August 13, 2020 – Evaluation during COVID

Resources from the Call / Q&A with Daniel Read:

• Video recording of Q&A portion with Daniel Read – LINK
• Protecting Children’s Privacy Under COPPA (A Survey on Compliance) – LINK
• MENTOR Colorado Free Consulting (Technical Assistance) – LINK

Breakout Room Notes:

• Some programs are still working very hard to make programmatic changes and haven’t really given thought about how to tackle evaluation.

• Some programs are worried that school-partners (on whom they normally rely) will not prioritize them for data sharing. We discussed the idea of asking them for a formal data-sharing MOU as well as the idea/power of having a comparison group to validate the value of mentoring to mitigate academic engagement issues compared to those students without a mentor.

• Starting a program that will need evaluation; we should be gathering data into buckets that capture similar outcomes – collective impact efforts

• Looking at quantifying the disruptions (e.g. 30% loss once COVID hit); we should think about the “core shared questions” that pool into larger efforts
  
  
• Suggested MC take a more active role in supporting evaluation; evaluation needs to be designed within each affiliate, age brackets etc. Evaluation can give you information on mission drift.

• Just started a program in April – want to make evaluation a more engaged and fun effort
  
  
• Keeping survey to 10-question limit. Currently just evaluating mentors at end of the school year – focused on retention. Scared to do a survey because then we’d need to act on the issues that come up! Focus on capacity building.

• Challenges that come with surveys mandated by grant. Used to go into schools and sit down with kids, so now figuring out how to get a better response rate virtually. Concerned about COPPA so focusing on a simple survey and calling to do surveys over the phone. Need to do a better job of capturing all other services being provided right now.

Trying to stay on the evaluation schedule with disruptions of COVID. Now wondering if we are asking the right questions? Are we being considerate and ensuring we don’t trigger trauma through questions? Now tracking output and other services provided