FCSC Evaluation

Abstract The Evaluation Plan will be provided to the Prichard Committee as part of a grant proposal for a Full Service Community Schools grant through the US Department of Education which provides support for the planning, implementation, and operation of full-service community schools that improve the coordination, integration, accessibility, and effectiveness of services for children and families, particularly for children attending high-poverty schools. University of Kentucky, in partnership with KYSTATS, will serve in an external, independent evaluation capacity. The project evaluation is designed to support and improve project implementation, document accountability for project and program investments, and contribute to the body of knowledge on developing, scaling-up, and sustaining effective full-service community schools. At a minimum, the evaluation team will: Provide an annual progress report that contains findings from annual evaluation activities; use formative evaluation activities to enact quality assurance and continuous quality improvement activities designed to refine and improve project investments; collect and report on key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect shorter- and longer-term project and population results including student outcomes (e.g., student chronic absenteeism rates; student discipline rates, including suspensions and expulsions; graduation rates;); family outcomes (e.g., family stability or resiliency; family attendance at community or educational events; family communication with educators); school outcomes (e.g., school climate information; provision of integrated student supports and stakeholder services; expanded and enriched learning time and opportunities; number, qualifications, and retention of school staff, including the number and percentage of fully certified teachers, disaggregated by race and ethnicity, rates of teacher turnover, and teacher experience; changes in school spending information; collaborative leadership and practice strategies); and community outcomes (e.g., family and community engagement efforts and impact; regularly convening or engaging all initiative-level partners; organizing school personnel and community partners into working teams focused on specific issues identified in the needs and assets assessment); and project quality assurance measures (e.g., regularly assessing program quality and progress through individual student data, participant feedback, and aggregate outcomes to develop strategies for improvement); make results of the evaluation publicly available through public evaluation reports, research and evaluation journal and conference publications, white papers, presentations and webinars, and other strategies.