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EVALUATION RESOURCES Jacobs, F.H. (1988). Chapter 5: A five–tiered approach to evaluation. In H.B. Weiss & F.H. Jacob’s (Eds.) Evaluating Family Programs. New York: Aldine de Gruyer. CHAPTER IN BOOK As family support and education programs enter the mainstream of human services, pressures are mounting for assessing their effectiveness in improving the well–being of families and children. "Evaluating Family Programs" describes these programs, summarizes what is known about their effectiveness, and provides strategies and tools for family program developers and evaluators. The book presents a broad developmental framework for evaluation which is applicable to both small community programs and to large research and demonstration programs. It reviews and recommends measures for assessing the effectiveness of these programs at multiple levels, including: the child, parent–child interaction, the parent, the family system, family stress and coping, and intra– and extra–familial social support. Case studies describing the implementation of innovative methods for programs are also presented. Chapter 5 first offers a brief personal analysis of how evaluation in its early days could have been so "off–base" and a summary of the lessons from that period (1960s), as well as programming and politics in the 1980s. The chapter presents a five–tiered approach to program evaluation as an attempt to build those lessons into a graduated model of evaluation. MEASURES Bradley, R.H., Caldwell, B.M., & Corwyn, R.F. (2003). The child care HOME Inventories: Assessing the quality of family child care homes. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 18(3), 294–309. E–JOURNAL – PDF FORMAT Versions of the HOME Inventory for use in family child care homes are described. The Infant/Toddler version is designed for use when children are less than 3 years old; the Early Childhood version for children ages 3–6. Psychometric characteristics of the child care versions of HOME are similar to the psychometric characteristics found for the original HOME used to measure the family environment. Child Care HOME scores were strongly related to intensive observational measures of behavior among child care providers and to measures of physical and organizational aspects of the environment. Because the inventories take less time and training to administer than most current measures of family child care, they may provide a way for licensing workers and others responsible for maintaining quality in child care to obtain useful information about this widely used but minimally monitored form of non–parental care. Clifford, R.M., Harms, T., Pepper, S., Stuart, B. (1992). Assessing quality in family day care. In D.L. Peters & A.R. Pence’s (Eds.) Family Day Care: Current Research for Informed Public Policy. New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University, 243–265. CHAPTER IN BOOK This book presents reviews and analyses from a variety of disciplinary perspectives that place American and Canadian family day care in a historical, demographic, social, and economic context. The 15 chapters are: (1) "Family Day Care: Issues and Information Needs" (Donald Peters and Alan Pence); (2) "Historical Perspectives on Familial and Extra familial Child Care: Toward a History of Family Day Care" (Judith Auerbach and Gary Woodill); (3) "The Changing Demographics of Family Day Care in the United States" (Sandra Hofferth and Ellen Kisker); (4) "Family Day Care in a Sociological Context: Data from the Canadian National Child Care Study" (Alan Pence and others); (5) "An Introduction to the Economics of Family Home Day Care" (Steven Barnett); (6) "Research Perspectives on Family Day Care" (June Pollard and Jan Fischer); (7) "Family Day Care for Infants and Toddlers" (Carollee Howes and Laura Sakai); (8) "Family Day Care and Children with Disabilities" (Penny Deiner); (9) "The Physical Setting: Ecological Features of Family Day Care and Their Impact on Child Development" (Susan Golbeck); (10) "Dimensions of Parent–Provider Relationships in Family Day Care" (Douglas Powell and Gail Bollin); (11) "Training and Professionalism in Family Day Care" (Susan Kontos and others); (12) "Models of Family Day Care and Support Services in Canada" (Irene Kyle); (13) "Models of Family Day Care and Support Services in the United States" (Joe Perreault); (14) "Assessing Quality in Family Day Care" (Richard Clifford and others); and (15) "Future Policy and Research Needs" (Arthur Emlen and Elizabeth Prescott). Each chapter includes references. Harms, T., & Clifford, R. (1989). The family day care rating scale. New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University. BOOK – AVAILABLE FOR ORDER AT: http://store.tcpress.com/0807729558.shtml The increasing concern over the effect of day care on children’s lives has focused attention on the quality of that care. Since most out–of–home care is provided in family day care homes, the need has grown for an accessible, reliable, and thorough means of assessing the quality and suitability of such settings. Developed through lengthy field testing, research, and revision, the Family Day Care Rating Scale consists of 32 items, organized under six major headings: • Space and Furnishings for Care and Learning • Basic Care • Language and Reasoning • Learning Activities • Social Development • Adult Needs FOCUS GROUPS Asbury, J. (1995). Overview of focus group research. Qualitative Health Research, 5(4), 414–420. NOT ON WEB Offers a general approach for using focus groups (FGs) in the course of social and behavioral science research. FGs explore a specific issue of interest to the researcher through group interviews with 6–12 people who are similar to each other in some way. FGs are an alternative to quantitative research strategies, and allow the researcher an avenue to challenge conventional wisdom in the field. Once the appropriate population to be interviewed has been identified, participants must be recruited. Community agencies may be helpful in providing participants, although it is acknowledged that cash incentives may be necessary. The leader or facilitator moderates the discussion using guidelines and instructions provided by the researcher. Potential hazards and misuses of FGs include overlooking the potential for self–censorship by participants and interpreting the qualitative data as if it were quantitative. Kruger, R.A. (1994). Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research: Second Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. BOOK The book is organized around three themes. Part I (Chapters 1 and 2) presents a general overview of focus groups that highlights distinctions between this methodological procedure and other seemingly similar group procedures, why focus groups work, characteristics of focus groups, uses of focus groups, validity of focus group interviewing, and advantages and limitations of this research procedure. This first part of the book is intended to provide the readers––both researchers and users––with the concepts that are central to focus group interviewing. Part II (Chapters 3 through 8) suggests strategies for actually conducting focus group interviews. This section of the book emphasizes the elements involved in doing focus groups and will likely be of greater interest to researchers as they prepare for the experience. Part III brings to light several issues that are often of concern to both researchers and users, particularly those within the nonprofit sector. INTERVIEWS Roulston, K., deMarrais, K., & Lewis, J.B. (2003). Learning to interview in the social sciences. Qualitative Inquiry, 9(4), 643–668. NOT ON WEB A large proportion of social science investigations rely on interview data, yet few researchers received formal training in interviewing. The authors investigated how novice researchers developed their interview skills, reporting on postgraduate students’ experiences and reflections during an intensive 15–day interview course. Data analyzed for the article include audiotapes and transcripts of in–depth interviews and students’ written critiques and journal reflections. Challenges faced by novice interviewers conducting in–depth interviews included unexpected participant behaviors, dealing with the consequences of the interviewers’ own actions and subjectivities, constructing and delivering questions, and handling sensitive research topics. The authors also discuss the transcription of audio–recorded talk and include their own and students’ reflections concerning the learning and teaching of interviewing. Finally, the authors provide recommendations for teaching interview skills for the purpose of doing social science research. This study informs teachers of qualitative research and researchers who seek to develop their interview skills. SURVEYS Rea, L.M., & Parker, R.A. (1997). Designing and Conducting Survey Research: Second Edition. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons. NOT ON WEB ACTION RESEARCH CU – Denver Action Research