Patricia Anne Ebener
Published: 2004
Total Pages: 74
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This document reports on the third and final wave of the All County Implementation Survey (ACIS). The ACIS is a key component in RAND?s multi-method exploration of the implementation of California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program (i.e., the Process Analysis component of RAND?s Statewide Evaluation of CalWORKs). RAND?s methods involve intensive work with six focus counties--Alameda, Butte, Fresno, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego--and more limited work, including two years of field visits and surveys of caseworkers, in 18 follow-up counties. As its name implies, the ACIS complements these efforts in a subset of counties by collecting some information from the county welfare departments (CWDs) in each of California?s 58 counties.There is a natural trade-off between the number of counties covered and the intensity of the investigation. At the extensive end of the spectrum, the ACIS was conducted as a mail survey. This method limits the number of issues that can be explored and the depth with which they can be explored. These limits were especially constraining given our desire to achieve response from each of the counties and given comments that the second ACIS was too long. Taken together, these two considerations led us to carefully consider items for inclusion on the third wave of the survey.