NPS Bridging the Watershed Partnership Program

NPS & Alice Ferguson Foundation Bridging the Watershed Program
NPS & Alice Ferguson Foundation Bridging the Watershed (BTW) Program
Teacher and School Administrator Phone Interviews
NOTE TO REVIEWERS: We will interview a convenience sample of 8 teachers and 5 school
administrators sampled from Prince Georges County, MD, Prince William County, VA, Charles County,
MD, Washington County, MD and/or Allegany, MD in spring 2019. Interviews will be conducted by
phone, to elicit detailed information about the quality of the training, curricula, and field studies and
the impact of the field studies on their students. The interviews allow time for follow-up or prompting
questions that invite respondents to provide explanations and examples.
Interviewer will read the following text aloud:
My name is Karen Kortecamp and I am the researcher working with BTW personnel to assess
the quality of the program. Thank you for responding to my email and agreeing to
participate in this brief phone interview regarding your perceptions of the BTW Program.
Today’s interview will take approximately 20 minutes. During the interview, I will ask you
some questions about how you (teachers) or your teachers (administrators) and students
experience the program. I want you to think about what you know about the BTW curricula
and the field studies students participate in at National Park Sites.
At any time during the interview, if you have any questions or require clarification of a
question don’t hesitate to ask. In order to protect your anonymity, I will assign you a
number (e.g., “teacher or administrator number 4”) that will be attached to your words for
the purposes of documenting the results of the study. The information you provide will be
summarized as a collective response from everyone I interview.
I need your permission to record this session. Otherwise, I will take hand written notes
during our conversation. Do I have your permission to record?
Before we begin, I must read the following:
Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: The Paperwork Reduction Act requires us to tell you why we are collecting this
information, how we will use it, and whether or not you have to respond. This collection will evaluate how local middle and
high school teacher and administrators assess of the quality of the NPS & Alice Ferguson Foundation Bridging the Watershed
(BTW) Program. Your input will be critical in understand the utility of the program. Your responses are voluntary and
anonymous. Your name and address will not be collected. At the completion of this collection all personal information will be
destroyed and in no way be connected with the results of this survey. A Federal agency may not conduct or sponsor and you
are not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB Control Number.
Estimated Burden Statement: Public reporting for this collection of information is estimated to be no more than20 minutes to
complete the questionnaire or less than two minutes to answer the non-response questions. Send comments regarding this
burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to the
Information Collection Officer, National Park Service, 12201 Sunrise Valley Dr. (MS-242), Reston, VA 20192.

Do you have any questions before we begin?

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NPS & Alice Ferguson Foundation Bridging the Watershed Program
Teacher Interview Questions
Please respond to the following questions about the BTW Program.
1) Did you participate in the one-day training workshop or the three-day summer institute
training?
Can you explain your choice?
2) At what National Park Site did you do your training?
3) What is your assessment of the quality of the training?
Please explain your response.
4) What BTW curricula have you used in your classrooms and, to what extent have you
used them?
Can you provide examples?
5) What is your assessment of the quality of the curricula you’ve used?
Please explain your response.
6) Do the curricula you’ve used align with the standards you are expected to teach and
that students are expected to learn?
Can you provide examples?
7) How would you characterize the impact the BTW field studies and curricula have had on
your students’ learning?
Please explain your response.
8) What National Park Sites have you visited for student field studies?
9) What is your assessment of the quality of the student field studies?
Please explain your response.
10) How have BTW field studies been used to support current curriculum and academic
standards?
11) Do you utilize the online resources? If yes, have you found these helpful? If no, what
are your reasons for not using the resources?
12) Do you have other comments you’d like to share about the BTW program?
Thank you so much for your time!
School Administrator Interview Questions
Please respond to the following questions about the BTW Program.
1) What do you know about the BTW program?
2) Do you know approximately how long your school system has worked with the BTW
program?
3) Do you know to what extent teachers and students in your schools or school system
participate in the BTW program?
4) What do you feel are the strengths of the program?
Please explain your response.
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NPS & Alice Ferguson Foundation Bridging the Watershed Program
5) Are there aspects of the program you would recommend be improved or changed?
Please explain your response.
6) Does the program align with the standards your teachers are expected to teach and
your students are expected to learn?
Can you provide an example?
7) How would you characterize the impact the BTW field studies and curricula on your
students’ learning?
Please explain your response.
8) If your school or school system was required to increase its financial commitment to the
program, what level of support do you think you’d be willing to provide to continue
participating in the program?
9) Do you have other comments you’d like to share about the BTW program?
Thank you so much for your time!

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NPS & Alice Ferguson Foundation Bridging the Watershed Program

NPS & Alice Ferguson Bridging the Watershed (BTW)
Interview Non-Response Survey
The text of the emails is as follows:
Teacher Questions
As a BTW participant we would appreciate your response to three statements about the program. It will
take approximately 2 minutes to reply to this email with your response. Simply copy the table below,
click on ‘reply to this email’ and paste the table into your reply. Insert an X to represent your level of
agreement with each statement. When you are finished click on ‘Send’ to submit your response. Thank
you for your feedback!

I think the quality of the BTW
training is very good.

Strongly Disagree
Disagree

Somewhat
Agree

Agree

Strongly
Agree

I think the quality of the BTW
curricular resources is very good.
I think the quality of the BTW field
study is very good.
I did not respond to the invitation to interview because. . .
School Administrator Questions
As an administrator in a school in which teachers and students participate in BTW, we would appreciate
your response to two statements about the program. It will take approximately 2 minutes to reply to this
email with your response. Simply copy the table below, click on ‘reply to this email’ and paste the table
into your reply. Insert an X to represent your level of agreement with each statement. When you are
finished click on ‘Send’ to submit your response. Thank you for your feedback!
Strongly
Somewhat
Disagree
Disagree
Agree

I think that the BTW program aligns with
the standards our teachers are expected
to teach and our students are expected
to learn.
I think the teachers and students that
participate in BTW are positively
impacted by the program.
I did not respond to the invitation to interview because. . .

Agree

Strongly
Agree

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