Our team will be conducting a formative evaluation on the Summer Miracles program that is held by KIDSAVE. We will analyze the program processes and determine if they strongly support the program in order to accomplish the program goal. In this case, the primary goal of the program is to improving life quality for foster kids in Columbia and guide them to better transition into adulthood without a host family. As it was mentioned above, this program has been in action for several years. It is significant and necessary for the team to view each step of the program processes and examine them. Then the processes will help us determine whether the program is actually fulfilling its goals as they are presented on the mission statement.
As noted in the program description stated above, KIDSAVE agents in the Summer Miracles program help parents in the United States get in touch with the Columbian children for hosting preparation. We would like to set a scale and find out the effectiveness of this process that is acting as a training session for the parents to be prepared for the child. Since this is a cross-country program, many factors can determine the quality of the child’s stay and affect the adoption decision. Those scale factors including: how effective is the information that KIDSAVE provides to the US family about the child coming to the US parents; does KIDSAVE cover legal related training for the parents to take care of the child; the detail of training that makes that makes the training effective. We are also interested to examine the improvement of Columbian foster kids’ living condition and happiness during their time travelling in the US. We are also interested in the marketing of the program. Since the effectiveness of this program is largely determined by the number of kids that attend the Summer Miracle and got adopted by the US family, the marketing strategy can affect the number of participants and affect the efficiency of the program. Last but not the least, we would like to examine if the working staff number is enough to support this cross-nation program. According to our interview, many staff members of the team put in lots of effort and often take responsibilities that are not their area. We would like to see if the multitasking working environment can affect the efficiency of the work.
Evaluation Questions:
The program evaluation includes formative questions to determine the effectiveness of each step of the processe in the program and that would help the program owner to know the performance of each part of the program and then decide whether the program should be modified for better results. Eight detailed questions have been developed for further examination in the evaluation:
Is the marketing strategy of KIDSAVRE about the Summer Miracle effective to attract ideal amount of attention to reach the number of participants they intended?
How useful is the information about the foreign kids that KIDSAVE provides to the participants in the U.S. parents?
Whether the current preparation training provided by KIDSAVE is effective (criteria include: useful, relevant, and sufficient) for the Columbia kids before they come to the US?
How effective is the preparation training that KIDSAVE provide for the US parents to adjust before the Columbian kids come to the US?
What is the number of kids adopted after they attended the Summer Miracle program?
Here are the instructions (part A was already done I will upload it so you can see what it was all about so you can better understand the second part. Above are the evaluation questions that you should focus on for part B) FOR THE TABLE BELOW THIS IS JUST AN EXAMPLE YOU SHOULD FOLLOW THAT TO MAKE YOUR OWN WITH THE 5 QUESTIONS ABOVE STILL.
PART B INSTRUCTIONS
• Evaluation Design
o What is the design for this evaluation? (e.g., post-test only, pre-post, pre-post with comparison group, time-series, case study, full experimental, etc.)
o Why was this design selected? (i.e., From what you learned in this course, justify your design.)
Data Collection
• Data Collection Methods
o What methods will be used to collect or acquire the data?
o Will a sample be used? If so, how will the sample be selected?
o How will data collection instruments be developed and tested?
o How will the quality and utility of existing data be determined?
o From whom or what will data be collected (source of data)?
o How will the data be protected? (if that is an issue)
• Data Collection Method/Evaluation Question Linkage
o How do the evaluation questions relate to the evaluation methods?
Evaluation Question Data Collection Method Source of Data
• Did all parents attend the sessions as planned?
• Who did and did not attend? Records analysis Program records on registrants attendance by session
• Did they attend all six sessions? Why or why not? Post program survey to all who attended at least one session Program participants
• To what extent did knowledge increase?
o Did they learn new approaches?
o What else happened? Post program survey to all who attended at least one session Program participants
• Are parents actually using improved skills?
o What difference do these skills make? • Focus group 3 months post program with 4-6 parents who attended all 6 sessions
• Survey following focus group to measure extent of concurrence with focus group findings Program participants
• Has there been a difference in rates of child abuse among participants?
o Were goals met for reduced rate of abuse? Pre and post program records analysis on those registering for the program Community indices on parental abuse of children
