evaluation

Dr. Jeantyl Norze Joins Extension as Evaluation Specialist

Jeantyl NorzeDr. Jeantyl Norze joined Extension as our Evaluation Specialist in January of 2022. “I am very excited to join the UConn CAHNR Extension and hopeful about my contributions to help advance the land grant mission of the university. CAHNR Extension has an amazing dynamic team who is knowledgeable and open to new ideas that help further improve the lives of the residents and communities in the state through better programming,” Dr. Norze says. He is looking forward to meeting everyone to learn more about their work and determine how he can best assist them.

Jeantyl Norze, is a Program Development and Evaluation Specialist who have authored and co-authored numerous publications in a variety of refereed national and international journals. Dr. Norze earned his DVM degree at the Universidad Agraria de La Habana (UNAH) and his master’s degree and Ph.D. degree at Louisiana Sate University where he worked as a graduate research student, post-doctoral fellow, and adjunct faculty. During his tenure at Louisiana State University, he was involved in several research and evaluation projects and taught several courses including leadership development, program development, and program evaluation to undergraduate students, graduate students, and extension educators.

Later, in 2019, Dr. Norze joined the University of Neva Reno Extension as the Program Evaluation Coordinator. In this role, he assisted Extension faculty and staff from a variety of departments including Horticulture, Health and Nutrition, Children, Youth, and Family, Natural Resources, and Economic Development with program evaluation, reporting, and needs assessments. He helped with strengthening the evaluation methods and designs, selecting and developing appropriate evaluation tools to gather credible evidence that demonstrates the contributions of each program. In addition, he participated in multiple evaluation and research projects including food insecurity among college students, educational and mental health needs among Nevadan youth, Tufts longitudinal 4-H study, HANRE needs assessment, and so forth.

He developed, in collaboration with his former colleagues, a needs assessment framework to guide statewide needs assessment efforts that seek to meet and understand the changing needs of the communities. He was also the principal investigator for a national research project sponsored by the Western Center for Metropolitan Extension and Research and the University of Nevada, Reno Extension that sought to examine career progression for urban extension professionals in the country.

Growing UConn 4-H with Common Measures

4-H logoUConn 4-H was one of 10 states selected for a pilot program, in the form of the Common Measures 2.0 Cohort Challenge Grant, to implement Common Measures program evaluation. The evaluation instruments Common Measures 1.0 and Common Measures 2.0 were created by National 4-H to help 4-H staff with planning and assessing local, state, and regional programs.

Many 4-H Extension educators find it challenging to evaluate the impacts of their programs across different subject matters, and to share resources, learned skills and knowledge with other youth educators who share their vision. As a part of
the Common Measures pilot program, a team of UConn 4-H professionals, Jennifer Cushman, Ryan Faulkner, Maryann Fusco-Rollins, Miriah Russo Kelly, and Nancy Wilhelm, joined forces to try this innovative approach to program evaluation.

Common Measures 2.0

Common measures are designed to measure the impacts of 4-H programs in science, healthy living, citizenship, college/career readiness, and positive youth development. The goal of Common Measures is to establish a common core of youth outcomes and indicators consistent with the National Institute of Food and Agriculture Plan of Work system. This includes using information from a national database for evaluating, improving, and reporting on programs and their impacts.

Evaluation

The UConn 4-H team developed a user-friendly survey platform using online Qualtrics software for the National 4-H Common Measures 2.0 instrument. While developing this platform the team also focused on building capacity and excitement in the 4-H program around data collection, analysis, and communication. Data communication uses tools such as Stats iQ and social media.

The 4-H team designed an annual survey that can be used by UConn 4-H youth to capture data relevant to each individual’s program participation. The team customized features in Qualtrics to match surveys to participants’ UConn 4-H program experience, ensuring they received relevant surveys.

Once completed, surveys were emailed to 4-H youth members’ parents/guardians, for consent. After parental consent was received, the 4-H youth could participate in survey. The surveys were designed to be short and engaging. In this pilot year we collected surveys from 127 4-H members enrolled in science projects, 109 in healthy living projects, 151 in civic engagement projects, 168 in college/career readiness programs, and 131 in mindset and social skills, referred to as the universal measures. The team developed this evaluation platform with an eye on the future, and is now poised to conduct a 5-year longitudinal study of program impacts.

Capacity Building

In November of 2018 the team hosted the Northeast Region 4-H Evaluation Capacity Building Training Event with participants from Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. This event had two tracts, basic and advanced, and covered three areas, data collection, data analysis, and data communication.

Before delving into each of the three topic areas, Miriah Kelly presented a comprehensive overview of key terms
and concepts. In the area of data collection, Jesse Mullendore from University of Nebraska-Lincoln presented on collecting data using Common Measures 2.0, and Ryan Faulkner covered creating a survey in Qualtrics.

In the area of data analysis, Teresa McCoy from the University of Maryland demonstrated ways to analyze data in Excel and Maryann Fusco-Rollins demonstrated analyzing data using Stats iQ. The final segments focused on data communication where Renae Osterman from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln discussed the basics of using the Common Measures reporting template and John Wilson of the University of Connecticut discussed Tableau, a more advanced tool for data visualization.

The Northeast Region 4-H Evaluation Capacity Building Training Event took place one month before the end of the UConn 4-H Common Measures 2.0 Cohort Challenge Grant. The team is now working on their next steps of analyzing and communicating the data from this first year. Knowledge gained from this research, and insights from the longitudinal study will be used to advance positive youth development and professional competencies by providing a means to ensure that programs are intentionally designed and providing meaningful engagement for all our UConn 4-H youth participants.

Article by Maryann Fusco

National 4-H Common Measures

4-H youth at robotics event
Photo: Kara Bonsack

UConn 4-H is one of 10 states selected for a pilot program to implement Common Measures program evaluation. The evaluation instruments Common Measures 1.0 and Common Measures 2.0 were created by National 4-H to help 4-H staff with planning and assessing local, state, and regional programs. Common Measures are designed to measure the impacts of 4-H programs in science, healthy living, citizenship, college/ career readiness, and positive youth development.

Common Measures goal is to establish a common core of youth outcomes and indicators consistent with the National Institute of Food and Agriculture Plan of Work system. This includes using information from a national database for evaluating, improving and reporting on programs and their impacts.

The 2012 study conducted by Payne & McDonald, Using Common Evaluation Instruments Across Multi-State Community Programs: A Pilot Study, examines the benefits of using a common set of evaluation instruments. Read more about it online at joe.org/joe/2012august/rb2.php.