Lorie M. response week 10

Lorie MacIsaac RE: Discussion - Week 10

C O L L A P S E Group designs evaluate the effects of an intervention on groups that fall into two categories: cross-sectional or longitudinal design (Dudley, 2020). For the case study provided (Plummer et al., 2014), the PhD social work student and selected stakeholders of the organization that will participate in the program evaluation will have many group design options to choose from for the foster care program evaluation. According to the case study (Plummer et al., 2014), there are 7 foster care sites that will participate in the research. Three of the sites will start the new foster care parent training and the other 4 will start in 12 months. (Plummer et al., 2014). A pretest–posttest design with a comparison group is a longitudinal design in which outcome measures include participants receiving a pre-test and post-test (Dudley, 2020). The three sites will receive the new program intervention, while the 4 sites remaining will be the comparison group and receive the current program intervention. Dudley (2020) informed readers that “a comparison group should be as similar as possible to the intervention group, particularly with variables or characteristics important to a study” (p. 233).

Methods of collection using the pretest-posttest design will come from questionnaires using a Likert scale administered to the foster care parents at the beginning of the intervention and after three months of completion. McNamara (2006) suggested questionnaires help when you need to gather lots of information rapidly and/or easily from individuals using an approach that is non-intimidating. Since the goal of the new program intervention is to reduce foster placement disturbances, improve the quality of the services provided, and improve the well-being of children in foster care through skill development (Plummer et al., 2014). Outcomes to measure will be selected by the evaluation team and will be chosen based on these goals. Questions will be framed to show how the new skills developed through the intervention led to positive outcomes for the families.

Once a consent has been signed by participating foster care parents, an anonymous electronic questionnaire will be provided to participants by the PhD social work student. The Likert scale will consist of answers that range from strongly disagree to strongly agree. A summative evaluation will be conducted, and quantitative data will be coded and entered into a Statistical Package for the Social Sciences computer program by the social work PhD student for analysis by the evaluation team. Summative evaluations emphasize the outcomes of programs to determine if the intervention has met its goals (Dudley, 2020).

References

Dudley, J. R. (2020). Social work evaluation: Enhancing what we do (3rd ed.) Oxford University Press. McNamara, C. (2006). Contents of an evaluation plan. In Basic guide to program evaluation (including outcomes evaluation). Retrieved from http://managementhelp.org/evaluation/program-evaluation- guide.htm#anchor1586742 Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen S. (Eds.). (2014). Social work case studies: Concentration year. Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing.