Development of a Web‐Based Evaluation System: A Tool for Measuring Life Skills in Youth and Family Programs^*

Abstract

The need for evaluation of youth and family programming has never been more acute, yet practitioners often do not have the tools to conduct effective evaluations. We present the development and piloting of a web-based evaluation system as a tool for evaluating participant outcomes in Cooperative Extension programming. Results of a peer review of the system and pilot test of the instrument are presented. Implications for implementing evaluations for youth and family programs are discussed.

4-H boosts youth scientific literacy with ANR water education curriculum

“…Using a posttest design, this survey replicated questions from previously published evaluation research on life skills outcomes from participation in Cooperative Extension programming (Bailey and Deen 2002).…”

Developing Life Skills Scale for High School Students Through Mixed Methods Research

“…Extension staff selected eight life skills from the targeting life skills model (Hendricks, 1998) that they believed they were teaching through their program. These life skills were: decision making, wise use of resources, communication, accepting differences, leadership, useful/ marketable skills, healthy lifestyle choices, and self-responsibility (Bailey & Deen, 2002). And then, Dunn & Arbuckle(2003) developed the life skills instrument consists of 36 questions, divided into two parts.…”

Developing a Life Skills Evaluation Tool for Assessing Children Ages 9-12

“…The researchers (Chambers & Johnston, 2001) also chose to conduct a separate pre-test and post-test prior to and following the camp program. The web-based evaluation tool was orginally designed to administer the pre-test prior to the program and post-test following the program completion (Bailey & Deen, 2002). However, the researchers chose this method of adminstration due to "the limited abstract reasoning skills of the younger age group, grades three to five (8 to 11)" (Loeser, Bailey, Benson, & Deen, 2004;Piaget, 2002).…”

“…In an effort to evaluate the effectiveness of the grant award recipients meeting the goals specified by the grant, Washington State Cooperative Extension created the Life Skills Evaluation System, a repository of life skill outcome indictors that can be used to assess life skill development of a range of developmental levels and program engagement (Bailey & Deen, 2002).…”

“…The dearth of valid and reliable instruments for assessing the outcomes of these program make it difficult to achieve these requirements (National 4-H Headquarters, 2001). The lack of available instruments can impede the work of program administrators as they seek the data necessary to justify the continued promotion, funding and implementation of youth development programs (Bailey & Deen, 2002;Pittman & Cahill, 1992).…”