The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 demanded that public schools demonstrate adequate yearly progress by increasing student educational achievements. In 2014, the local high school at this study enrolled 62.7% socioeconomically disadvantaged students and implemented a precollege intervention program; however, little is known about its efficacy due to a lack of a formal evaluation, prohibiting an informed approach to continual improvement. The purpose of this program evaluation was to determine if program participation resulted in the higher academic outcomes. Guided by the theory of change, the program evaluation was used to assess the efficacy of the local high school's year-long precollege intervention program in a convenience sample of 112 Grade 9 students. The research questions examined the difference between the program participants and non-participants' academic outcomes including grade point average and semester course grades in math, English, science, and social science from Semester 1 to Semester 2 in the 2014-2015 school year. Independent samples t tests were used to identify whether there was a significance difference between the mean-scores of the intervention and control groups. The results indicated that the program did not significantly impact the participants' academic outcomes, and the program goals were not met. The evaluation report included the results, provided recommendations to increase understanding of the intervention program and students' needs, inform and engage stakeholders, redesign program goals, allocate resources, and streamline program activities. The improved program model could enhance students' academic outcomes and lead to higher high school graduation and college enrollment rates for students.

At 2 primary schools in Western Jamaica, students at the Grade 1 level lacked basic literacy skills of comprehension, letter recognition, letter sounds, and oral communication. The purpose of this qualitative evaluation study was to investigate teachers' perceptions of the Jolly Phonics program implemented to improve students' literacy in Grades 1-3. Guided by Engestrom's activity theory, the effectiveness of the Jolly Phonics approach was examined based on the sociocultural learning theories of Vygotsky, Dewey, and Piaget. The research questions focused on teachers' perceptions of the program's impact on students' literacy improvement and of the strategies used in the Jolly Phonics program. Data collection involved individual interviews with 8 teachers from 2 selected primary schools with a representation of at least 2 teachers from each grade level. Using open coding and thematic analysis, emerging minor and major themes were identified. Themes included (a) positive impact on curriculum and instructional delivery; (b) focus on all students who lacked basic literacy skills; (c) development of phonetic awareness, writing, comprehension, and listening skills; (d) workshops that are stimulating and informative; (e) support from teachers and administrators; and (g) greater focus placed at the lower grades. Overall, the findings indicated that the Jolly Phonics program had a positive impact on struggling readers in Grades 1-3. Implications for positive social change include providing the local district with research-based findings on teachers' perceptions of the impact of and strategies used in the Jolly Phonics Program. The findings can be used to support programming decisions and professional development to improve literacy skills of early and struggling readers.

The following executive summary provides high level findings of a student-athlete mental health program (SAMHP) at a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I mid-major university. Various elements of the SAMHP were evaluated to create a well-rounded understanding of the program to determine sustainability, goals, and stakeholder expectations. Findings from this study provided insight on stakeholder needs, program successes, and implications for program improvements.

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Quality assurance in healthcare is fundamental in ensuring the achievement of desired outcomes for patients. In 2011 a quality assurance plan was created at the East Tennessee State University (ETSU) dental hygiene program in order to meet accreditation standards. The purpose of this study was to evaluate this plan in order to determine its effectiveness in improving the quality of patient care indicators. One hundred fifty patient charts were selected and audited. Deficiencies were counted in the categories of assessment, treatment, documentation, referral, caries management, perio management, patient education, and follow-up. Research findings were varied; however, external variables with the potential to affect the study’s results were identified. Furthermore, statistical process control procedures indicated that the quality assurance program was effective or had the potential to be effective. Although further research is warranted, this study could be used to improve quality assurance practices at the ETSU dental hygiene program.

