PI Post Interview Protocol

Appendix 19: PI Post-School Year Interview Protocol

Hello! Thanks so much for coming! My name is [Name], and this is my colleague [colleague name]. We work for Abt Associates/EDC, which is a research firm in Boston/DC. Abt Associates and its partner, Education Development Center (EDC), are conducting an evaluation of NASA’s Summer of Innovation. As part of this study, we are collecting data from the national awardees to learn about how the plans for this summer’s SoI activities.

The evaluation of NASA’s SoI Project will provide insight into this year’s implementation and the feasibility of NASA’s SoI requirements and appropriateness of NASA’s training and support of the activities. The approach will allow NASA to document the implementation of the SoI activities across the awardees to better understand what worked and what did not during FY2012. The results of this evaluation are intended to ultimately inform future decisions about programmatic requirements and supports.

We expect that our discussion will last about 60 minutes. We will be taking notes during our conversation to ensure accuracy and we would like to audio-tape this conversation, with your permission. Your responses will be used to examine the implementation of SoI activities. No individuals will be identified by name. If you have any further questions that we may not be able to answer about this evaluation or this conversation, please contact Teresa Doksum, Abt Associates’ Institutional Review Board Administrator, at (617) 349-2896, or Hilary Rhodes, the Abt project director of this study at (617) 520-3516. Please note that these are toll calls.

Post School Year PI Interview Protocol

1. Implementation of the SoI Activities

• What do you consider your greatest achievement this year?

• Overall, how successful was your SoI program in meeting NASA’s requirements, regarding:

  • Reaching and retaining student participants in general and underserved and underrepresented students in particular

  • Reaching and retaining classroom teachers

  • Providing professional development to classroom teachers

  • Use of NASA content and resources to engage students

  • Developing partnerships with schools and other organizations

• Overall, what aspects of your SoI program were most challenging? How did you address these challenges?

  • Probes – Challenges related to recruiting & retaining students; Recruiting & retaining certified teachers; Building and/or maintaining partnerships; Engaging students in NASA content; Providing professional development/staff supports

• How did the successes and challenges vary across your summer camps and school-year events?

• What factors influenced students’ engagement with the NASA content?

• How do you think the summer activities may influence student achievement over the long term?

• If you could start over, what would you do the same? What would you do differently?

2. Capacity Building

• Which aspects of working with partners worked well during the year (and why)? What would you like to change vis-à-vis working with partner organizations and why?

• How do you plan to maintain these partnerships? Have your partner organizations provided or agreed to continue with SoI beyond this year?

• What supports have you received/would you like from NASA as the SoI funding level shifts?

3. Planning for the Upcoming Summer Activities

• What activities do you have planned for the upcoming summer? How are you planning on using NASA content and resources?

• What roles do you anticipate your partners playing?

• What roles will classroom teachers and informal educators play?

• What supports do you plan to provide classroom teachers and informal educators?

• What challenges do you anticipate encountering during the school-year activities?

4. Closing

• Do you have any additional thoughts about this year’s SoI activities that we have not discussed?

Abt Associates Inc. Appendix 19 19-3