| In a 90 minute Roundtable session, the first
rotation uses the first 45 minutes and the second rotation uses the last 45 minutes.
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| Roundtable Rotation I:
Evaluating a Longitudinal Group-Randomized Sexual Abstinence Program: Approach and Challenges |
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Roundtable Presentation 481 to be held in Suwannee 21 on Friday, Nov 13, 9:15 AM to 10:45 AM
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Sponsored by the Collaborative, Participatory & Empowerment Evaluation TIG
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| Presenter(s):
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| Ann Peisher, University of Georgia, apeisher@uga.edu
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| Virginia Dick, University of Georgia, vdick@cviog.uga.edu
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| Katrina Aaron, Augusta Partnership for Children Inc, kaaron@augustapartnership.org
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| Robetta McKenzie, Augusta Partnership for Children Inc, rmckenzie@augustapartnership.org
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| Abstract:
This community-based evaluation research seeks to determine the effects of a comprehensive saturation approach to reducing premarital sexual activity and pregnancy among middle school youth. Research suggests more scope in abstinence programming and more rigorous evaluation can yield significant change (Hauser, 2004). While this evaluation-intensive initiative offers increased scope and a more rigorous evaluation, it is recognized that conducting evaluation research in the real world poses challenges. Securing adequate groups for sampling, monitoring program/initiative fidelity, maintaining timely, accurate data collection for a longitudinal design and planning and insuring quality statistical analysis that accounts for varying group comparability, potential attrition and missing data are evaluation issues being addressed in this five-year evaluation research effort. Working collaboratively with the community partners to design and implement the initiative and the evaluation research can improve the capacity of the evaluation team to handle these challenges. This session will describe the approach and evaluation tools used, discuss the challenges and entertain questions and suggestions from peer evaluators.
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| Roundtable Rotation II:
Is Anyone Listening? Evaluating an At-risk Youth Mentoring Program |
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Roundtable Presentation 481 to be held in Suwannee 21 on Friday, Nov 13, 9:15 AM to 10:45 AM
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Sponsored by the Collaborative, Participatory & Empowerment Evaluation TIG
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| Presenter(s):
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| Corina Owens, University of South Florida, cowens@coedu.usf.edu
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| George MacDonald, University of South Florida, macdonal@coedu.usf.edu
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| Abstract:
Middle school students, specifically at-risk middle school students, need encouragement and guidance in navigating the treacherous terrain of adolescence. One way of assisting students through this difficult time in their life is to involve them in mentoring programs with carefully selected and properly trained adults from the surrounding community. This paper describes the methods used to evaluate the effectiveness of a newly constituted mentoring program utilizing the Model for Collaborative Evaluations (Rodriguez-Campos, 2005, MCE). The MCE focuses on a set of six interactive components that encourage and promote collaboration between all evaluation team members. A collaborative approach, specifically the MCE, was chosen to actively engage stakeholders in the evaluation process in order to transform this formative evaluation into a learning and growing experience to better serve at-risk youth in a middle school setting.
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