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Read the Results: Schools, Faculty, Students, Communities, Businesses

Schools

Challenge Day Student Survey

Read a summary of results from the Challenge Day Student Survey. The summary highlights the first large-scale data collection and exploratory study performed by Challenge Day, and explores the effects of the program on students for eight factors related to Challenge Day's theoretical foundation.

Latest Results

    Lessons Youth Learn at Challenge Day Programs

    Evidence based research has shown that Challenge Day helps develop leadership in high school students through its day-long Challenge Day programs.1 It also increases particular skills and life effectiveness listed in the categories below:

    • Intellectual Flexibility – youth that demonstrate this attribute are open to new ideas, are adaptable and flexible in their thinking, and can change opinions easily if there is a better idea or way of doing activities and projects. They can also see and understand perspectives different than their own.2
    • Task Leadership – youth that demonstrate this attribute can successfully enroll people to participant in tasks, activities, and projects. Youth with this attribute believe that they can productively lead others in a positive and effective manner.
    • Emotional Control – youth that demonstrate this attribute believe that they can stay calm in stressful situations and overcome anxiety quickly when things do go wrong and recover and resolve the problem efficiently.
    • Self Confidence - youth that demonstrate this attribute believe that they have the ability to do anything they put their mind to and they are confident they will succeed.
    • Social competence – youth that demonstrate this attribute have a high degree of self-perceived ability in social interactions. They have a high degree of confidence in their ability to positively relate with others.

    In addition, Challenge Day provides growth in other areas as well. After our programs, you can expect the youth participants to:

    • Increase their skills in noticing oppression and isolation
    • Practice safe and effective intervention tools in the midst of conflict
    • Perform acts of change in their schools and communities 3

    At Challenge Day, we invite youth make at least one conscious, positive contribution (also known as an act of change) each day in their communities and schools. The acts of change youth most often did after a Challenge Day are as follows 4:

    • Helped peers and family
    • Connected and reached out to peers
    • Gave hugs and expressed love
    • Participated in community service
    • Resolved conflict
    • Took care of self

    By participating in Challenge Day, youth learn to accept themselves completely for who they are just the way they are, look through the eyes of acceptance, love, and respect, and live their life in service. This is the work of Challenge Day!

      1Nail, Terry. Dissertation: Evaluation of Life Effectiveness and Leadership Development in a Challenge Day Program for High School Students, Library of Congress, 2007.
      2Neill, James et al., Life Effectiveness Questionnaire, 2003.
      3Nail, Terry, 2007.
      4Ibid.



    You can download this report of results as a document: Lessons_Youth_Learn_at_ChallengeDay (pdf)

Studies

Schools Are Transformed

We wish to acknowledge all of the people who are working with us to document the results attributed to participation in the Challenge Day programs. The results reported by the following schools represent highlights from five such efforts.

Bangor High School, Bangor, MI

Ninth grade students at Bangor High School in Bangor, Michigan were administered a Likert-type survey prior to and following implementation of Challenge Day programs with the freshman class. Results indicated improvements in six of eight items associated with improved school climate, with the largest gains being percentages of students reporting that they:

  • confront peers making hurtful comments or choices,
  • get along with others from different backgrounds,
  • stop gossip when they hear it,
  • witness less or no teasing at school.

Improvements also occurred in seven of nine items associated with students feeling welcomed at school, with the largest areas of improvement being the percentage of students reporting that they (a) get along with their teachers, and (b) receive great citizenship marks. Disciplinary incidents related to bullying, teasing, and violence decreased by 24.1% following the implementation of Challenge Day programs.

Click here for the full study from Bangor High School.

Natrona County Schools, Casper, WY

For the past three successive school years, Natrona County Schools have reported that use of the Challenge Day programs significantly contributed to their ability to reduce suspension rates. Here are a few excerpts of their report:

In order to determine reasons for the down trend [in suspensions] we need to look at consistently applied prevention and early intervention efforts ... We can identify three programs that may be helping to move suspension data downward; however, analysis indicates that The Challenge Day Program is the leading prevention/ intervention strategy.

The focus of the Challenge Day program is literally to change the hearts of participants because only then can they begin to change their behavior. It works.

Use of The Challenge Day prevention/early intervention retreat is clearly the program leading to fewer suspensions and more academic time on task in NCSD #1. There is additional data indicating the effectiveness of The Challenge Day approach that is being collected and analyzed at this time.

Our thanks to Wayne Beatty, Principal, Casper, WY

Waipahu High School, Waipahu, HI

Thanks to Faye Toyama, former Vice Principal, Challenge Day is now in its third year of providing programs at the school. In the time we have been at Waipahu High School, their statistics have shown that suspensions have gone done from 701 in 2000 to 587 in 2002.

A $38,000 grant targeted the entire freshman class, combining Challenge Day for the entire 500 + freshman class, their teachers and community members; smoking cessation classes for those youth who smoked, and a follow up curriculum for teachers to deliver to the freshman class.

Bret Harte High School, Angels Camp, CA

At Bret Harte High School, 123 students participated in Day One. Of those, 113 completed a pre-event survey for a response rate of 91%. 51 students completed a post-event survey for a response rate of 45%. 28 students were also interviewed a week after the event. There is a lot to this survey, however, here are a few of the highlights from the 23 page PowerPoint report they created:

- 78% decrease in those who reported feeling unsafe.

- After Day 1, ALL students felt there was an adult at school who would listen to them!

- 50% of students mentioned an increase in sense of connection, openness, friendliness and knowing people.

- 17% mentioned less teasing, bullying and fewer students being picked on.

Reported Results - Tavernier, FL

Coral Shores High School is a safer place, thanks in part to Challenge Day! Quoted in the Key Largo Times, leadership class teacher Cheryl Cooke said, "Since we started, there has been a 67 percent drop in disciplinary incidents. That, in itself, should speak for the program and what we have done."

The data comes from the Monroe County High School Safety and Environment Report, which logs crime and violence incidents at the county's three high schools. "During the 2002-03 school year at Coral Shores, the number of reported incidents was 20, down from 70 just two years earlier," the article said. "Monroe County Safe School Coordinator Mike Henriquez attributes part of that change to Challenge Day and the leadership class."