Evaluation of Determining Instructional Purposes

A Proposal Submitted to the Far West Laboratory and Research Development By Daniel Matthews Owner and CEO of Matthews Educational Training Association

Introduction In July 2013, Far West Laboratory (FWL) issued a request for proposal (RFP) for the evaluation of its Determining Instructional Purposes (DIP) training program. This document is a proposal from Matthews Education Training Association (META) of Atlanta, Georgia submitted in response to the laboratorys RFP. The goal of META is to conduct an evaluation to determine the value of investing in the marketing research of the program. META is proposing the following evaluation to determine the effectiveness of the DIP training program and the potential marketing opportunities for the company. Program Description Far West Laboratory and Research Development is located in Los Angeles California. They provide research and development into programs that help schools at all levels train administrators, faculty, and staff to effectively do their jobs. FWL was founded in 1993 as a training organization geared at helping schools in the Los Angeles area help more students reach graduation. Their training programs have been used significantly by Orange County high schools who boast one of the highest graduation programs in the Los Angeles area. Because of this success, many school districts around the country have expressed an interest in the training materials. The DIP was developed early in 2012 as a module aimed specifically at training administrators for their leadership roles in the school. Administrators have an important task of supporting the faculty and staff and providing vision for the members of their school. The DIP training program is a hands-on training program divided up into three units, each with four to six modules. The units are 1- Setting Goals, 2- Analyzing Problems, and 3- Deriving Objectives. The modules are made up of readings, individual or group activities and feedback. Many units require students to work in groups or planning teams. The units are designed to allow flexibility in their applications. Each unit can be used alone or in combination with other units. The overall time required with each unit is also flexible. Units 1 and 3 take an estimated 10-15 hours while unit 2 requires an estimated 12-18 hours. A program coordinator will require some training, but does not need to be a content area expert. Evaluating the DIP will include a few different areas. Determining the effectiveness of the program will involve the development of training workshops and pilot programs within the desired target markets for the program. The use of pre and post program interviews, surveys, and tests will be used to collect qualitative and quantitative data on the effectiveness of the DIP. Development and distribution of a survey focused on the potential market will be sent to a variety of potential buyers. Feedback surveys will be used to determine the potential market for DIP and to discover any areas that need adjustment prior to mass release of the program.

Evaluation Method In order to help determine the effectiveness and the marketability of the DIP training program, META will propose a couple different avenues. First of all, META proposes a pilot program that will be designed to test the effectiveness of the program in the target audience setting. For the pilot program META will create training workshops designed to utilize the three training units designed by FWL. The pilot program will be designed to test the DIP over different settings and take the data gathered from these different settings in order to determine how the program should be set up to achieve the highest level of participant satisfaction as well as highest level of effectiveness. Different pilot programs will be designed to test the DIP when it is used over many short sessions (1-2 hours each) as well as in a short focused workshop (2-3 days straight). The program will also be varied for what units are covered. While some will only cover a single unit, other pilots will cover all units or a combination of parts of units. The size and number of participants in each pilot program will be determined by FWL based on the ideal workshop size for the programs design. Data will be collected using predominantly Pre and Post workshop tests, surveys, and interviews. The data collection tools will ask questions targeted at gaining knowledge of the effectiveness of the training (did the participants learn the intended information) as well as likelihood of participants to recommend the program to their peers. The tools will collect both qualitative and quantitative data that will be very useful in determining the effectiveness of the pilot programs in the target markets. In order to determine the level of interest among potential buyers, META will design and distribute surveys to send to potential buyers within the target market. The surveys will include sample DIP materials as well as basic information gathering survey questions to determine current training or materials being used, potential budgetary issues the school system may be facing, and potential time related issues the school district may be facing. The results of these surveys will help FWL focus on a specific target market and how they can best promote their materials. Task Schedule Task Initial meeting between FWL and META to review DIP materials, discuss potential market, and establish pilot program guidelines Creation of pre and post program tests, surveys, and interview questions for pilot programs. Assessments will focus on stated objectives Responsible Party FWL, META Date(s) 8/1/2013 8/5/2013 8/5/2013 8/28/2013

FWL, META (Assessment Specialist)

Recruitment of pilot program sites, schools, including public and private school administrators and graduate student programs in school administration. Development of pilot program schedules. Meeting between FWL and META to review evaluation methods, objectives, and timelines prior to pilot program begins. Training of pilot program coordinators Begin pilot programs. Dates will vary. Post program surveys, tests, and interviews completed, collected, and results compiled

META

8/10/2013 8/31/2013 9/1/2013 9/21/2013 9/22/2013 9/24/2013 9/25/2013 9/30/2013 10/1/2013 3/31/2014 Date varies, to be completed at the conclusion of pilot training sessions final data collected by 3/31/2014 4/15/20144/30/2014 4/30/2014 5/31/2014 6/30/2014

FWL, META FWL, META

FWL, META FWL, META META (Analyst)

Development of market survey to be sent to potential buyers Distribution, of market surveys, collection and analysis of survey results Final Evaluation Report delivered to FWL Project Personnel

FWL, META (marketing specialist) META (Analyst) META

Daniel Matthews Owner and CEO of META Dan has worked in education for 8 years. He is an expert in evaluation and in educator and administrator training programs. He has his certification in Project Based Learning and has extensive experience training and conduction evaluations in educational and business settings. Michelle Matthews META Assessment Specialist Michelle has extensive knowledge as an assessment specialist. She spent 13 years working in curriculum design for the state of Georgia and has spent the past 5 years helping develop state and national level testing materials. She has a background in education and has spent the past four years working specifically with META working in evaluation. Chris Metzger META Marketing Specialist Chris has a business marketing degree from Harvard and an MBA from Yale. He comes to META after 41 years working as a marketing director for Coca-Cola. His extensive business background

brings a fresh perspective to the marketing side of education. This business background will help the DIP program run more efficiently and it will help META determine the ideal target market for FWL. Gary Barnett META Head Data Analyst Gary has been working with META for 6 years as the head of the data analysis department. He has a Masters from Georgia Tech in statistics and taught graduate level statistics from there from 1996 2007. He is an expert and finding the most important trends within the data and helping develop materials to bring out the most important information. Budget The budget for the FWL evaluation is $48,390. A breakdown of the proposed budget is as follows: Personnel Dan Matthews 25 days @ $500 per day = Michelle Matthews 15 days @ $400 per day = Chris Metzger 15 days @ $400 per day Gary Barnett 15 days @ $400 per day Travel Costs Airfare and Car Rental from Atlanta to Los Angeles Hotels and Per Diem meals Training Costs $30,500 $ 12,500 $ 6,000 $ 6,000 $ 6,000 $ 6,500 $ 5,000 $ 2,500 $ 2,890 $ 2,495

Unit Materials 24.95 ea * 100 (depends on number set by FWL) Coordinator Handbook $4.50 * 10 (depends on total) Survey, interview, and assessment costs (supplies) Marketing Survey printing and mailing Office supplies and extras Payment Schedule $ 45 $ 350

$ 7,500 $ 5,000 $ 2,500

Amount $5,000 $15,000 $15,000 $5,000 $8,390

Date 8/31/2013 9/31/2013 3/31/2013 4/31/2013 6/30/2013

Deliverable Training Material developed Pilot program planned including sites, schedules, and materials Pilot program completed, all data collected Surveys and DIP package completed and ready for mailing Final evaluation report