Does Families and Schools Together (FAST) achieve its goals: an evaluation of the Rice Lake, Wisconsin FAST program

Abstract

The major purposes of this study were to determine if FAST program goals are being met, to determine the level of helpfulness that specific FAST activities provided adult participants, to determine what changes past adult participants think should take place in the program, to determine whether child’s undesirable behavior as reported by parents significantly decreased after participation in the program, to determine whether child’s undesirable behavior as reported by teachers significantly decreased after participation in the program, and to determine if parents’ answers on the Parent Questionnaire differed significantly from pre-program to post-program. This study includes an examination of the importance of evaluation, approaches to evaluation, need for prevention programs targeted at youth, and characteristics of a successful prevention program. The research of this study deals specifically with the Rice Lake, Wisconsin Families and Schools Together (FAST) program. Findings of this research include: The Rice Lake FAST program is meeting their goals According to the results of the Program Evaluation Forms and the Focus Group Questionnaire, parents find many portions of the program, including staff, to be very helpful The results of the dependent two-tailed t-test comparing pre-program with post-program were statistically significant at the p<.05 level for 10 of the 11 items on the Child Behavior Questionnaire Just 2 of the 12 items on the Teacher Questionnaire resulted in significant results at the p<.05 level Just 1 of 11 items on the Parent Questionnaire resulted in significant results at the p<05 level