Le projet migratoire est, dans bien des cas, axé sur la sphère familiale. Or, la réalité des familles immigrantes se distingue de celles des familles natives du Québec. L’intégration dans la société d’accueil comporte son lot de défis pouvant fragiliser le système familial. Bien que des services soient mis en place pour soutenir l’intégration des immigrants ou immigrantes (francisation, recherche d’emploi, etc.), les parents immigrants ont également besoin d’être soutenus dans l’adaptation de leur rôle parental en contexte d’immigration. L’Initiative Espace Parents a été développée dans cette optique. Parmi les activités offertes dans le cadre de cette Initiative se trouvent les ateliers ponctuels sur la valorisation de l’engagement paternel, d’une part, et sur les ressources de soutien pour la famille, d’autre part. Ce présent mémoire vise à évaluer, de façon formative, la première mise à l’essai de ces deux ateliers en étudiant la conformité, leur appréciation par les animateurs et animatrices et les parents, ainsi que leurs effets perçus chez les parents. Pour ce faire, des méthodes qualitatives et quantitatives sont mobilisées. Elles établissent le faible niveau de conformité des deux ateliers ponctuels par les écarts présents entre la planification initiale et leur animation. Pour l’appréciation, les parents indiquent avoir apprécié les ateliers pour les thèmes abordés et les qualités des animateurs et animatrices. Les animateurs et animatrices ont moins apprécié les ateliers par leur difficulté à les animer selon la formation reçue. Les parents rapportent enfin des effets positifs des ateliers au niveau de leurs connaissances, attitudes ou comportements. Les différents résultats obtenus permettent de mettre de l’avant des recommandations en vue de la pérennisation des ateliers. / The migration project is, in many cases, focused on the family sphere. However, the reality of immigrant families differs from that of families born in Quebec. Integrating into the host society has its share of challenges that can weaken the family unit. Although some services are in place to support the integration of immigrants (francization, job search, etc.), immigrant parents need support in adapting their parental role in the context of immigration. That's why the Initiative Espace Parent was developed. Two specific workshops are part of these initiatives: one is on valuing paternal involvement, and the other is based on the explanation of the support resources for the family. The goal of this master’s thesis is to evaluate the compliance of the first trial of these two workshops, the appreciation of the workshop by the animators and by the parents, as well as perceived effects on parents. To achieve this evaluation, qualitative and quantitative methods were used. The results indicate a low compliance between the way that the workshops were planned and the way that they were carried out. On another note, parents express their appreciation for themes addressed in the workshops and the qualities of the facilitators. However, the facilitators mention to less appreciate the workshops due to the difficulty to animate them with the training received. Parents also report positive perceived effects of the workshops on their knowledge, attitude, or behavior. These results provide recommendations for the future implementation of the workshops.

La demande de formation en transfert de connaissances (TC) est si importante que les organisations qui offrent de telles formations ont du mal à y répondre entièrement en présentiel. C’est pourquoi une formation en ligne de type Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) a été développée. Elle a pour objectif l’utilisation et l’appropriation du processus de TC par les milieux de pratique, les décideurs et le grand public. L’objectif de ce mémoire était d’évaluer un MOOC d’introduction au TC en recueillant les opinions, les réactions, l’appropriation et les changements de pratique des utilisateurs. L’étude a utilisé un devis qualitatif. Un questionnaire administré dès le début du cours via la plateforme a permis de constituer le profil des participants par le biais de leurs données descriptives, des raisons de leur inscription et de leurs intentions vis-à-vis du cours. Ensuite, des entrevues semi-dirigées individuelles ont été conduites (n = 16) avec des apprenants professionnels ayant complété le cours et étant issus de cinq pays francophones d’Afrique de l’Ouest (Canada, France, Burkina Faso, Mali, Sénégal). Les contenus du MOOC d’introduction au TC ont généralement été appréciés et réutilisés par les répondants. L’analyse des entrevues révèlent un motif principal menant à la complétion du cours : la possibilité immédiate pour les professionnels de valoriser leurs apprentissages dans leurs milieux de pratique. L’étude met en évidence le potentiel des MOOC pour l’acquisition de connaissances et de compétences de professionnels en matière de TC. Cependant, la majorité des personnes soulèvent le manque d’interaction entre apprenants et expriment leur besoin d’accompagnement avec un formateur afin d’approfondir les sujets abordés pendant le cours. Les résultats révèlent également des enjeux de connexion et d’accessibilité du cours liés au réseau Internet et à la stabilité d’accès à l’électricité dans les pays d’Afrique de l’Ouest. Finalement, plusieurs recommandations et pistes d’explorations ont été formulées afin d’optimiser les futures conceptions de MOOC sur le TC. / The demand for knowledge transfer (KT) training has become so prominent in recent years that it made it nearly impossible to do it entirely in person for organizations offering such training. For this reason, a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) has been developed with the clear objective of providing efficient knowledge transfer, needed for policymakers, practice settings, and the public sphere. The goal of this dissertation was to evaluate a MOOC about KT introduction, by collecting its users' opinions, reactions, appropriation, and changes in practice. A Qualitative study has been conducted, following a thorough questionnaire administered at the beginning of the course in favor of creating profiles of the participants using their descriptive data, their reasons for enrollment, and true intentions toward the course. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 users that have completed the course. The interviewees were from five different French-speaking countries (French Canada, France, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal). The content of the MOOC has been generally appreciated and reused by its users. The initial results reveal that the main reason for completing the course was the immediate usability of the knowledge acquired from the course in their real work environment. The study highlights the great potential of MOOCs in the field of KT for the efficient acquisition of knowledge and skills. However, most people raise the lack of interaction between learners and express their need for coaching with an instructor to deepen the topics covered during the course. The preliminary results also reveal issues of poor internet connection and lack of accessibility to the course because of the shortfall of electricity in West African countries. To address these issues, several recommendations and avenues of exploration were formulated to optimize and improve the structure of MOOCs for knowledge transfer.

