Academy for Educational Development

The specific aims of this evaluation are to assess the ACICa tool in order to answer the following questions: " Is the revised ACICa tool effective for assessing and identifying areas for improvement in the infrastructure and primary actions relevant to cancer screening and follow-up within a sample of sites participating in the Cancer Care Collaborative? " Is the tool valid and reliable for conducting self assessments of, and improvements in, the specific actions and infrastructure relevant to three forms of cancer (breast, colon, and cervical) screening, and timely follow-up of abnormal tests in selected sites? " What aspects of the tool are working, and which are not? " Are the scores produced by the ACICa tool, when used for self assessments, adequately reflective of the actual/real conditions and practices identified through direct observations? " What are the key recommendations for improving the ACICa tool as an effective, reliable, and valid tool for assessing specific actions and infrastructure relevant to cancer screening and follow-up? AED is highly suited to conduct this evaluation for NCI as we have extensive experience conducting formative research and evaluation for health promotion and disease prevention programs and tools. We are particularly experienced in conducting formative research to understand behavioral and other contextual factors that influence target populations' receptivity to, and use of, material, tools, and information. AED understands that in order for any tool to be useful and effective for the purposes it is developed, the tool must first be internally consistent, contextually valid, and be reliable over time, as well as across the different settings in which it is used. AED is also well suited for this evaluation because its proposed team includes both experts in the requisite content, as well as experts in behavioral and evaluation research. The staff who will work on this evaluation are drawn from the AED's Center for Applied Behavioral and Evaluation Research, where the project will be based, and the Center for Health Communications. These experiences qualify AED to effectively conduct the ACICa tool evaluation, and to use the results of the evaluation to make modifications to the tool.