PROGRESS AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN FAMILY LITERACY - LESSONS FROM A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH

This study examined the implementation of a collaborative evaluation a pproach for evaluating family literacy programs. Two questions were st udied First, is such an evaluation approach better for practitioners? Second, by using a collaborative evaluation, no practitioners change h ow they view the evaluation process Like the concept of collaboration, collaborative evaluation is grounded in the notion that conducting us eful and meaningful program evaluations involve sharing power, authori ty, expertise, resources and cannot be ''... accomplished by a single individual or organization independently'' (Kagan, 1991; p. 3). Simila r to the participatory and empowerment evaluation models (Cousins & Ea rl, 1992; Fetterman, 1994), the evaluator served in a consultant capac ity, technical assistance was provided by literacy professionals, and the practitioners conducted all phases of the evaluation themselves. P ractitioners learned some basic principles and practices of evaluation with this approach. Further, the practitioners made program plans bas ed on their evaluation findings. The evidence also suggests there was a shift in how practitioners viewed evaluation. Practitioners saw that information collected from reporting activities like completing intak e forms could be used to develop curriculum, not just for reporting to funding agencies. The collaborative approach also benefitted the tech nical assistance staff and the evaluator by providing a realistic pers pective on program life. However, addressing student progress through traditional methods such as standardized tests continues to be problem atic. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd