Assignment #3 and #4

Assignment #3

PROGRAM TO BE EVALUATED: SCIENCE 10 COLLABORATION

Engage Stakeholders.
Who should be involved?

In this case there are three main stakeholders. The superintendents over seeing the program, the program lead teacher and the teacher participants in the group. Other stakeholders may include teachers in the division who will access the resource.

How might they be engaged?

Stakeholders will be interviewed and complete surveys and questionnaires that allow for anecdotal accounts to be given.

Focus of the Evaluation
What are you going to evaluate? Describe the program.

This is a relatively new program designed to gather teachers in the division who are teaching Science 10 and to begin implementing inquiry in the classroom. The new curriculum set to come out in Science 10 will have a strong focus on inquiry learning. Teachers involved in the program will be provided with support and resources to learn how to implement inquiry. Also they will be given release time to meet as a group and plan and share their experiences with the ultimate goal of creating resources for other teachers that will be ready by the curriculum implementation date. At this point in the program's implementation I would like to evaluate the effectiveness and the progress of the program so far. I would like to see how the superintendents, the program leader and the participant teachers are feeling about the progress and whether or not changes need to be made. Also the resource that is being developed can be evaluated once it is completed and its ease of access and how teachers in the division use it upon its completion could be assessed as well. There has been talk that as more new science curricula are released the need for such groups may continue. I wuld like to evaluate this program and its resource to see if asking the superintendents to fund more such programs would be valid.

What is the purpose of the evaluation?

The purpose will be to see if the teachers involved are engaged and attempting inquiry and if the goals of creating a resource are being met.

Who will use this evaluation? How will they use it?

Superintendents can use the evaluation to determine if funding should be continued or increased.
The program leader can use it to determine if changes need to be made to the process, and also to hear feedback from the participant teachers and to determine if they are engaged and where more supports are needed.

What questions will the evaluation seek to answer?

Is the current process used working for those teachers involved?
How do you as a stakeholder feel the program is progressing?
Do teachers involved feel supported and safe trying inquiry?
Do teachers involved feel they have a good grasp of what inquiry is and how to implement it in their classrooms?
What additional resources could they use?
What improvements could be made to the process?
What ideas do they have for creating and sharing the resource?
How can more teachers become involved in the group?
How can teachers not involved find out about the resource and gain access?
Would a program like this have value for other new curricula being released in the future?

What information do you need to answer the question?

To answer these question I will need feedback and anecdotal notes from the superintendents, program leader, participant teachers and teachers accessing the resource. I would also need to see the resource that is being created.

When is the evaluation needed?

An evaluation could be done currently to provide an opportunity for any improvements to be implemented. Also it could be ongoing to determine if such a program would be useful as more new curricula in science are released in the upcoming years.

What evaluation design will you use?

A formative approach such as the Scriven model would be best in this situation as the program is very new and in its early stages of development. I believe formative evaluation at this point would help ensure the program goals were being met and increase the likelihood of success and possible continuation of the program as more new curricula are released.

Collect the Information
What sources of information will you use?

Existing information: Reflections have already been completed by participant teachers so these may be reviewed to guide the evaluation and also help formulate questions for the evaluation.
People: The superintendents, the program lead teacher, the participant teachers, and other teachers in the division who will access the resource.
Pictorial records and observations:The students artifacts collected, the videos that have been made, the website collection that will ultimately be the resource that is released to teachers. Also observations could be made at the meetings when the participant teachers gather to share and plan.

What data collection methods will you use?

Surveys, Interviews, Observations, Videos, and Document Review of the resource.

Instrumentation. What is needed to record the information?

Surveys for superintendents and group members. Survey for teachers outside of the group.
Interviews with superintendents and group members.
Observations at group meetings.
Document review of materials posted to website to be used as the resource that will be distributed to teachers.

When will you collect data for each method you have chosen?

Surveys and interviews could be implemented immediately (upon their creation)
Observations could be done at the next meeting which is January 29, 2012 or subsequent meetings after that.
Document review would be done in June or whenever the resource is finished.

Will a sample be used.

No a sample will not be used. This is the only program like this in existence in the division. It is brand new and unique so no other programs are available for comparison.

Pilot testing?

This program may be viewed as a pilot test itself. It is the first of its type in the division and opportunity may exist for additional such programs to be implemented as more new curricula are released.

Analyze and Interpret
How will the data be analyzed? Who is responsible for the analysis?

The evaluator will be responsible for the analysis. Survey and interview data will need to be tabulated, organized and summarized for use by the program leader and participants. The evaluator will need to provide the information in a graphical or statistical manner. Also statements can be summarized and main points highlighted for the program leader. During the observation notes will be taken and what is observed can be compared to the survey and interview results. Feedback and summary will be provided.The resource document that will be reviewed will need to be read and all videos and artifacts viewed. Ease of use and accessibility can be assessed. Again feedback can be provided on the resource document itself.

Use the information
How will the evaluation be communicated and shared?

The information collected in the form of summary and statistics from the surveys, interviews and observations can be shared with the program leader and the superintendents. The program leader may then wish to share the findings with the group participants as well. This could be done as soon as the evaluation of these aspects of the program are completed.

Feedback on the resource would best be shared with the program leader and the participant teachers. Information collected from other teachers using the resource should be shared and the feedback they provide should be summarized and shared. This would take place once the resource has been completed and teachers in the division have an opportunity to use the resource. This may happen sometime in the fall of 2012.

Manage the Evaluation
Human subject's protection

Information provided by the stakeholders and outside teachers will be kept anonymous and only be released to the program leader and the group participants. Feedback will be used only to improve the implementation of the program and the created resource.

Time-line

Presently- create survey and interview question.
Within one month and ongoing through June- Administer surveys and interviews with superintendents, program leader and participant teachers. Attend meetings to make observations. Collect and tabulate data. Complete an analysis and provide feedback to the program leader.
June- review resource document. Collect and tabulate data, provide feedback to program leader and teacher participants.
Fall 2012- survey outside teachers on use of resource. Collect and tabulate data. Provide summary to program leader.

Responsibilities

It is the responsibility of the evaluator to develop and administer the surveys and the interviews as well as make the necessary observations. The evaluator is additionally responsible for the data collection and analysis and to communicate and share the findings with the stakeholders.

Budget

The budget will be minimal, although the division may be willing to pay for such things as photocopying.

Standards
Utility

This program evaluation can be used to help make improvements to the program as it develops. Also it can be used to determine if subsequent programs of this type are necessary and valuable.

Feasibility

This should be a fairly simple evaluation to complete and easily carried out by one evaluator. The program only has a few stakeholders and participants. The only task that may prove to be a large undertaking would be the review of the resource document, but this is not yet known as the document is still being developed and is not complete.


Assignment #4 Logic Model

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