METHODS AND INSTRUMENTS FOR EVALUATING COMMUNITY EDUCATION PROJECTS

Evaluation covers the period 7/78-5/80 and is based on the final report of phase one. The project is on track, and Tuskegee Institute and the Jamaican Research Team have demonstrated an outstanding relationship and have collected information which will be valuable to education program planners. Review of the literature, including "Evaluation in Rural Community Education: The State-of-the-Art", is complete and Jamaican field sites have been selected with help from the National Planning Agency and the Local Jamaican Advisory Council. An external advisory committee was formed and regularly evaluates the project"s progress. A community survey instrument was developed which will collect data on agriculture, maternal/child health, communicable diseases, adult literacy, and socio-demographic data. Other instruments developed include a program interview schedule/rating scale; a community characteristics check list; a youth training questionnaire; an interviewer"s manual; and a community survey instrument coding manual. Some 45 Jamaican counterparts have assisted in developing the instruments; contacting Jamaican program staff; hiring and training 24 field investigators in interviewing techniques; hiring and training eight data coders in computer input coding; and hiring a computer manager to build the data tape, supervise keypunching, and verify the data cards. Due to external Jamaican political and socioeconomic factors, progress has been delayed. The project should be extended to permit final field testing and analysis of collected data. Since funds are unavailable for immediate implementation, however, phase two of the project should be postponed until after the election and post-election adjustments in Jamaica. This project taught that similar research projects can be successfully undertaken with direct involvement of host country personnel and that the project"s design was feasible for developing instruments to evaluate rural education programs.