A proposal for the evaluation of the Determining Instructional Purposes training program.

This Proposal Submitted to Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development. By Shaun Bass and Associates July 2010

Introduction In July of 2010, Far West Laboratories for Educational Research and Development (FWL) issued a request for proposal for an evaluation of their Determining Instructional Purposes training program. They requested the evaluation be completed no later than April 2011. Below is a proposal by Shaun Bass and Associates that outlines our plan for evaluating the training program. Determining Instructional Purposes training program. Far West Laboratories has developed a training program that is designed to improve the skills of administrators in planning effective school programs. The target of the training program is school administrators as well as graduate students who are currently in an educational administration program. Far West Laboratory hopes to sell the program to school districts and universities. The program consists of a Coordinators handbook and three self-contained training units. These units can be used as an entire program or individually. The training materials mandate that a coordinator who has gone through the unit(s) being taught oversee the training. The coordinators handbook provides the necessary information on how to conduct the training. The coordinator requires no prior knowledge of effective school planning. The coordinators role is to organize, guide and monitor activities. The handbook is priced at $4.50 per copy and the units are priced at $8.95 per unit or $24.95 for all three units. The units range in length and all materials are entirely in print form. Evaluation Method Bass and Associates will conduct an evaluation to answer the following evaluation questions. Is the Determining Instructional Purposes Program good enough to be created and marketed? Can school districts use on staff personnel as program coordinators to help keep costs of the program down? Do both using the units as stand-alone or as an entire program promote effective learning? Will the Determining Instructional Purposes Program be useful to school administrators and is so, will they buy it? In order to answer the evaluation questions, data will be collected from a variety of sources in several phases. The phases are outlined on the following page. The data collected from these phases will be used to evaluate the training program and to determine if there is a market for the training program. The data will allow Bass and associates to make recommendation to the leadership of Far West laboratories as to the dissemination of the units. The data may also prove useful in helping school administrators decide if the program is right for them.

Phase 1- in house trials Phase 1 will consist of trials that will be conducted at Far West Laboratories under the supervision of program creators and evaluators from Bass and Associates. These trials will use both current administrators and masters students who are currently enrolled in a masters program in administration. To encourage these people to participate, they will be paid a stipend. In addition to the stipend, any travel expenses incurred by the trainees will be paid for. Virtual districts will be set up and school programs will be designed. A set of guidelines will be developed that will help evaluators assess whether or not the school programs that are designed during the training program meet the criteria to be considered effective. To help determine if the program is feasible for school districts, two trials will take place simultaneously, one with a coordinator with experience and one with a coordinator with no experience. Like the trainees, the coordinators will be paid a stipend as well as travel expenses. Each simulated school will consist of five trainees for a total of ten trainees and two coordinators. Each unit should take approximately two days for a total of six days of training. If both programs have similar outcomes, we believe this information will prove useful to school districts who may have trouble believing that the coordinator could be someone from their own staff. During the trials personnel from Bass and Associates will be on hand to take notes as the programs progress. After the programs are complete coordinators and trainees will be interviewed about their experience. The school programs designed during the training will be assessed to determine their quality. Phase 2- field trials The field test will consist of finding three school districts willing to try the units as a complete program and nine school districts that are willing to try each of the three different units as a stand-alone unit. Three of these districts will do unit one, three will do unit two and three will do unit three. All of the districts will use coordinators who are on school district staff. We would like to do a trial at the university level, but feel it is more important to focus on school districts at this time. During these trials, Bass and Associates will send people out to the schools doing the program. Each visit will last for two days for a total of twenty-four days of on site visits. The entire program at each school will be recorded using video cameras supplied by Bass and Associates. After the programs are complete, each administrator will be interviewed along with a random sample of 5% of the people taking the course. The administrator interview will include the question of whether or not they would buy the program or recommend it to others. All coordinators will be interviewed as well. Questionnaires will be sent out to all who participated in the training. Phase 3-Surveys The last phase of the data gathering will be to send out surveys to school districts and universities to see if they have any interest in purchasing the program. The survey will include a brief introduction to the program as well as the cost of the units and coordinators manual.

Task Schedule Evaluation of the Determining Instructional Purposes Program.

