Scheduled for Research Consortium Poster Session: Thematic Early Childhood and Elementary Education Posters, Friday, March 16, 2007, 8:45 AM - 10:15 AM, Convention Center: Exhibit Hall Poster Area I


Evaluation of After-School Enrichment Program Quality: Parental Perspectives

Charles E. Byrd1, James Jianhui Zhang1, Michael Carroll1 and Eddie T. C. Lam2, (1)University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, (2)Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH

Most youth sport and recreation programs take place during after school hours. In order to achieve the objectives of after school enrichment programs, program evaluation is important because it provides information for curriculum and activity adjustment, reallocation of funding, improvement of facilities, staff development, decision-making, and accountability. As part of the evaluation process, parent observations and their satisfaction toward program quality can be instrumental in recognizing the merits, weaknesses, and future directions of programs. High parent satisfaction results in better program reputation, fewer resources devoted to handling complaints, greater program attendance and participation by children, and more program referrals. Parental influences also significantly impact a child's motivation and participation in exercise and sports. One critical concern in program management is to monitor participant satisfaction/dissatisfaction, needs, wants, expectations, and changes in preference over time to efficiently identify contingent variables that may relate to the development of a strategic plan to enhance program operation. To satisfy parents, service quality has to meet or exceed their expectations. This study was designed to examine parents' satisfaction toward the quality of after school programs. The Parent Scale for Enrichment Programs (PSEP; Zhang, Lam, Smith, Fleming, & Connaughton, 2005) was adopted to measure parent perceptions of after school program quality within four factors: Program Effect, Program Staff, Program Offering, and Program Assurance. The scale was developed through rigorous measurement procedures that included the development of a theoretical framework, test of content validity, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and calculation of composite reliability. The PSEP was translated from English to Spanish and Haitian-Creole by linguistic experts, and backward translations were conducted by a separate group of linguistic experts to ensure translation accuracy. A total of 7,479 parents from 269 after school programs responded to the survey at end of a recent academic year. Of them, 89.0% responded to the English version, 10.1% the Spanish version, and 0.9% the Haitian-Creole version. The respondents had one to seven children in the after school programs (M = 1.33; SD = 0.64). Descriptive statistics and one-sample t-tests with an adjusted alpha level revealed that the Program Effect, Program Staff, Program Offering, and Program Assurance factors and their items had mean scores that were significantly (p < .05) greater than their respective midpoint scores, indicating that parents were overall very satisfied with the quality of after school programs. Quality curriculum and activities should continue to be provided to children in these programs.
Keyword(s): community-based programs, measurement/evaluation, youth-at-risk

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