Student Evaluations Show Consistency

`The shoe is on the other foot' when it comes time for students to evaluate instructors in hunter education training, and since March 16, 2007 students have been anonymously submitting their evaluations to the Olympia office. Yes, this was another brainchild from our instructor corps, specifically Don Hawkens from Pierce County. Don reasoned that we were already sending students a certification card, so why not send them a second sheet of paper asking them to evaluate hunter education performance in a number of areas.

The September issue of the InstructorTalk newsletter will contain more details on the evaluation questions and student responses, but for now note that:

-Fully 87% of student survey respondents who enrolled in hunter education training classes plan to purchase a hunting license this year. Incidentally, this figure rarely varies by more than a few percentage points in similar surveys dating back to the 1980s. The remaining individuals either plan to purchase a license at a future date or took the training to learn about firearms--not hunting--safety.

-More than 99% of student respondents reported that they learned useful information in hunter education training classes.

-Almost 99% of student respondents reported that they would recommend hunter education training classes to their friends.

Bottom line: Even though there's always room for improvement, the student responses to date show that we are clearly on target with our current hunter education training program. Keep up the good work!