Process Evaluation Plan

Program Description

The mission of the Play With Your Food program is to provide comprehensive fruit and vegetable exposure and nutrition education to students, their families, and the school community at Title I elementary schools in Benton County, Arkansas.

Based on the Health Belief Model (HBM) and the Social-Ecological Model (SEM), the program will increase the understanding of the perceived benefits of eating more fruits and vegetables while raising awareness of the perceived threat and susceptibility of negative health benefits if no change occurs (McKenzie et al., 2017, pp. 162-163).  It will do this by impacting three of the SEM levels of influence: individual (students), interpersonal (student’s families), and community (student’s school).  The program's ultimate focus is increasing self-efficacy and confidence around fruit and vegetable intake for students, their families, and the school community.   

Resources Needed for Evaluation

Program evaluation will require several resources, including survey software and time from teachers and staff.   To conduct the survey, the program will require a secure online survey platform that can be accessed on school computers and is capable of basic statistical processing.  It will also require designated time during library period so students can complete their surveys.  Teacher assistance will be needed for younger students or those who are unable to respond to the survey without help.  Time will also need to be allotted during the school day for teachers to respond to their survey questions.  Time and funding will be required for a planner or school administrator to print and distribute paper surveys to families.  Individual school offices will be a central collection point for printed surveys being returned in person or via mail from families.  Pre-paid envelopes must be funded and distributed to families who cannot return completed surveys to the school office in person.  A planner or school member will be required to enter the data from paper surveys into the online survey platform.  Additionally, translation services may be needed to assist students and families who do not speak English or Spanish.  The school district’s Marshallese liaisons may play this role for students and families from the Marshall Islands. Once the surveys have been collected, a planner or staff member will be required to review the raw data on the survey platform for errors or duplicated responses.  Finally, a planner, with the assistance of a statistician, will review the data for analysis.  This planner will generate and distribute a summary report of the program.

Questions For Students

  • Dose Delivered (Likert scale): All students were included in the program through exposure activities.

  • Dose Received (Likert scale): I was engaged with the Play With Your Food program's food exposure activities.

  • Reach (open answer space): What activities and materials engaged me the most?

  • Content (Likert scale): Play With Your Food lessons and materials were relevant to me.

  • Context (open answer space): What types of activities would you like to see more of?

  • Context (open answer space): What types of activities would you like to see less of?

Questions for Families

  • Dose Delivered (Likert scale): My family received nine monthly newsletters.

  • Dose Received (Likert scale): The monthly newsletter engaged our family with the Play With Your Food program.

  • Reach (open answer space): What activities and materials engaged my family the most?

  • Recruitment (open answer space): Were there any barriers to receiving and reading the monthly newsletters?  If so, what were they?

  • Content (Likert scale): Play With Your Food lessons and materials were relevant to me.

  • Context (open answer space): What types of materials would you like to see more of?

  • Context (open answer space): What types of materials would you like to see less of?

Questions for Teachers

  • Dose Delivered (Likert scale): All teachers were included in the program through curriculum training.

  • Dose Received (Likert scale): I was engaged with the Play With Your Food program through the curriculum and training provided. 

  • Reach (open answer space): What activities and materials engaged me the most?

  • Recruitment (open answer space): Did you experience any barriers in including nutrition education in your curriculum? If so, what were they?

  • Content (Likert scale): Play With Your Food lessons and materials were relevant to me.

  • Context (open answer space): What types of activities and materials would you have wanted to see more of?

  • Context (open answer space): What types of activities and materials would you have wanted to see less of?

Questions for Implementers

  • Fidelity (Likert scale): The Play With Your Food program was conducted according to the Complete and Acceptable Delivery guidelines.

  • Recruitment (open answer space): What barriers did the school face in implementing the Play With Your Food program to students? 

  • Recruitment (open answer space): What barriers were faced in distributing monthly newsletters to families?

  • Context (open answer space): To what extent were Play With Your Food lessons and materials relevant to the demographic makeup of the school community?

Methods for Evaluation

The process evaluation for the Play With Your Food program will be conducted as a quantitative and qualitative summary evaluation.  A written survey will be tailored and distributed to the individual stakeholder groups: students, parents, teachers, and implementers.  Survey questions will be asked of the relevant audiences, with some questions allowing space for respondents to write their answers and some offering five-point Likert scale options.  Likert scale questions will be given the following answer options: 1 - Strongly Disagree, 2 - Disagree, 3 - Neither Agree Nor Disagree, 4 – Agree, and 5 - Strongly Agree.  Surveys will be primarily available via an online survey tool.  Students will take the survey during their library period at the end of the school year.  Teachers will also be requested to complete the survey during school hours and not add work to their out-of-school hours.  Families will also have access to the online survey tool, with an additional option for a printed survey for any families that do not have access to the internet or a computer.  Surveys will be available in both English and Spanish.   

Process Evaluation Questions

 The list of program evaluation questions will be specific to each of the four stakeholder groups: students, families, teachers, and implementers.  This will allow the questions to identify particular stakeholder experiences without requiring the questions to be overly generic.  These questions will inform planners’ and implementers’ understanding of what worked and what didn’t.  They will also drill down to activities that were most and least engaging.  Finally, these questions will provide an understanding of any barriers to program implementation.