What an Independent Evaluation Found After Ten Middle School Assemblies
Updated: Sep 5
I don't usually get evaluated by someone with no stake in the outcome. Most of what a school hears about a speaker comes from the speaker.
In 2010 and 2011, that wasn't true. The Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida brought me in as the sponsored speaker for their UpStanders initiative, and commissioned an independent formative evaluation of the whole program — not written by me, not written by them, but by an outside evaluator, Dr. Bahíyyih Maroon, whose job was to find out what was actually working and say so plainly, including where it wasn't.
I still have that report. Here's what it found.
Where the presentations happened
Over the 2010–2011 school year, I gave hour-and-a-half presentations to the entire seventh grade at ten Orange County public middle schools: Maitland, Glenridge, Lakeview, Gotha, Freedom, Wolf Lake, Odyssey, Conway, Jackson, and Westridge. Four additional community presentations were held at public sites — Beit Hamidrash, Holy Family Catholic Church, Saints Peter & Paul Church, and Lake Highland Preparatory School — reaching an estimated 355 to 500 attendees combined.
What the surveys actually showed
At the community events, 237 attendee surveys were collected. On the question of whether attendees would recommend the event to others, 100% strongly agreed or agreed. Across the remaining four questions — whether the presentation helped attendees understand bullying prevention, cyberbullying, suicide prevention, and what they personally could do about it — the average was 99% strongly agree or agree.
At the ten school sites, the number was different, and I want to keep it that way rather than blend it with the community figure: on average, across four of the five measured categories, 90% of students surveyed gave the presentation high marks.
Those are two different audiences, two different settings, and two different numbers. Both are real.
What the evaluation was honest enough to criticize
This is the part I'd rather include than leave out, because a report that only says nice things isn't worth citing.
Only two of the ten schools prepared students in advance. At schools that didn't, some students in an informal focus group said they weren't sure what the presentation would be about going in. Behavior varied a lot by site, and it didn't track with school performance rankings — the highest-ranked school in the group was, by the evaluators' own account, one of the less attentive audiences. Several students in the focus group described peers mocking classmates who were visibly moved during the talk. And at most schools, there was no consistent follow-up after I left — a few teachers built on it informally, but nothing structured.
The evaluator's own summary of the tension: touching the hearts of thousands of early adolescents in under two hours "is nothing short of a herculean task," and it was "to the credit of the UpStanders Initiative and Mr. John Halligan" that so many students were visibly moved and engaged at the presentation's pivotal points anyway — while also being clear that the surrounding structure at most schools didn't do enough to carry that impact past the final bell.
What I've improved since 2011
Those findings matter to me, especially the gaps in preparation and follow-up. Since 2011, I've greatly improved the supporting documents I provide to schools so teachers have more guidance for what happens before I arrive and after I leave.
One important addition is a lesson plan to help educators prepare students for the assembly and process it with them afterward. The purpose is to give schools a practical structure for introducing the subject, helping students reflect on what they heard, and continuing the conversation back in the classroom.
An assembly can bring up strong feelings and questions that students need time to work through. Preparing them beforehand helps set the context for what they are about to hear. Making time afterward gives them an opportunity to reflect, ask questions, and consider how the message connects to their own choices and the way they treat others.
I want teachers to have something useful in their hands to support that work. The assembly is one part of the experience; the conversations around it deserve care and planning, too.
Providing these materials doesn't mean every school uses them in the same way, and the 2011 evaluation doesn't measure their effectiveness today. But the concerns identified in that report are now supported by much more developed resources for schools to use.
What students wrote afterward
Students wrote letters after the presentations. The originals are handwritten, and the organization anonymized the names before I ever saw the compiled report. A few, unedited:
"Thank you" is not enough to say for what you came and did for us. I bet you get letters like this all of the time, but I just want you to know that your story changed my life, changed it in too many ways to say.
Thank you for teaching me that I am loved beyond belief.
I'm really sorry for what happened with your son and if I ever have any children I'll use your advice, because you really did know how to take care of children.
Why I'm posting this now, fifteen years later
This evaluation is old. I'm not presenting it as evidence of what happens at a presentation booked this year — the format has changed since 2011, and I've made changes the report itself recommended, including shortening the narrative portion. The supporting documents and lesson plan I've developed since then also give schools a stronger foundation for preparing students and following through after the assembly.
What it does show is that ten of the schools I visited were independently evaluated, with the 90% and 99% findings tied to specific audiences in that program. Today, my work has reached 2,500+ schools and over a million students. This report offers a documented look at one part of that longer history — including what worked, what needed more attention, and why I've continued improving what I offer schools.
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