Alternative Break Program >> 08-09 Assessment report

Learning Outcomes

Upon returning from an alternative break trip, students will:

• Develop confidence in their leadership skills
• Improve in interpersonal skills
• Improve in problem-solving skills
• Develop an appreciation for diverse perspectives
• Develop a commitment to future service
• Increase in their awareness of social justice issues

Learning Outcomes assessed this year:
The Alternative Break Program assessed all trip leaders and participants of the alternative break trips for 2008-2009. All of the outcomes were assessed.

Assessment Methods and Procedures:
In order to assess the Alternative Break leaders and participants, we used The Alternative Spring Break Questionnaire (ASBQ). To create the ASBQ, we adopted The Beliefs, Events, and Values Inventory (2007), Eyler and Giles Reflective Interview Guide (1996), Oats and Leavitt Student Evaluation of Service Learning (2003), The Community Service Self-Efficacy Scale (1998), The Student Service-Learning Course Survey (2005), The Civic Attitudes and Skills Questionnaire (2002), and The Penn State Worry Questionnaire (1990).

James Madison's Alternative Break Program began doing assessment of the program in the spring of 1999. The 2008-2009 school year is a continuation of the assessment which began in 2005-2006 with the ASBQ.

For the 2008-2009 school year, the ASBQ was given through an online questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of 40 items that are short answer and multiple choice. The ASBQ measures on five different subscales: Civic action, interpersonal problem-solving skills, interpersonal relationships, personal competency, and social justice. The civic action and interpersonal problem-solving skills subscales were adapted from the civic attitudes and skills questionnaire developed by Moely, Mercer, Ilustre, Miron, McFarland (2002). The interpersonal relationship, personal competency, and social justice subcales were developed from the Student Service-Learning Course Survey by Wang, Ye, Jackson, Rogers, Jones (2005). No desired score was established.

Trip leaders took the pre-test in a web based form before the leadership training course and again in a web-based form after the training but before the trip. Trip participants took the pre-test in a web-based form prior to the trip. Both the trip leaders and participants took the post-test in web-based form just after the ASB trip.

Inferences from Assessments
Both trip leaders and participants increased their scores in all the subscales, except for the Interpersonal Problem-Solving subscale. The scores for the Interpersonal Problem-Solving subscale remained constant across the two times for the participants (pre-trip and post-trip) and the three times for the leaders (pre-test, pre-trip, and post-trip). The Personal Competency subscale and the Social Justice subscale were the only subscales that showed a significant increase in the trip leaders' scores across the three times. Trip leaders and trip participants did not change at different rates in any of the subscales. The response scales for the Civic Action and Interpersonal Problem-Solving subscales were changed in 2009; therefore scores cannot be compared to previous years.

Actions Taken/Program Improvements
According to the results of the assessment, the goals of the program are being met. The outcomes appear to be well-matched to the program; however the reliability of the Interpersonal Relationships subscale is consistently low. It may be necessary to re-evaluate the use of this subscale if the results continue to be low in reliability. We will continue to use the ASBQ to assess and improve upon our training of trip leaders and the overall program. Now that the scales and anchors for all of the subscales are the same, future assessments may begin comparing across years.