Program Monitoring Evaluation and Reporting

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.

Road Map for Successful Program Monitoring & Evaluation

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.

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.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Information

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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