Site Administrator Interview

^{OMB Control #: XXXX-XXXX}

Site Administrator Interview Guide

Virtual Interview Guide for Site Administrators in the Low and High Intensity Groups

in the Outcomes Innovation Project

Introduction

Hello [NAME]. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us today. My name is [PRIMARY INTERVIEWER], and I am joined by [SECONDARY INTERVIEWER]. I will be leading the interview today and [SECONDARY INTERVIEWER] is going to take notes for the call.

As you know, we are from Child Trends, an independent nonprofit research organization and we are evaluating the Ready to Learn through Relationships (RLR) intervention in partnership with the Center for Childhood Resilience (CCR) at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago (Lurie). This discussion will take around 60 minutes.

Because this is a federally funded project, I need to read a statement regarding the PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT OF 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13) STATEMENT OF PUBLIC BURDEN: The overall purpose of this information collection is to identify teacher practices for supporting children’s social-emotional development and to identify training and implementation factors that may enhance these practices. The purpose of this specific discussion is to learn about your Center’s experiences with the RLR program including the trainings, toolkit, and coaching, how helpful you feel like it was for your staff as well as yourself, and your thoughts about how to enhance its implementation. This will help the program developers at Lurie CCR improve this program and will help the Office of Head Start design and implement future professional development programs. We are interested in your full and honest opinions.

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per respondent, including the time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and reviewing the collection of information. This is a voluntary collection of information. Additionally, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information subject to the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB number for this information collection is OMB Control #: XXXX-XXXX and it expires on [DATE]. If you have any comments on this collection of information, please contact [NAME AND CONTACT INFORMATION].

Privacy. Before we get started, I would like to remind you that what is said in this interview is private. We will not share anything identifiable that you say with your Center or director.

Voluntary. Even though you previously agreed to meet with us today when you consented to participate in our program evaluation, it is of course voluntary, and you don’t have to share anything you don’t want to.

To help clarify our notes, we would like to record this conversation and have it transcribed. The recording would only be used to make sure that we correctly capture your responses. The only individuals who will have access to this are our Child Trends evaluation team. After we check the transcriptions and remove all information that might be identifiable like your name, we will delete the recording. We will summarize the information we get across all the Centers so that no individual or Center can be identified. Our key findings will be included in a report for the National Center for Health, Behavior Health, and Safety which is sponsoring this study, and may be included in presentations and publications.

Do you have any questions about this? Are you okay with having the conversation recorded?

START RECORDING. STATE THE DATE AND FACILITATOR NAME.

Overall Experience with the Program

1. What were your initial reasons for wanting to apply to the RLR program?

   1. Were there specific needs you wanted to address for your teachers?

   2. Were there specific needs you wanted to address for your 3-5 y/o students?

2. How well did the program end up addressing these needs?

3. How well did the program “fit” into your Center in terms of what was required and how it aligned with other initiatives you have?

4. What did you like the most about your Center’s involvement in the program?

5. What would have made your Center’s experience with the program better?

6. Which aspects of the program did you find most valuable? [Probe for specific modules and specific topics and training activities they participated in]

   1. What was helpful/not helpful about the professional development provided by Lurie?

   2. What about ongoing supports from Lurie staff (e.g., coaching push-ins)?

Perceived Impact

7. How did involvement in the program impact teachers who participated? [Probe for knowledge/attitudes towards trauma-informed approaches as well as day-to-day practices in interacting with children in the classroom]

   1. What aspects of the program do you think were most beneficial to participating teachers? [Probe for training, toolkit materials, coaching]

7. How did your Center’s involvement in the program impact children in the classrooms that participated?

   1. Do you have any evidence of improvement in their social-emotional development?

   2. If we were to evaluate children’s outcomes in the future, where would you expect to see specific improvements? [Probe for existing data/records that could be used]

Implementation

7. How did you support teachers and coaches during the program’s implementation?

   1. In what ways do you think this support was helpful?

7. How were other regional staff/consultants involved in the program’s implementation?

   1. In what ways do you think this involvement was helpful or important?

7. What additional resources were required to implement this program above and beyond your day-to-day Center operations including providing needed support for teachers and coaches?

   1. How did you obtain these resources?

7. What were the challenges or barriers to teacher’s use of professional development activities and materials as well as their implementation of classroom strategies?

   1. Was there anything you found helpful in addressing these challenges?

7. What were the challenges or barriers to coaches’ work with teachers?

   1. Was there anything you found helpful in addressing these challenges?

Wrap Up

7. What else would you like us to know about your experience with this program?

7. What might you want to tell another Center director who is considering adopting this program?

Thank you for taking the time to talk with us today. We appreciate your time and support.