A qualitative evaluation of school-based family resource and youth service centers

As part of the Kentucky Education Reform Act, school-based Family Resource/Youth Service Centers were commissioned to address those poverty-related issues that attenuate children and youths' coming to school prepared to learn. The centers had flexible mandates and were to adapt their service profiles to local urban, suburban and rural communities. A variety of grounded, inductive qualitative strategies were employed in an implementation evaluation that yielded profiles or domains of program elements, and descriptions of implementation strategies and impact on participants. These program descriptors were considered accurate by program personnel, formed the basis for training new program coordinators, and have served as reliable predictors of educational outcomes for program participants, thus affirming the utility of the qualitative evaluation approaches.