At the conclusion of each of the individual workshops at the U.S. Department of Education’s National Charter School Conference (November 1997), respondents were asked to complete a workshop evaluation form. Conference participants completing the form were asked to give their affiliation, rate the workshop overall, and answer several yes/no questions regarding the workshop they had just attended.

This report summarizes the 1,389 forms that were submitted by conference participants attending at least one of 43 individual workshops. An average of 32 completed survey forms were submitted for each of the workshops. The actual number of surveys per workshop ranged from 4 (Impact in Urban Areas) to 89 (Goals 2000). Only 4 workshops had fewer than 10 surveys completed. Since each conference participant could complete multiple workshop evaluation forms, all discussions at the aggregate level in this report refer to the completed surveys rather than the number of respondents. Discussions of results at the workshop level refer to conference participants, as this count is unduplicated. Appendix tables are attached that show the results of the workshop evaluation survey by each individual workshop.

Summary of Findings

• Overall, 71% of the workshop evaluation forms were completed by conference participants who were affiliated with schools – they were school founders, principals, teachers, and/or other school staffs. The remaining forms were completed by participants who were local, state, or federal administrators, technical assistance providers, or other.
  
  
• Nearly three-fourths (73%) of the completed forms gave the workshops a rating of either excellent or very good.
  
  
• The question with the highest percentage of responses of YES across all workshops was "Do you feel the workshop was well organized?" (80%). The question that elicited the smallest percentage of positive responses was "Did the program meet your expectations?" (69%). This still represents a positive response on over two-thirds of the workshop forms.

Affiliation

The participants were asked to identify their affiliation from among 10 choices. Thirteen of the workshop evaluation forms did not have an affiliation marked. The detailed responses to the affiliation question are shown by workshop session in Appendix Table A-1. Over 70% of the forms identified the respondent as affiliated with a school. Eleven percent of the forms were completed by administrators at the local, state, or federal level. (See Figure 1)

Two hundred and eighty forms (approximately 17%) had more than one affiliation marked on the form. The most frequent combination of two affiliations was school founder and principal. All affiliations marked by the respondents are shown in Table 1. This results in a total figure in that table that exceeds the total number of completed forms.

Table 1 Respondent Affiliation
Overall Affiliation	Affiliation marked on form	Number of Respondents	Percent of Respondents
School (1,162)	School Founder	502	30.1%
	Principal	345	21.1
	Teacher	183	11.2
	Other School Staff	132	8.1
Professional/Technical (170)	Professional association official	38	2.3
	Technical assistance provider	132	8.1
Administration (183)	Local district administrator	80	4.9
	State administrator	79	4.8
	Federal administrator	24	1.5
Other (122)	Other	122	7.4
	Total	1,637	100%

Overall Workshop Ratings

Participants completing the workshop evaluation form were asked to rate the workshop overall (from Excellent to Poor (or N/A)). This item was completed on 1,343 of the data collection forms. Overall, 73% of the completed forms gave the workshop a rating of either excellent or very good. (See Figure 2 and Table 2) The detailed responses by workshop session are shown in Appendix Table A-2.

Table 2 Overall Workshop Ratings
	Exclnt	V. good	Good	Fair	Poor	NA	# Resp.	% VG or Exclnt	% Neg
OVERALL WORKSHOP EVALUATION	551	424	216	109	43	33	1,343	73%	11%

There were ten sessions that had a very high level of ratings with 90% or more of the respondents giving the overall workshop a rating of very good or excellent. These sessions were Safe and Drug-Free Schools, Facilities 101, Planning and Paying for Technology, Charter Renewal, Fundraising, Schoolwide Programs, Charter School Leadership, Community Collaborations, Community Relations, and Entrepreneurial Leadership. (See Figure 3)

For eight of the workshops, 50% or fewer of the respondents gave the workshop an overall rating of very good or excellent. These workshops were Waivers, ED Technical Assistance Resources, Title I Programs, Goals 2000 and the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund, Technology, General Admissions and Church/State Separation, Research and BAA Projects, and Vocational Education/School-to-Work. (See Figure 4)

Answering Questions about the Workshops

The workshop participants who completed the workshop evaluation form were asked to answer five questions regarding the workshop they had just attended. The respondents were able to answer yes, somewhat, or no to each question. (See Table 3)

Table 3 Questions about the Workshop
	Yes	Somewhat	No	NA	# Resp.	% YES
Did this workshop meet your expectations?	943	345	69	19	1,357	69%
Would you recommend this program to colleagues?	1,027	214	97	38	1,338	77
Will you be able to apply lessons from the program in your school or job?	980	260	90	46	1,330	74
Do you feel the program was well-organized?	1,075	209	53	39	1,337	80
Are you interested in staying in touch with workshop presenters and attendees?	900	232	153	91	1,285	70

The question with the highest percentage of responses of YES was “Do you feel the program was well organized?” (80%). The question that elicited the smallest percentage of positive responses was "Did the workshop meet your expectations?" (69%). This still represents a positive response on over two-thirds of the workshop forms. Seventy-four percent of the workshop participants indicated they would be able to apply lessons from the workshop to their job or school. (See Figure 5)

At the individual workshop level, are several workshops that received consistently high positive responses across these questions. These were Safe and Drug-Free Schools, Facilities 101, Planning and Paying for Technology, Charter Renewal, Fundraising, Strengthening all of Public Education, Schoolwide Programs, Charter School Leadership, Parental Involvement, Community Collaborations, Community Relations, and Entrepreneurial Leadership. All of these workshops except Strengthening all of Public Education and Parental Involvement were among the 10 workshops that had the highest overall workshop ratings

The workshops that consistently had the lowest percentage of positive responses to the questions were Waivers, ED Technical Assistance Resources, Title I Programs, Goals 2000 and the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund, Technology, and Vocational Education/School-to-Work. All six of these workshops had positive responses of less than 50% for at least one of the questions. Two of these sessions (Waivers and Goals 2000) received less than 50% positive responses for all 5 questions. These workshops were also among the group of 8 that had the lowest overall workshop ratings. For detailed information on the responses to all 5 questions by workshop, refer to Appendix Tables A-3 through A-7.