SPARK - School Specialty. Physical Education & Wellness

Are there tools SPARK provides that can help me evaluate the success of SPARK?

Standard and Premium programs include the following four evaluative efforts and free consultation on their use:

1. Formative/Needs Assessment: SPARK workshops are modified and targeted to meet the needs of each school or agency. To accomplish this goal, SPARK staff conduct a phone interview to understand the vision and direction of the participating school, district, or agency. During the interview important questions on activity quantity and quality are also posed. Additionally, SPARK disseminates a survey to each workshop attendee to analyze current offerings, ascertain program strengths/successes, and what they would like to focus on during staff development. These tools are compiled and given to the host agency, and presented to the SPARK trainer as a critical component of her/his presentation preparation.
2. Inservice Evaluation: SPARK Trainers have each attendee complete an inservice evaluation after a workshop. These measure the effectiveness of the training session. Evaluations are compiled and presented to the host.
3. Program Evaluation: SPARK Project Coordinators send a Final Debriefing Form for the district to administer near the end of the school year to all SPARK workshop attendees. This survey poses questions regarding teacher/youth leader utilization of the program (quantity and quality) and their impressions of its effects on student achievement.  This data is shared with the host district/agency.

4. Lesson Quality Assessments (LQA): SPARK provides and instructs participating teachers in the use of their LQA, which is an evaluative tool that measures SPARK compliance and instructional effectiveness. There is a different LQA for each SPARK program. LQA's may also be used as data collection tools as part of a research project and/or as a more in-depth effort to collect data to show change in teacher effectiveness.

NOTE: For an additional fee, SPARK also offers research-validated assessment tools and the consultation on how to use them (SOFIT, SOPLAY, SOPARC).

For a proposal designed to meet the specific needs of your project, contact Julie Frank, M.P.H. at jfrank@sparkpe.org or (800) 772-7573  ext. 2204.