Evaluation

Well, I'm experiencing in person all the theoretical difficulties in evaluation that we've discussed in class. We don't have a full list of program participants, to try to visit them. When we visit schools, the directors aren't in, and no one else knows of the program. I'm absolutely positive they're only letting me see the best teachers. My presence has made some professors nervous. I've been able to sit in on maybe eight classes, and tomorrow is the last day of class before exams. I am hoping that giving questionnaires to students and teachers will supplement our information. Because we were really hoping to use the classroom observations to measure impact, perhaps I will have to create a control and treatment group when I visit again (?) in September. Only two of the five teachers from each program who have applied to attend the training are being selected, and while they are supposed to be the "best," I'm fairly certain that the criteria are rather arbitrary. We'll see?