The ACET team posed for new company photos last week, which include a team photo for the first time. We were very pleased with the results and have posted our new smiling faces on the ACET team page – feel free to check them out.
We are looking to add to our team! We have an opening at ACET and would love to review your application. To apply, please send your resume and cover letter to stella@acetinc.com.
The concept of race and the associated terminology has altered over time. Dr. Michael Rodriguez, associate professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota, sent me a very intriguing example of the evolution of the race item on the U.S. Census. The census is administered every 10 years, and almost every administration seems to contain a variation in the language surrounding race. The full pictorial history of its evolution can be found here: http://racebox.org/
Some interesting things of note:
Anything interesting you see? Leave us a comment and let us know.
Joseph
ACET will be attending the Networking Career Event for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Researchers at the Radisson University Hotel, hosted by the University of Minnesota. We will be attending the second session, which runs from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. We would love to talk with interested parties about our company and the field of evaluation. If you’re a graduate student or alumnus interested in a career in research and evaluation, please find our table – we would love to talk to you!
Cassie
As you may know, organic food has become a craze in our culture. Organic food has gotten a lot of attention in recent years – for good reason. Some studies, such as the 97 studies reviewed by the Nutrition Research Center, have shown that food that has been produced organically often has higher amounts of nutrients. Other studies, such as reported in Science Daily, have found little difference between organic food and non-organic foods. Mayo Clinic states that the answer remains unclear.
Just how does a product become classified as “organic?” Organic products have some strict agricultural requirements that must be met. To meet organic requirements for crops, products be grown in safe soil and have no modifications. Farmers cannot use any synthetic pesticides, bioengineered genes (GMOs), petroleum-based fertilizers, or sewage sludge-based fertilizers to help the crops grow or sustain. For organic livestock, the animals must have access to the outdoors and be fed with organic feed. As with the crops, the animals cannot be given antibiotics, growth hormones, or any animal-by-products. Bear in mind, however, that “organic” means that the product only has to be 95% organic, whereas “100% organic” requires all products to be made by natural means alone.
I’m a budget-conscious shopper, but there are certain items that I prefer to spend the extra money and buy organic. For example, I buy organic milk, which is at least double the price of non-organic milk. I choose to spend more on this because organic milk is one of the foods that has been found to have significant health benefits. In 2008, Newcastle University released a study that found that organic milk had higher amounts of beneficial fatty acids, antioxidants, and vitamins. In fact, one beneficial fatty acid was found to be 60% higher in organic milk than in non-organic milk. I also find that I prefer the taste of organic milk.
Not all products, however, are worth buying organic. You may have heard of the “Dirty Dozen” and the “Clean Fifteen.” According to the Environmental Working Group, there are certain foods that contain higher amounts of pesticides than others. Certainly it is worth taking the time to investigate which foods would be better for you to purchase organically and which foods are not worth the extra effort. Check out the list here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/health/the-dirty-dozen-and-clean-15-of-produce/616/
What’s your take on organic foods?
Cassie
We often get requests to provide feedback on surveys. As we review the surveys, we tend to see three challenges occur quite frequently. I’ve written this blog to offer suggestions for addressing each of the challenges.
1. Double-Barreled Questions. In a double-barreled question, two concepts or ideas are included in one survey question. For example, the three survey items below are all double-barreled questions:
○ “How much of your monthly income is spent on restaurant dining and entertainment?”
○ “How often do you volunteer your time or make charitable donations?”
○ “How often do you consume beer and smoke cigars?”
But how does a respondent answer a double-barreled question? For example, if a family spent no money on restaurant dining but 10% of their income on entertainment, how should they respond? 0%? 10%? Average the two and respond 5%? Usually survey respondents do provide an answer, but they often utilize an individualized strategy for finding a response, which can be challenging for program staff to interpret.
Double-barreled questions can be addressed by limiting each survey item to one – and only one – concept. Below is a double-barreled question followed by revisions that eliminate the double-barrel:
| Double-Barreled: | Better: |
| How much of your monthly income is spent on restaurant dining and entertainment? | How much of your monthly income is spent on restaurant dining? -Or- How much of your monthly income is spent on: - restaurant dining? - other (non-food) entertainment? |
2. Imbalanced Response Options. Imbalanced response options refer to a set of response choices that do not cover the range of possible choices. An imbalanced response scale is problematic because it limits respondents’ responses to only one end of a scale and may produce inaccurate results. For example, if a respondent wants to answer “strongly disagree” to a question but that option is not available, the survey is not capturing the respondent’s perspective. Using a set of balanced response options ensures that respondents’ answers can be accurately captured. A very good resource for a variety of balanced response scales can be found here: http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/siegle/research/Instrument%20Reliability%20and%20Validity/Likert.html
Below are some examples of imbalanced response options with improvements to the scale:
| Scale Type: | Problematic: | Improved: |
| Performance Scale | Excellent Fair Poor |
Excellent Good Fair Poor |
| Agreement Scale | Strongly agree Agree Disagree |
Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly disagree |
| Frequency Scale | Always Often Never |
Always Often Sometimes Rarely Never |
3. Overlapping Response Options. Overlapping response options simply means that there is some overlap in the response choices available to the respondent. For example, the following survey item has overlapping response options:
How many books did you read in the last month?
0 or 1 book
1 or 2 books
2 or 3 books
3 or more books
Overlapping response options are problematic because they can confuse the survey respondent. If you read two books in the last month, which option would you select: “1 or 2 books” or “2 or 3 books”? In addition, questions with overlapping response options are a challenge to interpret. How do you know how many books were read if the response options overlap? Overlapping response options can be addressed very easily by carefully constructing the response option list. Simply revise and edit the list so that there is no overlap between the response choices.
If you have any questions about the above challenges to designing a survey, please feel free to leave a comment or email me at Kirsten@acetinc.com. Please also contact any of us at ACET if you have questions about survey design in general.
Kirsten