The purpose of this dissertation was to conduct an outcomes-based program evaluation for the Louisiana State Penitentiary (Angola) campus of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. The study included one primary research question, with two subquestions. The primary research question asked to what extent students in the program developed moral judgment consistent with program goals of rehabilitating students and preparing them for effective ministry. The first subquestion asked whether statistically significant differences existed in the moral reasoning of students of different class years. The second subquestion asked whether statistically significant differences existed in the moral reasoning of students of different personality types. A cross-sectional study was conducted with students during the fall of 2005 using the Defining Issues Test 2 (DIT-2) and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) instruments. All 101 program students were invited to participate in the study. To provide a benchmark for student scores, 30 Seminary faculty members were asked to complete the DIT-2. The student response rates were 94% for the DIT-2 instrument and 97% for the MBTI instrument. The response rate for faculty was 20%. After removing two outliers from the freshmen class, statistically significant differences were found in the principled moral reasoning scores (P scores) of freshmen (m = 22.146, sd = 12.002) and juniors (m = 30.274, sd = 13.165). No significant differences were found in moral reasoning based upon personality types. The mean P score among faculty members was 34.02 (sd = 15.25). In response to the primary research question, it was determined student scores did show moral reasoning differences consistent with the program goals. Conclusions reached in this study were limited because of the cross-sectional design. Further research is necessary before conclusions may be generalized beyond the sample.

The current program evaluation of school-wide positive behavior support (PBS) in an alternative education setting was conducted in three phases (Phase 1: initial evaluation; Phase 2: intervention; Phase 3: follow up evaluation). The purpose of the evaluation was to identify strengths and weaknesses of the PBS program and to implement changes to improve program effectiveness and positive outcomes for students. An exploratory case study design was used to achieve an in-depth understanding of the program through the use of quantitative and qualitative data collection. The evaluation was completed within one school year, between November 2007 and May 2008. The participants in this evaluation were the students and staff of the alternative school. Quantitative data included behavioral data on the students, inter-observer agreement data, and survey data; qualitative data included survey data and data from student and staff focus groups. Overall, the evaluation was successful in that the evaluators were able to identify strengths and weaknesses, and areas of concern to be addressed through interventions. The evaluators were able to implement a variety of interventions, and received feedback that the interventions were successful. Although student behaviors were not effectively changed as a result of this evaluation, the evaluators did develop a plan for ongoing evaluation, future trainings and program modifications, to be implemented over the course of the 2008-2009 school year.

The Student Support Services Program is one of five federally funded “TRIO” programs provided for by Congress and administered by the Department of Education that are designed to improve grade-point averages and the retention and graduation rates of low-income individuals, firs t-generation college students, and students with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to determine if the students who participated in the Student Support Services Program at SVCC achieved higher grade-point averages, retention rates, and graduation rates than did non-participants. There were no significant differences in grade-point averages between Student Support Services (SSS) Program participants and non-participants, The Student Support Services Program participants did have significantly higher retention rates. Student Support Services participants also demonstrated higher graduation rates Findings in this study could serve as a baseline for further study to guide additional improvements in Student Support Services programs at SVCC and other community colleges in the nation.