Assessment Plan

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 19^th 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 19^th. 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.