CHAPTER 16

ASSESSMENT OF THE PROGRAM

Educational Assessment

» Assessment and Evaluation is an integral part of any educational program.

» This is true of the School Public Relations Program.

» However, the public relations program, like most of what is done in the area of the social sciences, is difficult to evaluate -- largely because of the many variables that effect any social based program.

Myths About Measurement

Dissemination is Communication Effort can be equated with results Samples are representative Increased knowledge means more

favorable attitudes

The Four Purposes of Evaluation are:

to improve, add, or drop existing public relations activities

to determine if the pubic relations program is achieving its intended results

to determine if the results were worth the time and money spent; and

to bring greater visibility to the accomplishments of the public relations program

Closed Systems of Evaluation

• Closed Systems of Evaluation look at a single element of the program and usually include:

• Pretest -- An evaluation of what the audience knows before the activity and;

• Posttest -- An evaluation of what the audience knows after the activity.

An Open System of Evaluation

• unintended audiences

• how well the school system is administered

• the effectiveness of the organization of the school system

• union activities

• administration perceptions, etc.

An open system includes all the elements of the program -- examples are:

Jacobson’s Seven Steps in Systemic Evaluation

1. Select the rationale

2. Specify the objectives

3. Develop measures

4. Administer the measures and collect the data

5. Analyze the data

6. Report the results

7. Apply the results to decisions

Swinehart lists types of evaluations and then gives dimensions for each. His types are:

• Appraisal and description by persons involved in the program

• Count of activities• Outside expert apprasial of activities• Volunteered reaction of audiences• Solicited reaction from a sample audience• Reactions of actual or potential audiences through

small-scale studies• Controlled field experiments or similar studies to

assess actual impact of programs.

Many Types of Evaluation Instruments Have Been Developed

• Most evaluation procedures involve rating scales and checklists

• These have been developed for use at the building level and the school district level

Bortner Has Developed a 168 PointChecklist Using Seven Categories

• Program organization

• School staff

• Students

• Parents

• Community

• One-way comunications (printed and nonprinted)

• School plant (A portion of a checklist appears on page 306, figure 16.2)

Some Conventional Methods of Program Evaluation Include:

• Observations -- careful and unbiased review of program effects

• Records -- Recorded evidence such as complements, criticisms, and complaints

• Telephone Surveys -- A randomly selected survey can be used to check one aspect of the program, or general feeling within the community

• The Panel -- This method get feedback, but with the same limitations as using the panel for input in the community survey

• Questionnaires -- These are widely used as they are easy to prepare, distribute, and tally -- the same limitations exist here as in doing community surveys

• Checklists -- These are a series of multiple choice questions with 3 to 10 possible answers -- getting a return of checklists is similar to the problems of a questionnaire

• Rating Scales -- Similar to a checklists, however, they provide a numeric quantification for the evaluation -- problems in getting returns are the same as the previous methods

• Opinion Polls -- Using direct interview with stratified sampling is one of the best methods -- to register the effect of the program, these must be done periodically -- they can be too expensive for some systems

The Communications Audit

• Short and long term goals• Priority of those goals• Themes of issues to be emphasized• Priority list of publics• Community pulse issues• Communication methods that are working• New Communications methods wanted

• A measuring stick for future evaluation

Every School Public Relations Program should undergo a audit every three to five years -- areas shown for possible improvement could include:

Major Topics Included in a System Audit Include:

• Communications Philosophy

• Community Demographic

• Objectives and Goals

• Organization and Staffing for Public Relations

• Existing PR programs

• Attitudes toward present PR

• Needs and Expectations