In 2011, a national program study was conducted by research firm Rockman et al., which looked at performance assessments, surveys, and standardized test scores to evaluate students’ research and writing skills, ability to interpret historical information, academic performance, and interest in past and current events. They then compared their evaluations of students who participated in National History Day (NHD) to their peers who did not participate in the program. 

The study, conducted at four sites around the country, found that on nearly every measure, NHD students’ scores or ratings were higher than their peers who did not participate in the program.

• View the NHD Works page

Affiliate-level evaluations and reports can supplement the national study and showcase the work you have done in your program. Among other things, Affiliate-level evaluation can help you to:

• Fundraise

• Report on your work for donors or sponsoring institution

• Build a case for teacher recruitment

Before starting, consider:

• What type of evaluation do you plan on doing? For the most part, surveys are the easiest tools to use and will reach the broadest audience. Focus groups can give you more details as you solve specific problems, but are often more time-consuming and expensive.

• How do you gain consent? When surveying minors, you must include language to gain parental consent in your contest waivers.

• How will you collect and analyze the data? Distributing paper surveys at workshops or contests may be easier to administer. It may result in higher response rates but must be manually entered into a tool to calculate results. When you have email addresses for participants, online surveys are likely easier to administer. A Google Form may work for simple surveys. For more advanced surveys and data analysis, you may want to consider a paid platform such as Alchemer (formerly known as SurveyGizmo) or SurveyMonkey.

• Will your survey be anonymous? The most honest feedback comes from anonymous surveys. What sorts of personally identifiable information do you actually need?

• What will you do with it? If you are going through the work to collect feedback, plan to do something with it. Create a report that shares the success of your program. While occasionally uncomfortable, look through responses and identify the changes you can make based on user feedback.

  • Minnesota: At a Glance, Classroom Outreach, Educators, Participation Snapshot, Student Outcomes

Writing Your Survey Questions

Crafting an evaluation can be tricky.  Here are some tips for any evaluation:

• Begin by turning your learning outcomes into questions that will help determine whether these have been achieved.

• Limit the number of open-ended questions, which are time-consuming to complete and compile. 

• Strive for multiple-choice questions with an even number of potential responses – when you use an odd number, many people will gravitate toward the middle option.

• Allow anonymous responses but include an area where responders could self-identify.

• Try to keep it to two pages at most.

Options for Distributing Surveys and Tabulating Data

An online survey tool enables you to download the results into a spreadsheet and will save a lot of time, particularly if you have a large number of responders. SurveyMonkey and Alchemer (formerly SurveyGizmo) are two online platforms that allow you to create limited, free surveys that automatically tabulate the results. Google Forms is free and will allow you to create longer surveys, but may be limited in its ability to "crunch the data." If you choose to use an online survey, send it within a few days after the event so that it is still fresh in the minds of your participants. And consider providing an incentive for them to complete it. The incentive might be an automatic entry into a drawing for membership in a museum, a discount coupon to a bookstore, etc.

Sometimes, a paper survey is best, particularly if you have a small group assembled (e.g., a workshop) and you hand out and collect the survey the same day. Even if distributing a survey in paper format, you can still use an online tool to tabulate the results. Build the same questions from your paper survey into the online tool and manually enter each response. 

State Standards Connections

While not based on user feedback, another useful tool is an assessment or report of how the National History Day program meets your state standards. This can be a great tool for teacher recruitment, for teachers to justify their participation in the program, or to demonstrate relevancy to program potential donors.

• Common Core Connections to NHD

• Michigan Standards Connections

• Minnesota Standards Connections