Challenge Day Program Evaluation Plan for School Violence
This paper presents a comprehensive evaluation plan for implementing the Challenge Day program at a large, ethnically diverse central Florida high school struggling with gang activity, bullying, and student-on-student violence. The plan covers a needs assessment, evaluation model, stakeholder identification, data collection methodology, and reporting procedures. Using a pre- and post-test survey instrument built around eight validated factors — including relationship skills, bullying reduction, and substance avoidance — the evaluation aims to quantify behavioral and attitudinal changes among 100 participating students. Budget considerations, volunteer coordination, and follow-up implementation strategies are also addressed.
- Needs Assessment, Purpose, and Goals: Program purpose, school context, and objectives
- Evaluation Model and Research Questions: Behavioral factors and measurable evaluation questions
- Stakeholders and Survey Instrument: Stakeholders identified and survey design detailed
- Data Collection and Analysis Methods: Pre- and post-test procedure and SPSS analysis
- Resources, Budget, and Timeline: Cost breakdown, staffing needs, and planning timeline
- Reporting Procedures and Recommendations: How results are communicated and acted upon
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What makes this paper effective
- It follows a logical, structured evaluation framework that moves from needs identification through implementation and reporting, making the plan easy to follow for administrators and stakeholders.
- The paper grounds its evaluation criteria in an established, validated survey instrument with clearly defined factors and scaling conventions, lending methodological credibility.
- It addresses practical constraints — budget, volunteer ratios, timeline, and reporting audience — ensuring the plan is actionable rather than merely theoretical.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates program evaluation design, a core applied research skill. It operationalizes abstract goals (reducing violence, improving school climate) into measurable variables using a Likert-scale survey, then maps those variables to specific stakeholder reporting channels. This shows how evaluation plans bridge conceptual frameworks and real-world institutional needs.
Structure breakdown
The paper is organized into three major sections — Needs Assessment, Evaluation Plan and Implementation, and Data Collection and Reporting — each subdivided by guiding questions (purpose, model, stakeholders, methods, resources, reporting). This Q&A scaffolding is a common format for formal program evaluation documents in educational and public policy contexts.
Needs Assessment, Purpose, and Goals
The purpose of this evaluation is to assess the potential value of the Challenge Day program in connection with the overall effort to reduce all forms of school violence by addressing the social and interpersonal issues at their root. The Challenge Day programs are sponsored by for-profit Resource Realizations of Scottsdale, Arizona, and are operated jointly with a nonprofit organization, Challenge Day. The program is designed to be implemented alongside its follow-up Challenger program, which builds upon initial improvements through additional integrated exercises conducive to the long-term maintenance of shorter-term benefits and changes in perceptions and behavior. As Resource Realizations founder David Gilcrease emphasizes, "While Challenge Day is a critical first step, a one-day learning experience only goes so far. To create truly lasting transformation in their lives, most teens need more" (quoted in Maklin, 2002, p. 45).
The day-long Challenge Day program will initially be implemented over three days with the intention of accommodating 100 students per day in the future. Successful results will allow the expansion of the initiative to serve the entire targeted student body. The ultimate goal is to foster an encouraging environment of acceptance, love, and respect — made possible by implementing tools capable of tearing down existing impediments or "walls" between individuals from diverse backgrounds — enabling all students to flourish and achieve their full potential both academically and as contributors to a positive community, both on and off campus.
The subject high school, located in central Florida, consists of a highly ethnically diverse student population of approximately 3,000 with a 10-to-1 student-to-faculty/staff ratio, administered by a principal and six assistant principals. The school is affected by ongoing issues of violence, aggression, gang affiliation, gang-motivated conflict, and both in-person and cyberbullying behavior.
The Challenge Day program requires approximately 6.5 hours to complete and is administered during a normal school day. According to their promotional literature, the program is intended to "help young people learn to connect through powerful, life-changing programs in their schools and communities. The day-long, interactive Challenge Day program provides teens and adults with tools to tear down the walls of separation, and inspires participants to live, study, and work in an encouraging environment of acceptance, love, and respect" (Frequently asked questions, 2008, p. 3). The 6.5-hour program is devoted to a progressive set of exercises that help students relate to one another and is specifically designed to improve student relations in a highly diverse cultural and racial setting.
One of the most important attributes of the Challenge Day program is its flexibility in achieving different goals and objectives. Although the general goals are to promote an enhanced sense of self and others among participants, as well as within the larger community in which these schools exist, the specific goals will vary according to the needs of each school. The Challenge Day organization states, "The types of students you recruit for Challenge Day may vary depending on the goals you intend to accomplish in your school/community" (Frequently asked questions, 2008, p. 3).
Because resources are by definition scarce and the Challenge Day program is not inexpensive to implement, it is critically important that the effectiveness of this initiative be evaluated in a timely fashion to ensure that it is accomplishing its intended aims and that opportunities for improvement are identified whenever possible. The Challenge Day organization offers a number of follow-up and extension programs that supplement the core program, and the decision to invest in these initiatives would therefore depend on the evaluation of the original program's effectiveness during its first administration.
