Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

["Foubert, John" <>]

Colleagues,

 

It warms my heart whenever I hear people looking to do meaningful assessment of their programs to determine the impact such programs are having on various populations.  The more that our field evaluates the impact of the approach we use, the more that we have data to drive our approach to fighting the good fight.

 

One of the things we need to keep in mind is that when we modify established scales, they are no longer valid nor are they reliable.  A scale like the IRMAS was crafted through a painstaking process of 6 separate study to ensure its reliability and validity.  Using it in its intended form as a pre/post, follow up measure helps establish one measure of program impact.  This is certainly not the ONLY impact!   When we take a 7 item scale and change it to 6 items, don’t use all of the items, or only use some of them, we can no longer assume our efforts to be reliable nor valid. 

 

Similarly, if we only use some of the questions from other survey, the same holds true.

 

All of that said, sometimes it is helpful to do an assessment using selected items from a survey; but one cannot assume, report, presume, nor insinuate that the results have validity.

 

John Foubert

 

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John D. Foubert, Ph.D.

Associate Professor/Program Coordinator of College Student Development

Anderson, Farris, and Halligan Professor of Educational Studies

Oklahoma State University

314 Willard Hall

Stillwater, OK 74078

(405) 744-1480

(405) 744-7758 fax

http://okstate.academia.edu/JohnFoubert

http://education.okstate.edu/index.php/csd-philosophical-framework

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