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Missouri Prevention Science Institute

Research Opportunities

Data Collector for MPSI Projects

The Mis­souri Pre­ven­tion Sci­ence Insti­tute hires mul­ti­ple part-time data col­lec­tors each semes­ter. A part­ner­ship with data col­lec­tors is essen­tial to the suc­cess­ful eval­u­a­tion of many of our pro­grams, includ­ing the STARS, DiS­CO, and ECP projects cur­rent­ly, as the work of the data col­lec­tors can have potent impacts on the integri­ty of the assess­ment measures.

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  • The STARS Project takes place in the Colum­bia Pub­lic School sys­tem dur­ing four data col­lec­tion peri­ods from Sep­tem­ber-May, trans­porta­tion is not pro­vid­ed. Data Col­lec­tors do not need full-day avail­abil­i­ty for this project, but flex­i­bil­i­ty is a neces­si­ty. Con­tact Toby Mills at millsto@mizzou.edu for more information.
  • The DiS­CO Project is a fed­er­al­ly-fund­ed study eval­u­at­ing the effi­ca­cy of Safe and Civ­il School Lead­er­ship (SCSL), a pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment pro­gram designed to pro­mote effec­tive school lead­er­ship skills. This project takes place in St. Louis area school dis­tricts with three data col­lec­tion peri­ods through­out the aca­d­e­m­ic year. Trans­porta­tion will be pro­vid­ed. This Data Col­lec­tor posi­tion is open to grad­u­ate and under­grad­u­ate stu­dents. All data col­lec­tors are mon­e­tar­i­ly com­pen­sat­ed with $15/hr. There will be paid train­ing to learn how to con­duct behav­ioral obser­va­tions, sur­veys, and test­ing with high school stu­dents. Data Col­lec­tors must have at least one week­day avail­able from 5:00AM‑4:00PM with more days of avail­abil­i­ty pre­ferred. This is a great oppor­tu­ni­ty for stu­dents look­ing for research expe­ri­ence, espe­cial­ly in a school set­ting. Con­tact Project Coor­di­na­tor Car­olyn Con­way at ce5kc@missouri.edu for more information!
  • Explor­ing Cul­tur­al Prac­tices (ECP) is a fed­er­al­ly-fund­ed explorato­ry, mul­ti­level-study project to (1) define and spec­i­fy dis­crete indi­ca­tors of cul­tur­al­ly respon­sive prac­tices in class­rooms; to (2) con­firm and refine teacher and stu­dent sur­veys and class­room direct obser­va­tion tools to mea­sure these dis­crete indi­ca­tors; and (3) devel­op,  refine, and eval­u­ate a the­o­ry of change link­ing these mal­leable indi­ca­tors of CRPs with stu­dent aca­d­e­m­ic and behav­ioral out­comes. The new data col­lect­ed dur­ing this pro­jec­t’s dura­tion will take place in three school dis­tricts in Mis­souri and two school dis­tricts in Mary­land. For the Mis­souri data col­lec­tion process, col­lec­tion peri­ods occur through­out the aca­d­e­m­ic year, and data col­lec­tors will be con­duct­ing mul­ti­ple focus groups with stu­dents and inter­views with teach­ers. Com­mit­ment is approx­i­mate­ly 5 hours per month.Transportation will be pro­vid­ed. This Data Col­lec­tor posi­tion is open to grad­u­ate and under­grad­u­ate stu­dents. All data col­lec­tors are mon­e­tar­i­ly com­pen­sat­ed at $15/hr. There will be paid train­ing to learn how to con­duct focus groups and inter­views. This is a great oppor­tu­ni­ty for stu­dents look­ing for research expe­ri­ence, espe­cial­ly in a school set­ting. Please con­tact project coor­di­na­tor David Aguayo for more information!

Research Volunteer

Each aca­d­e­m­ic year the Mis­souri Pre­ven­tion Sci­ence Insti­tute allows for 2–3 vol­un­teer posi­tions for under­grads in a relat­ed field of study to help out MPSI Staff in the office locat­ed in Lon­don Hall.  Vol­un­teers will engage in a vari­ety of tasks to help fur­ther the cur­rent research projects coor­di­nat­ed by the MPSI.

Vol­un­teers who have 2–4 reg­u­lar hours each week avail­able to come to the MPSI will com­plete a screen­ing inter­view with MPSI Staff and if select­ed will be trained in a vari­ety of respon­si­bil­i­ties in the office.

Typ­i­cal respon­si­bil­i­ties include, but are not lim­it­ed to: data entry into the com­put­er, prep work for the four data col­lec­tion peri­ods through­out the year, orga­ni­za­tion of mate­ri­als for data col­lec­tion, fil­ing, oth­er tasks as assigned.

Vol­un­teers must be depend­able and the abil­i­ty to fol­low direc­tions are essen­tial required skills. This posi­tion could lead to future oppor­tu­ni­ties as a paid data col­lec­tor with the projects.

Inter­est­ed par­ties are encour­aged to send a résumé and email of inter­est to cec5kc@missouri.edu.

Updat­ed Jan­u­ary 2020