Projects

OSEDA conducts projects focusing on important public policy issues. OSEDA projects always involve partnerships with state and/or local organizations. Projects vary in scope and most are externally funded.

On-going:
Missouri School Improvement Program | Missouri Educational Indicators Project | Kids Count Missouri (KCM) | Missouri School Web Project | Missouri Project Success | Missouri Census Data Center | eMINTS | Development and Use of Social and Economic Data at MoDOT | Evaluation of the Jennings Counseling Enhancement Program | Community-based Food Systems Evaluation Project | Missouri Senior Report | Close the Gap Consortium | Missouri Family Wage Calculator | Missouri Career Exploration Tool

Completed:
Status of Seniors in St. Louis County | The Business Indicators Tool Project | Status of Seniors in the Warrensburg Area Agency on Aging - Care Connection | MERIC Entrepreneurship Project | Boone County Indicators 2006 | Community Connection | Evaluation of the Jennings Stars and Heroes Program

On-going:

• Missouri School Improvement Program. The Missouri School Improvement Program reviews and accredits Missouri's school districts and promotes the development of school improvement projects.
  
• Missouri Educational Indicators Project. OSEDA supports the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's data warehouse of key educational indicators to help describe the progress Missouri's schools are making to better serve their students.
  
• Kids Count Missouri (KCM)  provides an annual report on the status of children in Missouri by county. KCM is a partnership of the Children's Trust Fund, the University of Missouri's Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis and Citizens for Missouri's Children. Its mission is to improve the well-being of Missouri's children by increasing the visibility of the condition of children in their own communities and by promoting policy and programmatic changes.
  
• Missouri School Web Project The Missouri schoolweb project provides schools with the Internet server support they need to build their own electronic educational environments. The project provides participating schools with computer accounts and disk space so that they can create their own homepages and instructional applications. The project is an educational consortium for sharing development ideas and experiences. It links "schoolweb" schools with local, regional and state professional development and training resources.
  
• Missouri Project Success works cooperatively with local school districts to: 1) Overcome difficulties meeting Missouri School Improvement Program performance standards, and 2) Encourage long term systemic school improvement initiatives.
  
• Missouri Census Data Center (MCDC) is a cooperative program among state agencies in Missouri and the U.S. Bureau of the Census. Its purpose is to enhance awareness of, and access to public data, especially that of the Census Bureau. The Missouri State Library is the administrative lead agency for Missouri's program (there are State Data Center programs in every state) and it contracts out most of the data collection, dissemination and web site development duties to OSEDA and the Geographic Resources Center. OSEDA has been providing these services since 1988. MCDC provides an affiliate network of over 30 public agencies around the state who provide more local assistance with access and application of the data. The MCDC data archive, which includes many national collections as well as Missouri-specific data, is one of the premier sites in the country for accessing census and other demographic/geographic data. Many of OSEDA's data projects take advantage of the data infrastructure and web access tools provided by the MCDC.
  
• "eMINTS" Evaluation Project (enhancing Missouri Internet Networked Teaching Strategies) is Missouri's 21st Century classroom initiative that seeks to dramatically improve student achievement by transforming teaching practices through the enhanced availability of instructional technology and professional development for teachers both in the operation of the technology and in the new teaching strategies the technology makes possible. OSEDA is conducting the formative evaluation of the project. For additional information: Expanding for a Brighter Future.
  
• Development and Use of Social and Economic Data at MoDOT. The objectives of this project are to identify the relevant social and economic data for use at MoDOT, and then to develop and implement authoritative information products and electronic applications that are easily used by MoDOT personnel for planning, project development, and for Title VI and Environmental Justice applications.
• Community-based Food Systems Evaluation Project OSEDA is conducting the external evaluation of a joint MO Rural Crisis Center and MU Extension Kellogg-funded grant designed to nurture and expand the emerging community-based agriculture and food systems in Missouri.
  
