An important pre-condition to diversifying the workforce of land-grant extension services is access to qualified ethnic minority individuals with an awareness and interest in pursuing extension careers. This paper highlights an example of collaboration between the K-State Research and Extension office and an educational research program at Kansas…

Within the qualitative research community, narrative analysis research is a common method that is used to better understand a person's experiences or a collective experience. The use of narratives in Extension has been limited. Extension professionals primarily have used narratives as tools for conveying the value of Extension programs or, more…

Translating research into practice is a cornerstone for Extension programs. We developed an intentional and collaborative translational process for converting evidence-based knowledge from Latino youth development literature into Extension practice. The process resulted in internal audience-specific fact sheets summarizing research findings as…

Extension agents and specialists have experienced increased pressure for greater program effectiveness and accountability and especially for evidence-based programs. This article builds on previously published evidence-based programming articles. It provides ideas that address three problems that Extension staff face with EBPs and that Extension…

While the importance of evaluation program offerings is acknowledge by Extension educators, less emphasis is given to understanding program implementation. Simply assessing program impact without a clear understanding of the degree to which a program was actually implemented can result in inaccurate findings. The effective evaluation of both…

The survey-based research reported here offers insights on community, resource, and economic development (CRED) Extension programming at the national and regional level. The results present a national picture of CRED programming, research, and potential future programming opportunities that Extension could capitalize on. The research shows that…

This article presents a checklist as a guide for Extension professionals to use in research and evaluation studies they carry out. A total of 40 statements grouped under eight data quality components--relevance, objectivity, validity, reliability, integrity, generalizability, completeness, and utility--are identified to ensure that research…

Extension's sustainability is tied to relationships with academia. Now more than ever, Extension faculty and staff need to integrate their work into the aims of their university to gain credibility, relevance, and support. This requires Extension workers to more deeply and widely document and share the scholarship of their work with academics…

This article describes the journey taken by a group of adolescents into the field and practice of youth-led research. The article gives voice to the growing number of youth participating in research and evaluation. The authors give authentic youth accounts of: (1) the process of becoming researchers and evaluators, (2) the benefits and challenges…

Study concerned with describing the training needs of extension specialists at 1890 institutions (black land-grant institutions established by a Congressional Act in 1890). Findings, training needs, recommendations and conclusions are included. (WL)

Presents examples from the University of Wisconsin-Extension of ways in which the computer can help extension personnel to better organize and use data in developing programs and in analyzing survey results and other data. (MF)