Program Benefits

The following is a brief overview of the procedures and findings of a seven-month evaluation of the JA BizTown in Indianapolis, provided by Junior Achievement of Central Indiana. The evaluation was conducted during the period of December 1995 through June 1996 and was intended to address two principal research questions: What processes and activities are characteristic of the simulation experience? What effect does participation in JA BizTown seem to have on the parents, teachers and students who are involved? An additional purpose of the project was to begin pilot testing data collection procedures for use in a 15-year longitudinal study of Junior Achievement programs to begin during the 1996-97 academic year.

The evaluation project employed a variety of exploratory methodologies focused on collection and analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data. Qualitative data was gathered through observations and interviews with students, teachers and parents on 15 separate occasions. Each observation and interview was conducted by a principal investigator using unobtrusive techniques, as both a participant in one parent training session, and as a non-participant observer for all other sessions.

A majority (83.2%) of teachers and parents believed, even before engaging in the experience, that children would be required to apply their mathematics and language skills in the simulation. This belief became stronger after the experience (87.6%). However, while children entered the experience believing these skills would be useful in the simulation (92.4%), they felt less convinced of this after the experience (57.4%).

Both parents and teachers had better attitudes toward children, the business community and schools after participating in the experience (mean improvement 6.8%). Parents entered the experience with slightly less positive feelings than teachers about students’ potential for responsibility and good citizenship, and with indifferent feelings about the quality of schools.

Children were more likely after the experience to indicate that they believed they would be good workers and good citizens when they grew up (81.9% pretest, 83.5% post-test) and were more decided in their desire to work. However, they were less likely after the experience to indicate that they would like to own their own business (61.4% pre-test, 55.0% post-test).

Most teachers (98.2%) and parents (87.2%) had not participated in Junior Achievement programs when they were in school. Further, this was the first time most teachers (70.4%) had utilized Junior Achievement programming in their classrooms. After the experience, virtually all teachers indicated a desire to continue their involvement with Junior Achievement (97.3%).