Response to Request for Proposal To Evaluation the Determining Instructional Purposes (DIP) Training Program

Submitted To: Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development

Submitted by: Jennifer Heckel

Introduction: Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development has issued a request for proposal regarding their Determining Instructional Purposes (DIP) training program. This document is a response and proposal submitted by Jennifer Heckel, an independent evaluator from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Description of Program To Be Evaluated: Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Design recently developed a training program for school administrators and graduate students named Determining Instructional Purposes. The main goal behind this training program is centered on building an administrative teams skills in planning effective school programs. This training package contains three units of training and a coordinators handbook, which can be purchased together or purchased separately depending on the needs of various educational organizations. Each unit is designed to be broken up into four-to-six interactive modules that require reading, individual/ small group activities, and a time for feedback from peers regarding how to apply the unit objectives to real-life hypothetical school situations. Unit One: Setting Goals and Unit 3: Deriving Objectives is estimated to take 10-15 hours to complete, while Unit Two: Analyzing Problems takes an estimated 12-18 hours to complete. A coordinator should oversee the program, although it is not necessary for the coordinator to have any previous experience in the training material. Rather, the coordinators handbook is designed to give the facilitator all the information he or she needs to organize, guide, and monitor activity taking place during the training. Evaluation Methods: The main reason for this request is to find out specific and detailed information regarding the marketing and sales of the training units. Far West Laboratories (FWL) would like to know if they should in fact commit resources to market this training course to educational institutions. In addition, marketers and developers at FWL would like to know if this type of program is even marketable and worthy of the monetary and time investment that would need to take place to sell this program. By the end of the evaluation, the stakeholders in this training program will gain a better understanding into what this program needs to be in order to sell and if the dollars they put into developing this training program will grow overtime through sales. To begin the evaluation process, the evaluator will go to Far West Laboratories to gather more information regarding the development of the training program. The evaluator will sit down with the stakeholders themselves, which includes developers, marketers, and researchers, to discuss the background of the program in a more in-depth manner. Questions about the intention of the program and overall objectives/outcomes will be reviewed at this time. The evaluator will determine why Far West Laboratories thought that this program would be of value, and gather information first hand from those who know the program best.

Next, a thorough market analysis will be conducted, which will show if there is a need for a training program with the intended goals listed above. At the same time, in-depth surveys and questionnaires will be sent to building supervisors and school administration regarding the perceived needs of their school, their level of commitment to providing effective school programs, how they currently rank their school programs, and to gauge their willingness to try a training program such as the one FWL has developed. The questions will contain both scaled ranking and opened ended questions so the results can be analyzed. Schools in both the public and private sector will be included so there is equal representation from all demographics. After the market analysis and needs surveys are completed, six schools who responded to the survey will be selected to participate in a free program trial. Both schools which expressed an emphasis in growth of their programs and those not placing an emphasis on program growth will be asked to participate so accurate feedback regarding the program can be gathered from all parties. Prior to participating in the training program, interviews of the school administration and important officials will take place to help establish the current level of school programs and activities. Questions regarding the current goals at each school, if well-written objectives regarding the schools future are present, what kind of programs exist at the school, participation in programs, an opinion about the effectiveness of programs, and what needs each school has will be asked. A teacher questionnaire also will be sent out in order to ensure the evaluator has information from all those involved with programs at the school. The schools participating in the training program will then initiate the program. Each school is asked to select a coordinator who will oversee the training program. All three units will be completed, taking about 32-48 hours training time in total. The evaluator will observe the training in action to gather information regarding the effectiveness of the program and how easy the material is to integrate. Data at this stage will be gathered from informal observations and interviews with participants. Following the actual completion of the training program, follow up interviews and questionnaires will be sent to participants. Questions similar to those asked at the pre-training meetings will be asked, including goals for the school for the future, if well-written objectives exist, plans for the future, programs that are in place to make the school a better environment, and how much participation exist in each program. In addition, questions regarding the usefulness of the training program, the growth in school personnel, if it would be worth the costs involved for the materials, and how happy the school is with the training will be asked. These answers will be compared to the pre-training questionnaires and interviews, and will be used as a data source for the formal evaluation. After the data is thoroughly analyzed, a comparison will happen between the school administration prior to the training and the school administration after the training. The evaluator will look at the program objectives to see if they were met, and look at the feedback regarding the program. The evaluator will determine if the program in fact meets a current need for schools at this present time, and if schools were satisfied with the results from the program. This will determine the marketability of the training program to other schools.

