Why is it worth it for your team or organization to invest in this right now? Be specific. To help think through why you might need an evaluation, Linfield and Posavac lay out four common types of evaluations that can help to narrow your focus. Start at the beginning. Which needs is this program meant to address? While this form of evaluation needs to happen during the program planning phase, it is also important to ask after the program is running.
Perhaps the needs have changed, or your understanding of them has deepened, since you first started. This type of evaluation examines the actual process being used to meet the needs. In other words, what is happening in the program currently? One of your main goals in this type of evaluation is to see whether the program is being implemented as planned.
Another name for this type of ongoing evaluation is simply monitoring. Has it made a difference in the lives of the participants? One way to track change is to ask people to complete an assessment when they first join your program and compare that to a similar assessment after a set time. Another, more difficult method would be to compare the change of program participants with those outside of the program. To use the youth ministry example again, it would be enlightening to be able to compare the development of teens in the weekly program vs.
For example, some churches have one full-time youth pastor to lead a program of over a hundred teens, while other churches have full-time youth pastors for programs of only teenagers. One of these programs is vastly more expensive than the other. There is a logical sequence here. Each type of evaluation answers a different set of questions and helps you make different decisions. Perhaps you only need to focus on one type right now, or maybe you need to dip into all four.
What do you need to focus on to move forward? One caution : If you try to accomplish too much with one evaluation effort, it is easy to lose focus and just end up with a bunch of data that is hard to know what to do with. Narrow your focus and only measure what you need to measure. Right from the beginning, you need to be thinking about everyone who needs to be involved in the evaluation efforts and how to get buy-in from each group.
Neglecting this step is a surefire way to make sure that the results of your evaluation never get used. If the primary leaders are disinterested or resistant to the evaluation, the likelihood that they will pay attention to the results or support the recommended improvements is low. If leaders feel threatened by the evaluation i. Some people naturally love surveys and being asked to share their opinions. Others, not so much. Is it clear what is being asked of them? What will motivate them to be engaged in the process?
There are many voices that you may need to include. Make a list of all your stakeholders. Some of them will only need to be informed of the evaluation, while others will need to be consulted and actually help shape the effort. Examples of other people you may want to communicate with include fellow staff members, senior leadership, your board, volunteers, parents if the program involves minors , donors, or even the church at large i. Casting vision and getting support early on will greatly increase the odds of your evaluation results being taken seriously and producing meaningful change.
In other words, if you do X and Y , on what grounds can you expect to get Z? If these assumptions are unknown, or faulty, it becomes very difficult to properly evaluate the effectiveness of a program.
Evaluating a program without knowing the theory behind how it should work is a little like a doctor administering tests without really knowing how the human body works. Even if she does know this much, a high temperature would indicate a problem but says nothing about what is causing it. A theory connects the dots.
Similarly, there is no point in issuing surveys and conducting interviews for an evaluation if it is unclear how the program is expected to produce results. Linfield and Posavac provide a good list of questions to ask during this part of the planning phase:. If there is not some sort of consensus here, this may be one of the more difficult tasks you encounter during your program evaluation.
It is worth the work, though. Minus Related Pages. Brainstorm potential stakeholders. These may include, among others: People affected by your program People involved in implementing the program or conducting the evaluation People who will use the results of the evaluation. Some helpful criteria for identifying whether a person or organization is a key stakeholder include that they: Increase the credibility of your program or your evaluation Are responsible for day-to-day implementation of the program activities that are being evaluated and will need to implement any changes Can advocate for the changes to the program that the evaluation may recommend, OR actively oppose the recommended changes Fund or authorize the continuation or expansion of the program.
What do you see as the main activities of the program? Which of the activities and outcomes are most important to you? What do you see as the most important evaluation questions at this time? Do you have preferences regarding the types of data that are collected e.
What resources e. In what parts or steps of this evaluation would you want to be involved? All or just some specific ones? How would you like to be kept apprised of this evaluation?
Gather credible evidence lite icon. Justify conclusions lite icon. Ensure use and share lessons learned lite icon. Top of Page. Contact Evaluation Program. E-mail: cdceval cdc. Get Email Updates. To receive email updates about this page, enter your email address: Email Address. What's this? Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website. Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
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