Project Outcomes
Project Outcomes
List any important outcomes or findings not previously reported:
1. Outcome measures for activity -- Solicit students from eligible residents
(a) Outreach activities including social media posts: 70
(b) Requests for information received by email or phone: 37
(c) Self-assessment surveys completed by prospective students: 66
(d) Total communications with public including marketing contacts: 107
2. Outcome measures for activity -- Manage prerequisites
(a) Access to prerequisite course provided to eligible persons: 58
(b) Enrollments in prerequisite course: 15
(c) Applicants completing prerequisite course on time with eligible score: 12
(d) Staff communications with public: 18 calls or emails
3. Outcome measures for activity -- Interview for scholarships
(a) Interviews scheduled: 12
(b) Interviews conducted: 11 (2 via Zoom)
(c) Interviews scheduled: Dec 2020, two; Feb 2021, one; Mar 2021, two; April 2021, two: Aug 2021, one; Sept 2021, three.
(d) Scholarships awarded: 10
(e) Communications with applicants: 62
4. Outcome measures for activity -- Qualification period
(a) Students completing qualification period: 9 (10th student completed after grant period ended)
(b) Communications with students and coaches: 29
5. Outcome measures for activity -- Monitor active students
(a) Students enrolled at end of grant period: 11 (1 from other funding source)
(b) Completion % of grant-funded students: Above 90%, 3 students; 50-90%, 3 students; 26-49%, 3 students; 0-25%, 1 student.
(c) Contacts with enrolled students: 34
6. Outcome measures for activity -- Diploma completion
(a) Grant-funded students completing diploma during grant period: 0
(b) Grant-funded students participating in graduation ceremony: 3
(c) Attendance at graduation ceremony (held after grant period ended): 150
Please briefly describe the importance of these outcomes and findings for future program planning:
Outcome measures tell us that identifying and reaching the target audience of eligible residents is a slow, continual process. We performed 70 various outreach activities that resulted in 37 direct inquiries and 66 individuals completing the first step of filling out a very brief interest survey. The scheduling of scholarship interviews illustrates the range of time that elapses:
December 2020, two interviews
February 2021, one interview
March 2021, two interviews
April 2021, two interviews
August 2021, one interview
September 2021, three interviews
The follow-through rate of interested persons is low. All 66 eligible applicants were invited to attempt the prerequisite course but only 15 actually enrolled. Two individuals enrolled but did not start the course. Of the 13 who enrolled, two people needed multiple attempts to complete the course within 2 weeks. One was not successful. Of the 12 invited to interview, 11 participated. Ultimately, it took 66 participants to find 10 solid candidates. The selection process is designed to winnow out those with a casual interest and identify those with the best likelihood of success in this type of learning environment.
Outcomes also demonstrate the length of time required to build momentum for the program despite repetitive marketing. It takes a long time to move students through the process once they are accepted. There is not a steady stream of applicants and those who apply are in varied stages of previous high school completion. Students receiving grant-funded scholarships ranged from 0 previous high school credits to entering COHS with 60% of courses already completed. From initial contact to diploma completion takes at least four months, even for students with many transfer credits. Students have different paces of work and available time for study. For most students, the process takes at least a year. Many others will require nearly the entire 18 months allocated. This explains why outreach activities that began in October 2020 resulted in zero students completing the diploma within the grant period. This was an expected result.
Outcomes highlight the role of staff communications with prospects and students. Lots of contacts and communications occur during solicitation but there are fewer during the prerequisite and qualification periods. Students receive guidance on what they need to achieve but staff does not offer further assistance or encouragement. This is deliberate; applicants are expected to demonstrate self-reliance and motivation during these periods as criteria for the award and retention of scholarship.
After the qualification period is finished, staff actively communicate with enrolled students to build personal relationships. Individual communications that encourage and motivate are important in student retention and success. Of the 10 students enrolled during the grant, 100% are continuing actively at an appropriate pace of work. Students did not give up despite personal challenges such as computer crashes, household moves, illness, and even death of a parent. Project planning should include sufficient personnel and time to follow-through with students all the way to their completion.
Explain one or two of the most significant lessons learned for others wanting to adopt any facets of this project:
Public libraries have a mission of lifelong education for all ages. Libraries are very good at providing programs and services for children and for seniors, but we may fall short in meaningful service for the ages in-between. Our experience, based not just on the grant period but encompassing 4 years as a COHS partner, is that almost all applicants are mid-20’s to early-40’s in age. Most have kindergarten to elementary school-age children in the home. The majority are women who have reached a life stage where they now have time for their own education and development. Almost all our students, male or female, cite being a role model to their children as a driving force in the desire for a diploma. Career Online High School is a valuable tool in assisting adult learners to achieve an educational goal and to improve the quality of life for their families. Partnering with COHS allowed us to reach a demographic that is often underserved -- the parents of young families – to address their needs rather than their children’s.
