The Josephson Institute is contracting with RISE for the development of an evaluation of the process and outcomes of the Tus Valores Cuentan program implementation in Puerto Rico public schools.
“Hundreds of schools across the island are using Tus Valores Cuentan to improve school climate and help students develop ethical values. Like CHARACTER COUNTS! programs around the U.S., Tus Valores Cuentan is based on the Six Pillars of Character (los seis pilares del caracter) and helps teachers integrate values into everyday lessons and activities.”
The Josephson Institute
As primary investigator, Robin Galloway is responsible for the overall management of the evaluation. In addition, she will participate in reporting of results and survey development. Dr. Galloway has worked extensively with Iowa CHARACTER COUNTS! for the past five years on the development of the Conditions of Implementation Rubric and development of the Instrument to measure fidelity of implementation. Dr. Andrew Ryder will serve as project manager with responsibilities for data management, statistical analysis, and reporting and serves as the direct contact with the Josephson Institute in regard to the day in and day out process.
With RISE personnel serving as consultants The Josephson Institute has developed surveys to include instruments for students, teachers and parents at the elementary, middle and high school levels. The surveys intend to measure whether students, teachers and parents, as a result of the implementation of the program, have achieved the desired outcomes. Other outcomes measured by the surveys include stakeholder level of participation and satisfaction with Tus Valores Cuentan implementation. In addition, the master trainer will work with each of their implementing schools to facilitate the evaluation of the level of fidelity of implementation using Iowa’s valid and reliable instrument. This measure will identify needed changes at the local school level to include professional development opportunities; benefits and challenges resulting from the program and suggestions for continuous improvement. During the course of the three years sufficient testing of the instruments will facilitate the development of valid and reliable survey instruments. Prior to the baseline administration of the surveys RISE will run an analysis of schools to make the control group selection using a multi-level statistical modeling strategy to assure sufficient power to detect a difference between treatment schools and control schools.
RISE has developed an electronically generated reporting format to facilitate an efficient and timely process for reporting to each of the participating schools twice a year. These reports include the descriptive statistical analysis stakeholder survey data, analysis of available record data and determined level of fidelity of implementation. In addition, RISE will run a multi-level statistical analysis using HLM modeling software of the treatment and control site comparison of baseline to end of year data.
Funding
This project is funded by the Josephson Institute Center for Youth Ethics.