Prepare a report.

You may decide to prepare a narrative summary report, a small report consisting of bulleted items, or information sheets based on the findings and aimed at a specific group, such as teachers, administrators, curriculum directors, etc. Your report format largely depends on your intended audience and the amount of time you have. Team members should return to the originally stated purposes for the research when considering to whom to release the report. You may also decide to release variations on the report to different audiences, sending the narrative report to principals and other administrators while sending an executive summary to the newspaper or school newsletters, for example.

Regardless of the format you choose, your report should present a clear and balanced assessment of the focus groups, so that you take the work of analysis out of the hands of your readers. Your report should convey - in common language - a sense of what happened, and it should be supported by the participants' own statements.

Characteristics of focus group reports

Good focus group reports have several important purposes:

• They make it more likely that researchers will achieve clarity on what happened.
  
• They communicate what happened.
  
• They provide a balanced view of the focus group results (both positive and negative findings).
  
• They serve as a historic record of what happened.

You may choose one of several styles for your report:

• oral only
  
• written only
  
• both oral and written (usually best)

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"The biggest challenge is getting teachers to really listen to the [student focus group results]. A change in culture is needed, so that teachers will not say 'They're all going to say that' when they refer to students."


Charlene Williams, Supervisor of Curriculum/Instruction
Jessamine County Schools

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Guidelines for writing up your findings

1. Use a consistent internal structure within each section.
   • Provide a short introduction saying what the section will address.
     
   • Include the "heart" or "guts" of the findings, arranged according to the themes that emerged or according to the subparts of the interview questions.
     
   • Put the responses in order of significance, starting with the most important, frequent, or intense responses, and explain the ordering system you have used.
     
   • Insert juicy quotes (See section c below).
     
   • Include an internal summary sentence or two, closing off this section: "Overall, [many, most, etc.] participants said...."

2. Boost your report's credibility.
   • Use the "qualitative quantifiers" wisely: None, few, some, many, most, all.
     
   • Say "students in the focus group" or "participants" rather than "The students at our school" or just "students."
     
   • Use "said" or "reported" instead of "believed," "thought," or "felt."
     
   • Include negative views.
     
   • Avoid anything that points to any person's identity.

3. Provide a structure for the report.

   Here's a possible structure:

   • Cover
     
   • Acknowledgments
     
   • Report summary, beginning with the research purpose
     
   • Key findings
     
   • Analysis of each interview question*
     
   • Recommendations**
     
   • Appendices
     
   • Methodology explaining the background and purpose of the research, the format of the focus groups, the participant selection process, and other information about the process
     
   • Demographics for participants
     
   • List of research and interview questions (if not otherwise included)

   * If your focus groups span all school levels, you may want to present the analysis for each school level in separate sections (i.e. all the key findings or analysis for elementary school students, then middle school students, then high school students).

   ** Primarily found in longer reports, or by the request of the client

4. Summarize the main findings and/or implications of the focus groups.

   Be prepared to say these things in a summary:

   • Overall, what did students want more of, less of, the same of?
     
   • What are their ideas for improvements?
     
   • What are the implications for adults associated with our school?

Quoting

We like to incorporate direct quotes from participants in our focus group reports because they lend credibility and authenticity to the findings; they also make your report more lively and interesting. When you use participants' verbatim quotes, indicate the speaker according to his/her relevant characteristics, for example, "middle school female" or "elementary school male." DO NOT use participants' names or recognizable identities in the report - no exceptions!

As stated earlier in the section on principles of focus group analysis, make it clear whether the quote represents either a common or an unusual view. This will help the report reader understand the intensity or importance of certain views. Here are some ways you can introduce the spectrum of agreement:

• Few middle school females agreed with the statement of one participant that "most of the teachers here don't care about us."

• Most middle school participants seemed to agree with the following statement:

  "Field trips shouldn't just be for the kids who make the honor roll, but for the kids who try real hard, too."

• A few elementary school students agreed with one participant that "the more homework I have, the more I learn."

• Nearly all high school females feel that the bathroom is the most uncomfortable place at school. Here is a representative statement: "I would rather hold it all day than use the bathroom at school."

Oral focus group reports

As a complement to written focus group reports, oral focus group reports provide you with an opportunity to talk through the results with your intended audience, gain feedback, and answer questions. Here are some tips for report presenters.

• Begin with a statement of why the research is important to you.

• Cover no more than seven points.

• Pick topics or findings that are most likely to interest the audience. Be sure to put the most important findings first. (This means you may not necessarily follow the outline of the written report.)

• Describe what you know now that you did not know before the study, and explain how the findings can be used.

• Use visuals, either on a flip chart or overhead.
  
  
• Provide 8.5 X 11 sheets to each person in the audience, showing the same material presented in the front of the room.

• Devote at least half the time to audience questions.

Next: Reconvene the entire original work team.