For a library interested in replicating this project by becoming a Career Online High School partner, the lessons to impart are these:
1. Marketing within the library and library channels is not sufficient to reach the target audience. A very wide reach into the community is needed to get the message to people who are not engaged with the library. An active library card is required to log into the initial prerequisite class. We found the percentage of people who had a card when they filled out the interest survey was less than 10%. That was a significant drop-off point in the process; when people were advised how to get a library card so they could proceed, most of them did not do so. Large group outreach activities, such as Back-to-School Fairs or community festivals did not take place. Both would be excellent opportunities to publicize the COHS opportunity and have proven highly successful in past experiences.
2. Evaluate your community to learn where your target audience may be working, shopping, receiving services or interacting with the education system, either for their children or for themselves (adult education, vo-tech programs). On social media, investigate interest groups that are based on geographic neighborhoods, on helping others find services or sharing used furniture and clothing. These locations, whether physical or virtual, are often frequented by persons with lower incomes and young children which was the most common demographic of our COHS applicants. Social media postings also generate excellent word-of-mouth to relatives, friends and neighbors of people not in that social media group. The secondary target audience is workers in minimum wage/part-time/service industry jobs who are seeking better employment. Workforce development/unemployment offices are a natural outlet for marketing because they tend to serve the same target audience.
3. Expect this to start slowly and build momentum. It’s not easy to find effective channels that bring in exactly the people who want this opportunity and are a good fit. It takes a long time for word-of-mouth, which ultimately has been the strongest referral system, to expand throughout your area. A one-year program is not enough. COHS should be viewed as a multi-year project. A library is advised to approach it with intent of an ongoing service and working to identify potential sources of future funding. With student enrollments lasting up to 18 months, planning a 12-month project doesn’t best serve the community. The grant year was the 4th year of our participation and has been the most effective in terms of student success. COHS is more widely known and understood in our county, and the library staff are better skilled in promotion and retention.
4. This program is deeply personal to individuals. Each student is an individual. Each has different challenges in reaching the goal of a high school diploma. If their education experience had been easy, they would not be in the target audience. A successful program will have a caring and interactive staff at the heart of the library partnership with Career Online High School. The school assigns each student an academic coach, and by all student reports the coaches are amazing, caring and helpful. Yet the continued interest and support of the scholarship team who helped the individual into the program is also influential throughout the student’s journey. Expressions of encouragement and “tough love” establishes a rapport that increases the likelihood students will ask for help if they need it. Reminding students of the goals they expressed in their interviews keeps them motivated. When the library team says, “we believe in you and we know you can do this,” students feel known and seen and supported in a way that probably didn’t exist the first time they attempted high school. That matters a lot.
Empowering people to change their own lives is why librarians do what we do. Being part of an adult learner’s success story brings deep personal satisfaction. If a library is able to host a graduation ceremony to celebrate their graduates, the success resonates throughout the larger community. Library stakeholders and taxpayers can feel a sense of pride that through the publicly-supported library, they, too, contributed to someone’s educational success. That emotional buy-in feeds the cycle of more media coverage, more word-of-mouth marketing, more referrals, and more diplomas. Adults with a high school diploma typically earn more and by extension, spend more in the local economy. They provide a better quality of life for their families. They pay more in taxes. This, too, feeds the cycle -- that of growing the economy, contributing, and giving back. The lesson learned is that each individual’s educational success has the power to contribute to the well-being of the entire community, and that public libraries play a pivotal role.
Do you anticipate continuing this project after the current reporting period ends:
Yes
Do you anticipate any change in level of effort in managing this project:
No
Explain:
Do you anticipate changing the types of activities and objectives addressed by the project:
No
Explain:
Was an evaluation conducted for this project:
No
Was a final written evaluation report produced:
No
Can the final written evaluation report be shared publicly on the IMLS website:
No
Was the evaluation conducted by project staff (either SLAA or local library) or by a third-party evaluator:
Third-Party
What data collection tools were used for any report outcomes and outputs:
Did you collect any media for the data:
What types of methods were used to analyze collected data:
Other:
How were participants (or items) selected:
What type of research design did you use to compare the value for any reported output or outcome: