Evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program Initial Evaluation Report

prior to September 2003 and had not terminated their Ticket assignment prior to January
2003. The sample excludes beneficiaries who participated only prior to 2003 because of
concerns that they would not be able to remember details of their TTW experience when
interviewed in 2004. It will take about six months to compete the interviewing for these
surveys, so that data should be available for analysis late in 2004. The subsequent survey
rounds will be rolled out so that new survey data will be available each year through 2007.
3. Qualitative Data
The evaluation will track TTW operations using interviews, focus groups, document
reviews, and case studies. We plan to contact representatives of every group involved,
including SSA (central, regional and field offices), the Program Manager, SVRAs, ENs,
former ENs that withdrew from the TTW program, non-participating providers who
considered becoming ENs, and advocacy groups for beneficiaries (the beneficiaries will be
interviewed directly in the surveys). This data collection effort will contribute to the
outcomes and impacts analysis, the adequacy of incentives analysis, and the process analysis.
During the early years of the evaluation, the qualitative data will also provide formative
feedback to SSA as it considers ways to improve the program and its operations.
Qualitative data will be collected every year through early 2007. Table VIII.1 indicates
the tentative schedule for qualitative data collection, although the plan may change in order
to address emerging policy or operational issues.
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Table VIII.1: Number of Planned Interviews with TTW Groups by Year and Group
Data Collection Activity Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5
SSA Site Visits 6 5 -- 5 --
Program Manager Site Visits 1 1 -- 1 --
ENs and SVRAs
Site Visits 20 20 0 10 0
Focus Group Participants 0 42 0 56 0
Telephone Interviews 25 50 80 80 80
Non-TTW Providers
Focus Group Participants 35 28 -- 28 --
Telephone Interviews -- 25 25 25 25
Advocacy and Other Group
Interviews -- 25 -- 25 --
Total 87 196 105 230 105
B. ANALYSIS AND REPORT SCHEDULE
The evaluation will produce four more major reports on TTW, one in each of the next
four years. As more data become available over time, the successive reports will provide
additional analyses relevant to some of the research questions addressed in this report, and
also analyze for the first time some issues that we were unable to address in the present
report. Below we highlight some of the unique features of forthcoming reports.
VIII: Next Steps for Evaluation