Example of the level of detail needed

Suppose the project is to help low-income first and second grade kids who have undiagnosed but correctable vision problems. The sections below indicate the kinds of information that would be need to describe the project.

Specific problem to be addressed 

Would provide the following kinds of information:

• A brief explanation of specifically why low income students are at greater risk of having uncorrected vision (i.e., whether it's because they're not tested, or that they're tested but never get appropriate glasses, or something else);

• How poor vision can impair the ability of children to do well in school, leading to worse outcomes for both the kids and their community (that is, what makes it a social problem);
• An appropriate threshold for "low income" (i.e., family incomes below the poverty line, or the kids qualify for subsidized lunches, or some other criterion).
• An indication of how much the intervention will help the vision of treated kids.

Target population

Would provide the following kinds of information:

• The school district or specific school where the intervention will occur and its broad characteristics (i.e., urban, suburban or rural, relative ranking on achievement tests, high school graduation rate, etc.);
• The number of first and second grade students in the district or school and the number of those students who are (or who are likely to be) below the cutoff to be considered low income;
• The frequency of undiagnosed vision problems in similar populations;
• An inference from that information about either or both of the following: the likely number of kids who need to be tested (not all of whom will have vision problems) or the number of kids who actually have vision problems;
• Other demographic characteristics that may help you find ways to reach the students (i.e., numbers of students who are refugees, or are from households whose first language is not English, or are from particular religious or cultural backgrounds).