Service Act. Based on site visits to a specially selected group of promising practices, COSMOS developed a catalog of promising practices to share with the Title X grantee network, also identifying appropriate training and technical assistance for the grantees.
SPONSOR: 
Office of Population Affairs
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
2001-2003

TOPIC: NIST’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)

COSMOS assisted MEP to develop its capacity to use case studies as an evaluation tool. Since 1996, COSMOS has helped MEP to publish five volumes of case studies, documenting exemplary client engagements, workforce initiatives, and the transformation of manufacturing firms. COSMOS also has studied MEP’s partnership with small businesses and initiatives using advanced technologies. COSMOS has worked with MEP to identify model practices and promote its success stories.
SPONSOR: 
National Institute of Standards and Technology
U.S. Department of Commerce
1996-2003

TOPIC: Partnerships to Reduce Juvenile Gun Violence Program

COSMOS evaluated local partnerships that enhance and coordinate youth gun violence prevention strategies by linking law enforcement, the juvenile justice system, and youth-focused community organizations. COSMOS also provided the partnerships with evaluation technical assistance, to conduct continual self-evaluation. The team also completed a widely disseminated inventory of over 300 initiatives, to document promising strategies for the Office of the U.S. Attorney General.
SPONSOR: 
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
U.S. Department of Justice
1997-2001

TOPIC: Provided Sustainability Training and Technical Assistance to Mental Health Grantees

COSMOS provided training and technical assistance to California-based mental health grantees on capacity building, sustainability, public awareness, and evaluation techniques.  COSMOS also evaluated how the grantees used the information received through the training and technical assistance efforts.
SPONSOR: 
The California Endowment
2004-2005

COSMOS is evaluating and providing technical assistance to the PRR project. The project involves grants to several state agencies and tests whether the court sealing of an ex-offender’s records, along with drug treatment, will improve employability and reduce recidivism. The evaluation component is being carried out by the National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., on a subcontract to COSMOS.
SPONSOR: 
Center for Substance Abuse Treatment
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
2001-2003
2004-2006 (Option Years)

TOPIC: National Center for the Advancement of Prevention (NCAP)

COSMOS is teamed with the John Jay College of Criminal Justice as one of several firms participating in NCAP. NCAP is charged with technical assistance by synthesizing prevention research and communicating the results with prevention practitioners. COSMOS’s contributions have focused on assisting with specific types of prevention programs (e.g., family strengthening) as well as defining broader national trends in prevention.
SPONSOR: 
Center for Substance Abuse Treatment
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
1999-2004

TOPIC: Technical Assistance for Starting Early Starting Smart

COSMOS provided technical assistance to a program that tests the effectiveness of integrating behavioral health services within either primary care or early childhood service settings. The program is aimed at reducing later drug abuse risks by intervening through parenting, educational, and health care services. The technical assistance included focusing on efforts to increase the sustainability of the initiatives.
SPONSOR: 
Center for Substance Abuse Prevention and
The Casey Family Program, Seattle, WA
1999-2001

COSMOS is studying how battered immigrant women utilize civil protection orders as a means of protecting themselves and their children from intimate partner violence, barriers immigrant women encounter in applying for and obtaining protection orders, and the effectiveness of such orders. The study will include structured interviews, using both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods, with over 400 battered immigrant women.
SPONSOR: 
National Institute of Justice
U.S. Department of Justice
2000-2006

TOPIC: Assessing the Impact of Language Barriers on Health Care Costs and Quality

COSMOS is collaborating with Cook County Hospital in Chicago, IL to conduct a study that examines health care costs associated with provider-patient language barriers.  The study follows three groups of adult patients over six months: 1) Spanish-speaking patients who consistently receive interpreter services using a qualified medical interpreter (experimental group); 2) Spanish-speaking patients who do not receive intervention and experience the "usual care" (control group 1); English-speaking patients (control group 2).  A cost-benefit analysis will be performed to determine economic and non-economic costs, if any, associated with not providing linguistically appropriate services for limited English proficient (LEP) populations.
SPONSOR: 
Office of Minority Services
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
2003-2006

TOPIC: The Urban Superintendency

COSMOS is collaborating with the American Association of School Administrators to design and conduct up to 15 case studies of “successful” urban school superintendents. Information will be collected on how superintendents develop and implement winning strategies to improve student achievement in their school districts.
SPONSOR: 
Wallace-Reader’s Digest Funds, New York, NY
2001-2004

TOPIC: Development and Validation of Coercive Control Measure for Intimate Partner Violence

COSMOS’s study integrates ethnographic and classical psychometric methods to conceptualize and develop measures of nonviolent coercive control, to be used in studying intimate partner violence. The goal is to develop an ecologically and statistically valid instrument and to validate an existing typology of intimate partner violence.
SPONSOR: 
National Institute of Justice
U.S. Department of Justice
2001-2005

TOPIC: Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Technology (EPSCoT)

The EPSCoT program has made grants to 18 states and Puerto Rico, to improve the technological competitiveness of states that have historically received less federal R&D funding than a majority of the states. COSMOS assessed the work of these grants, recommending criteria for defining the eligibility of states as well as their "graduation" from the program, and reviewing the appropriate federal role in facilitating technology development in underserved areas.
SPONSOR: 
Office of Technology Policy
U.S. Department of Commerce
2001-2002

TOPIC: Health Effects Subcommittee Evaluation Project

COSMOS studied the work of the Health Effects Subcommittee advisory process. These subcommittees, which advise the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry on energy-related public health activities and research, have been established in four locations where nuclear weapons production facilities previously operated.
SPONSOR: 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
1999-2001

COSMOS conducted a study of culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS) in managed care organizations (MCOs). An important product of the study was a conceptual framework that identified the essential components of CLAS provision in health care settings across eight assessment domains. The framework provided a comprehensive model for any assessment of CLAS. The study findings offered a description of the nature and extent of CLAS provided in a sample of MCOs in the U.S. Within each MCO, three types of respondents were surveyed. In addition, promising CLAS practices implemented by a number of MCOs were highlighted.
SPONSOR: 
Office of Minority Health
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
1999-2003

TOPIC: Community Policing and Youth Study (CPYS)

Community policing (CP) approaches have recently been applied to the problem of youth as perpetrators, victims, or witnesses of crime (CP/Youth programs). A joint COSMOS-Police Executive Research Forum team is identifying and documenting innovative CP/Youth programs through a telephone survey and a series of case studies.
SPONSOR: 
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
U.S. Department of Justice
2000-2004

TOPIC: National 4-H Council’s Youth Tobacco Prevention Program

COSMOS’s evaluation of this life skills program surveyed participants at multiple sites across the country. The goal of the program is to help youths develop healthy lifestyle choices and reduce their use of tobacco products. COSMOS collected survey data from about 700 youths, aged 10 to 14, at two points in time during their participation in the program.
SPONSOR: 
National 4-H Council, Chevy Chase, MD
1999-2001

TOPIC: Developing a Self-Assessment Tool for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Local Public Health Agencies

COSMOS developed a comprehensive instrument for assessing culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS) provided in public health care settings. The tool will be made available to local public health agencies (LPHAs) across the country and may be used by the agencies as a self-assessment tool in their quality monitoring and improvement efforts.
SPONSOR: 
Office of Minority Health
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
2001-2004