The Parents as Partners Project : an evaluation study

During the 1970's the Australian Schools Commission identified many of the changing needs within Australian society and expressed them as objectives to be achieved through education. It fostered educational change and innovation through field-based experimentation, particularly at the school and community level. The Parents as Partners Project, a state-wide education project in Tasmania, was one such funded project. The aim of the project was to promote the importance of parent participation in children's learning. After four years of activity, the Parents as Partners Project closed in 1981. Project staff agreed to have the project documented and reviewed. The purpose of the evaluation study was to critically reflect on the project's aims, activities and outcomes within a broader educational context. It was hoped that a number of questions raised by the project participants could be examined in the light of the evaluation, and that the evaluation study would provide one source of material for future develop-ments in parental participation in education. This evaluation study portrays and evaluates twenty major features of the Parents as Partners Project using the Stake Model of Evaluation. In the process, the evaluation model was also tested for its appropriateness for the task of evaluating this kind of education project that involved the awareness raising of teachers and parents across the state as well as facilitation of parental involvement in children's learning. The study describes the evaluation methodology that was used, including the selection of a model, collection and analysis of data and selection of evaluation criteria. The study contains a list of findings and discusses a number of issues, including the importance of educational evaluation. Not least, it concludes with a number of recommendations for future developments in educational project management which focuses on community involvement in children's learning