Criteria for assessing the cooperative extension program planning process in the West central district of Virginia

The success of cooperative extension depends on the knowledge of how to apply the principles of extension education to situations where the activities are to be performed. The cooperative extension services dynamic localized approach to the solution of the common persons problem has stood the test of time. It is not necessary to establish a new system, but what is needed is to increase accountability and efficiency in the way programs are planned and developed.

The overall purpose of this study was to develop criteria for assessing the local cooperative extension program planning process in Virginia. Specific objectives that served as a basis for accomplishing the overall purpose of the study were:

1. To identify principles that are basic for planning an effective local extension program.

2. To verify these principles with a panel of experts.

3. To formulate criteria, based on the verified principles, to assess if on-going local extension programs were developed following the accepted programming principles.

4. To field test the criteria to determine the degree to which the criteria are used as guides during the local extension program planning process.

This study was a qualitative study. The principles identified and the criteria developed were reviewed by a panel of eight experts, then field tested in randomly selected extension units in the West Central Extension District of Virginia. Using personal interview methodology, unit directors of the randomly selected units were used for the field testing stage of this study.

Six of the seven principles identified as basic for planning/developing effective local extension programs were accepted by the panel of experts. Eighteen criteria were formulated based on the accepted principles. Criteria as used in this study implies an overall description of a set of related actions and/or operations which will be called standards of the planning process. It was found that most of the unit directors in the West-Central Extension District of Virginia interviewed for this study use the criteria as guides during their respective programming process. The panel of experts and unit directors agreed that the criteria were important as guides for local extension programming processes.

Based on the findings the author concluded that: (a) there are six essential principles for planning effective social extension programs; (b) that there are 18 criteria that can be used as guides for assessing if local extension programs are planned/developed using the essential extension program planning principles; and (c) that it is possible to assess local program planning activities in extension.

A recommendation made from the study that the process of assessing local program planning activities be tested statewide to increase the usability potential of the criteria and give possible directions for statewide in-service needs of unit directors and extension agents.