Goals for the Case Study

Goals
· Meet the individual child’s needs · Programming to reflect the needs of the child as recommended by Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Speech/Language Pathologist, Pediatrician

Table for Case Study

Resources	Activities	Outputs	Outcomes	Goals
· Participants · Parents · Teacher Assistant · Child’s Teacher · Qualified personnel – Speech/Language Pathologist, Pediatrician, Child Psychiatrist, Chartered Psychologist	· Child with Profound /Severe disabilities are eligible for program · Child will participate in at-school programming · Child will participate in at-home programming · Home visits · Classroom visits	· Level and supports necessary to provide the child with the outlined program · Documentation and assessment of the child’s functioning · Appropriate programming · Information obtained from all resources listed	· Documentation and assessment of the child’s current level of functioning in the learning environment · Parents, Teachers, and the child will be involved in the gathering of the data for the assessment.	· Meet the individual child’s needs · Programming to reflect the needs of the child as recommended by Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Speech/Language Pathologist, Pediatrician

Case Study Evalution assignement two

Program Evaluation

Agency Name: Medicine Hat Catholic Separate Regional Division #20

Program Name: Student Services Program Division, ECS Programming for Children with Severe Disabilities

Resources Activities Outputs Outcomes Goals

	Resources	Activities	Outputs	Outcomes	Goals
	Participants Parents Teacher Assistant Child’s Teacher Qualified personnel – Speech/Language Pathologist, Pediatrician, Child Psychiatrist, Chartered Psychologist	Child with Profound /Severe disabilities are eligible for program Child will participate in at-school programming Child will participate in at-home programming Home visits Classroom visits	Level and supports necessary to provide the child with the outlined program Documentation and assessment of the child’s functioning Appropriate programming Information obtained from all resources listed	Documentation and assessment of the child’s current level of functioning in the learning environment Parents, Teachers, and the child will be involved in the gathering of the data for the assessment.	Meet the individual child’s needs Programming to reflect the needs of the child as recommended by Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Speech/Language Pathologist, Pediatrician

I believe this model will work to evaluate this program because:

· it has the goal as a primary focus

· it includes all the necessary participants to gather information from and is not just test results number based

· according to the program description it allows for all the components to be imbedded within the evaluation

· This program evaluation will allow the opportunity to document the philosophy of all participants when collecting data which may help to shape future programming

Program Evaluation Karol's Thoughts

Program Evaluation Review

Karol Kryzanowski-Narfason

The Program and Approach

For the following review I have chosen to look at is a study of five state pre-kindergarten programs. The evaluation was an effectiveness-based evaluation, where the researchers asked the primary question: Do Pre-K programs improve children’s pre-literacy and math learning for kindergarten entry?

The study used a quasi-experimental approach called Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD). The Regression Discontinuity Design model is a model that evaluates the effects of interventions. In this case they are evaluated the effects of the social, emotional and cognitive development of Pre-k children whom have attended a pre-k program versus those whom have not.

The study was conducted because schools and school boards have boasted that pre-K programs foster school readiness. Because of this publicity the enrollments have increased as well as funding very rapidly.

The process used:

Five states of Pre-k classrooms voluntarily were studied. Data was collected by random sampling of students within the volunteered classrooms, and these children were given standardized tests by a trained tester.

The strengths: When evaluating, to identify and be mindful not to repeat gaps of previous evaluations increases the value and the usefulness of current evaluation. This evaluation talks about other evaluations only being from two states this evaluation includes five states, allowing a larger sampling to collect data from.

This evaluation looked at developmental outcomes such as social, emotional and cognitive development. This strength, in my opinion, demonstrated the foreseeable relationship between developmental readiness and learning readiness to give these pre-k children the foot in the door to kindergarten learning.

The approach used in this evaluation is relatively unbiased. One of the reasons is the strict birthday-cut off rules and therefore you are able to test children who age wise are within days of each other but one may have gone through the Pre-K program and the other not.

Could be viewed as a weakness and a strength

The programs studies varied in many ways, duration, funding, and teacher education to name a few. I think that the strong variation in the programs themselves could be argued as both strengths and weaknesses. I have two schools of thought: 1. certain variations in the program do not affect results and 2. Evaluation criteria could have been more specific.

The weaknesses:

The five states that were involved in the evaluation volunteered and therefore this evaluation is not a random sampling.

Money, funding, high-stakes, investment, budgeting, however you would like to say it, governments and policy makers want and need to know that their money is being put to good use. I understand accountability, and I can appreciate transparency of spending and I too would like to see results driven by dollars as dollars are increased. However, I am always cautious and aware of the weakness of any evaluation that could also have the potential to increase funding, or that the evaluation may have been state funded in the first place as to have a political impact.

WOW I've made a blog YIPPEE Yahoo

Wow, first time for me, done deal I guess will never have a first time for creating a blog again :).
Now if I can just get blackboard to work!

Karol