EVALUATING THE USEFULNESS FOR SCHOOL PRINCIPALS OF FEEDBACK REPORTS FROM A SCHOOL-BASED ADOLESCENT HEALTH SURVEY

Researchers doing school surveys of adolescent health behavior frequen tly provide feedback reports to the schools summarizing the survey res ults, but it is not generally known how useful this information is for the recipients. The authors conducted a survey of 43 high school prin cipals in 11 communities about the usefulness of feedback reports gene rated from data collected as part of the evaluation of the Henry J. Ka iser Family Foundation's Community Health Promotion Grants Program. Th e results of the survey suggest that principals found the reports to b e extremely valuable: The reports were distributed widely among staff parents, and school boards, and were put to use in a variety of ways, including planning, needs assessment, and evaluation. Furthermore, man y principals said that without the promise of feedback they would not have participated in the survey. These results suggest that this infor mation, if properly presented, can be very useful to schools as they d esign and implement adolescent health programs.