mike,
I totally agree with you that the efficacy of after-school programs needs no
further demonstration. Evaluation, in the sense that Pedro meant when he
wrote about the information feedback process, continues to have an important
role not to "demonstrate" what is already shown (or to generate income for
evaluation consultants :-) , but to allow the constant improvement of the
particular project (a la action research) and also to document best
practices. In the best cases the evaluation component is integrated
thoroughly and everyone is involved, but it still takes time and therefor
requires a budget line.
Paul H. Dillon
----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Cole <mcole@weber.ucsd.edu>
To: <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Cc: <wq@weber.ucsd.edu>
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2001 10:58 AM
Subject: evaluation
>
> Pedro-- Your thoughts on evaluation of afterschool activities strike me
> as completely reasonable. There are tremendous difficulties in such
> efforts, some of them associated with the question "what to evaluate"
> and some with the practical difficulties of carrying out any systematic
> evaluation because the institutions where the kids participate have
> low paid staff, high turn over of staff, enormous mobility of kids,
> are attended voluntarily, and etc.
>
> I have spent a reasonable portion of the past week simply
> collecting inforomation from organizations that are doing such evaluations
> and have a thick file drawer full (don't overlook Paul Dillon's
suggestions
> for two days ago).
>
> My general conclusion is this: All of the available evidence, with
> one exception, points to the efficacy of a wide variety of afterschool
> activities in improving the academic performance and social integration
> of children and youth. All of it. The data can be faulted, but there are
> a fair number of cases which meet reasonable pre-test-post-test/control
> group criteria and lots of quasi-experimental and qualitative longitudinal
> data that can be marshalled. The one exception is when you have a progam
> run by males for males in which a coercive culture is present.
>
> Nevertheless, all programs, including the ones we have been running
> for many years, are under yearly pressure to spend a signicant portion
> of their funds proving that they are good for kids. I am currently
> focused on why we have to keep proving that if we drop a rock off a
> bridge it will fall in the water. I know that there are completing
> claims on local monies, but still, the focus on continuing to prove that
> a proven "good thing" "works" is interesting. One legitimae fear is
> that what is called "the same program" really isn't-- the program
> deteriorates in quality. The solution I have seen here is a form of
> evaluation which focuses on the question, "Is the program being
implemented."
>
> Anyway, I continue to find the issue of interest.
>
> mike
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 01 2001 - 01:02:21 PDT