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Building Support for Music Education: A Practical Guide
Chapter 5
In this section you will...
Evaluate!
Set up a small and enthusiastic team, and ask each team member to develop a network of helpers.
Every three months, compare the current state of your program with the goals you have established.
 If your goals have been met and your program is stable, maintain your PR program and contacts with decision makers.
If your program still has problems, analyze which techniques worked best, fine-tune your strategy for further action, and keep at it.
Checking Up
Most people have a physical examination each year or so. Your initial examination of the strengths and weaknesses of your program was a bit like a physical exam for your school music program. You found out something about the state of your program's health, and you may have found that you needed to do something about it.
If you have "prescribed" a course of treatment for your school music program, your checkup schedule should be accelerated to four examinations a year. This will allow you to see if the treatment is on-track and achieving the progress you expect and need. Periodic analysis of your campaign's success may even motivate you to set more ambitious objectives!
If you find, on your first review, that you haven't made much progress toward your long-range goals, don't be discouraged. Protecting an embattled music education program or improving a satisfactory one needs patience and persistence. You need only ensure that whatever progress you have made is in the right direction.
Take this opportunity to reexamine your long-range goals, refining them if necessary. Bring everyone in your advocacy group up-to-date on your plans for future action.
Your efforts may have resulted in some short-term progress. Ask each member of your advocacy group to report on the strategies he or she has tried (and their success!), the contacts he or she has made, the information he or she has received, and the ideas he or she has developed.
Reporting Your Progress
Every three months, copy the following chart, and complete it to evaluate your progress.
Music Education Advocacy Group
Report
DATE:________________ CONTACT:______________________
(address)________________________
________________________________
(telephone)______________________
(E-mail)
Summary of short-term goals :
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
Strategies used :
very somewhat not
successful successful successful
1. ______________________________ _____ _____ _____
2. ______________________________ _____ _____ _____
3. ______________________________ _____ _____ _____
4. ______________________________ _____ _____ _____
5. ______________________________ _____ _____ _____
Contacts made :comments
1. ____________________________ ____________________________
2. ____________________________ ____________________________
3. ____________________________ ____________________________
4. ____________________________ ____________________________
5. ____________________________ ____________________________
6. ____________________________ ____________________________
7. ____________________________ ____________________________
8. ____________________________ ____________________________
9. ____________________________ ____________________________
10. ____________________________ ____________________________
Information received :Ideas developed :
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