Evaluation Model and Research Questions
The proposed evaluation will examine the full spectrum of individual components previously identified as causal factors associated with on-campus aggression, intolerance, oppression, harassment, bullying, and overt violence. The questions proposed for examination include the measurable reduction of the following types of negative conduct, as identified by Neill (2002) in relation to all forms of adolescent aggression, bullying, and violence in schools:
Attitude and Negativity — defined as negative posturing exhibited through externally observable mannerisms, including purposeful gait, aggressive eye contact such as staring, and negative verbal comments expressed toward or about others, particularly in an intimidating fashion.
Rumors and/or Gossip — defined as fabricating or perpetuating negative observations, associations, claims, beliefs, or specific occurrences about individuals or groups of individuals.
Cliques, Stereotypes, and Exclusion — defined as purposeful group associations intended to exclude others or resulting in their separation and/or isolation.
Verbal Abuse and Teasing — defined as any purposefully disrespectful verbal communication directed at individuals or groups, or directed to others with the intention of being overheard or perceived by targeted individuals as a means of intimidating or negatively impacting them.
Bullying and Intimidation — defined as any pattern of repeated harassing, coercive, or abusive conduct perpetrated by individuals or groups against others by virtue of greater relative power, social status, or physical strength.
Physical Violence — including all forms of actual or threatened offensive physical contact with another individual.
Gang Violence — defined as actual or threatened acts of physical violence or intimidation arising from affiliation with gangs or other established social group affiliations.
In addition, the proposed study will examine changes in personal perceptions and beliefs about others, as well as attitudes and measures of self-esteem. Specifically, the study will attempt to quantify and characterize positive changes in students with regard to the following issues:
Self-described perception of personal safety and acceptance on campus; self-described perception of anxiety levels attributed to aggression-related factors; self-described perception of racial and ethnic social tensions and/or antagonism between and among various student groups; and self-described perception of non-race-related and non-ethnicity-related tensions and/or antagonism between and among student groups.
Stakeholders and Survey Instrument
The immediate affected stakeholders in the Challenge Day program are the students (both participating and nonparticipating), school faculty and administrators, parents and caregivers, and the broader central Florida community in which the school is located. As the Challenge Day organization emphasizes, virtually everyone locally is affected by the quality of schools: "Local community foundations, civic groups, police departments, businesses, service clubs, school safety funds, drug use prevention funds, and private donors have all provided funding for the implementation of Challenge Days" (Frequently asked questions, p. 5). From a broader perspective, all citizens are affected by initiatives intended to improve the quality of the learning environment in the nation's schools.
The Challenge Day student evaluation questions used in the proposed study are modeled after a comparable survey designed to assess the effects of the program across eight factors related to Challenge Day's theoretical foundation (Ferber et al., 2007):
1. Relationship Skills; 2. Respect & Safety; 3. Bullying Reduction; 4. Academic Skills; 5. Loneliness Reduction; 6. Emotional Expression; 7. Substance Avoidance; and 8. Low Substance Culture.
The survey authors report high internal reliability scores for the evaluation questions (Ferber et al., 2007). The Challenge Day student survey comprises 34 questions divided into the eight factor categories noted above. Questions for the first six factors use a scale of −3 (strongly disagree) to +3 (strongly agree); questions for the seventh and eighth factors concerning substance use employ a scale of 0 (not at all) to 10 (a lot).
The factors and corresponding questions for each factor are as follows:
Relationship Skills: (1) I speak up when problems arise. (2) I can easily express feelings. (3) I am good at working with others. (4) I am good at improving relationships. (5) I ask others for feedback. (6) I provide feedback to others. (7) I am comfortable being a leader. (8) I am good at facing and resolving conflicts.
Respect & Safety: (9) I am open-minded. (10) I respect people. (11) I am a loving person. (12) I feel safe here at school. (13) I am accepting of fellow students.
Bullying: (14) I see students tease each other. (15) I see teachers tease students. (16) I tease other students. (17) I see students hurting others physically. (18) I hurt others physically. (19) I hurt others emotionally.
Academic Skills: (20) I am interested in coming to school. (21) I am a good listener. (22) I am involved in extracurricular activities. (23) I do my homework. (24) I get good grades. (25) Adults listen to me.
Loneliness: (26) I am lonely. (27) I feel lonely when I am at school.
Emotional Expression: (28) I share my feelings easily.
Substance Avoidance: (29) I used tobacco within the past 2 weeks. (30) I used alcohol within the past 2 weeks. (31) I used drugs within the past 2 weeks. (Scale: 0 = not at all to 10 = a lot.)
Low Substance Culture: (32) Students in this school use tobacco. (33) Students in this school use alcohol. (34) Students in this school use drugs. (Scale: 0 = not at all to 10 = a lot.)
References
Be the change action plan. (2008). Challenge Day. [Online]. Available:
Ferber, S., Robertson, B., Leigh, G., Fleuridas, C., & Marachi, R. (2007). Summary of Challenge Day student survey. Challenge Day. [Online]. Available:
Frequently asked questions. (2008). Challenge Day. [Online]. Available:
Maklin, M. (2002, May 20). For-profit PC workshops. Insight on the News, 18(18), 45.
Neill, J. T. (2002). Meta-analytic research on the outcomes of outdoor education. Paper presented to the 6th Biennial Coalition for Education in the Outdoors Research Symposium, Bradford Woods, IN. [Online]. Available: http://www.wilderdom.com/research/ResearchReviewsMetaanalysis.html#Neill2002.
Price sheet. (2008). Challenge Day. [Online]. Available:
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