Best Practice #3: Program Evaluation
A quality adult literacy and basic education program continually evaluates
how well the program is meeting its goals and objectives and uses that information
to direct future planning.
The Fort Resolution Community Literacy Program conducts ongoing evaluations
throughout the program. This process not only measures whether the program is
meeting its objectives, it also indicates if the objectives need to be revised
and what improvements might be needed.
The
literacy workers use a range of data to track the progress of the program, to
measure its success, and to direct future planning. Quantitatively, they track
how many learners stay in the program, how many complete their courses, how
many attend regularly and what types of people participate. For example, they
know from the numbers of participants that the Reading Circle is successful.
Last year, 15 – 20 children attended each session, and this year 30 –
35 children. The fact that teenagers are attending this year, even though it
is supposed to be for children from
5 – 12, demonstrates the need for a Teen Reading Circle, or Book Club.
The data also includes information on participant satisfaction. The program
conducts exit questionnaires with the learners, the tutors and the family literacy
workers. A summary of this information is included in the year-end program report.
Here is a sample of the questionnaire that the Fort Resolution family literacy
workers filled out in May, 2003: