Context:
The DeBruce Foundation and Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation offered ProX, a summer internship program placing over 1300 students with 6-week internships at area employers. As the ProX program considers expanding, both in terms of capacity and geography, it is critical to fully evaluate the program.
Challenge:
The ProX program operates on a compressed 6-week timeline with students, coaches, employers, and parents dispersing at the end of the program. ProX required flexible qualitative methods and rapid turnaround analysis to gather insights about coach training, experience, skills gained, and impact on students. Key questions included satisfaction with preparation, coach engagement over time, skills cultivated through participation, and influence on student outcomes.
Solution:
Platform Civic Strategies partnered with ProX to provide:
In-depth interviews with ProX coach training providers regarding preparation curriculum, format and gaps
Longitudinal 60-minute interviews with all 4 ProX lead coaches on weeks 0, 3 and 7 of the program
60-minute focus groups with ProX coaches, divided into 2 groups, held on weeks 2, 5, and 7
Transcription, thematic analysis and categorization of qualitative data
A comprehensive 15-page report summarizing findings, insights and recommendations to optimize coaching
The evaluation provided crucial insights into the strengths of the coaching model and areas for improvement. This supported the ProX program in implementing changes to maximize coach training, experience, skills gained, and ultimately, positive impact on ProX student outcomes entering year three.