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How do you accurately measure whether a program or special initiative works?

That question is at the heart of what students grapple with in an East Stroudsburg University psychology class called “Measurement and Evaluation in Psychology” where they help outside agencies and groups gauge the effectiveness of their work.

Students taking this class with Psychology Professor Bonnie Green, Ph.D., learn how to create, conduct and analyze tests and other forms of assessment that are barometers of what’s effective and what’s not.

For example, last fall Green’s students created three measurements for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education on a program aimed at helping students from under-performing schools prepare for college. Next year, Green is anticipating that the class will be doing a survey or measurement for the Pocono Environmental Education Center in Dingmans Ferry, Pa.

The work is a win-win. Students gain real world experience in measuring and evaluating projects and programs and their clients save thousands of dollars they would have to pay a consultant to create and conduct the survey or test, Green said.

“We are living in the era of data-driven decisions,” said Green. “However, the qualities of our decisions are limited by the quality of our data, which is limited by the quality of our measures. Training students in the science of how to measure humans gives them valuable skills, as every type of business, non-profit, and educational organization that is making data-driven decisions needs high quality measures.”

At a recent class in Stroud Hall, the students listened to a presentation by their latest clients, members of ESU’s Service-Learning Initiative Committee. The committee is trying to determine if service-learning – classes that perform a service for the broader university or the community — enhances students’ education in measurable ways.

Committee members Beth Rajan Sockman, Ph.D., associate professor of digital media technologies and Olivia Carducci, Ph.D., associate professor of mathematics, explained their earlier efforts to quantify service-learning’s contributions toward educating students. Carducci has used service-learning in a class called Introduction to Mathematical Modeling. Last year, her students investigated various fundraising options for the United Way of Monroe County. The year before, the class estimated how long it would take to recuperate the costs of installing solar panels to heat hot water for ESU’s Science and Technology Center, Dansbury Commons and the pool at Koehler Fieldhouse.

It seems fitting that a class of ESU students is employing service-learning in measuring the effectiveness of a project to evaluate service-learning. Students showered Sockman and Carducci with questions to refine how the assessment should be conducted and what they were looking to measure.

Students asked if they had looked at whether grades had gone up when classes used service-learning. They wanted to know how the committee was defining service-learning and if it would be collecting demographic information from those who participated.

Carla Garis, a junior majoring in applied psychology, asked if the committee was seeking to link service-learning with student retention and whether it was also seeking to survey alumni.

Dominika Douckova, a junior psychology and French major, asked if the committee had thought about including a question midway through the survey to make sure the respondents were taking the survey seriously. “A simple question, like ‘What color is the sky?’ and you give four answers,” Douckova said. “Or like ‘Check 5 if you’re still with us.’”

“That’s interesting,” Sockman said. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

Students love working for actual clients, and knowing their efforts will be used by professionals in the field, Green said. Plus, it gives those students who are graduating and looking for jobs or applying to graduate programs examples of their work to talk about in interviews.

Carducci and Sockman have seen firsthand the power of service-learning. They’ve watched their students tackle real world problems and help the broader community.

“I look at my students as change agents,” Sockman said. “They’re going to make a difference in whatever field they go into so my goal is to allow them to have that experience right now.”

She said when her students graduate they’ll be competing for jobs with people who have been out in the workforce longer and have more experience. But through service-learning, they can bring fresh ideas with confidence.

Members of the Service Learning Initiative plan to write an article on their findings about the effectiveness of service-learning for a professional journal. They hope to include the results of the assessment by Green’s class.

Carducci said service-learning feeds the soul and at the same time opens up new doors for students.

“Everybody says, ‘What can you do with math?’ and I now have a long list of things my students did,” Carducci said.