Developing and Analyzing a Scale to Measure the Impact of the Advanced Technological Education Program

This paper from Wayne W. Welch of the University of Minnesota looks at the development of a system to measure the impact of the Advanced Technological Education Program. As the abstract states: "Using statements generated by team leaders and other stakeholders, I show they can be used on a Likert-type survey to create a reliable and valid scale to measure the impact of the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education program (ATE). The process, called Peer-Generated Likert Scaling, uses these statements to solicit opinions from other ATE grantees. They are asked to respond with the usual options of strongly agree to strongly disagree. However, there was an option to mark, Not Applicable (NA), if the statement did not apply to their grant. This was because the grants vary in size and duration. It was not clear from a literature review how to score NA option on these kinds of survey... "The topic of interest in this NSF-supported research was to determine it was possible to develop and validate an instrument for assessing the impact (effect or influence) on the people and institutions involved in the ATE program. If so, NSF could use the instrument to identify ways the program has influenced its grantees, help it evaluate the ATE program, and provide information to grantees on how ATE has influenced them and their institutions. In addition, the scales could be used to provide insights to policy makers on how the recent and substantial influx of federal funds has affected community colleges.