Childhood Program Evaluation

Christina J. Groark, Stephanie K. McCarthy, Afton R. Kirk. (2014). Early Child Development: From Theory to Practice. Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

In order to respond this question, we must first review the history of Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) and Early Childhood Education (ECE). Although ECE has been around since the creation of kindergarten in the 1800’s, the decade of the 1980’s was an important period for ECE. “By the 1980’s, meta-analysis of the well-designed US projects offered compelling evidence on the positive outcomes of [early childhood education and intervention]” (Woodhead, 2007). Therefore, there was much pressure to improve the state of education, including ECE. “The decade of the 1980’s saw numerous calls for widespread school reform, with changes recommended in teacher education, graduation requirements, school structure, and accountability measures” (S. Bredekamp, R.A. Knuth, L.G. Kunesh, and D.D. Shulman, 1992). At this time, there was an increasing concern about the quality of early childhood education for the influx number of families that needed it. This led the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) to “begin planning a national voluntary accreditation system for early childhood programs”(NAEYC, 2014). With this planning came a need for a more specific description with regards to accreditation guidelines. Therefore, NAEYC issued a formal statement defining DAP.

First, would look at my measurement method to make sure that it is reliable and valid. Making sure that the measurements are representing the people and the program accurately, enough sample size is use to represent the program, and make sure there is no participants contamination. Second, the time from when the program started and when the evaluation process starts can also show that the program have no impact. It takes a long time for programs to work out the kink and bumps along the way and sometimes having an evaluation conducted within a year will not show the program at its full potential. There is also the sleeper effect where the program will not show impact until a much later time. Having an open and clear communication with the stakeholders will let me know what they are looking in the program evaluation so that I can focus on those aspects to make sure I use accurate

The Morningside center is an afterschool program designed for at-risk youth. The Department of Human Services is requiring an evaluation component for all future contracts. Marian is in search of an evaluation program to show that Morningside center is achieving the right goals for the adolescents that attend the program. As a staff member, I suggested in the meeting that the best evaluation program to use would be the target-problem scaling. As I mentioned above, the target-problem scaling is a method of evaluating changes that take place over time. (Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2015) It is also a process where the problem is identified, a plan takes place, and changes in the target problem are measured. (Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2015) First off, I think this method would work best because the Department of Human Services is requiring a evaluation, which means a evaluation of the program has to take place to see if there is a problem. The second reason why I would use this method, I think this method would work best because in this method it evaluates change over time. The method will be able to determine if this program at Morningside has helped and made improvements in the adolescent’s lives. The third reason why I think this method is best because, it uses a target-problem change scale. This scale is implemented to view

In today's society, early childhood education programs have become an almost expected first step in every child's life. Studies have shown that when children attend they children who attend a preschool program are exposed to numbers, letter, and shapes on a daily basis. They also begin to learn many life skills, like how to socialize, share and separate from their parents. These first steps of learning are so important that now forty states in the U.S. now offer state funded pre-k programs (Kanter, 2016). With some many different preschools and early childhood programs, how do parents know if the programs are being held to a certain standard? The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS) is one comprehensive assessment tool available. Using this tool while quietly observing a preschool classroom, will help to define areas of strength as well as areas needing to be strengthened. The scale has thirty five different areas that are divided into six subscales, that will be observed. Each question is yes or no answer to a specific question and example.

To help program directors meet these challenges, the Administration on Children, Youth and Families developed a series of evaluations that explain program evaluation-where the teacher evaluates each child that enters into the Head Start. Good program evaluations help to improve program operations, measure program performance and effects and document important lessons for other programs. With this information, program managers are better able to direct limited resources to where they are most needed and most effective.

This research analysis is meant to measure the effects of this particular program against the goals it set out to accomplish as a means of contributing to subsequent decision making about the program and improving future programming. This applied research study is an evaluation research project of social science that is intended to supply scientifically valid information with which to guide public policy. The goals of this evaluation research are to provide feedback to policy makers in concrete and measurable terms.

As I read through this chapter, I realized that evaluation of a center is an idea I’m unfamiliar with. I’ve participated in evaluations of myself as well as evaluations of college courses. There is much more to evaluations than just a number that is given. I feel that evaluations give a center the opportunity to look into what they are currently doing and then further improve themselves. The important parts of having a center evaluation include review goals, the needs of families and children and finally for the future planning of the center.

The rationale of this evaluation is to confirm that the goals of the program are being meet. That the children are being educated in making healthy choices and participating in the program. In order for the evaluation to be accurate research needs to determine if the program will be effective.

We will create a sample evaluation that we feel encompasses all the program goals the external evaluator will need to assess in order to evaluate the model. The sample evaluation was developed using our educational evaluation knowledge, Community School research, and field experience in program evaluation. We will advise the evaluator randomly sample 40 Community Schools of the 94 Community Schools to participate in the evaluation. Based on a Survey Monkey, Sample Size Calculator, we advise 40 Community Schools to ensure that we are 90% confidence in the results of the evaluation with a 10% margin of error (cite). However, we will advise targeting a sample size of 60 Community Schools to ensure that we end up with a minimum of 40 Community Schools by accounting for schools who may not want to participate in the

Program evaluation is important because it identifies a program strengths and weaknesses in order to improve that program. The purpose of a program evaluation is collects information about a program or aspects about to make a decision. Most program evaluation that have been take were to improve programs and what an individual can learn from it. It often helps management answer questions such as what is their goals for their program, and how can they meet their goals.

Lee Cronbach was one of the educational psychologists that influenced me more as his research work included the program evaluation and instruction in addition to measurement and testing. He had concern regarding program evaluation effectiveness in 1970 and see it as pieces of evaluation process. The program objective evaluation detached from scientific activity, test content and curricula, appropriate experimental designs, and proper statistical tests. He called for reform in program evaluation that influenced program evaluations across many fields, from health programs to juvenile delinquency programs; his work recognized the merits and limitations of randomized field trials, the importance of local contexts on performance, and the social

The validity and credibility of this finding to answer the research question on program readiness for evaluation is uncertain. This is primarily due to the limitations in obtaining the data used for those evaluations, and the findings. However, being that this is a tool used by the funders as a checkmark on the program, and the program has continued to be funded, I can only use clear reasoning and judgement to decide that the program is ready to be evaluated. In addition, the program seems to have a design which they abide by. The data analysis show that the program has a well-defined structure, no part of the process needs to be modified.

The main goals and concerns utilized for this program and policy are the following. “During the planning phases of the evaluation, scientific, and program staffers must have clear communication and consensus about the evaluation goals and objectives, and throughout the evaluation, they must have mechanisms to maintain this open communication.” Which leads to what are the critical ten steps of causation to a successful accomplishment of those goals. The following ten steps for conducting the outcome evaluations “Clearly define the problem being addressed by the program; specify the outcome the program is designed to achieve. Specify the research questions we want the evaluation to answer, and select an

Each aspect of the evaluation design provides information for triangulation. Interviews will allow the program’s evaluator to understand how teachers and schools are using the program, student and teacher involvement in the program. Qualitative data will be used to gather a summative view of student performance after the service intervention. All quantitative analyses will be performed on Statistical Packing for Social Sciences (SPSS) 19.0.