Evaluator Report Two

Evaluator Report

This evaluation is based on the learning description that Mr. Sample submitted, the annotated documents he included, his bibliography and an extensive phone interview. Mr. Sample’s learning has occurred over the course of eight years in increasingly responsible positions in a variety of community development organizations.

He has the foundational knowledge of the infrastructure needed to establish and run a community development office, including what sources to use in the creation of a database, the technology of how to create a usable database, how to use the database, how to collect demographic information, how to assess the priorities of the neighborhood and how to create and conduct a survey. Mr. Sample explained how to accomplish each of these tasks and had examples from his various jobs to demonstrate his accomplishments. He also described how he started and progressed with each project, building on the skills and knowledge that he learned from the previous project. He knows how to write grants, raise funds, analyze programs, create needs assessment tools, create a budget, work within that budget, lobby and build a power base.

During our interview he was able to give examples of how and what he had learned in all of these categories. His knowledge grew as he moved from one position to another and from one organization to another.

Mr. Sample has developed some working principles that are similar to those that one might learn in a class on community development, such as the level of influence that a neighborhood has is often related to its socioeconomic/ethic make-up. He has been able to draw from his various experiences and create some theories and principles. Although he has started to do this, I did not see advanced-level skills/knowledge demonstrated in either the essay or interview. He did provide me with a few book titles he has read, but they were more applied than theoretical.

I think Mr. Sample has a solid foundational knowledge of community development and I recommend 3 credits with that title. He is interested in staying in the field and I encourage him to take an advanced-level study in this area so that he can read, discuss and write about some of the theory connected to this field.