Making Knowledge Productive -
Skills and Tools for Evaluating Community
Service-Learning in Massachusetts
Making Knowledge Productive (MKP) is a guide to service-learning program evaluation for Massachusetts Community Service-Learning (CSL) administrators, coordinators, teachers, and students. It is the product of a collaborative effort between the Massachusetts Department of Education, The Center for Youth and Communities at Brandeis University and a working group of six community service-learning practitioners who met in spring 2004. The MKP working group conclude MKP concluded that program evaluation can help build support for programs, respond to funders’ needs, inform program improvement, and convince skeptics that service-learning programs do have an impact on students. In short, they saw program evaluations as providing knowledge that can be useful – and they recognized that knowledge can be powerful.
Making Knowledge Productive provides an introductory set of skills and
tools to help Massachusetts teachers and service-learning coordinators
conduct credible and respectable program evaluations as part of their on-going
service-learning efforts. Specifically, we have written MKP with the following
two goals in mind:
1. To provide service-learning practitioners with the skills and tools
that they need to assess and improve their own programs.
2. To develop a common base of information across the state about the impact
of Community Service-Learning in Massachusetts schools.
MKP is organized into two parts. Part One is a guide book designed to walk
the service-learning practitioner through the general process of preparing,
conducting and using a program evaluation. Part Two provides the tools
(e.g., survey instruments) that Massachusetts practitioners can use in
implementing a local evaluation. Taken together, Parts One and Two are
intended to provide service-learning practitioners with both the skills
and tools to develop the knowledge that they need to prove and improve
the effectiveness of service-learning programs in Massachusetts.
Unless otherwise noted, all files are in PDF format. Adobe Acrobat reader is required in order to read the files. Download it for free by clicking here.
Part Two - Tools
Sample Logic Model
Evaluation Planning
Tools
Sample Permission Forms
High School and Middle
School Student Surveys (Pre Surveys)
High School and Middle
School Student Surveys (Post Surveys)
Elementary
School Surveys (Pre Surveys)
Elementary
School Surveys (Post Surveys)
Survey of Teachers
(Post only)
Community Partner
Surveys
Survey Code Book
Data Entry and Analysis Tool (XLS)
How to Use Evaluation
Data Tools
This publication was prepared by Brandeis University for the Massachusetts Department of Education and is funded by and based upon work supported by the Corporation for National and Community Service under Learn and Serve America Grant No. 03KSAMA001. Opinions or points of view expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Corporation or the Learn and Serve America Program. The publication is intended to be used in connection with the advancement of service-learning as educational methodology. The Massachusetts Department of Education authorizes the use of this publication for non-commercial educational purposes only. Any publication or distribution of this document must acknowledge that it was produced by the Massachusetts Department of Education, Brandeis University and the Corporation for National and Community Service. It cannot be sold or shown for profit.
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