DIR is a comprehensive research and evaluation firm with expertise in large-scale data collection, program evaluation, and analysis. Since its inception in 1984, DIR has conducted studies and surveys for clients including the U.S. Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Labor; state and city governments; local school districts; nationally respected research organizations; and nonprofits including foundations, universities, and community-based organizations. DIR combines rigorous research and evaluation approaches with the multicultural sensitivities and responsiveness of a small, minority-owned business. DIR is a Texas-certified Historically Underutilized Business (HUB). The core staff includes doctoral- and master’s-level researchers and project managers from diverse disciplines including education, sociology, psychology, public policy, and economics. DIR staff is experienced in designing and implementing a variety of survey modes including telephone, fax, direct mail, in-person, and Web. DIR collects and analyzes primary data from surveys, case studies, in-depth interviews, classroom observations, student assessments, and focus groups and secondary data from education- and workforce-related data sets and school-accountability and assessment systems and conducts statistical analyses to derive evidence-based results. DIR has recruited school districts, program sites, and grantees to participate in randomized trials and quasi-experimental studies. In all its projects, DIR’s committed staff, quality-assurance procedures, and sophisticated infrastructure have ensured successful completion.

Placement Mentor - Dr. Sylvia R. Epps is a senior researcher at Decision Information Resources, Inc., a research and program evaluation firm. She completed her doctoral studies in human development at the University of Texas at Austin and her postdoctoral training at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Sylvia believes that education is the best way to ensure a life above the poverty line. This drives her research, which is focused on the contextual effects of poverty, the well-being of low-income children and families, out-of-school activity settings, and adolescent development. Her own personal experience with poverty during her transition into adolescence was pivotal in shaping her research interests and ultimately her career. She has investigated and published longitudinal studies on low-income children’s contexts of development from an ecological systems perspective, arguing that children do not develop in a bubble and that more can be done away from home environments to support poor children. Through her work, Sylvia aims to identify barriers to programs focused on improving the life chances of low-income children. She has been awarded grants for her work and has participated in national professional organizations, the Harvard Consultant Group for Early Education Quality in Chile, and an advisory group on early childhood education for the city of Boston. Sylvia has lectured about the impact of poverty on children from birth to adolescence, adolescent development in schools, and adult development. Her statistical expertise includes hierarchical linear regression techniques, causal modeling, classification techniques, mean comparisons, and multivariate predictive models. Sylvia’s core strength is her ability to combine developmental theory with complex methodology in order to design surveys and examine questions that are ultimately intended to inform policy and practice in relation to low-income child and family well-being.

Sylvia has experience directing evaluations and analysis and conducting database abstraction and analysis. She is currently directing instrument design and database development for several major data collection projects Decision Information Resources, Inc. is conducting for MDRC evaluations including a survey of college students for an evaluation of a performance-based scholarship program in community colleges. She is also the project director leading Decision Information Resources, Inc.’s case study evaluation of the Community Health Leaders Program for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Sylvia is also engaged in monitoring randomized-control trial evaluations and providing reviews of study designs and analysis plans implemented by the Regional Educational Laboratories.

Placement Mentor - Sylvia Epps