PROGRAM EVALUATION
The artifacts found on this page focus on the need, process, and skills necessary for program evaluation.
ORGANIZATIONAL CASE STUDY
The assignment was to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of an organization based on course learnings and recommend steps for improvement. I completed the organizational case study on The Mockingbird Society, an organization, at the time, for which I had worked approximately one year. In completing the organizational case study, I was able to take a deeper dive into Mockingbird specifically looking at how and why it does its work with young people.
This was one of the first assignments I completed in the Youth Development Leadership program. Through the assignment completion, I became more excited about working for Mockingbird as well as more excited for the educational journey I had decided to start at Clemson. This assignment was also the first time that I would be able to connect my ‘gut’ thinking and analytical thoughts on program practice with theory. This was the beginning of my understanding of the important partnership between academic research and practice. The value of connecting research and program practices only became more significant for me as I continued through the program. As I move forward in my professional practice, I am dedicated to continuing to learn about new research findings and hopefully contribute to research efforts as well.
APPLICATION OF TECHNOLOGY THEORY
This assignment was completed in the special topics course, Youth and Technology. In this assignment, I evaluated Mockingbird’s Youth Programs for its use of technology in promoting Positive Youth Development in program participants. Overall, the course taught me to expand my thinking about the use of technology in supporting positive youth development. Prior to the course, I utilized technology as strictly a tool to help reach program and youth development goals. For the most part, I considered technology as a means of communication. Through completing this assignment, I began to recognize that new technologies can be more than just a tool, but a context in which positive youth development can take place. The Positive Technological Development (PTD) framework provides a model that connects personal assets, technology behaviors, and the context of practice for the use of technology in positive youth development (Bers, 2012). The PTD framework posits that there are technology mediated behaviors that bring about growth in Lerner’s six C’s of Positive Youth Development (Bers, 2012). Now, when I work with program participants, I consider how I can be more intentional in using social media and other technologies to provide a context for growth in skills and positive connections with others.
Overall, the lesson I learned from this course, was the importance of continuing the philosophy of life-long learning. As youth development theories and best practices are studied, I need to continue to learn and include in my day-to-day practices.
Bers, M.U. (2012). Designing digital experiences for positive youth development: From playpen to playground. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION PLAN
This artifact is an evaluation of the diversity, inclusion, and equity practices of The Mockingbird Society with suggested actions for improvement which was completed as part of the Youth Development in the Context of a Global and Diverse Society. I was able to submit the finished assignment to the newly formed equity committee at Mockingbird on which I volunteered to participate. The course and assignment served to broaden my concept of diversity. I entered the course thinking of diversity, inclusion, and equity in terms of race and ethnicity; however, I left the course thinking about diversity in terms of ability, gender, sexual identity, economics, experiences, and the list goes on.
Additionally, the coursework also coincided with my personal reflections as a bi-racial woman who had previously worked in the sciences. I was able to consider how my full identity impacts how I interact with society and how society interacts with me was important and challenging. Completing this assignment and critically thinking about diversity, inclusion, and equity practices reinvigorated my desire to work in STEM education programs for under-represented groups, especially women and girls of color.
STATISTICS HOMEWORK
This artifact was a worksheet completed for the Public Data Analysis course. The assignment covered 1-sample z-tests. This type of statistical analysis is used to determine whether the sample results are significantly different from the general population. In reviewing and reflecting on this artifact, I am reminded of the complexities of quantitative evaluations. This assignment and course allowed me to have a greater understanding of statistical analysis and allowed me to be more critical when reading published research studies.
EVALUATION WEEKLY RECAP
This collaborative artifact was completed as part of my coursework for YDP 8040: Assessment and Evaluation of Youth Programs. For the assignment we created a short presentation about the importance of data visualization in reporting results of evaluations or studies. We also presented different data visualization tools and techniques. I appreciated working in my team because I learned about many different free resources that could help create fun and interesting visual representations of data. This helped me expand my skills outside of using Microsoft Office tools! One concept that I will continue to utilize is to ensure that any data visualization I use to represent results are easy to read and are not misleading.
PROGRAM EVALUATION PLAN
This assignment required me to develop an evaluation plan for a program. I chose to do a process evaluation specifically looking at the staffing of the state-wide Mockingbird Youth Network. I had personally seen the impacts of the different staffing models and as a new program manager, I was acutely aware that the organization may have been making decisions about changing staffing models without fully understanding the benefits and drawbacks of each of the staffing models. This assignment brought out the critical and analytical scientist in me. I appreciated that opportunity to bring the skills I learned from my chemistry education and work experience into my current career path in youth development programming.
In reflecting, this was one of the most challenging assignments for me to complete. I struggled translating what I knew from my lived experience into a written document that clearly communicated the organizational situation and the need for the evaluation. The situation was complex, and the need was real, but it was hard for me to describe in a way that was understandable to an external audience. I learned I needed to step back and slow down when explaining concepts or ideas. It helped when I received feedback from others. The greatest lesson I learned from completing this assignment was the need for clarity in communication.
PILOT RESEARCH STUDY
This is a collaborative artifact that required my group to conduct a small research study and determine if there were any statistically significant results. My group asked the question: Do male and female youth development workers have different levels of hope? In completing this assignment, I was reminded of the complexities and difficulties in conducting research. While our main research question dealt with gender differences, we also collected data to compare education levels, time working in the youth development field, and age. As a team, we kept trying to find something that was statistically significant. In the end, none of our results were found to be statistically significant. The practice of conducting a research study and finding no significant results, reminded me about how tough it is to show correlation. As I work within youth serving organizations that need to show program outcomes and results, I will be more critical of the data analysis completed and the language used to report the results.