July 2023

McAllister Hall, Gabe Osterhout

July marked the completion of the fourth evaluation of the Communities of Excellence Charter School Program Grant. The evaluation looks at the impact of grant funds on the demographic makeup of subgrantee schools, as well as the use of grant funds.

Four years into distributing grant funds, Bluum awarded $18.3 million to 24 subgrantee schools located across the state representing different levels of rurality, though most are located in the Treasure Valley. Key findings from the evaluation include.

• When looking at growth targets among subgroups, more COE students reached the growth targets than statewide, however for some subgroups, the difference is within 5%.
• Four of the five cohorts with operating schools experience higher student and parent engagement than the statewide rate, according to the 2022 Idaho Engagement and Satisfaction Survey. Three CSP cohorts have higher staff engagement than the Idaho average.
• Of the $18.3 million subgrants awarded across the six CSP cohorts, approximately $15.2 million, or 83%, was spent through September 2022.

As more subgrantee schools are awarded and open in the next two years, future evaluations will be valuable to determining the full extent of the impact of the CSP grant.

Media Campaign Evaluations

Ben Larsen, Aisha Kayed, Matthew May, Ellen Schafer, Emma Redman, McAllister Hall

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare partnered with IPI to evaluate two health media campaigns. In July, a survey was sent out to health care providers at community health clinics to understand the reach and impact of IDHW’s Provider Stigma Reduction Campaign. The survey also asked general questions to understand stigma and treatment of addiction among providers. Nearly 90 health care providers responded to the survey.

Financial Wellness Project

In July the interns at IPI worked together to develop three surveys for the Financial Wellness team at Boise State. These surveys will measure student learning and growth as a result of participating in the courses offered through Financial Wellness. Once the survey questions were approved, the interns participated in a Qualtrics training led by McAllister Hall and then entered the surveys themselves into Qualtrics. 

Presentation to NSF COMPLEAT partners

The NSF COMPLEAT project is a partnership between four universities across the country (Idaho, Georgia, Hawaii, and Texas). Key players from the partnership met at the end of July for a conference to improve and plan for the next year of the project. McAllister Hall presented (virtually) the results of the most recent year’s evaluation at the conference. Partners were pleased with the results and are excited about IPI’s new partnership in the project.