Single Subject design Nation Guard Youth Challenge Program - Research Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages... The participants in the programme can be of either gender around the age of 16 to 18 years of age. The program is a 17 month long intensive and engaging divided into three phases: a two-week Pre-ChalleNGe Phase, 20-week Residential Phase and a one-year Post-Residential Phase. The first phase involves a demanding orientation and assessment period and the place of residence for the first two phases is within a military base. In the Residential Phase, the curriculum’s focus is on eight core components of positive youth development among which include; leadership/fellowship, responsible citizenship or service to community. At the end of the Residential Phase, participants work with staff to arrange post-residential placement, such as employment, education, or military service. When the whole programme is almost over, the participants return to their families and receive structured mentoring from qualified mentors identified by themselves within their own community. Despite the program being described as "quasi-military," people’s participation is voluntary, and there are no requirements for military service during the program or afterward (Millenky et al., 2011). Evaluation Methods ChalleNGe was evaluated using a randomized controlled research design. The vacancies available for the applicants were limited compared to the number of applicants who applied. It was therefore decided to choose the successful applicants through random selection via lottery picking. Those who were unlucky were assigned to a control group while those who were lucky enough to be picked were assigned to an intervention group which was offered admission to ChalleNGE. The programme sites were however not selected by random. These sites were characterized by their ability to ensure stable staffing and they had a tendancy to receive more applications to participate rather than the spaces available. The evaluation process happened in the following order: the first wave follow-up surveys were administered an average of nine months after the participants had entered the study, shortly after the treatment group had completed the Residential Phase and the response rate was found to be 85 percent (Bloom et al., 2009). The second wave follow-up surveys were administered approximately 21 months after the participants entered the study and they included evaluation of education outcomes, employment outcomes, health outcomes and social outcomes. The response rate for this follow-up was 79 percent (Millenky et al., 2010). The third wave follow-up surveys were conducted three years after program enrollment of which the participants had completed more than one year after the Post-Residential Phase. The response rate for this survey was 78 percent. (Millenky et al., 2011). Key Evaluation Findings: First wave (Bloom et al., 2009) Nine months after the participants entered the study, the treatment group was seen to have positive feedback compared to the control group that was not admitted. The treatment group was likely to have obtained a high school diploma compared to the control group. However, the control group was seen to be more likely to enroll back to high school compared to the treatment group with the only downside being that most of the participants in the control group would drop out. The treatment group (30.9 percent) was also significantly more likely than the control group ...Download file to see next pagesRead More