Partner Organization Staff Site Visit Interview Protocol

Attachment 12

Strategies for Preparing At-Risk Youth for Postsecondary Success
Partner Organization Protocol

Please use this protocol to interview both primary program partners and/or administrators at partner IHEs.

I. Background

1. What is your role within your organization?

2. What is the nature of your involvement with [insert name of program], and how long have you been involved?

II. Program Description

A. Vision/Goals

3. What is your understanding of the program’s major goals/priorities? How, if at all, has this vision evolved or changed since you have been involved?

B. Programs and Strategies

Community Organizations and Social Services

4. In what ways do these goals/priorities align with your organization’s goals and priorities? In what ways do they differ?

   1. Do you seek to serve the same target population? If so, please define the target population. If not, how do the target populations differ?

5. What activities or responsibilities related to the program does your organization undertake? Probe for specific dropout prevention, dropout recovery, and college readiness strategies.

6. What are the challenges in undertaking these activities/responsibilities?

7. What role, if any, does your organization serve in helping to fund the program?

   1. Are there any policies or funding requirements that have facilitated or impeded the partnership?

8. Has your organization benefitted from the partnership? What factors help sustain the partnership? What challenges exist in maintaining your participation?

IHE Partners

9. What is the relationship of your institution to the district? Has your institution worked with the district before?

   1. Does your postsecondary institution have a history of working with secondary schools?

10. Describe your institution’s involvement in the program. How long have you been involved and in what capacity?

11. Please describe any work you have done with the district/schools to develop:

    1. Curriculum and college-readiness standards

    2. Student assessments

    3. Secondary to postsecondary pathways (including an outreach system for encouraging students’ postsecondary aspirations, promoting students’ knowledge of and completion of steps necessary for college application, and/or recruitment)

    4. Other college preparatory initiatives

    5. Other

12. [If there is a dual enrollment/college course-taking component] Have you established a MOU (or other formal agreement) with the district/school/program? If there is no formal agreement, what guides the partnership? If there is a formal agreement, is it a binding document?

1. Who are the signatories?

2. What are the terms of the MOU and how often it is renewed? Describe the revision and renewal process?

3. What is your perception of the importance and value of the MOU in sustaining the partnership? (Probe: leadership turnover among partners.)

13. Are there any policies or funding requirements that have facilitated or impeded the partnerships?

    1. How is the program funded? What is your institution’s financial role, if any?

    2. Are specific policy changes necessary to improve the program’s effectiveness? Are efforts underway to create those changes? Please be specific.

14. Has your institution benefitted from the partnership? What factors help sustain the partnership? What challenges exist in maintaining your participation?

Local Business

15. Why does your business [do local businesses] participate in the program?

16. What opportunities do students receive in working with your business? Probe for connections between school and work, life skills

17. What are the challenges in undertaking these activities/responsibilities?

18. What role, if any, does your organization serve in helping to fund the program?

19. Has your organization benefitted from the partnership? What factors help sustain the partnership? What challenges exist in maintaining your participation?

Perspectives on Broader Partnership

20. From your perspective, to what extent are the program’s goals commonly understood across key stakeholder groups (e.g., district and school leaders, teachers, parents, other partner organizations)?

1. If not, what are the differences? Why do these differences exist and what will it take to overcome these differences?

21. How would you characterize the community and parent response to the program?

    1. What have been the concerns, if any? What steps have been taken to increase community (including parent and student) participation (e.g., outreach through community media channels)?

III. Outcomes

IHE, CBO, and social service partners:

22. What data do you use to monitor students’ progress in the program (e.g., attendance, grades, course failures, timely submission of assignments, graduation, attainment of industry-recognized certification or employment at a living wage)?

1. [IHE PARTNERS:] Do you identify students who were formerly at risk of dropping out of high school?

23. What do these data tell you about whether the program is effective?

1. In what ways has the program been effective?

2. In your opinion, in what ways does the program need to improve?

3. [IHE PARTNERS:] Do you implement any retention strategies? If so, please describe.

24. What other data would you like to collect but have not been able to? What are the challenges to gathering those data?

Local business partners:

25. [Ask only if partner provides internships/employment for program] To what extent do you hold students accountable for their participation and/or performance? How?

1. How would you describe your role in assessing student progress in this program?

26. In what ways do you believe this program is effective?

1. To what extent do you believe that the supports you provide to students in this program are helping them move towards attaining industry-recognized certification and/or employment at a living wage?

2. In your opinion, in what ways does the program need to improve?

IV. Policy Contexts

IHE, CBO, and social service partners ONLY:

26. [IHE PARTNERS ONLY:] Is the state working towards an integrated K-12 and postsecondary data system? If so, when will that data become available? What’s your understanding of how such a system might help you in running your program?

V. Wrap-Up

26. Will your organization remain in the partnership for the foreseeable future? Why or why not?

27. Is there anything else about your partnership with the program and its successes or challenges that you think we should know?

OMB Information Collection Request: Partner Organization 4