ABSTRACT
I have been hired by a large English language teaching center in Brazil to conduct an evaluation of their program and provide a report to the Board of Directors. I have five days to collect the quantitative and qualitative data and two additional days to analyze the results and write a written report before I present to the Board of Directors. I am working alone, so I know that I have a huge task ahead of me. Three months ago, at the request of the Director, I submitted a proposal to the Board that included an outline of the scope of the work, including a budget. I have since worked with the center’s administrators to prepare a statement that outlines the scope of the work that I will do for them. The administrators have answered all of my preliminary questions, and in the last two months, we agreed on the evaluation questions and scheduled the classroom observations, interviews, and meetings for the next five days. Prior to my arrival here, I also received a document that outlined the goals and objectives for the center and a letter from the Director outlining what they expected and wanted from the evaluation. In addition, I have reviewed all of the teaching materials and tests that had been created for the different levels. I have done as much work as I could have done in advance, but I am worried that I will not be able to compile all of the information and analyze the data in the time I have and in a way that will be useful to the Center. For the next five days, it seems that I have every minute scheduled from 8:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. in the evening. I will observe 18 classes and meet with every senior teacher and level supervisor. I also have three scheduled meetings with the center directors, short meetings with all support staff, and three focus groups with students in the different programs. In addition to all of the qualitative data, I have three different questionnaires that must be collected from the stakeholders and analyzed and test scores from all six levels. [Christison personal notes, 2000]
Task: Reflect
Work with a partner or a small group of three to five to answer the following questions.
