Ask an Advisor Answers

Question: Team Up for Youth is a youth development sports organization that places volunteer coaches in after-school sports programs in Northern and Southern California. We have created a pre/post Youth Survey to be used starting Fall 2010 to gather information on youth's perceptions of their volunteer coaches and adults in their after school program, perceptions of sports and physical activity, and various youth development measures. We have 12 staff members who will be giving these evaluations to middle school youth. Our question is how we can make our data collection, entry, and dissemination easier and streamlined. Essentially, we need a database where staff could input the results from the survey, and it would be converted and stored in a way where we could easily pull specific responses to use for grants and share with our constituency. We have considered having the 12 staff members code the youth responses into an excel spreadsheet or using a scantron machine. Is there an easier way? Can you recommend database systems specifically geared towards this purpose? Any suggestions you could give us about what tools can be used to make evaluation easier and more useful, what technology is available for evaluation, and what types of reporting instruments can be used would be very much appreciated!
Answer: Hello, I would suggest using a statistical software (like SPSS) since you are looking at quantitative data. This will allow you to access individual and group responses, as well as provide statistics regarding overall trends for your analyses.
Question Date: Wed, 04/14/2010