Monitoring and Program Evaluation

In a time of high stakes accountability for program quality, every program needs a set of standards to guide program planning. Standards provide a common basis for establishing measurable goals and implementing a program. NCHE’s standards and indicators, updated in 2017 to incorporate amendments included in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), are intended primarily for local- and state-level homeless education staff with oversight responsibilities for the implementation of the McKinney-Vento Act. The standards align with Federal agency and program office priorities to help improve State and local homeless education program performance and educational outcomes for students experiencing homelessness through a variety of means, including monitoring, technical assistance, and making LEA-level homeless student enrollment and school-level homeless student achievement data publicly available.
Download Standards and Indicators for Quality LEA McKinney-Vento Programs (2017 Revision).

This March 2012 report from the National Center on Family Homelessness, in partnership with the National Alliance to End Homelessness and ZERO TO THREE: National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families, describes the process of evaluation. Using the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s Strengthening At Risk and Homeless Young Mothers and Children initiative as an example, the report examines the why, what, and how of the evaluation process, and concludes with a list of resources that providers can use to obtain additional information.
Download Evaluating Programs: Strategies and Tools for Providers Serving Homeless Families.

This self-assessment tool from the Texas Homeless Education Office assists schools in determining the adequacy of their current services to students in homeless situations. Chapters include questions to answer to evaluate the school’s homeless education program and focus on the following four areas: Awareness/Training, Identification/Enrollment, Delivery of Services, and Interagency Coordinator. Although designed for program monitoring at the school level, the guide can be adapted easily for use at the LEA level. 
Download the Campus Self-Assessment Guide for the Education of Students in Highly Mobile and Homeless Situations.

This monitoring form from the Kentucky Department of Education is used in the evaluation of a district’s activities and procedures. Program compliance and/or effectiveness is determined based on responses and supporting evidence for each of the monitoring questions. Each section contains several monitoring questions that will be evaluated individually. The list found beside Suggested Documentation within each monitoring question contains examples of documentation that may be submitted for review.
Download the District McKinney-Vento Monitoring Form.

This webpage from the Wisconsin Department of Education provides resources to help school districts prepare for McKinney-Vento monitoring. Resources include a compliance review overview, an annual monitoring schedule, compliance review guidance, and a compliance review LEA assessment.
Visit the McKinney-Vento Compliance Review webpage.

This webpage from Project HOPE provides information and resources related to homeless education monitoring of Virginia school districts for the 2017-2018 school year.
Visit the Virginia McKinney-Vento Monitoring Resources webpage.