Assessment
Plan
Our project is focusing on the needs of the
children attending Mountain View Elementary School, specifically related to
their attendance and participation with the after school program. In order to
accomplish this task, we have decided to lead a focus group with the children,
specifically the first graders, among whom the attendance in the program has
been especially poor. We plan on attempting to gather participants by leading
the focus group with current participants in the program to see how it could be
improved for their peers. We will be sending home two permission slips to the
parents, one in English, and one in Spanish. We will be distributing the permission
forms by giving them to children to deliver to their parents. As this has not
been terribly effective in the past, we are ready to be at the school in person
to meet with parents as they pick up their children from the program one day in
order to gain the signatures. Below are both of the permission forms.
Dear Parents or Guardians,
We
are second year Social Work graduate students from the University of Utah. We
are fortunate enough to be working with Hadleigh Craig and Mountain View Elementary's
After School program. We would like to be able to talk to the current students
who are involved in the after school program to discuss how they feel about the
program – what they enjoy about the program, what they think could be better. By
signing this form, you give us your permission to talk to your child about the after
school program.
__________________________________
Parent/Guardian Signature
Sincerely,
Mia Chard
Jenny Cheng
Charlie Gates
Ian Schiffman
Estimado Padres o Tutores,
Nosotros
somos estudiantes de segundo año de trabajo social en la Universidad de Utah.
Somos afortunados de trabajar con Hadleigh Craig para el programa extraescolar de
la escuela Mountain View. Decíamos poder comunicarnos con los estudiantes
actuales que están asistiendo al programa extraescolar para saber como sienten
en cuanto al mismo. Al firmar este formulario nos darán permiso para hablar con
su hijo/hija a cerca de el programa extraescolar.
___________________________________
Firma del Padre/Tutores
Sinceramente,
Mia Chard
Jenny Cheng
Charlie Gates
Ian Shiffman
We
are planning on only having one focus group, led on Thursday, February 19th
at 4:20 pm. We have already scheduled this time with Hadleigh, the program
coordinator.
We all plan on being very involved
in the assessment process. Jenny has contacted Hadleigh to arrange a time and
email the permission slips, Mia has written the permission form, Ian wrote the questions we hope to base the
focus group off of (which will be listed below), and Charlie has been given the
task of writing this blog post. If it becomes apparent that in-person delivery
of the permission forms is necessary, all four of us plan on being there to
distribute the flyers to the parents. As for the assessment itself, all four of
us will be attending the focus group on the 19th. We will all
participate in asking the questions listed below, as well as any which seem
appropriate for the children based on their responses. At least one of us will
record the responses, and all four of us will contribute after the event to the
written portion from our own memories. This will be necessary as we plan on a
fair number of participants. We will then commune together to figure out the
consensus on the answers. We will also, to some extent, quantitate the
qualitative data. This will appear as taking the answers to questions such as “what
do you like least about the after school program?” gathering the answers together
and seeing how many children agreed with each answer. We will then analyze
these results in order to see how the program can be improved and what is
working the most.
This data will be brought back to Hadleigh
and the after school program to help them to understand how participation can
be increased and bolstered by keeping what is working, improving on what is not,
and what could be added. We will never share who said what with Hadleigh or
anybody else in the after school program. We will keep confidential what is
shared and by whom, only utilizing the anonymous comments and insights from
this target population to help it grow.
Semi-Structured
Assessment Guide
As was stated earlier, we will be
meeting with first graders currently in the after school program. We will meet
with them while the program is taking place, during a period referred to as
Social Skills time. We will explain to them that we are doing a project to help
the program be even better. We will assure them that we will not share what they
say with anybody else. When they understand, we will start with the following
questions, and any others that may arise in order to clarify and enhance the
process.
· Why
do you come to the after school program?
· What
do you like most about the after school program?
· What
do you like least about the after school program?
· What
new things do you wish you could do during the after school program?
· Do
the teachers/leaders at the after school program speak the same language you
speak when you are at home?
· If
not, does this ever cause any problems?
· Do
your parents know what you do at the after school program?
· What
do you do after school when you aren't at the after school program?
We
will gather the information as they answer. When the time is up or we feel we
have gained an adequate amount of information, we will thank them for their
assistance and let them go. We will then utilize the information as stated in
the assessment plan.
