Issue link: https://takingitglobal.uberflip.com/i/1542824
21 Evaluation Question 1: Is the program targeting the right outcomes? Interviews with principals featured open-ended questions designed to elicit principals' perspectives without referencing the working Program Theory, to avoid leading respondents toward the evaluator's framing of how Connected North is expected to work. Instead, principals were asked how they hoped or expected the program would support their students' success, how it fit within their broader approach to student support, and whether they also anticipated benefits for teachers. They were also invited to comment on the usefulness of Connected North's performance materials and digital dashboard, as another means of understanding what aspects of the program mattered most to them. Overall, principals' responses suggested that the Program Theory aligned with their views of how the program is expected to function and the benefits it is expected to yield. It is notable that rather than focusing on long-term outcomes like graduation rates, principals tended to focus on the design and implementation of Connected North, valuing it for its interactivity, cultural relevance, and how it offers access to otherwise unavailable opportunities; as well as some of the shorter-term outcomes like increased student understanding and how sessions can draw students to school who otherwise have weak attendance. Evaluation Question 2: Is the program well designed? As noted above, this section references academic and grey literature to assess the extent to which the key design features of the Connected North program (i.e., the assumptions about how the program should be implemented) reflect best practices in education. Although efforts are made to parse out the literature under each individual Program Implementation Assumption (and one Program Theory Assumption), in reality they are highly interconnected. As elaborated below, the evaluation found overall strong evidence that the Connected North model reflects pedagogical best practices. There is evidence that enrichment sessions like those offered by Connected North can have a meaningful impact on student experiences and outcomes, and that virtual experiences can reasonably approximate live experiences, if they are properly designed and executed. Notably, the Program Implementation Assumptions - i.e., interactivity, cultural relevance, alignment with curriculum and customizability, high quality, and effective teacher engagement 7 - are clearly identifiable as key enabling conditions. 7 Program Implementation Assumption #6 is not considered in this review, as the expectation that Connected North must provide strong support is idiosyncratic to this specific organization and therefore not something that can be directly substantiated through external literature. Instead, Connected North's support role can be viewed as a mechanism that helps ensure the other Program Implementation Assumptions are met. "I love that our kids can access literally, people from around the world that are experts in their area or have an exceedingly high interest level that can impact some knowledge on…our kids…otherwise wouldn't necessarily get that, especially with the interactivity part where they can ask questions. That's to me is awesome because it's a two-way street and that works really, really well for kids." -Participating Principal