Behind the Book wants to evaluate its literacy program, which works with classroom teachers in Title 1 schools to create customized program plans designed to meet the language-arts needs of a largely minority population that is traditionally underserved.
Behind the Book (BtB)’s plans enable students to interact with authors, read and explore selected books’ themes, and create capstone writing and art projects. Participants also take field trips that are tied to the subject matter of the books that are discussed in class. Although BtB’s highly customized program plan delivers good results, the customization makes it difficult to scale to serve more students and schools despite high demand. BtB is also concerned that its programs may not be grounded in the most recent, high-quality research in the field of literacy engagement and design because it has been ten years since their last evaluation. The organization’s proposed capacity-building plan involves hiring a literacy consultant and an external evaluator to help BtB ascertain if their current model is sustainable and scalable and guide BtB to next steps to increase the capacity of the organization to serve additional students in cost effective ways.
