The Winter Park Voluntary Pre-School Center was considering adopting a new curriculum. The center director, however, wanted to be sure that the new curriculum would be worth the cost and effort and the disruption in the daily routine that a change would create for the children. She decided to conduct an impact program evaluation. She randomly assigned 15 children to an experimental group and 15 to a comparison group. Next, she administered a pre-test to all 30 children to measure their existing knowledge of colors, numbers, and letters. She then exposed the children in the experimental group to the new curriculum while continuing to use the current curriculum with the children in the comparison group. At the end of 90 days, she administered a post-test to the same 30 children. When she compared the mean post-test/pre-test scores of the children in the experimental group with the mean post-test/pre-test scores of the children in the comparison, the experimental group children scored 10 points higher. The executive director decided to implement the new curriculum for all children at the center.

• Is there anything else the executive director could have or should have considered when collecting data for program decision-making?
• What information might we need to have to determine if 10 points was a minor or substantial increase in learning? What we do not know is what the overall scale was. Was this out of 50, 100, or 200 points? Would that make a difference in the outcome of your decision? Even if the point increase was considered substantial enough to change the curriculum, what other things might the director need to consider before purchasing the curriculum?