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When applying for a grant, HP applicants commit to providing status updates and final reports from the projects we support. Using this information, we track the impact of our social investments, identify projects for possible reinvestment and improve our grant programs.
Ninety percent of education grant recipients reported that HP products they received have a positive impact on teaching and learning, as measured against goals they set for their projects. This is below our target of 100 percent.
Accurately measuring program impact is a challenge, requiring significant resources and coordination across many countries. Project outcomes are often hard to quantify, since many factors are involved. We have launched a number of programs to try to overcome these difficulties, including the examples below.
In the United States, we hold focus groups of grantees and their clients to gather feedback and to document successes and failures.
The International Society for Technology in Education is helping us review the impacts of our HP Technology for Teaching grants. Each year their research has concluded that most recipients of HP Technology for Teaching grants have experienced direct, positive effects on teaching and student learning, as measured by classroom-based and standardized assessment instruments, assessment of teacher proficiency with technology, and the use of technology to enhance classroom instruction.
Higher education benefits include a change in teaching methodology—when they know what students know, in real time, as they teach, a professor’s role can shift from lecturer to facilitator. Specific benefits for K–12 schools include higher student achievement on classroom, school, district or state assessments when compared with similar groups in classrooms untouched by the HP grant. At all education levels, we’ve found a positive impact on student learning, as evidenced by increased student engagement, participation and academic achievement. Tablet technology makes it easier for teachers to work through mathematical problems. The technology is also making classrooms more student-centered and is encouraging students to be more engaged and work more collaboratively, particularly in science.
In Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ), HP belongs to the London Benchmarking Group (LBG), an organization whose members commit to measuring and benchmarking their corporate community investment contributions using the LBG methodology. During 2007, we participated in a review conducted by LBG managers that confirmed we are correctly and consistently applying the LBG valuation principles to our community investment programs in the region.
Additionally, in 2007 we launched an initiative in collaboration with the Australia National University to assess the impact of our microenterprise development program in APJ. Post-graduate applied anthropology students from the university are assessing how the program translates into social and economic benefits for entrepreneurs who have received support from HP. Researchers are visiting grant recipients and use questionnaires based on established anthropological research methods to evaluate their social and economic status before and after they received funding. The students will use HP technology and custom software to record and analyze data during a 20-month period. The project is being overseen by a professor of anthropology at the university.
The researchers have completed the first round of visits to sites in Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia and Thailand. Selected results from the review included the following:
- 849 entrepreneurs from across the region have completed HP Microenterprise Development training through the 2007 grants program.
- Eight Social Ventures Australia trainees started a social enterprise, which generated 100 jobs.
In 2007, we conducted about 200 education programs in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, reaching more than 50,000 students. We review the progress of the programs every six to 12 months to evaluate the impact of our donations.
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