PROJECT SURVEY/EVALUATION
An evaluation questionnaire provided the leadership institute participants with the opportunity to assess their experiences in the program. In this evaluation, migrant participants filled out a pre-post evaluation survey to determine the influence the institute had on their perceptions of self-confidence, leadership skill, etc.
Evaluation Instrument and Analysis of Data
The instrument consisted of a likert-type scale including open-ended questions that allowed for narrative comments. At the end of the week migrant participants completed the evaluation which was tabulated and summarized in this report.
The “Personal Development Leadership Institute Curriculum Components" instrument focuses on the following seven curriculum areas:
- Teamwork
- Self-Confidence
- Leadership Skills
- Critical Thinking/Decision Making
- Mentoring and Student Support
- Social Skills
- Organizational Skills
Each selected curriculum component consisted of questions addressing the various activities and lessons taught by the Inter Act staff. This section is divided into two areas. It provides a summary of frequency distributions, and an analysis of individual questions based on the seven selected personal development curriculum areas of the Leadership Institute Personal Development instrument. Items were grouped and composite scores were analyzed.
Frequency Distributions
The data was collected and analyzed for the Realizing Potentials program. Figures 1 and 2 report the quantitative results for the student project. A third section is devoted to the more qualitative aspect characterized by narrative open-ended responses provided by migrant participants. The graphs present the average perception ratings by migrant participants on ten questions related to the seven personal development areas and program effectiveness questions. Migrant participants ranked these personal development areas on a scale ranging from 1 to 4. The rating scale was 1 “Strongly Not Agree”, 2 “Not Agree”, 3 “Agree”, and 4 “Strongly Agree”.
The results of the evaluation survey demonstrated consistently positive results and growth in all areas. According to students’ pre-post results, the most growth occurred in Community Involvement (2.72 to 3.83) and Developing Leadership Skills (2.84 to 3.73). Students unequivocally felt that they needed to become more involved with their community and believed their leadership abilities were enhanced with this project. The highest rated posttest area was Inter-Act Instructors being positive role models (3.91/4.00) and the importance of positive role models in general. Also encouraging is that 100% of the participants in the Realizing Potentials Institute recommended the program for next year.