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For this project, we (Nolan & Syd) take a closer look into the Hawaii Board of Education Policy 103-7 pertaining to food sales in schools and analyzing it through the realist evaluation perspective. We have chosen this policy because of our own memories and personal experiences of breaking this policy during our high school years, whether it was buying li hing mui gummy bears from our friends or ordering delivery from the local Chinese restaurant. Its interesting nature shows us there is no real established consequence for this policy provided by the BOE or in the example we provide within the Konawaena High School student handbook.

In the beginning of this presentation, the specifics of Policy 103-7 will be further explained. We will analyze this policy through the realist evaluation perspective in a similar manner of Week 8 in this class where we developed a diagram of the assumed mechanisms and outcomes. It is important to note that the diagram we established is based on our own personal experiences and assumptions as the implementation of this policy will vary on a case-by-case basis. We will then put our reflections and thoughts within the discussion portion of our presentation, followed by the implications this policy displays through the realist evaluation perspective. Our concluding statements and references can be found at the very end.

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Are you guilty of any of the following in high school?

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Selling snacks to your classmates (because you're an entrepreneur)

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Ordering delivery to campus during lunch

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Hawaii Board of Education Policy 103-7 (Food Sales)

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Hawaii Board of Education Policy 103-7 (Food Sales)

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Policy 103-7 within the Konawaena High School Student Handbook

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This is an example of Policy 103-7 being implemented within Konawaena High School on the Big Island. It should be noted there is no consequence provided within the board policy itself or within the Konawaena High School handbook.

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*click to access pdf

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"The realist evaluation is about testing theory and refining it using real world data. Thus Context-mechanism-outcome pattern configuration (CMOCs) are used to indicate how interventions trigger mechanisms among subjects and in what conditions, in the hopes of bringing about change in behaviors (Pawson & Tilley, 2004). The main goal is to produce a tested theory with an understanding of how it works in producing diverse effects in its subjects. Thus leading to more effective programmes for people that are better-focused and more fine-tuned. "

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Food Sales policy 103-7 is developed through the Hawaii Board of Education. It is plainly stated within their website that has been previously linked. We see this policy applied through public schools depicted in one example provided in the Konawaena High School 2023- 2024 handbook. Additionally, Nolan was able to acquire information from the school he works at, S.W. King Intermediate. This allowed us to analyze exactly how schools implement this policy and how our personal experience correlate with it. Through our personal experiences we were able to reflect on our own high school memories and situations we have witnessed through working in a public school. For our analytic framework, we analyzed several written sources pertaining to realist evaluation produced by Pawson and Tilley (2004) and Westhrop et al. (2011). These sources were pulled from Week 8 of our EDEF 675 class where we were introduced to the concept of realist evaluation.

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*Click to access pdf.

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The policy analysis has brought to light why there may be no language of enforcement for policy 103-7. With realist evaluations, you look at what contexts programmes work and why. There can be many unseen and unpredictable mechanisms that drive change and as a result can lead to varying consequences. Such as how each school might be its own contexts when it comes to a realist evaluation of policy 103-7 as each school has its own culture and people that can create unique mechanisms that may not appear in other school contexts. That may explain why the language is vague and left to the schools to infer their own understanding of the policy and enact them on their own authority. Doing the evaluations across different schools may result in wildly varying mechanisms and outcomes, or they could be hugely similar. It is hard to tell at this point but it would be interesting to see those results.

Additionally, this analysis has brought to my attention that healthy food can be a misleading phrase as what might be healthy for some students, may not be an acceptable food item for other students. Schools' budgets might already be tight, so accounting for students with varying food restrictions and allergies would be hard, but having other food sales at schools might allow for these students to get the meals they need. It might be interesting to see schools possibly allowing the controlled sale of outside school food, within school to see how that affects students as well. It could be positive in allowing students to branch out, but also making sure they are getting proper nutrition.

Due to the fact that there is nothing mentioning punishment for those that break the policy, school punishments may vary broadly. Some might be disproportionate to the level of breaking this policy, but it is hard to tell without doing evaluations at these schools. Should the DOE want to understand the nuances of this policy, they should look into state and district wide evaluations. There should be guidelines in place for this policy that would make it clear to the schools on what they need to do in these circumstances.

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*Click to access pdf.

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For this project, Nolan and I evaluated Board of Education Policy 103-7 pertaining to food sales in public schools through the realist evaluation perspective.  Our personal experiences and interests led us to evaluate this particular policy in hopes of better understanding the context-mechanism-outcome patter configuration (CMOC) to find how this policy could potentially be revised.  Through our policy analysis, we have found that the contexts in which this policy functions would most likely be the schools themselves, however, the mechanisms that are utilized are quite difficult to pinpoint as each school is different in how they implement this policy.  This is partly at fault of the vagueness of the policy as it does not specify how it should be exactly implemented or any consequences to follow should the policy be broken.  With that being said, we can only assume the mechanisms and outcomes of this policy through the realist evaluation perspective.  This is why, Nolan and I believe it is time for this policy to be updated with more specific language with varying degree in consequences, or state that the consequences are to be determined by administration.  We are still left with the questions of how effective this policy really is and whether or not it is worth altering.  Nonetheless, we have dissected this policy only to find there is much room for further research and inspection.

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Pawson, R., & Tilley, N. (2004). Realist evaluation.

Westhorp, G., Prins, E., Kusters, C. S. L., Hultink, M., Guijt, I. M., & Brouwers, J. H. A. M. (2011). Realist evaluation: an overview.

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Realist Evaluation Mechanisms of policy 103-7

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Realist Evaluation Mechanisms of policy 103-7

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*Click for full image