Youth Education Program Manager
Welcome to Spark Education Director Folder
Spark! summary (from Kay's Word document to the board on June 3)
Spark! educates K-12 students in order to create school climates where everyone is empowered to learn and is offered the opportunity to develop their full potential, without regard to race, religion, gender, physical and mental ability, socioeconomic status, or other characteristics that often pose barriers to success. As these students share their knowledge with family and friends, and later as they enter the workforce, the entire community benefits from an enhanced environment of inclusiveness. The Diversity Council strives to help students build positive relationships with their peers and to educate area youth about the importance – indeed the necessity – of embracing an environment of inclusiveness in our increasingly diverse communities. It is critical that our youth are equipped to live and work in a global society.
In addition, by reducing bullying, prejudice, and discrimination we are helping to avoid the later physical and mental public health issues that often arise from exposure to such negative behaviors.
Spark! workshops are critical to helping us achieve our mission by creating an inclusive and welcoming school environment where young people gain skills and develop attitudes valuing human differences and embracing inclusiveness. The students in turn bring these skills and attitudes to the community at large, both as children – in their homes and neighborhoods - and as they grow into adulthood and enter the workforce.
Student, teachers, and facilitators evaluate the delivery of Spark! curriculum and its effectiveness in meeting our educational objectives. Recommendations are incorporated into the curriculum in an annual review session and also incorporated into facilitator training and continuing education. Evaluations continue to confirm that Spark! workshops remain very successful, meeting or exceeding our targets in nearly every area of evaluation by teachers, facilitators, and students. More than 90% of teachers surveyed would recommend Spark! to a colleague.
Teachers and facilitators evaluate Spark! curriculum and its delivery after each workshop, and a statistically significant sample of students from four grade levels is tested each year after the workshops to measure what they learned. All evaluation results are reviewed by the Diversity Council and used each year to continually improve Spark! curriculum and delivery, and to demonstrate program impact. Teacher evaluation includes satisfaction with communication from the Diversity Council, curriculum cognitive level, facilitator skill, and whether activities meet curriculum objectives. Facilitators evaluate their satisfaction with the Spark! process.
Student assessments are designed as follows: Our measurement of knowledge of human differences shows that a transfer of knowledge has taken place, which is the foundation for the development of additional competencies. Our measurement of empathy development is consistent with developing attitudes promoting both an environment of inclusiveness and positive interpersonal relationship building. Similarly, our measurement of the utilization of critical thinking is consistent with learning skills promoting both an environment of inclusiveness and positive interpersonal relationship building.
The student assessment surveys measure results in three areas: 1) correctly answering knowledge questions about grade-specific Spark! lessons (goal:80%), 2) demonstrating at least two examples of empathy—valuing and respecting others’ unique experiences—in essay questions (goal: 70% score a 2 or higher, based on a writing rubric graded from 1.0-3.0) and 3) demonstrating at least two examples of critical thinking behaviors in essay questions (see previous goal). The students’ answers help us to determine whether our message is reaching them, and we expect to reach the goals set forth above in 2010. Since research shows that achievement of these three immediate outcomes-improved knowledge, empathy, and critical thinking-is key to reducing prejudice among children and youth, by meeting our expected results for these indicators we show that our workshops are meeting our immediate outcomes and making progress toward the intermediate outcome of improved interpersonal relationships.
