When conducting any evaluation it is possible that barriers might cause an issue with its completion. A possible barrier is the lack of cooperation among staff members within an organization when trying to gather information. Cooperation by individuals within the organization is crucial to the successful completion of the evaluation because they are the ones that provide the necessary data. If the data is not available within an appropriate time frame or done using an efficient process, the validity of the program’s evaluation might also be compromised. This process evaluation will use the methods of surveys, face-to-face & phone interviews, and documentation review to collect pertinent data. These methods would allow me to obtain the most useful information for this evaluation. Ideally I would like to conduct surveys and interviews with all of my population, however due to time, cost and limited access, this is not possible. The population that I am focusing on is the parents of high school students from the age of 14-19 years old. The goal of this evaluation is not to generalize about this population, but to understand a greater depth of the parental involvement portion of Communities In Schools of Charlotte. Therefore, my sample will consist of the parents of high schools students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg High Schools. In the sampling of my population, first I plan to send a survey to all 108 parents. The survey will be completed by the parent and returned to CIS by the student. Second, I plan to conduct semi-structured[[#_ftn1|[1]]] interviews with 15 sets of parents and third I will review the documented services reported in CISDM (Communities In Schools documenting software). I understand that the response rate of the surveys may be low because I am depending on the student to distribute and return the survey. Though 15 sets of parents may not seem like a massive number, this goal is quite aggressive considering the “reach” of parents. The 15 sets of parents will be selected via systematic sampling – start by selecting one name in the beginning of the list and then every 5th family. Some questions that will be addressed in the interviews are:
What is your overall impression with Communities In Schools?
What programs are you involved in that are conducted by your local Communities In Schools coordinator?
Is there easy access to Communities In Schools?
In addition to the sampling of the key stakeholders, which are the parents, surveys will be provided to other stakeholders like the Site Coordinators. Their perception of their parental programming efforts is important when looking at the process of how the program is running. Is it doing what it is supposed to be doing? Are we getting the desired results? Some questions that would be asked of the Site Coordinators would be:
In a 10-month period, what is your goal of parental involvement programming?
What method of contact do you use to get your parents involved?
What programs best help parents with understanding their role in assisting their child in graduating?
In what ways do you feel your parents benefit from Communities In Schools?
Surveys are quick and/or easily get lots of information from people in a non threatening way. Some advantages are can complete anonymously, inexpensive to administer and easy to compare and analyze. On the other had, you might not get careful feedback, doesn’t get full story, low response rate. Interviews allow the researcher to fully understand someone’s impressions or experiences, or learn more about their answers to questionnaires. The researcher must be careful because interviewer may bias clients’ responses. Lastly, documentation review give you an impression of how program operates without interrupting the program (McNamara, 2009). [[#_ftnref1|[1]]] I will have questions prepared, however I will also note side comments and non-verbal messages as useful information.
Ideally I would like to conduct surveys and interviews with all of my population, however due to time, cost and limited access, this is not possible. The population that I am focusing on is the parents of high school students from the age of 14-19 years old. The goal of this evaluation is not to generalize about this population, but to understand a greater depth of the parental involvement portion of Communities In Schools of Charlotte. Therefore, my sample will consist of the parents of high schools students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg High Schools. In the sampling of my population, first I plan to send a survey to all 108 parents. The survey will be completed by the parent and returned to CIS by the student. Second, I plan to conduct semi-structured[[#_ftn1|[1]]] interviews with 15 sets of parents and third I will review the documented services reported in CISDM (Communities In Schools documenting software). I understand that the response rate of the surveys may be low because I am depending on the student to distribute and return the survey. Though 15 sets of parents may not seem like a massive number, this goal is quite aggressive considering the “reach” of parents. The 15 sets of parents will be selected via systematic sampling – start by selecting one name in the beginning of the list and then every 5th family. Some questions that will be addressed in the interviews are:
- What is your overall impression with Communities In Schools?
- What programs are you involved in that are conducted by your local Communities In Schools coordinator?
- Is there easy access to Communities In Schools?
In addition to the sampling of the key stakeholders, which are the parents, surveys will be provided to other stakeholders like the Site Coordinators. Their perception of their parental programming efforts is important when looking at the process of how the program is running. Is it doing what it is supposed to be doing? Are we getting the desired results? Some questions that would be asked of the Site Coordinators would be:- In a 10-month period, what is your goal of parental involvement programming?
- What method of contact do you use to get your parents involved?
- What programs best help parents with understanding their role in assisting their child in graduating?
- In what ways do you feel your parents benefit from Communities In Schools?
Surveys are quick and/or easily get lots of information from people in a non threatening way. Some advantages are can complete anonymously, inexpensive to administer and easy to compare and analyze. On the other had, you might not get careful feedback, doesn’t get full story, low response rate. Interviews allow the researcher to fully understand someone’s impressions or experiences, or learn more about their answers to questionnaires. The researcher must be careful because interviewer may bias clients’ responses. Lastly, documentation review give you an impression of how program operates without interrupting the program (McNamara, 2009).[[#_ftnref1|[1]]] I will have questions prepared, however I will also note side comments and non-verbal messages as useful information.