Developing a Common Evaluation Tool for Camps

Kendra M. Lewis, Marianne Bird, Tamekia Wilkins, John Borba, Keith Nathaniel, Emily Schoenfelder

Abstract


Evaluation has become a standard for youth programming, to provide both evidence for improvement recommendations and an assessment of program outcomes. Having a common evaluation tool across programs (in this case, camps) is beneficial in aggregating measurements and understanding similarities and differences between programs. The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of working with the California 4-H Camping Advisory Committee to develop a common evaluation tool for all California 4-H camps, and to share initial findings from the instrument. We present results from two years of data collection, and the multiple uses of the findings.


Keywords


camp; 4-H; evaluation; common measure

Full Text:

PDF

References


American Camp Association. (2009). Camp Youth Outcomes Battery: Measuring developmental outcomes in youth programs. Available at https://www.acacamps.org

Arnold, M. E., Nott, B. D., & Meinhold, J. L. (2012). The positive youth development inventory. Corvalis: Oregon State University 4-H Youth Development. Retrieved from http://oregon.4h.oregonstate.edu/about/pre/instruments/pydi

Lerner, R. M., Lerner, J. V., Almerigi, J. B., Theokas, C., Phelps, E., Gestsdottir, S., . . . von Eye, A. (2005). Positive youth development, participation in community youth development programs, and community contributions of fifth-grade adolescents: Findings from the first wave of the 4-H study of Positive Youth Development. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 25, 17-71. doi: 10.1177/0272431604272461

Lewis, K. M. (2015). 4-H common measure: Social-emotional development. Davis: University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321824420_4-H_Common_Measure_Social-Emotional_Development

Lewis, K. M.. (2017, September). Have a data party to share evaluation results! Retrieved from https://www.acacamps.org/news-publications/blogs/research-360/have-data-party-share-evaluation-results

Lewis, K. M., & Bird, M.. (2017, October). Helping stakeholders understand and embrace evaluation data. Demonstration presented at the American Evaluation Association Annual Conference, Washington, D.C.

Lewis, K. M., Bird, M., Borba, J., Nathaniel, K., & Schoenfelder, E. (2017). Teen staff experiences in California 4-H camps. 2017 American Camp Association Research Forum Abstracts (pp. 19-21). Retrieved from https://www.acacamps.org/sites/default/files/resource_library/2017_ACA_Book_of_Abstracts.pdf

Payne, P. B., & McDonald, D. A. (2012). Using common evaluation instruments across multi-site community programs: A pilot study. Journal of Extension, 50(4). Retrieved from https://www.joe.org/joe/2012august/rb2.php

Santos, J. R. A., & Clegg, M. D. (1999). Factor analysis adds new dimension to extension surveys. Journal of Extension, 37(5). Retrieved from http://www.joe.org/joe/1999october/rb6.php




DOI: https://doi.org/10.5195/jyd.2018.539

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2018 Kendra M. Lewis, Marianne Bird, Tamekia Wilkins, John Borba, Keith Nathaniel, Emily Schoenfelder

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.