How Evaluation Capacity Building Grows Credible and Actionable Evidence for Cooperative Extension Programs

Evaluation capacity building (ECB) is an essential element for generating credible and actionable evidence on Extension programs. This paper offers a discussion of ECB efforts in Cooperative Extension and how such efforts enable Extension professionals to collect and use credible and actionable evidence on the quality and impacts of programs. Sufficient investments in ECB, both at the individual and organizational levels, can better equip Extension to advocate for and make changes to programs, advance as a learning organization, and have a more powerful impact on communities. Furthermore, as Extension program stakeholders often have varying perspectives on the credibility of evidence, these perspectives must also be accounted for in efforts to build Extension’s evaluation capacity. Intentional investments in ECB efforts provide an opportunity for Extension to further deepen and expand impact, positioning programs to most effectively and positively benefit individuals and communities

Creating Learning Environments to Support Students Experiencing Stress: Qualitative Insights from an Extension-Community Partnership

For children experiencing chronic stress, succeeding academically in the face of other obstacles can be daunting. Many efforts focused on supporting students fail to address nonacademic aspects of well-being that can impact their ability to succeed. Working to bridge the gap between research and practice, here we describe the results of an Extension-Community partnership that sought to design learning environments to support elementary students’ healthy bodies and minds. Project leaders took an ecological systems approach, intervening with students at a local elementary school across multiple contexts. This entailed creating a calming room in the school, building a community garden on the school grounds, and providing wrap-around educational programming for teachers, staff, and families. Interviews were conducted with teachers and school staff (N = 20) to measure their perceptions of the impact of this intervention. Results are presented within the framework of the socio-ecological model, accounting for the multilevel nature of the project impacts. Interview themes revealed the program’s success in supporting positive outcomes for students, staff, the school, and the surrounding community. Discussions center around the program’s impact on students and on lessons learned that could inform future efforts

Infants' use of social partnerships to predict behavior

The experiences of social partners are important motivators of social action. Can infants use such experiences to make predictions about how social agents will behave? Sixteen‐month‐old infants were introduced to two social pairs. Initial events established within‐pair cooperation as well as between‐pair conflict involving an individual from each pair. Following these events, infants looked longer when between‐pair members who had never previously interacted now cooperated – instead of conflicted – with each other. Thus, infants tracked the third‐person allegiances and inferred that the conflict would generalize across social partnerships. These findings demonstrate a critical feature of early social cognition and promote needed, further research on the role of social allegiances in social cognition across development.The experiences of social partners are important motivators of social action. Can infants use such experiences to make predictions about how social agents will behave? In three studies, following initial instances of conflict between individual members of different social pairs, sixteen‐month‐old infants looked longer when those individuals' social partners–who had never previously interacted–cooperated rather than conflicted with one other. Thus, infants tracked the agents' third‐person allegiances and inferred that the conflict would generalize across social partnerships.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/115912/1/desc12267.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/115912/2/desc12267_am.pd

Building Community and Fostering Health and Well-Being through a Collaborative School Based Project

This article presents lessons learned from collaborative service-learning projects aimed at bridging the gap between theory and practice by providing students design experiences in authentic settings. Interior design students gained disciplinary and civic benefits while problem solving for a preK-5 elementary school calming room, dining room, and teacher sanctuary. The elementary school teachers and staff reported the redesigned calming room supported students’ emotional and self-regulation skills. Teachers and staff also reported the dining room and teacher sanctuary supported the school community well-being. The authors’ present findings and hope the article can serve as a model for educators interested in community building service-learning projects in school environments

Tracking College Enrollment Rates for Precollege Program Alumni

Many Extension precollege programs seek to increase young people\u27s interest in and aspirations toward college by fostering the development of skills that support a successful college transition. By pairing existing data with participant enrollment records, Extension professionals can more easily capture the impact of precollege programs on college enrollment and degree attainment. This article summarizes the process a group of us at Michigan State University Extension use to track Michigan 4-H precollege program alumni college enrollment rates, leveraging existing data from the National Student Clearinghouse and the Michigan Department of Education. Our method is a relatively easy and inexpensive way to measure and share precollege program impacts