Concept Map: Analyze Contextual Factors

Program Evaluation: Aim Higher Mentorship Program

Rationale

The Aim Higher Mentorship Program was implemented as a means of targeting identified
students who were predicted to be on the border of success or failure in their upcoming
examinations. The program is operated in the students final year and utilizes personnel from
outside of the school community. These corporate volunteers were thought be ideal mentors
since they could present a more convincing dose of reality to students who often might not listen
to the advice of their teachers whom they see everyday and might think we were just being picky
or trying to scare them in to meeting the expectations we have of them.

In the early stages of the program in 2013, I was asked to step in as Faculty Advisor for the
students in my Academy. A number of these participants were students in my tutorial or students
whom I had taught earlier in their High school career. As I begin my second year working with
the program, I reflected on the little I knew about the overall performance of those students I first
worked with. Whilst the volunteers are great to work with and eager to assist, I felt it important
to see the actual impact that this program had on the students. I wanted to find out if the effort
that was made did in fact result in these students being rescued from the border of failure by their
achieving success. If this data is collected, it gives us as supervisors a better way to plan for the

future and identify any short-comings or room for improvement that might not be readily
recognized.
I believe the stakeholders to be anyone who has a direct interest in the success of these students.
The diagram below indicates who these persons or groups of persons are and what their interests
are in the program.

It became apparent that all the stakeholders are interested in seeing these students succeed in
their exams and so the second diagram indicates the overlapping interests in this program by

placing the students at the center of the mind-map. There were no obvious conflicts of purpose

but I am still cautious that this might be revealed at a later time.

Due to the nature of our education system, there is heavy political involvement in school
initiatives as directives are most often handed-down from higher up. This particular initiative
was internally driven however, but I am aware that at given point in time, particularly near
elections, the respective Minister might choose to use the success of this program as evidence
of their work to meet whatever targets they had outlined in their manifesto.

Program Evaluation Proposal

The program I have selected to evaluate for this is course is a mentorship program that is
operated in the school where I currently work. The title of the program is called the Aim Higher
Mentorship Program. The program identifies approximately 40 students who are in their final
year but their aptitude test predicts that they can either fail or pass their final exams. The aim of
the program is to assign students a mentor to help them prepare for their final exams by
providing with study tips and other time management tools that would essentially ensure that
they are better placed to pass then fail.
I am currently the faculty advisor for 10 students from my academy and have the
responsibility of arranging and supervising weekly meetings with the students and their menses. I
am also responsible for the providing the menses with any resources available within the school
that they feel they might be able to use to get the students to achieve their goal. The mentors are
volunteer professionals who undergo a training and orientation process before they are assigned
to students. This is my second year supervising the program and as I thought about program
evaluation, it occurred to me that an evaluation of the success of the program in terms of meeting
our intended goal would be a practical thing to do which served a dual purpose.
In conducting this evaluation I intend to look at correlations between student attendance,
in terms of consistent meeting with their mentors, and overall performance. I also intend to look
at the original predicted grades and the actual grades the students from last year received and
then to examine the report cards for current participants to see if there are any improvements in
their performance since the program resumed in August of 2014.

Program Analysis : Aim Higher Mentorship

The Aim Higher mentorship program was implemented and is operated by John Gray High
School which is an educational institution.

Description
Operating in a co-educational secondary institution, the mentorship program targets a
select group of students who have been identified as having the potential to either pass or fail
their final exams. The aim of the program is to help these students realize the potential for success by pairing them with professionals who will provide them with insights into strategies they
can use to be successful. The program is also seen as a means of providing students with the
opportunity to establish networks with potential employers once they complete high school.
The students meet with their mentors weekly and are able to track their progress by reviewing their formal report cards, or from feedback they receive from the students themselves in
regards to how they are doing in identified challenge subjects. In addition to this, mentors might
choose to meet with or get feedback from individual subject teachers through face to face meetings or reports requested through the faculty advisor assigned to each group of students. At the
moment, data available on the program outcome and performance history of the students is limited.

History
The Mentorship program had its beginnings two years ago in August of 2013 out of the
need for the school to increase the percentage of students who sat and passed a minimum of
five subjects. This initiative was also fueled by the establishment of a national qualifications
standards introduced by the Ministry of Education. The program has been met with positive responses from both staff and students alike. Unfortunately with virtually no quantifiable data, it is

difficult to determine the merits of the program though it has been deemed a success based on
the increased number of volunteers who have signed up and the fact that the training program
for volunteers and the menthe pairing sessions have been better organized. For some of the
student participants, they have been able to get jobs after high school while others have earned
the qualifications for matriculation into college. Some members of staff have also indicated a
change in participant general attitude towards school and learning.

Stakeholders
The stakeholders involved in the program includes the following groups:
Senior management
Supervising Faculty
Students
Parents
Volunteer professionals
The Ministry of Education
It can be said that all the stakeholders are most interested in seeing the students realize
the better of their predicted performance. For Senior management, it will mean a realization of
the targets set for our school improvement program. This knowledge stems from data that has
been shared with staff as it relates to setting targets for individual subject areas and for students
each year. For the Ministry, their interest are political to a large extent since the success of the
program can provide good data for their targets or national standards. Both parents and students would want success due to the potential this possesses for their future. The volunteer professionals in most instances are interested in helping us to ensure that adequate candidates exit
high school with the requisite minimum qualifications necessary for entry-level positions at least
as there was an issue with that in previous years. This feedback has been provided by the

Chamber of Commerce in their discussion of concerns employers have as it relates to the employability of the local workforce.

Context
Being a school-lead initiative, there is limited room for the Ministrys involvement and so
this increases the autonomy of the school leaders in terms of decision-making. Given the nature
of the economy, there is a high percentage of expatriate workers, it has been suggested that
some of volunteers are serving only so that they can add this information to their application for
permanent residency status as community involvement is useful in scoring points. While there is
a way to verify this data I do not think it would be wise to do so as this might not sit well with
present, or future volunteers. This is only mentioned here just to indicate that the possibility exists that there may be some mentors who are more invested in the program and eager to see
the students succeed than others. We do have a number of attorneys who participate and this
might be a way for private practices to provide the minimum required pro bono hours. Other factors that might need to considered include the extent to which students connect with their assigned mentors. It has been observed that students who are able to establish a positive relationship with their mentor might be inclined to feel better about their involvement in the program
and any progress they make or are willing to try and make.

Ethical challenges
As an assigned faculty advisor directly involved in the program it might seem questionable that the evaluation is being carried out by a member of staff within the same school that the
program operates. This might influence how the evaluation report is perceived as there may be
those who feel that the program findings will be biased if it paints the program as being extremely successful. On the other hand, if the program report is not as positive as the program might

be perceived, it is possible that the report could draw the ire of those persons who are deeply
invested in the running of this program.

Conclusion
The approach to the evaluation of this program is intended to collect data on student
performance in order to measure the extent to which participants have actually benefitted from
being involved. It is expected that the success can be measured by looking at the final grades
that students received in their exams and determine if these grades were on par or better than
their predicted grade prior to their participation in the program. One could also consider comparing the performance of students who are able to meet regularly with their mentors against those
who do not meet as often