| Session Title: Teaching to a More Responsive Test: How the Scotts Miracle-Gro Cap Scholars Program has Utilized Self-determination Theory to Make Context Integral to Outcome Evaluation |
| Demonstration Session 624 to be held in Panzacola Section G2 on Friday, Nov 13, 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM |
| Sponsored by the Program Theory and Theory-driven Evaluation TIG |
| Presenter(s): |
| Deborah Wasserman, The Ohio State University, wasserman.12@osu.edu |
| Tifani Kendrick, Center of Science and Industry, tkendrick@mail.cosi.org |
| Gerlinde Higgenbotham, Center of Science and Industry, ghigginbotham@mail.cosi.org |
| Abstract: In the world of human service programming, the practice of measuring outcomes and rewarding "success" has created a dilemma: it produces a system that provides high stakes incentives for "teaching to the test." Unless the "test" reflects contextual and cultural influences that keep the program system (i.e., provider and target systems) functional, the "test" will risk producing outcomes that undermine those systems. One way of systematically including these contextual influences in an evaluation is to utilize a Self-Determination Theory-Based program model that qualifies success with indicators of how well the participant and provider systems are functioning. Practitioners and funders have found that these models create a test worth teaching to. This demonstration presents a practical how-to view of the framework for creating Self-Determination Theory-Based Logic models; how a comprehensive out-of-school program has used it over the past three years; and the nature and process of the changes it has produced. |