• Missouri Senior Report The Missouri Senior Report is intended to enhance the well-being of seniors by annually informing key audiences of the contributions and needs of Missouri seniors. The report, available on the web and in print, provides outcome and status indicators of senior well-being at the state and county levels, issue papers relevant to current policy issues, as well as links and referrals to additional resources. Outcome and status indicators are available in a variety of formats including as tables (in PDF and HTML format), maps, interactive tables that allow the selection of specific indicators, years, and geographies, and downloadable data files. The Missouri Senior Report is produced as a collaboration between the University of Missouri’s Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis, Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Missouri’s Area Agencies on Aging, and University of Missouri Extension.
  
• Close the Gap Consortium Partnering with OSEDA and McREL, DESE staff have designed an initiative focused on 25 selected middle and high schools where there currently exists a significant gap between the percent of African-American students proficient in communication arts and math on the MAP and the statewide average for white students. Imbedded in this work is the firm belief that the gap can and must be closed through changed practices, strong leadership, and appropriate support.
  
• The Family Wage Calculator for Missouri charts the actual costs of living and working in the state. It measures how much income a family needs to pay for housing, food, childcare, healthcare, transportation and taxes-if they do not receive any help from relatives, friends or the government-based on the ages, as well as number, of children in each household, the number of working adults in the family, whether or not the adult’s employer provides healthcare, and the family's geographic location.
  
• Missouri Career Exploration Tool OSEDA collaborates with the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC) to create an interactive career exploration tool combining occupation projections, education and training information, industry projections, and skills data, including WorkKeys®.
  

• Status of Seniors in St. Louis County Understanding key demographic, economic, social and health indicators about seniors is helpful for sustaining the community engagement of seniors and for planning services. This web application seeks to increase the accessibility of such information for St. Louis County and for 37 Census Tract Neighborhood Areas within the county.
  
• The Business Indicators Tool Project The Business Indicators Tool is a joint effort between the Business Research and Information Development Group (BRIDG) and OSEDA. The goal of the project is to provide business assistance to service providers, small business owners and entrepreneurs with access to relevant market and industry data upon which to make informed business decisions.
  
• Status of Seniors in the Warrensburg Area Agency on Aging - Care Connection Understanding key demographic, economic, social and health indicators about seniors is helpful for sustaining the community engagement of seniors and for planning services. This web application seeks to increase the accessibility of such information for the 13-county Care Connection Area Agency on Aging.
  
• MERIC Entrepreneurship Project A joint collaboration between the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC) and OSEDA, the entrepreneurship project is an effort to inform Missourians about the characteristics of business owners in their communities. Information from the project can be used by workforce planners and economic developers who wish to promote entrepreneurship as well as by researchers, small business owners, and individuals who wish to identify and work with, entrepreneurs.
  
• Boone County Indicators Coalition - OSEDA collaborates with the Boone County Indicators Coalition to annually update their website. This report provides a snapshot of important health and human service indicators that is monitored on an annual basis as one method of taking the pulse of the community. These indicators are designed to be used as a tool to help determine how the community can best respond to identified needs and to support local decision-making.
  
• Community Connection As a collaborative effort, Community Connection was established as the premier online statewide database of health and human service resources offered as a public service to the citizens of Missouri for almost a decade. Chosen as the second Go Local state site in the nation by the National Library of Medicine/National Institute of Health’s MedlinePlus, Community Connection provided a vital link between individuals and families searching for information about diseases, illness, drugs, healthy living, etc. at MedlinePlus and local Missouri health and human service resources. With over 20,000 records in the database at the highest point, millions of web site visits were made searching for local Missouri resources.
• Evaluation of the Jennings Stars and Heroes Program - 2003-2004 School Year OSEDA is conducting an evaluation of the Jennings School District Stars and Heroes Program. The School District of Jennings serves a population of approximately 17,000 people in St. Louis County. The area has a high proportion of families in poverty and is a high minority area. The Stars and Heroes program is an after school enrichment program for district children.