Task Meet with Far West Laboratories to discuss the proposal and make any changes necessary. Submit surveys, questionnaires, evaluation sheets and interview questions to Far West Laboratories for review. Provide feedback on surveys, questionnaires, etc. to Bass and Associates Revise data collection documents as necessary. Submit final copies to Far West Laboratories Begin phase 1-the in house trial. End phase 1-conduct interviews, evaluate school programs designed by trainees and review program evaluation notes taken during the program. Summarize data collected in phase 1 and present it to Far West Laboratories. Begin phase 2-field trials with school districts. End phase 2-conduct interviews, evaluate school programs designed by trainees, review program evaluation notes taken during the program and review videos of the training program. Send out questionnaires to all participants. Summarize data collected in phase 2 and present it to Far West Laboratories Begin phase 3-send out surveys to school districts Summarize data collected from phase 3 surveys and present it to Far West Laboratories. Write final report and submit to Far West Laboratories. Agency Responsible Bass and Associates/Far West Laboratory Bass and Associates Deadline date July 12, 2010 August 2, 2010

Far West Laboratories Bass and Associates Bass and Associates/Far West Laboratory Bass and Associates

August 16, 2010 August 30, 2010 September 6, 2010 September 13, 2010

Bass and Associates Bass and Associates Bass and Associates

October 18, 2010 November 1, 2010 November 15, 2010

Bass and Associates Bass and Associates Bass and Associates Bass and Associates

December 17, 2010 January 10, 2010 February 7, 2011 March 18, 2011

Project Personnel Dr. Shaun Bass-founder of Bass and Associates. Shaun has over 25 years of evaluation experience. He has a Masters degree from MIT in technology and a PHD from Boise State University in program evaluation. He has worked for the federal government in evaluating several presidential programs. He has also been involved in evaluating several sports training programs, including a new pitcher-training program for the Seattle Seahawks. He will oversee and direct the evaluation. His primary duties will include planning all three phases of the data collection and he will oversee data analysis and summary. Dr. Bass will also conduct some of the interviews and he will do some of the field observations. Dr. Laree Trout-Dr. Trout is a data collection specialist. She has been designing surveys, questionnaires and interviews for over 10 years. She worked for Nike for five years and was instrumental in their just do it campaign. She has also put together surveys and questionnaires for 35 states and the federal government. Her main job will be to design all of the surveys, questionnaires, interviews and evaluation sheets for all three phases of the program. She will also assist in data collection and analysis, including doing some of the interviews. Kaleb Salmon-Kaleb graduated from the University of Oregon as a data specialist. He has worked for NASA, MIT, and Idaho Power. During his years with Idaho power, he was in charge of collecting and analyzing data from PIT tags in three different species of salmon in Idaho, Oregon and Alaska. He was a project manager for NASA during their first Mars mission. His main duties will be to assist in data analysis. Kaleala Bluegill-is currently working on her masters degree from the University of Washington in behavioral psychology. She has worked for Sea World, putting together many of the training programs for their killer whale and sea lion programs. She has also worked for several school districts to help them put together effective teen positive action programs. Kalealas main duty will be to aid in field observations and help conduct interviews. She will also help with data analysis.

Proposed Budget Details

Personnel Shaun Bass Laree Bullhead Kaleb Salmon Kaleala Bluegill Equipment and supplies Digital video cameras Office supplies (ink, paper, envelopes, stamps, DVDs, etc. Long distance phone calls Travel Costs Trip 1 to Far West Laboratories (1 day) Air Hotel Meals Rental Car Total for each trip Travel expenses for trainees and coordinators for in house trial. Total travel expenses Stipends for in house training (people we have coming in to coordinate the training and serve as trainees). Stipend is $100.00 per day for six days equals $600.00 per person. $350.00 $100.00 $36.00 $40.00 $526.00 $2,000.00 Trip 2 to Far West Laboratories (1 day) $350.00 $100.00 $36.00 $40.00 $526.00 Travel to School Districts (24 days/12 trips) $4800.00 $2400.00 $864.00 $960.00 $9024.00 Number of days 25 20 15 15 Number of items 12 NA NA Cost per day $300.00 $300.00 $200.00 $200.00 Total Personnel Cost per item $600.00 NA NA Total supplies and equipment Total $7,500.00 $6,000 $3,000 $3,000 $19,500.00 Total $7200.00 $1,000 $1200.00 $9,400.00

Coordinators

Trainees

$12,076 Total

2@$600=$1200 Total cost for the evaluation: $48,176

10@$600=$6,000

$7200.00