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The Harvard Family Research Project separated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education to become the Global Family Research Project as of January 1, 2017. It is no longer affiliated with Harvard University.
Volume X, Number 4, Winter 2004/2005
Issue Topic: Evaluating Family Involvement Programs
Evaluations to Watch
David Scheie, See Moua, and Pang Lee, from the Neighborhood Learning Community, describe the lessons they learned—about children participating in an affiliated program and about evaluation practice—by listening to parents’ spontaneous stories during a parent survey interview.
The Neighborhood Learning Community (NLC)¹ is a network of people and organizations working to strengthen the “culture of learning” in the West Side neighborhood of St. Paul, Minnesota. Based on the premise that everyone is a lifelong learner and teacher, the NLC promotes informal learning opportunities, sponsors leadership development, nurtures collaboration, and works for systems change, particularly within St. Paul public schools.
Evaluation is an integral part of the NLC. Consistent with the values of co-creation, collaboration, and reflective practice, the NLC uses a participatory approach. With this approach, information for learning sometimes bubbles up unexpectedly; this happened last spring when 10-minute parent surveys catalyzed hour-long conversations with parents about their children’s development and about the NLC.
Using a Parent Perceptions Survey—which contained multiple-choice questions for parents to rate their children’s development in seven areas—we interviewed Hmong parents whose children participate in an NLC-member organization known as the Jane Addams School for Democracy (JASD).² During the survey, parents rarely responded right away with one of the answer choices; instead, they told stories that taught us, as evaluators, about their children’s development and more.
From parents, we learned the following about the children at JASD:
We also learned the following about parents and how to engage them:
Related ResourcesHarvard Family Research Project’s Fall 2002 issue of the FINE Forum e-newsletter, focused on the Jane Addams School for Democracy. O’Donnell, S., & Scheie, D. (1999). Putting families at the center of community action. Minneapolis, MN: Rainbow Research. www.rainbowresearch.org Scheie, D., Robillos, M., Bischoff, M., & Langley, B. (2003). Organizing for youth development and school improvement. Minneapolis, MN: Rainbow Research. www.rainbowresearch.org |
Using What We’ve Learned
These findings have helped strengthen our practice—our commitment to relationship building among children, parents, and staff; our emphasis on keeping adult staff involved long-term; and our encouragement of staff to initiate more one-to-one conversations with parents. We are also invested in learning more about why some dimensions of child development are further advanced than others through participation in JASD, why children behave better at JASD in some instances than at home, and how this information can be used to improve children’s learning.
We intend to foster more opportunities for parents to talk positively about their children and their hopes for them, as well as to engage them in reflecting with us about “what we did and why we did it,” so that parents and their children can begin to see JASD as not just a place to play and do homework, but a place tied to NLC’s core values of connection, co-creation, and public work. We also will continue involving parents in evaluating programming, as involvement helps parents better understand the program’s goals, begin to take ownership of the program, and assist program staff in co-creating the program.
Lessons for Evaluators
Our experience suggests the following lessons for evaluators:
¹ The NLC receives support from the Wallace Foundation, the Bush Foundation, and several other sources. For more information on the NLC, visit www.westsidelearning.org.
² See www.publicwork.org.
David M. Scheie
Evaluation & Collaborative Inquiry Consultant
Scheie & Associates
711 W. Lake Street, #411
Minneapolis, MN 55408
Tel: 612-825-9100
Email: dscheie@mtn.org
See E. Moua
Jane Addams School for Democracy
Center for Democracy & Citizenship
Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs
130 Humphrey Center
301 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Tel: 612-626-4699
Email: smoua@hhh.umn.edu
Pang K. Lee
Jane Addams School for Democracy
209 West Page Street
Saint Paul, MN 55107
Tel: 651-209-3519
Email: leex1104@umn.edu