Hispanic Scholarship Fund

Overview
HSF “provides financial support for Latinos going to college and educates students and families about the resources available for paying for college outside of HSF.” Three current programs, the Peer Counseling, University Alliance and Rising Star programs, are proving especially effective in assisting Latino students in California, Colorado, Florida, Texas, and Georgia to enroll in, continue in, and graduate from college.

Challenge
HSF seeks to increase the number of Latino students attending and completing college through its programs. Evaluating the implementation and impact of these programs is key to understanding program effectiveness and improving program structure, fulfilling the requirements of grant funding, and meeting the Hispanic Scholarship Fund mission. HSF needed to gather information from a variety of Spanish and English-speaking constituents around the United States, including K-12 students, high school and college students and their parents, teachers, mentors and administrators, and other stakeholders.

Solution
From 2008-2010, The Improve Group conducted comprehensive evaluations for these programs. We designed methods to gather data using surveys, interviews and focus groups in English and Spanish. We were able to combine extensive data sets generated by the programs as they meet and work with young people with evaluation outcomes to determine which services had the greatest impact. Hispanic Scholarship Fund is using the findings to deliver more targeted services to students who would benefit from a college experience, reach out to college campuses to demonstrate the value of increasing enrollment of Latino students, and advocate to ensure continued support for underrepresented youth in higher education.

Minnesota Department of Corrections

Overview
The Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) sought evaluation services for two re-entry projects from 2007-2009. The Re-entry Success through Personal Effectiveness and Community Support Program enrolled approximately 700 incarcerated men and women in a life skills program designed to reduce recidivism and assist in the reintegration of adult prisoners. In another program, the High Risk Demonstration Project, the DOC initiated a reentry demonstration project for high risk adults.

Challenge
The DOC needed to document the effectiveness of these two programs, showing how the re-entry services utilized best practices and how they enhanced offenders’ transition to the community. The DOC hoped to use findings to guide decisions about what continued support to seek from State and Federal sources and what services are available to offenders before and after they leave the corrections sy stem.

Solution
For the Re-entry Success through Personal Effectiveness and Community Support Program, the Improve Group designed and administered a survey at four participating prison facilities. We compiled data and created a report that will be used to provide guidance about strategies used, based on performance indicators, which will serve as a guide for program replication. We recently presented findings from this evaluation at a regional conference for corrections educators. Some aspects of the program that were identified as particularly effective have been sustained.

For the DOC’s High Risk Demonstration Project, we designed surveys for recently released offenders and staff members. These surveys were specially designed to allow for low literacy levels and high levels of suspicion among the surveyed population, while asking about relatively complex topics, like aspirations for the future and mental health status. The findings of the evaluation were reported to the Minnesota State Legislature and the leadership at DOC.

Girl Scouts USA

Overview
The Girl Scouts of America needed to understand the outcomes of three national programs: the Uniquely ME! project, aimed at self-esteem in girls of all types; Project Anti-Violence Education (P.A.V.E. the Way), aimed at helping girls at-risk of gang and other violence, and Girl Scouting in Detention Centers, aimed at helping girls in detention centers. GSUSA hoped to identify strengths and continue to develop quality programs.

Challenge
For these three national projects, the Girl Scouts hoped to improve their understanding of both the unique and universal outcomes. Programs were dispersed across the country, had locally-designed program models, and served widely varying populations.

Solution
The Improve Group first convened staff from across the country to articulate the difference their programs made in the lives of girls and understand the commonalities and differences across communities. We then gathered data to back up that claim. Girls, adult volunteers, staff and partnering organizations (such as schools and detention centers) shared their insights through surveys, focus groups and interviews. Findings were shared with councils, the national office staff and funders in a number of ways: short case studies, detailed evaluation reports, national teleconferences, conference presentations and summaries. The results were used by GSUSA and funders to set programming priorities and to help institutionalize some of the best practices nationwide. The girls, staff and other stakeholders reported they thought we did a good job capturing what was happening and helping them to distill the key issues they faced.

South Carolina Arts Commission

Overview
The South Carolina Arts Commission’s Arts in Basic Curriculum (ABC) initiative aims to achieve quality, comprehensive arts education for all students in South Carolina. ABC provides grant funds, technical assistance, professional development and training, research and advocacy in pursuit of this mission.

Challenge
At the 20-year anniversary of the ABC project, the South Carolina Arts Commission needed to measure the effectiveness of the collaboration. The partners hoped to learn both successes and challenges related to five key goals: build excellence in arts education programs, increase understanding of arts education, promote high-quality, comprehensive arts education for all children, build the capacity of local schools to deliver arts education, and diversify the arts education experiences of South Carolina’s students. The South Carolina Arts Commission also hoped to assess the new needs of the program as a result of expansion into new sites.

Solution
The Improve Group conducted process and outcome evaluations of a number of aspects of ABC’s work. The evaluation included a survey of staff at all funded sites across the state (approximately 90 schools and districts), as well as interviews with key stakeholders and records analysis. Records analysis included use of South Carolina’s standardized arts assessment data. The resulting findings suggested some clear recommendations for ABC, including ways to use the talents of its partners effectively through a well-structured Steering Committee and continue to build awareness of their work.