Formative evaluation of a summer social skills program:

This dissertation focuses on the process of planning and implementing an evaluation of HI-STEP(TM), a private summer social skills program targeted to children ages six through seventeen who have demonstrated needs in social-emotional and problem-solving skills domains. The program evaluation was formative in nature and scope, and it utilized Maher's program planning and evaluation framework (2000). This dissertation was conducted for the purpose of providing the program executive directors with evaluation information that would be helpful in determining the strengths of the program and areas for program improvement. Furthermore, it can be considered as being worthwhile to evaluate social skills programs to determine what benefits such programs add to children with disabilities, particularly given the costs of program design and implementation as well as due to lack of documentation of non-school based programs addressing this population. For this evaluation, five questions were delineated through the evaluation plan. The implementation of the program evaluation plan was conducted by this investigator in the summer of 2008 with the intention of providing a useful evaluation plan that could be conducted in subsequent years by program personnel. Evaluation results indicated that evidence-based strategies were reported as being implemented by staff on a daily basis; parents, counselors, and children were satisfied with the HI- STEP(TM) program; staff increased knowledge and skills in relation to their participation in the two-day training program; and a sample of children demonstrated an increase in social skills in relation to the program. The findings of the dissertation suggest that the program evaluation plan was feasible, successful, and useful to the clients. Recommendations were offered for the annual and ongoing evaluation of the HI- STEP(TM) program.Psy. DIncludes bibliographic references (p. 148-150)by Melissa M. Anderso