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Your High School/High Tech project is in full gear and on the road
to success. Your school-based and community-based enrichment activities are
always well attended, you receive consistently positive feedback from parents,
and several large employers in your community are now involved. But what kind
of results are you truly achieving, and how can you assess the project's
accomplishments? This section outlines project reporting requirements and
provides important advice about monitoring and evaluating the outcomes of your
project.
Program monitoring and evaluation allow you to track your
High School/High Tech project's activities, to reflect on (and celebrate!) the
success of your efforts, and to refine or change your project's course when
necessary. In addition, ready access to project data ensures that you are well
prepared to discuss your activities when meeting with your local advisory
committee, making presentations to employer groups, preparing ad hoc reports to
school officials, or writing promotional materials.
As detailed below, the National Office requires each High
School/High Tech project to gather and report specified types of data (see
Appendix II, Program Evaluation). The National
Office uses this information to evaluate High School/High Tech activities
overall and to describe the populations being served nationwide. All project
staffs are encouraged to supplement the required data with quantitative or
qualitative information that highlights any special activities or
accomplishments. For example, you may wish to prepare case studies that
document individual students' progression through your program, or you may wish
to follow up with students annually after high school graduation and report on
long-term project outcomes.
Outline and discuss steps for establishing, implementing, and
maintaining data collection, analysis, and evaluation efforts. For example:
- Define your program monitoring and evaluation objectives.
Determine what types of data, both quantitative and qualitative, will be needed
to meet the objectives.
- Know your limits. Recognize your data collection and analysis
constraints, such as staff time and computer capabilities, and limit your
monitoring and evaluation efforts to those you can reasonably accomplish.
- Develop methods and tools (e.g., forms) for gathering the
needed data.
- Develop a strategy for tabulating and processing the data
(e.g., who will collect and analyze data, what tools will be used, and the
schedule for analyzing the data).
- Collect and process the data (e.g., after each event, at the
conclusion of each activity, at year-end).
- Analyze the data.
- Evaluate the program components and overall project activities,
as measured against your project goals.
- Prepare reports that reflect your program monitoring and
evaluation objectives.
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Project Evaluation Requirements
The National
High School/High Tech Office requires each project site to submit specific data
regarding program operations, participants, and outcomes. In some cases data
may be submitted online. Please refer to the appendices for a listing of the
required data reporting forms. |
If you elect to offer only some of the High School/High Tech
Program components to students, it is important that you inform the National
Office. First, we would like to work with you to develop a strategy to include
all of the Program's components. Secondly, for monitoring and evaluation
purposes, it is important for us to know the comprehensiveness of your program.
It is our responsibility to assess the extent to which the National High
School/High Tech Program meets its goals each year. We examine the range of
activities in which High School/High Tech students participate and review the
quality of the experiences. A fully-developed High School/High Tech Program
offers all of the High School/High Tech Program components with particular
emphasis on the summer internship experience. For monitoring and evaluation
purposes, the internship experience is our main unit of analysis. If you are
offering some of the program components but not the paid summer internship, you
will be classified as a "new" or "emerging" program. As part of our evaluation
process, we want to hear from all of our sites. If you are a new or emerging
site, simply let us know where you are in the development phase. We will be
sure to include you in our reports accordingly.
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Use What You Learn
The outcome of project
evaluation efforts should help you refine individual activities and assess the
project's overall results. |
The data you collect, analyze, and report should paint a vivid
picture of your High School/High Tech activities, as well as outcomes and
impact. This requires a balanced use of both quantitative and qualitative data.
Quantitative refers to the numbers (e.g., number of students served, companies
participating, percent of youth going on to post secondary institutions, amount
of wages and/or stipends paid, budget figures, etc.). On the other hand,
qualitative data are those that reflect the quality of a particular effort.
Examples might be student, parent, and employer satisfaction with features of
the program, descriptions of worksites and activities, courses being taken,
etc.
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Toot Your Horn!
Consider program evaluation
activities an integral part of your overall marketing efforts on behalf of High
School/High Tech. The information you gather will add substance and weight to
your fact sheets, promotional brochures, fliers, press releases, newsletters,
annual reports, website, and presentations. And vice versa: these will be the
vehicles by which you can disseminate this valuable information! |
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