Mid-term evaluation of the cooperative agreement between the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation and the Agency for International Development

A.I.D./HSERF midterm evaluation covers the period 10/81-1/84 and is based on document review, visits to all participating day care centers, and interviews with all key project personnel. Support for the project is strong at all levels, in large measure due to overwhelming satisfaction with the HSERF approach to training and TA. In the 3 subprojects (SP"s) implemented thus far, participants rated training content and delivery very high, and considered the training insufficient only in that they wanted to learn more. Common to all SP"s and responsible for the high rating has been a view of training as a participatory, decisionmaking process facilitated by the trainer which participants can adapt to their own situations. Dissimilarities in training method and quantity resulted from differences in the nature and purposes of the SP"s. The CRS SP (which involved the greatest quantity of training) trained a large number of paraprofessional personnel for 15 day care centers and required a complicated cycle of training, evaluation, and training; the community development-centered SP in Bolivia used an experienced local professional to provide full-time TA; and short-term consultancies by HSERF staff and other "outside" consultants were most successful in the Quito SP, where the initial tasks were primarily research and the number of staff to be trained was small. The most significant impact of training has been to change organizational behavior, both in terms of space and time organization and in the forms of activities now undertaken with children. The focus of early childhood intervention has broadened from day care only to preschool education and education for the family as a unit (and children have in turn become more sociable). This impact, while strong, has remained somewhat localized on the immediate beneficiaries of TA. Progress toward institutionalization has also been favorable, but not as marked and stable as training. Participants unanimously agree that the project merits long-term support but are unsure how to create the organizational structure needed to sustain the effort. Virtually all the efforts of participants to promote institutionalization have been triggered and guided by HSERF, which has consistently stated that continuation will depend on its institutionalization as an ongoing effort and that the development strategies chosen should be those that can assure project continuity.