This document proposes an evaluation design for the Richland County School District One Volunteer Program (RSDOVP) in South Carolina. The evaluation will use a mixed methods approach including surveys and interviews to assess program outcomes, volunteer motivation and satisfaction. The goal is to evaluate if the program is achieving its mission of increasing community involvement in schools and enriching student learning. Key measures of success will include volunteer retention rates and increased participation and job satisfaction. Results will help identify areas for program improvement and make the case for continued funding.

1. A Proposed Evaluation Design for
District Volunteer Program
Presented by Kawana Woodson, 2010 M.S. Candidate in Youth Development Leadership
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for SOC 805 – Evaluation Research
INTRODUCTION
Richland County School District One (RSD1) is the
largest school district in Columbia, SC with a
population of 23,000 students. Richland County
School District One Volunteer Program
(RSDOVP) has over 3,000 business and community
partners. In cooperation with the District Office of
Mentoring/ Volunteer Coordination and Volunteer
Liaisons housed within each school in the District, the
program participants provide both direct and
supportive service resources to schools within the
district.
PROPOSED OUTCOME EVALUATION
I am proposing an OUTCOME MONITORING and
PROCESS EVALUATION assessment and will use a
mixed-method approach that utilizes both
qualitative and quantitative approaches.
PROPOSED DATA COLLECTION
STRATEGIES
Evaluation findings will be available to ALL
 Quantitative methods: electronic surveys stakeholders via multiple methods and resources.
They may include but are not limited to bound
with closed-ended questions that measure program publications, fact sheets, brochures, website, etc.
effectiveness, volunteer motivation, and volunteer The evaluation results will inform stakeholders of
how program effectiveness and job satisfaction
satisfaction
Triangulation will strengthen the results by
affect retention of volunteers.
offering several different points of view.
 Qualitative methods: interviews with key
stakeholders
I will use a stratified sampling method
LITERATURE REVIEW
to select evaluation participants. The sampling will be
The following are peer-reviewed journal articles
divided into groups of current volunteers and repeat  Quantitative & Qualitative methods:
that relate to my assessment:
volunteers. A random sampling will be drawn from
utilizing multiple question types in surveys and
the stratum.
interviews- open and closed-ended
Millete, V., & Gagne, M. (2008). Designing volunteers' tasks to
Mission
 Potential Issues: misinterpreting data, weak
generalizability, improper statistical methods,
insufficient questions for collecting data
The mission of RCSDOVP is to address the needs of
students by increasing community involvement in
schools.
Goal
The goal of the RCSDOVP is to enrich and
enhance the learning environment through building a
strong, on-going support base for each school by
capitalizing on community resources and working
with already existing support groups.
Stakeholders
 RSD1 Office of Mentoring/Volunteer Coordination
 RSD1 Board of Directors
 School Personnel (principals, staff, volunteer liaison)
 Community-at-large
PROPOSED REPORTING
OUTCOME MEASURES/ CRITERION OF
SUCCESS
The evaluation will study 30 participants from W. S.
Sandel Elementary Volunteer Program. W. S. Sandel was
Purpose
chosen as the sampling unit because it represents the
A key element in volunteer retention is volunteer job demographic composition of schools in RSD1. I will
satisfaction. Volunteer job satisfaction can be
administer a questionnaire to all 30 participants (15 new
attributed to effective program structure and
volunteers and 15 repeat volunteers) in the study. The
psychological functions such as motivation. The
survey will measure the impact program structure and
results of this evaluation will produce implications for personal motivation have on volunteer job satisfaction.
improvement that RCSDOVP can use to strengthen
its volunteer retention.
Program success is assumed by 80% volunteer retention
for the upcoming fiscal year (2010-2011), increased
volunteer participation and job satisfaction.
PROPOSED
DATA ANALYSIS STRATEGIES
Data analysis will include the following:
 finding similarities/correlations in questionnaire
answers and interview responses
 calculations of survey scales
maximize motivation, satisfaction, and performance: The
impact of job characteristics on volunteer engagement.
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC , 32, 11-22.
A field study was conducted to determine the impact of job
characteristics on volunteer motivation, satisfaction and intent
to quit, and measure volunteer performance using the job
characteristics model (JCM), the organizational citizenship
behaviors (OCB) assessment to measure volunteer task
performance, and volunteer’s task perceptions were measured
using Hackman and Oldham's Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS). 124
out of 230 volunteer questionnaires were completed. The
results showed that job characteristics were related to
volunteers' motivation, satisfaction and performance.. It
provides a scale for measuring these characteristics.
Silverberg, K. E., Marshall, E. K., & Ellis, G. D. (2001). Measuring
job satisfaction of volunteers in public parks and recreation.
Journal of Park and Recreation Administration , 19 (1), 79-92.
The purpose of this study is to determine the reliability and
validity of inferences made about volunteers’ job satisfaction
from scores derived from a modified employee job satisfaction
scale. Results were positive and showed that the job
satisfaction scale was an accurate predictor of volunteer
satisfaction. It also revealed that volunteer satisfaction is a byproduct of job setting and psychological functions being met
through volunteering.
BENEFITS TO RCSDOVP
 Show quantitative and qualitative evidence
of program success to stakeholders
 Make a case for future funding
 Highlight areas in program structure that
need improvement
 Determine if the program is producing desired
outcomes