This research paper describes an evaluation process of one of the learning programs of Boys & Girls Club of the CSRA named the STARS (Students Tapping Academic Resources for Success). This program was oriented on improvement of educational skills of youth in a particular location within one year. It is based on the analysis of children’ grades on math, reading and science. The obtained outcomes will help to analyze the effectiveness and efficiency of the program and determine future steps of the organization.
Description of Boys & Girls Club of the CSRA, the STARS Program and the Target Population
Boys & Girls Club of the CSRA is an American private non-profit organization that renders support services to the youth. Nowadays, more than 4,000 clubs are established all over the USA. These clubs provide services to more than 4 million children and youngsters each year. In 2005, the Club obtained more than $600 million donations from other organizations, which enabled skilled volunteers by means of modern equipment to realize programs for promoting social, health and educational development of youth aged from 6 to 18.
It is notable that clubs work with children living both in big cities and in small towns. Boys & Girls Club of the CSRA helps all of them “to achieve their full potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens and leaders”. The Club also works with so-called at-risk youth by providing them with various development programs for helping to obtain a good profession and find their place in this world. Thus, the target population of Boys & Girls Club is youth: urban and rural, at-risk and trouble-free, poor and rich. The main mission of the club is aspiration to work with and to help more youth.
The process of evaluation of the learning program directed on improvement of educational skills of youth, especially so-called at-risk youth will be described below. The program will be evaluated after studying additional classes of math, science and reading. Each weak special additional class focused on one of these subjects will be provided. Additionally, during school holidays a full day program will be proposed to youth. This program implies dividing students into small groups by skills and age. In these groups children will be provided with special classes directed on the improvement of educational skills of a particular group.
In this research paper evaluation of the STARS Program will be described. Different after school and holiday studies are directed on the improvement of youth’s skills on the following subjects: math, science and reading. The STARS is oriented on at-risk youth. It enables mentoring and nutrition of educational knowledge (by meeting state standards of education) and social skills of these children. The main elements of the program include providing help in doing homework, personal tutoring, tutoring in groups, providing description of different careers, enrichment of technological knowledge and skills, mentoring, and pregnancy prevention. Separate educational plans are developed for each child. These plans are thoroughly discussed and approved by parents, teachers and professionals of the organization for providing the most effective and efficient mastering of social and educational skills.
The Type of Evaluation and Evaluation Stakeholders
The performance of evaluation of either a company or a process helps to determine whether their goals were reached to full extent or not. The evaluation will help to improve the company’s program. Also, it will provide an understanding of “result-and-effect relationships between their activities and the outcomes of their work”. The main purpose of the evaluation is to determine effectiveness of this program in terms of improvement of students’ educational skills.
Evaluation of the club will represent a combination of two different types of evaluation: formative and summative. The first type implies collecting information, analyzing and assessing it during the life time of a program. This type of evaluation “implies that the results will be used in the formation and revision process of an educational effort”. The second type implies performing the above mentioned operations after the completion of the program. Summative evaluation is focused on the outcome.
This research paper will describe an evaluation of an annual learning improvement program of the club. It is notable that the club has a great experience in development and implementation of various learning programs. It has provided youth development programs since 1951. The majority of these programs have three main directions: achievement of academic success, good character and citizenship and healthy lifestyles.
Collecting information concerning children’s outcomes will be performed in two stages: after the first six months from the beginning of implementation of the program and within a year after program’s completion. Such evaluation will help to make necessary changes into studying procedures during realization of the program. The supervisors will collect information after the first six month of realization of the program, analyze the outcomes, determine strong and weak sides of the program, develop initiatives for improvement of the program and realize these initiatives. The next evaluation will be conducted at the end of the program. This evaluation will help supervisors to decide whether to continue the program or not and how to improve it in the future.
Evaluation of the learning program will be performed by outside supervisors. These individuals taken outside the club will be able to provide impartial analysis of the collected data. This will be a skillful individual with at least 3 years experience on a similar position or an educator. Also, one of the compulsory requirements will be completed educational or psychological education. Availability of sufficient knowledge and skills is extremely necessary for proper analysis and evaluation of obtained information and for development of effective and efficient initiatives for future improvement of the learning program.
Supervisors will evaluate not the educational process, but children’s results and grades in their educational institution. Such evaluation will provide the understanding of effectiveness and efficiency of the program, competency of educators and workers of the club, the extent of interaction with youth, presentation of information by educators and information perceived by children. The outcomes of performed evaluation will be reported to coordinators and managers of the program.
