Barrett - Program Evaluation: A Step-by-Step Guide (Revised Edition)

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Program

Evaluation:

A Step-by-Step Guide

(Revised Edition)

Nancy F. Barrett EdD

Springfield, IL

www.sunnycrestpress.com

Copyright 2016 Nancy F. Barrett

All Rights Reserved

ISBN: 978-0-9970670-0-2

This book is dedicated to the hard-working and conscientious program managers, directors, and unit leaders who never in a million years thought their jobs would involve Evaluation.

Contents

Introduction

As a busy professional, you may be asked to reduce programs, cut budgets, or change staffing patterns. How can you make good recommendations? By implementing a comprehensive evaluation!

Program Evaluation: A Step-By Step Guide (Revised Edition) will teach you how to design and implement a thorough evaluation. By demystifying the evaluation process, you will have the knowledge, skills and confidence to help you make these difficult decisions.

Part 1 will give you just enough theory to understand the principles of evaluation. This section will:

• Define evaluation
• Describe the three main evaluation purposes and
• Identify different types of evaluations

Part 2 will provide you with a practical road map for conducting your own evaluation. Here you will learn how to:

• Write good questions
• Collect and analyze data and
• Report the result

Part 3 goes a beyond the basics of evaluation and introduces you to:

• Delphi Interview techniques
• Critical Incident reporting and
• Root Cause Analysis

The Appendices provide practical information about evaluation including:

• An evaluation template
• Reporting guidelines and
• Evaluation resources

Throughout the process, we will refer to a scenario so you will have an example to refer to along the way.

Please note that the focus of this book is on evaluating programs and not individuals. If you are interested in measuring employee performance, Kirkpatricks Levels of Learning Model is a good place to start. I have included information about this method in .

We will now get started with basic terms and concepts important in understanding the program evaluation process.

Part 1.

Evaluation Terms and Concepts

The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple. -Oscar Wilde

Definition

Just what is an evaluation? Here is a simple working definition:

Program evaluation is the determination of the value or worth of a product, process or program.

Implicit in this definition is that SOMEONE makes a value judgment about the activity in question.

That someone is the evaluator!

To be good at it, the evaluator needs a combination of knowledge of evaluation methods, discretion, positivity and keen observational skills.

Lets think about why we evaluate in the first place.

Evaluation Purposes

There are three reasons to do a program evaluation:

1. To identify new programs (Needs Assessment)

2. To change an existing programs (Improvement)

3. To describe outcomes in a completed program (Justification).

summarizes these three evaluation purposes and describes their potential uses.

Table 1. Evaluation Types, Purposes and Uses
Type	Purpose	Possible Uses
Needs Assessment	Identify new programs	Reach new audiences; increase revenue
Improvement	Make adjustments	Increase efficiency
Justification	Document goal attainment	Reporting to funding agencies

The needs assessment seeks to expand services. This can occur either by building on existing strengths and abilities or by identifying unmet needs.

An improvement evaluation focuses on an existing program and seeks ways to make it better.

A justification evaluation identifies ways that the program or activity has met its stated goals. This function is particularly important when reporting results to funding agencies.

Whatever the purpose of the evaluation, one good way to learn about the process is to follow a scenario as you learn. Read through this simulated case and think about how an evaluation might be used. We will refer back to it many times as we proceed through our discussion of evaluation so keep this situation in mind.

Evaluation Scenario: You work for Milgram Book Publishing Company. Because of the changes in the industry and competition from electronic book publishers, your company has recently merged with another publisher, Quantum Books. Your new company is now called Omega Publishers. It has been six months since the merger occurred. There have been some lay-offs, the EPUB section is expanding and new products are being considered. Although Omega Publishing still has to work out some of the details, the new CEO wants to know how things are going and she has asked you to help.

We are learning that evaluations can be used to identify new programs, improve existing programs or document that you have achieved specific goals.

Another way to think about these different evaluation purposes is to consider activities oriented in time, as Arden did. This approach may help you better understand these three evaluation purposes.

builds on the evaluation purposes outlined earlier in Table 1. Now we add a fourth element: Time.

Look first at Needs Assessment. We see it is future-oriented because you want to develop new programs. If you need to improve an existing program, you will be focused on the present. And if you want to determine if you have met your goals, you will be looking at past achievements.

It is not uncommon to have some combination of past, present and future orientations especially if you are evaluating a complex project or activity as presented in our scenario.

Table 2. Temporal Orientation of Evaluation
Type	Purpose	Possible Uses	Time
Needs Assessment	Identify new programs	Reach new audiences; increase revenue	Future
Improvement	Make adjustments	Increase efficiency	Present
Justification	Document goal attainment	Reporting to funding agencies	Past

We will explore this more in Part 2, but for now, just keep this in mind as we move on to different types of evaluations.

Types of Evaluation

Evaluations can be described in different ways: who does the evaluation; how it is organized; and the type of data that is collected. This section will address each of these evaluation types, starting with who designs and implements the study.

Whether the evaluation is best conducted by someone from within the organization (an internal evaluation) or by an outside consultant (external evaluation) is the very first consideration in structuring the evaluation. Both types of evaluations can provide useful information. Both have strengths and both have weaknesses.

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