NLA discussion: student follow-up survey

[David J Rosen]

Steve and others,

The follow-up study you are planning seems to me to be an important
opportunity to learn about the experiences of adult learners, and about
your program.  Having current students do the interviews is a good
idea.  I wonder if your study is connected to the work that NCSALL is
doing in studying persistence/retention.  I also wonder if studies like
yours have taken place in other states, or if they are planned this year.
This seems to me like a good way to use state 353 funds.


Please post what you learn about other studies of this nature, and what
you learn from your studies in Connecticut, to the NLA list.  And, of
course, please post any implications which you see for adult literacy
public policy.  If others on the NLA list have done such studies, or know
of such studies, please send this information to Steve; and Steve, please
post a summary of what you learn from these to the NLA list.


David J. Rosen
<DJRosen at world.std.com>


On Tue, 18 Aug 1998 SPBender at aol.com wrote:

> 
> Hi,
> 
> We have received a one year grant from the Connecticut State Department of
> Education to attempt to interview students who have left/dropped out of our
> program.  We will hire 5 current students to do the interviews.  They will try
> to find students a month after they leave, then again after 90 days.  They'll
> also try to track down a certain amount of folks who left a year ago and 3
> years ago. They'll be asking about the impact that our program had on their
> lives; what they liked and didn't like; why they left; what may help them come
> back (if they need to); etc.  
> 
> We hope that this will give us some helpful information for future program
> planning.  I think about 5 other programs in the state got similar grants, and
> conceivably the results together could be helpful in some future advocacy
> work.  Though the survey seems fairly straightforward to put together, if
> anyone has done a similar project, we'd love to hear from you.  If we don't
> have to reinvent something that exists in some form, that would be helpful. I
> suppose it may be more appropriate to reply to me privately, but if you think
> there is a public policy angle to this, reply to the list!
> 
> 
> Steve Bender
> Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford
> spbender at aol.com
> 
>