Chapter XIV 
EVALUATION OF METHODS AND RESULTS 
Strategic Place of the Selecting Agent 
No group of individuals is in more fortunate and advanta¬ 
geous position to observe the human values resulting from CCC exper¬ 
ience than selecting agents. They see the youth in the local community 
before leaving for camp; they frequently see him after he returns from 
camp. The contrast between the boy who went away and the young man who 
came back becomes at once a means of evaluating two things: the judg¬ 
ment of the selecting agent in sending that boy to camp, and the bene¬ 
fit or lack of benefit derived by the enrollee from his camp experience. 
The two fit together and are inseparable. 
Methods of Evaluation 
Evaluation may be achieved by two processes, or by combina¬ 
tion of the two. In the first place, it may be achieved by personal 
observation of the progress made by enrollees of the Corps to find out 
whether they have lived up to the expectations of the selecting agent. 
Instinctively, most selecting agents make an estimate of each applicant 
at the time he is being considered for enrollment in the Corps. The 
selection of each applicant is properly based upon the conviction that 
he has the potentialities for success in the Corps. When an enrollee 
returns from camp, therefore, it is natural that the selecting agent 
who is concerned with testing his estimates and improving his own se¬ 
lection process will wish to talk again with each youth. He will seek 
to determine whether he made an avoidable mistake in those cases where 
an enrollee did not adjust himself to camp life, or whether that fail¬ 
ure to adjust was due to some unforeseeable situation in camp. 
Follow-Up Interview 
Follow-up interview, even though very brief, is ordinarily 
the very best means of evaluation. Usually such follow-up interviews 
can be most helpful if they are conducted by the same person who made 
the original interview in advance of selection. Questions designed 
to elicit information about the work done by the youth in camp; the 
things he found most interesting; training courses in which he par¬ 
ticipated; leadership ratings received; attitude toward work; methods 
of occupying leisure time: these are some of the subjects which many 
selecting agents discuss with former enrollees at the time of follow-up 
interviews. 
As can readily be seen, such follow-up interviewing can be 
most effective and useful if the local agent has before him some writ¬ 
ten notations concerning his judgment of the youth at the time of his 
selection and certification. If, for example, a selecting agent can 
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