Evaluating the Usefulness for School Principals of Feedback Reports From a School-Based Adolescent Health Survey

Researchers doing school surveys of adolescent health behavior frequently provide feedback reports to the schools summarizing the survey results, but it is not generally known how useful this information is for the recipients. The authors conducted a survey of 43 high school principals in 11 communities about the usefulness of feedback reports generated from data collected as part of the evaluation of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation's Community Health Promotion Grants Program. The results of the survey suggest that principals found the reports to be extremely valuable: The reports were distributed widely among staff, parents, and school boards, and were put to use in a variety of ways, including planning, needs assessment, and evaluation. Furthermore, many principals said that without the promise of feedback they would not have participated in the survey. These results suggest that this information, if properly presented, can be very useful to schools as they design and implement adolescent health programs.