Hold a facilitator debriefing session.

If possible, engage some or all facilitators - including student facilitators - as members of the analysis team. The people who facilitate always have particular, valuable insights into what happened in their own groups. Facilitators do not have the only points of view, or even the most correct, but their opinions are still invaluable and even irreplaceable, since no other members of the analysis team could have been actual witnesses to the groups.

If it is not possible for you to include facilitators as team members, hold a facilitator debriefing session shortly after the focus groups take place in order to discover insights the facilitators may have into the sessions and get their feedback on the process in general.

If you are conducting an effort in an entire district...

You can hold debriefing sessions according to school level - that is, convene the elementary school, middle school, and high school focus group facilitators separately - or you can invite all facilitators to participate in the same session. (If you are particularly interested in comparing responses across school levels, we recommend that you convene all facilitators at one session.)

During the debriefing session, ask the facilitators for their perspectives on these topics:

• what they observed about participants' responses to the questions, including both verbal and nonverbal responses
  
• what topics or issues seemed to generate the most interest or energy during the conversation
  
• what topics seemed to elicit the most disagreement or agreement
  
• what questions fell flat
  
• what the prevailing mood or attitude of the session was

If you cannot hold a full facilitator debriefing session, members of the analysis team can ask facilitators these same questions immediately following the individual focus group sessions. In your communication with facilitators, ask them to stay 20-30 minutes after the focus groups for this purpose. Keep in mind that a member of the analysis team must be present at the focus group in order to hold this mini-debriefing session.

If for some reason no one from the analysis team can be present at the focus group, or the facilitators cannot stay after the session, analysts can arrange to talk with facilitators individually over the phone or through a conference call. No matter what method you use, obtaining the insights of the focus group facilitators will be a tremendous asset to the analysis process.

Next: Analyze the focus groups.