Gathered Information and Its Type and Source
Evaluation of effectiveness of the learning program will be performed based on comparison of student’s grades before implementation of this program, first six months after its implementation, and after a year of its work. The grades on reading, math, and science will be evaluated. The learning program will be introduced in elementary and middle schools, which have similar high rates of poor academic performance. The club will closely communicate with authorities of these schools and describe them the necessity of obtaining information concerning students’ progress. The information containing educational grades received from the school authorities will be timely and impartial.
The learning program will be presented on McDuffie County. This county is chosen because youth living there has a relatively high risk of academic failure due to influence of such negative factors as poverty, ethnic status, single parent status, and parental educational attainment. The main aim of the learning program evaluated in this research paper is to increase effectiveness of out-of-school educational activities by targeting neighborhoods and youth who are most at-risk and most in need of resources. Introduction of the learning program in one particular location and collecting information only form this location will decrease the possibility of obtaining inaccurate outcomes based on social differences of youth on different locations.
Use of Gathered Information
The obtained information presented in the form of youth’s school grades will be thoroughly analyzed. Three types of personal grades will be compared: a grade before taking part in the program, a grade after participation in the program for 6 mounts, and a grade after participation in the program for one year. The gathered data will be used only for analysis and for forming reasonable outcomes concerning the effectiveness and efficiency of the whole program and its integral parts. No personal information will be available for general public in order to prevent any issues concerning breaches of personal rights.
Possible Issues that Could Arise in the Evaluation (Including Ethical Issue)
Certain issues may arise during the process of evaluation. The first one is the ethical issue. It is represented as unwillingness of educational authorities to participate in the evaluation of the learning program of the club by providing supervisors with information concerning students’ grades. They can explain their unwillingness by reluctance to provide personal information to the national organization due to the possibility of use of this information for purposes other than evaluation of the above mentioned leaning program.
The second issue is the lack of knowledge and skills of educators to considerably increase the knowledge of youth. The third issue that may arise in the evaluation is insufficient amount of youth who take part in the program for obtaining reasonable outcomes, i.e. lack of concernment. The fourth issue is insufficient duration of the learning program for obtaining reasonable outcomes.
Possible Outcomes of the Evaluation and Conclusion that Might Be Drawn on the Basis of These Outcomes
Possible outcomes of the evaluation depend on the grade of students after their participation in the learning program of the club. If their grades remain at the same level, it means that the learning program is ineffective, i.e. it does not improve students’ learning skills and their desire to learn something new. That means that the learning program should be totally changed, replaced by a completely different program or even closed in order to avoid insufficient waste of funds.
If grades of the youth are improved insufficiently (by about 3 – 7 per cent), it will mean that efficiency of the learning program is rather low. As a result, it should be partly or totally changed. New initiatives and studies should be implemented. More educators and volunteers should participate in the program. More technical resources should be provided.
If grades of the youth are improved insufficiently (by about 3 – 7 per cent), it will mean that efficiency of the learning program is rather low. As a result, it should be partly or totally changed. New initiatives and studies should be implemented. More educators and volunteers should participate in the program. More technical resources should be provided.
If grades of youth in McDuffie County are sufficiently improved (by more than 10 per cent), it will mean that the program is successful and thus should be further realized in this location. Moreover, it can be represented on other cities and towns.
Ways Results Should Be Communicated and to Whom
The obtained results will be formalized in one report for providing generalized and in the same time valuable understanding of the effectiveness and efficiency of the learning program. Also, a special presentation can be made for visualization of the obtained outcomes. First of all, the report should be provided to coordinators and managers of the program. These people will make decisions concerning the further life of this program: whether to prolong it or not; whether to implement some changes or not; what kind of changes should be made and in what manner they should be implemented; whether there is any necessity to expand the program to other locations and in what form it should be presented in other locations. After obtaining answers to all abovementioned questions, a generalized part of the outcomes may be provided to parents. Their involvement can provide such benefits as development of more effective initiatives for improvement the existing program and increasing the participation of youth in the program.
This research paper describes the process of evaluation of the learning program of Boys & Girls Club of the CSRA. This learning program directs on the improvement of educational skills of youth. Two types of evaluation will be performed: formative and summative. It is necessary for timely investigation of weak sides of the program and their effective and efficient improvement. Special supervisors will collect information, analyze and present it to program coordinators. The data for evaluation is represented in the form of average grades on such subjects as math, science and reading. These data can be provided by educational institutions. On the basis of obtained outcomes, a decision concerning the future of the learning program will be taken: to stop it, to replace it by another program, to improve it or to proceed with it in the future.