Project Description

Decision Information Resources, Inc. (DIR) has partnered with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to conduct the Phase II evaluation of the George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF) Birth through Eight Strategy for Tulsa (BEST). BEST is a comprehensive, longitudinal place-based initiative designed to support children and families in the early years to help break the cycle of intergenerational poverty.

The evaluation design includes process, impact/outcome, and ethnographic studies. DIR supported listening sessions and  stakeholder meetings during the design phase to ensure that the data collection design and procedures supported diversity, equity, and inclusion.

We recruited mothers of newborns to participate in the study and conducted baseline interviews with them and parents of kindergarteners from fall 2021 to fall 2022. Follow-up interviews and child assessments will be conducted at 18 months and 30 months post-enrollment with both groups. In fall 2023, DIR recruited a second cohort of mothers of newborns and began conducting a series of interviews and assessments with families of newborns and kindergarteners at 1 month, 18 months, and 30 months post-enrollment. The full sample is expected to include two birth cohorts (1,260 families) and two kindergarten cohorts (1,100).

DIR is currently conducting ethnographic data collection with a sub-sample of 20 families from Cohort 1 and will add an additional 20 families from Cohort 2 once recruited. Field interviewers meet with families once a month to collect data using the Ecocultural Family Interview (EFI) model.