Evaluation of activities carried out by external actors in two of Sundsvall municipality's compulsory schools

The background to the evaluation is that principals in Sundsvall municipality wish to evaluate various initiatives that have been carried out in collaboration with or by external actors in schools in socio-economically vulnerable areas in the municipality. The evaluation aims to constitute an impartial review by independent researchers of the interventions from its idea (i.e. its function and intended significance) to work efforts and results (implementation of measures and perceptions of the results of the efforts) in relation to the students' learning. The evaluation is thus focused on providing knowledge about the initiatives in relation to implementation and the desired or achieved results, as well as providing the schools with a basis for reflecting on the measures taken.

The purpose of the evaluation is to enable teachers, principals and other school staff at the two schools to develop their strategic working methods and skills to evaluate efforts and use results from activities carried out by, or in collaboration with, external actors.

The objectives of the evaluation are:

· Evaluate the results of a few selected activities in two schools in the municipality.

· Provide a basis for analysis of the need for continued development of strategic school development initiatives at the schools.

· Share knowledge and experience from the implemented initiatives with other schools in the municipality and in the region.

Research questions to answer in the project are:

What is important to consider regarding external actors' offers of activities/initiatives in terms of planning, implementation and evaluation?

The evaluations of the initiatives at the two schools will primarily focus:

a) background (i.e. how have the initiatives been initiated and why), b) what activities have been carried out, c) perceptions of whether the initiatives have led to the desired results or provided valuable knowledge for the schools, and d) other experiences of significance. In short, the evaluation focuses on the success and failure factors that can be found in the work with the initiatives.

We would like to highlight two important points as a starting point for our evaluation. Firstly, the difference between follow-up (how much, how often, how many, etc.) and evaluation (why, for what, for whom, with what perceived results, etc.). In this case, the interest is focused on evaluation. Secondly, our focus on knowledge feedback of the efforts made to enable business development. The evaluation thus aims to provide a basis for assessing the usefulness of the interventions in achieving operational ambitions aimed at the intended target group. The evaluation will thus be able to serve partly as a reconciliation of the work carried out and partly as a basis for issues to be taken forward/dealt with within the framework of future development efforts. How, then, can an evaluation be carried out to answer the questions/ambitions listed above, and what perspective is appropriate for such a study?