Program Evaluation: Telling the Story of Programs Serving New and Immigrant Students

Abstract Information: A lot of school districts are developing and implementing newcomers programs to transition new and immigrant students (PreK-12) into their community schools. These programs are intended to ensure that children of immigrant families are given the knowledge and tools they need to succeed in school and establish themselves in their communities. Many of these programs struggle to demonstrate impact because of the unique nature of these new programs, and the fact that more time is needed to measure impact. This is not always well understood by nonprofits and funders alike and can create unique challenges for evaluations. This paper presented the work of graduate students in an evaluation practicum working with an innovative program designed for new and immigrant children and their families. The approach, methods, and tools developed for the evaluation provided an appropriate framework for the evaluation and made it possible to establish short-term and intermediate outcomes, as well as longer-term measures of impact. Issues such as appropriate tools and methods for data collection, application, and articulation of program theory, and roles and responsibilities of the evaluator in this theory-driven evaluation are addressed in this paper.

Relevance Statement: New students in Southwest Michigan struggle in schools. School districts are always looking for innovative ways to solve this problem. A school district in Southwest Michigan launched its newcomer program, which has helped about 150 PreK-12 students succeed in school. The concept is to get these children in a transitional environment with enough support academically, socially, and culturally, so they can improve their language and build an understanding of the educational system. The program offers services at various districtwide centers in commitment to the success of students, providing a supportive environment that helps them ease into the excitement and challenges of a new learning environment. The program also offers encouragement and support for the rest of the family to help ensure the building of a stronger community. In the newcomer centers, students study English as a second language and get acclimated to the American educational system. In addition to their classes in the center, they are initially mainstreamed into specials such as art, music, and physical education with students of the same age so they can begin building connections to their grade-level groups. For instance, regarding subject matter content, newcomer teachers may review concepts with students before they are introduced to them by their mainstream teachers. Working with diverse communities presents a lot of challenges for evaluators. These challenges are not limited to working with people who cannot communicate with everyone else in common languages. In this paper, we demonstrate how both quantitative and qualitative data are used to conduct an evaluation involving immigrant families and their wards in a newcomer’s program. Sound-quality information or data were gathered from diverse stakeholders using surveys and interviews in a culturally-sensitive manner. The methods included in-person meetings with clients and staff involved in providing services to the newcomer program and developing quality survey instruments that will be tested for good psychometric properties. This paper focused on sharing knowledge with evaluators on how best they can design a framework and data-collecting tools for a diverse community and for newcomer programs. Given the theory-driven approach to evaluation and the evaluator competencies developed, this paper and the illustrative model provide a guide and tools for how newcomer programs for diverse populations can be evaluated. While the Newcomer program now serves as a model for other communities, it is expected that the evaluation designed and implemented for this program will also serve as a model for a comprehensive and culturally-sensitive evaluation of newcomer programs.