Reports Database:
Social Return on Investment of a Project for the Changhua County New Immigrant Education Guidance Group – Professional and Administrative Capacity Building

This report evaluates the social impact of the New Immigrant Language and Culture Education Guidance Group Project in Changhua County within a clearly defined project-based evaluation boundary. The purpose is to quantify the social value created by the project’s core activities—such as educator training, professional support, and capacity-building mechanisms—using a transparent and decision-relevant valuation approach. Accordingly, the scope of analysis is limited to outcomes that are directly attributable to project activities and observed among participating educator stakeholders, rather than estimating the overall SROI of the entire guidance group system. Outcomes primarily realized through downstream teaching and learning processes, including student-level impacts, are acknowledged as long-term policy objectives but fall outside the evaluation boundary due to attribution constraints and the absence of direct, verifiable measurement mechanisms within the project.

The evaluation adopts the Social Return on Investment (SROI) methodology, applying a systematic analytical framework to translate qualitative outcomes into measurable monetary values to support evidence-informed decision-making. Following the six steps of the SROI process, the study calculates the SROI ratio and conducts sensitivity analyses to strengthen analytical rigor and objectivity. The results identify adjunct lecturers and guidance group members as the primary stakeholders, jointly accounting for approximately 90% of the total outcome value, underscoring their central role in delivering the project’s intended functions and sustaining new immigrant language and culture education.

In terms of outcomes, adjunct lecturers achieved three key results, with greater self-confidence emerging as the highest-value outcome. This reflects strengthened professional recognition and self-efficacy gained through engagement in structured support mechanisms. Guidance group members realized five major outcomes, among which enhanced multicultural literacy generated the greatest value, indicating meaningful growth in cross-cultural sensitivity and professional understanding—capabilities essential to strategy development, instructional guidance, and effective implementation. Overall, the project’s stakeholder impacts align closely with its operational objectives, demonstrating that well-designed professional training and support systems can reinforce the foundations of multicultural education.

The total investment in the project amounted to NT$1,115,674, funded primarily by the Changhua County Government Education Department, the K–12 Education Administration of the Ministry of Education (MOE), and the Resource Center for New Immigrant Language and Culture Curriculum (NILC Center). Based on the evaluation, the total present value generated by the project is approximately NT$1,997,996.58, with an SROI ratio ranging from 1.38 to 2.66, indicating a solid social return on investment and effective resource utilization. Beyond fostering professional growth, confidence, and social recognition among adjunct lecturers, the project also strengthens the multicultural competence and intrinsic development of guidance group members, including outcomes such as enhanced sense of achievement.

To test robustness, the study conducts multi-dimensional sensitivity analyses on key parameters, including outcome quantity, financial proxies, outcome valuations, impact factors, and outcome duration. By simulating parameter variation across multiple scenarios, the analysis confirms that the estimated results remain stable and consistent under diverse assumptions, thereby enhancing the reliability and explanatory power of the evaluation and strengthening its credibility as a basis for decision-making.

In summary, the evaluation results indicate that the project has generated tangible outcomes and positive changes in strengthening teaching support systems, professional collaboration, and community engagement related to new immigrant language and culture education. Stakeholder feedback suggests that the project has evolved beyond the completion of discrete operational tasks, demonstrating strategic value and providing empirical evidence to inform future policy refinement and resource allocation. It is recommended that future implementation gradually shift from a primarily operational orientation toward a more tactical and development-oriented approach, integrating diverse instructional models, deeper professional collaboration mechanisms, and cross-county exchange strategies to enhance scalability and long-term sustainability.