The following
Review Guidelines
are intended to help service providers and individuals involved in personnel
preparation determine the congruence between the beliefs, values, and
practices of the individuals in your community and current recommended
practices in early childhood/special education. The
Review Guidelines
will first help you consider the overall effectiveness of presentation
of a material. Next, questions follow which pertain specifically to the
content area of
Program Evaluation.
It is important to realize that no material is likely to match the
exact needs of individuals in your community. Therefore, in many instances,
you may wish to make some simple adaptations to the materials
before using them.
A separate set of Review Guidelines is available to help select
materials that have been translated from one language to another.
In addition, other suggestions for choosing materials are available
on the CLAS Web site (http://clas.illinois.edu).
It is our hope that you may use these Review Guidelines to engage
in meaningful dialogue with families and colleagues in your community,
as you decide which materials to use in your early childhood setting.
Effectiveness
of Presentation
Please
respond to all that apply.
Clarity
- Is the purpose of the material clear?
- Is the presentation of the information easy to follow?
- If there are directions on how to use the material, are they
clearly stated?
- Does the material include an effective explanation of technical
terms or jargon?
- Does the language in the material acknowledge diversity (e.g., family
structures, multi-generations, disabilities, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic
status, religion, etc.)?
- Is the format (e.g., print, audio, video, etc.) appropriate
for the intended users of this material?
- Are contact agencies or persons for accessing additional information
or support easily identifiable?
Comprehension
Level
- Easy = mainly simple sentences with
minimal or no technical jargon;
- Average = a mix of simple and complex
sentences with some technical jargon (e.g., USA Today);
- Difficult = mainly complex sentences
with a lot of technical jargon or discipline-specific terms (e.g.,
College-level text or New York Times).
- For printed materials, the reading level of the material is:
Easy | Average |
Difficult | N/A
- For video and audio materials, the comprehension level of the material
is:
Easy | Average | Difficult | N/A
Graphics, Illustrations and
Photos
Do the graphics:
- Represent a non-stereotypical view of cultural (e.g., contemporary
dress) and linguistic groups?
- Represent a wide variety of groups (e.g., disabilities, gender,
race, generation)?
- Enhance the materials (e.g., photo prints and designs are appropriate
and of high quality)?
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Establishing a Healthy Relationship
Between Providers and Families
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To what extent does the material
- Encourage the meaningful participation of families in all levels
of programming (i.e., development, implementation, outcomes, and
evaluation)?
- Acknowledge that family members may differ in their availability
or desire to participate in program evaluation activities, which may
increase or decrease over time?
- Focus on evaluating the impact of services on the entire family
(not just the child)?
- Encourage a family information-gathering process that is responsive
to the cultural and linguistic backgrounds of families (e.g., use
of a family advocate, community leader, translator, and cultural guide)?
- Acknowledge the importance of employing service providers who
respect and are knowledgeable about the cultures and languages of
the families served?
- Encourage evaluation activities to occur in the families' preferred
language or through the assistance of a qualified translator/ interpreter
who can serve as a cultural mediator?
- Offer strategies to address conflict or misunderstanding that
may arise between suggested evaluation activities and families' preferences?
- Acknowledge the importance of developing a climate of mutual
respect and trust by responding to family concerns as they arise (e.g.,
answering questions, providing resources, changing the intervention
program)?
- Encourage providers to engage in self-reflection regarding their
role, assumptions, and beliefs in the evaluation process and how they
may be perceived by the family (e.g., supportive, interfering,
guiding, intrusive)?
- Encourage providers to clarify their role with families and
to gather information regarding family expectations?
To what extent does the material
- Encourage the process of on-going planning and continuous evaluation,
including evaluating issues of a programs cultural and linguistic
responsiveness to its diverse stakeholders (e.g., family members,
staff and organizations representing a variety of social, cultural,
and linguistic groups)?
- Encourage program planning to be based on a comprehensive community
needs assessment?
- Encourage organizational resources to be committed to evaluating
and improving a program's cultural responsiveness?
- Encourage organizational resources to be committed to evaluating
and improving a program's linguistic responsiveness?
- Identify a variety of strategies for including family and community
input in evaluating the program's cultural and linguistic responsiveness?
- Identify the need to include diverse stakeholders in the evaluation
process (e.g., family members, staff and organizations representing
a variety of social, cultural, and linguistic groups)?
- Identify strategies for ensuring meaningful participation from traditionally
under-represented stakeholders?
- Encourage the program to consult with outside experts or organizations
that represent cultural groups in the community to plan, create, and
implement program policy and procedures?
- Include a variety of options for gathering information from families
(e.g., interviews, observations, checklists, etc.) that respect
families cultural and linguistic background and consider families
level of acculturation?
- Encourage providers to systematically evaluate the appropriateness
of the interventions with families based on their changing needs and
preferences?
- Suggest ways of ensuring that outcomes are important and meaningful
to the families as well as the service providers?
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Staff Representation and Performance
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To what extent does the material
- Encourage the program to review its practices and strategies for
recruiting individuals from cultural groups that are representative
of the families served?
- Encourage the program to review its practices and strategies
for recruiting individuals from linguistic groups that are
representative of the families served (e.g., staff who are bilingual
or who understand issues of second language acquisition)?
- Encourage the program to review its practices to provide a non-threatening
and welcoming environment that supports the retention of staff from
various cultural and linguistic backgrounds?
- Encourage the program to facilitate training opportunities in the
areas of cross-cultural communication, culturally diverse family customs,
conflict resolution, and collaborative problem-solving?
- Identify strategies for the program to include all levels of staff
in the decision-making process?
- Identify strategies for programs to monitor the cultural and linguistic
responsiveness of staff?
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Environments and Materials
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To what extent does the material
- Encourage the program to evaluate the service settings to ensure
that they are familiar and accessible for families who are eligible
for services?
- Encourage the program to provide outreach activities in culturally
and linguistically diverse communities and neighborhoods (i.e.,
in locations convenient to families)?
- Identify strategies for the program to evaluate their relationships
and networks across agencies and communities?
- Encourage programs to consider the culture and language
of the families served in the selection and adaptation of materials
and activities?
- Suggest evaluation strategies to determine if activities and materials
are embedded within the familys routines and environments?
To what extent does the material
- Support programs in developing a clear process for evaluating the
short-term impact of its programs and policies on families
from various cultural and linguistic backgrounds?
- Support programs in developing a clear process for evaluating the
long-term impact of its programs and policies on families from
various cultural and linguistic backgrounds?
- Specify the cultural and linguistic groups with whom the approach
has been used?
The following two questions are intended to
deepen the analysis of the ways materials address issues of diversity.
In some cases, these issues may have been addressed in the preceding
questions. |
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Does
the material acknowledge and address complex and sometimes subtle
aspects of diversity as they relate to program evaluation, such
as:
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- Power (refers to the division of members of society into
levels with unequal access to resources, knowledge, and authority)
- Racism (refers to systems advantage based on race)
- Prejudice (refers to an adverse judgment or opinion based
on preconceived beliefs and ideas about different groups)
- Socio-Economic Class (refers to the division of society
into levels with unequal wealth and prestige)
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Are
there any spoken or unspoken assumptions, values, or beliefs in
this material that could conflict with the delivery of culturally
and linguistically appropriate services (e.g., assuming all parents
view themselves as advocates or equal partners)?
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