Task Schedule Evaluation of Determining Instructional Purposes Far West Laboratories (based off of February 24th, 2014 project start date) Person Responsible Deadline Heckel March 3rd, 2014 March 10th, 2014 April 7th, 2014 April 21st, 2014

Task

1) The evaluator meets with stakeholders at FWL to discuss proposal 2) Evaluator develops EPD with staff and reveals it to stakeholders for review

Heckel

3) Market/Need analysis completed regarding the Winston need for educational training programs 4) Develop data-collection plan containing all instruments and tools/draft questionnaires for needs assessment 5) Finalize questionnaires and send to 40-50 public and private schools 6) Collect questionnaires and review data 7) Summarize data to FWL and choose 6 schools with FWL to participate in training program 8) Schools complete training program while evaluator observes process 9) Draft is completed and reviewed for survey sent to schools after program completion 10) Final copy of survey sent to participants 11) Interview school administrators who participated in training program 12) All interview/questionnaire/survey data collected, complied, and analyzed 13) Present summarized data to FWL stakeholders 14) Final evaluation report submitted to FWL Harris

Heckel

April 28th, 2014 May 26th, 2014 June 2nd, 2014

Harris/Heckel Heckel

Heckel

August 1st, 2014 August 1st, 2014 August 4th, 2014 August 13th, 2014 August 25th, 2014 September 1st, 2014 September 10th, 2014

Harris

Heckel Heckel

Harris

Heckel

Heckel

Project Personnel Jennifer Heckel- Jennifer Heckel will lead the evaluation of FWLs Determining Instructional Purposes Training program and have primary responsibility in creating and implementing the evaluation. Ms. Heckel is pursuing a graduate degree in Educational Technology from Boise State University, where she experienced the evaluation process first hand through a Evaluating Technology Graduate Course. An educator for six years, Ms. Heckel has a passion for improving the educational experience for students through new research and trends. Dr. Elisabeth Harris- Dr. Harris will create and design the interview and survey tools for this evaluation. Also, Dr. Harris will collect, analyze, and summarize the data for the formal evaluation report. An experienced data collector, she holds a B.A in statistics from Pennsylvania University and received both her Masters degree in Mathematics and Doctorate in Big Data Analytics from the University of Maryland. Dr. Harris has been a key contributor to in the field of analytics through her numerous journal articles. Dr. Nigel Winston- Dr. Winston will be heading the marketing analysis project related to this evaluation. Dr. Winston has extensive experience in the field of market research, with a B. S in Marketing Communication from Berkeley College, Masters in Marketing from St. Josephs University, and his Doctorate in Marketing Specialization from Drexel University. With twelve years experience in the educational research and marketing field, Dr. Winston has extensive knowledge and key connections to business personnel. Budget or Fee The total cost for this evaluation will come to $48,601.70. This includes expenses such as personnel, travel, supplies and cost of materials associated with completing the evaluation. Please review the budget breakdown below: Personnel: Description Jennifer HeckelEvaluator Dr. HarrisData Interpreter Dr. WinstonMarket Analyzer Travel: Description Travel Expenses Flights to FWL (PHL to San Francisco) Supplies: Description Training Consumables Materials: Description Research Materials

Costs 70 days x $300/day= 30 days x $425/day= 20 days x $450/day= Costs 5,000 miles x $0.555 = 2 RT flights x $450.00= Costs 6 schools x $29.45 Costs $2,000.00

Total $21,000.00 $12,750.00 $9,000.00 Total $2,775.00 $900.00 Total $176.70 Total $2,000.00 Subtotal: $48,601.70