FOCUS:
Evaluating Community Initiatives
FACULTY:
Dean Stewart Donaldson and Associate Professor Christina Christie
School of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences



First 5 LA is a Los Angeles group dedicated to improving the first five years of young children living in Los Angeles Country. They recently awarded SBOS Dean Stewart Donaldson and Associate Professor Christina Christie more than  $185,000 to complete a comprehensive analysis of their effectiveness.

The analysis will determine the value of First 5 LA’s initiatives and services relating to younger children and their families, including systems and policy reform efforts, as well as their contribution to the development of broad-based knowledge and theory about the outcomes of comprehensive community initiatives.

The efforts of Donaldson and Christie will focus on two areas: increasing understanding of the effects of First 5 LA at the broader community level, and the refinement of a “place-based” evaluation framework for the prenatal through three-years-old focus area. Work on the project is scheduled to commence in June 2007 and be completed by the end of the year.

FOCUS:
Building Evaluation Capacity Research Study
FACULTY:
Professor Hallie Preskill
School of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences

How are organizations building evaluation capacity – that is, how are they increasing the ability of its members to conduct timely and effective evaluations and to think evaluatively? SBOS Professor Hallie Preskill wants to answer this critical question.

She has just been awarded a $110,000 grant from the James Irvine Foundation to study evaluation capacity building (ECB) in organizations and communities across the country. Preskill and SBOS doctoral student and Project Assistant Shanelle Boyle have begun research that will lead to a better understanding of the ways in which organizations and communities are developing their capacity building efforts, and the extent to which those efforts are achieving their desired outcomes. In today’s ever-changing organizational environments, evaluation can play a significant role in helping organizations learn about what it is going well and understand where things may need to improve and change.  

This 15-month project will begin with the selection of 18 organizations that will participate in the study. Using phone interviews, a survey of participants’ capacity building experiences, daylong appreciative inquiries, and Preskill’s survey instrument entitled Readiness for Organizational Learning and Evaluation (ROLE), the team will assess the extent to which the various evaluation capacity efforts are based on workplace, adult learning, organizational change, and evaluation theories.

In addition to providing case samples of ECB activities, a conceptual model will be developed to further help organizations and communities conceptualize, design, and implement successful and sustainable ECB initiatives.

Preskill and Boyle plan to disseminate their findings in a series of conference presentations, such as the annual conference of the American Evaluation Association, through journal articles, and eventually a full-length book.

FOCUS:
Asset Management Practicum
FACULTY:
Professor of Financial Management Richard Smith
Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management

Students in Drucker’s Asset Management Practicum are using real money – and lots of it – to test their financial hypotheses.

The Asset Management Practicum is led by Professor Richard Smith, director of the Financial Engineering Program and the Venture Capital Institute in the Drucker School. The practicum class was established in 2001 to provide a real world, “investment firm-like” experience in asset management for Drucker School students. An initial gift of $300,000 from Henry Kravis, co-founder of Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts, and Co., one of the leading private equity firms in the world, funded the practicum.

The class operates like a small corporation, with a CEO coordinating functional committees tasked with marketing, administrating, and auditing past strategies of the firm. Every student also participates in a research team, identifying and developing various investment strategies.

The process leading to the implementation of these strategies is rigorous: an initial class develops a hypothesis, which is reviewed and retested the following year by a second class. The two separate classes need to find success in the hypothesis before it is proposed to the investment committee. If approved, the following class can implement the strategy. The class reports annually to the investment committee of the board, just as any other asset manager of Claremont Graduate University’s endowment would do.

"The Asset Management Practicum is very close to the business world – more than any other class I have experienced," said Christopher Martin, CEO of the 2007 Asset Management Practicum.

This year the class tested five strategies and found strong evidence that all five could outperform the S&P over the long run.

For more information about the Practicum, and to see the final outcome for the class, visit the Claremont website at: http://www.cgu.edu/pages/4000.asp.

FOCUS:
Research Reveals Importance of International Trade in San Bernardino County
FACULTY:
Associate Professor Annette Steinacker
School of Politics and Economics

Many know that trade is of vital importance to the San Bernardino Country economy. The School of Politics and Economics recently finished a research report demonstrating just how important it is, and will be in the future.  

The report, titled “International Trade in the San Bernardino Region: Transportation, Trends, and Employment,” quantified international trade for the region and provided the county’s Economic Development Agency with data to promote trade to the area as it drafts an international trade strategy.

Travis Coan and Mirya Holman – both Claremont Graduate University PhD candidates – worked on the report with the guidance of Associate Professor Annette Steinacker.

“The report shows that San Bernardino is in a unique position to benefit from international trade,” Coan said. “If projects to facilitate trade are appropriately funded, the San Bernardino region could become an important link between the US and Asia-Pacific.”

Highlights of the report clearly indicate the burgeoning role of trade in the Inland Empire’s economy.

International trade for San Bernardino County increased from nearly $4 billion in 2000 to $16 billion in 2005.

On its own, San Bernardino County would be ranked in the top 50 regions in the world in gross domestic product, bringing in $96 billion.

Because of its proximity to area ports and strategic location, San Bernardino County handles 90 percent of all trade flowing through inland Southern California.

“The study provides research critical to our core strategy and mission,” said Brian McGowan, Economic Development Agency administrator for the County of San Bernardino, and a Claremont Graduate University alumnus. “It provides resources we can bring to local businesses who know they must engage competitors around the globe to survive and thrive.”

FOCUS:
Microsoft Funds Project Using SmartPhones to Enable Communication with Autistic Children
FACULTY:
Assistant Professor Gondy Leroy
School of Information Systems and Technology

Autism is a chronic developmental disorder that affects one in 150 children in the United States. SISAT Assistant Professor Gondy Leroy is developing software aimed at early treatment of the affliction, and Microsoft Research is providing $103,000 in funding, plus $45,000 in software, to support her work.

One of the primary impairments with autism is a difficulty with communication; between one-third to one-half of autistic individuals do not have functional verbal communication skills; approximately 80 percent of children with autism below the age of five do not speak; an even larger group cannot read or write.

While there are devices that help autistic people communicate, there is a lack of software designed specifically for children. Currently, parents, teachers, and therapists often communicate with low-tech materials, such as intricate series of photographs and drawings of rooms in a house, food items, etc. Leroy, along with Professor Gianluca De Leo of Old Dominion University, is developing software that digitizes this visual communication system and puts all images on one easy-to-use electronic device, such as a SmartPhone or Pocket PC. Work will soon begin with an initial user group including the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools Office; Stephen K. Vaughn, area director for Desert/Mountain Operations; and many area teachers such as Anna Chilcoat. Efforts will focus on keeping project communication strong between developers, teachers/therapists, and children.

These devices provide several advantages for communication between adults and autistic children. The images of family members can be stored and used to reinforce learning. They will also be easily portable, thus enabling on-the-go communication. Most importantly, the software Leroy is developing will store user actions, which will enable analysis for research and treatment purposes.

At the end of the research and development period, the plan is to make the software available as open source, meaning that it will be free to any family in need of it.