Enhancing the Rural South\u27s Quality of Life: Leveraging Development through Educational Institutions

2004 SRSA Presidential address presented February 16, 2004, at the annual meeting of the Southern Rural Sociological Association, Tulsa, Oklahom

Using Web-Hosted Surveys to Obtain Responses from Extension Clients: A Cautionary Tale

Surveys are important tools for Extension professionals. Given the development of Web-hosted surveys, two important questions are When can they be used? and How does the data differ from those collected by other methods? The study reported here compares three modes of delivery: mail only, mail/Web choice, and Web preference with a mail option. Data showed the response rate for the mail-only mode was highest (64.5%), followed by the mail/Web choice mode (59.2%) and the Web preference mode (52.6%). The evidence indicates a need to consider how the results might be affected by methodological decisions to use the Internet

Advances in Survey and Data Analysis Methods for Rural Social Scientists: An Introduction

Rural sociologists and other rural social scientists have been and continue to be in the forefront of advances in methods for collecting and analyzing high quality social science data. While much of this work is embedded within substantive studies, the focus of this issue is on highlighting lessons learned so that other researchers can incorporate these ideas into the design and conduct of their studies

Improving Rural Educational Attainment

More often than not, policymakers focus on school-based strategies to spur improvements in the educational progress of students. The 2002 No Child Left Behind Act, which demands greater school accountability for student performance, is a case in point. Yet, what happens in the classroom is only part of the story.In fact, as Lionel J. Beaulieu, Glenn D. Israel and Ronald C. Wimberley show in their chapter in "Challenges for Rural America in the Twenty-First Century", family characteristics have from 5 to 10 times as much impact as school characteristics on reading and math scores of rural U.S. eighth graders.In addition, community characteristics have as much impact as school characteristics on test scores, although both community and chool characteristics tend to be more important in geographically isolated rural areas than those adjacent to metropolitan areas. Clearly, helping rural youth succeed academically is the collective responsibility of families, schools, and communities.This issue brief is a joint product of the Rural Sociological Society and the National Coalition for Rural Entrepreneurship, a collaboration of four Regional Rural Development Centers: The Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development, the Southern Rural Development Center, the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, and the Western Rural Development Center. Funding was also made available from the Ford Foundation.This brief is part of a policy brief series by the Rural Sociological Society and the Regional Rural Development Centers that stresses the importance of community collective action and developing the capacity of people and organizations to meet the community's needsThe Rural Sociological Society and the Regional Rural Development Centers creates new Public Policy Issue Brief series based on its recent book, "Challenges for Rural America in the Twenty-First Century".The briefs synthesize the context and substance of important issues raised in the book and address alternative policy options, with the goal of bringing important research to the policy community

Agent Performance and Customer Satisfaction

To fulfill its mission, Extension must develop programs that are relevant and high quality, and improve the lives of clients. Customer satisfaction surveys are used in Florida to collect data about these attributes. It is also important to understand how employee performance affects customer satisfaction. Our findings show that customer satisfaction was not significantly influenced by agent performance and that Florida Cooperative Extension benefits from the experience of its workforce. Given the importance of customer satisfaction as Extension\u27s performance measure for the Florida Legislature, we suggest that administrators should emphasize customer satisfaction as a major factor in employee performance scores

Assessing the Influence of Importance Prompt and Box Size on Response to Open-ended Questions in Mixed Mode Surveys: Evidence on Response Rate and Response Quality

To understand the thinking behind respondents’ answers, researchers occasionally use open-ended questions. Getting a quality response to open-ended questions can be challenging but attending to the visual design of the question and using a motivational statement in the question can increase item response and data quality. To understand the use of open-ended questions in surveys further, we designed an experiment testing the effect of an importance statement (present/absent) and box size (large/small) on item response rate and response quality in a mixed-mode (web and mail modes) survey. Data for the study came from a survey of Florida Cooperative Extension Service (FCES) clients. The results showed that item response was improved with the importance prompt, irrespective of box size. The combination of importance statement and larger answer box also resulted in more words. Web responses produced more words than those on paper and words counts were significantly improved with an importance prompt for web responses. Overall, the combination of importance prompt, larger box size and web mode was most important in producing the best item response rate and response quality in our mixed-mode survey

Regaining Our Youth, Empowering Our Communities: Service Learning and Community Development

This paper describes a development process which builds upon the strengths of community service learning and community development by providing teenagers a chance to get involved in the community while providing a valuable service leading to local action. The strategy focuses on building partnerships among students, teachers, and local leaders to learn about community leadership, conduct a community needs assessment survey, and address a local need through a community development process. Experience from projects in Florida and Kentucky suggests that this strategy can help youth get involved in the community while providing a sounder basis for the community to act on its needs

Motivations for and Psychological Benefits of Participating in the Florida Master Naturalist Program

We explored the motivations for and psychological benefits gained from participating in the Florida Master Naturalist Program (FMNP). We surveyed 3,904 participants, and 1,983 participants responded with completed questionnaires, for a 50.79% response rate. Florida master naturalists participated to learn, help the environment, and act on altruistic values. The respondents indicated that their participation in the FMNP provides psychological benefits related to helping the environment, exploring, and being social. To foster support for master naturalist programs, program designers should attend to motivations and perceived benefits related to participation in such programming

Evaluating the Impact of Governmental Partners on School Nutrition and Physical Activity Policies: A Survey of Florida School Principals

For decades, U.S. schools have implemented policies aimed at improving student nutrition and physical activity. Governmental agencies have led these efforts with funding and regulation, and implementation supported by health and agriculture agencies and university extension services at state and local levels. To understand the roles of these agencies in school health, and other factors leading to the implementation of school health policies, we surveyed school principals in Florida in 2018 on topics related to school nutrition and physical activity policies. Depending on the wellness policy, prevalence varied from 6 percent (Safe Routes to School) to 66 percent (wellness coordinator). Poisson regression results indicated a significantly higher number of nutrition and physical activity policies for schools working with a partner, non-charter schools, and schools with higher principal engagement. These results highlight a need for greater resources (particularly governmental health and agricultural agencies and university extension services) to improve school health policy adoption in Florida