Developing an Evaluation Plan

Why should you have an evaluation plan? guides you through each step of the evaluation helps you decide what sort of information you and your stakeholders really need keeps you from gathering information that isn't needed helps you identify the best possible ways to get the needed information helps you come up with a reasonable and realistic timeline for evaluation helps you improve your initiative

When should you develop an evaluation plan? As soon as possible! The best time is before you implement the initiative. After that, you can do it anytime, but the earlier, the better.

What are the different types of stakeholders? Community groups Grantmakers and funders University-based researchers

Balancing costs and benefits: Ask the following questions: What do you need to know? What is required by the community? What is required by funding? Evaluation should take up about 10 - 15% of your total budget.

How do you develop an evaluation plan? Clarify program objectives and goals Develop evaluation questions Develop evaluation methods Set up a timeline for evaluation activities

Sample Evaluation Questions Who participates? How many hours? Why do participants enter and leave your programs? Are they satisfied? What services are given? Does it meet local needs? How has behavior changed? Is it beneficial?

Evaluation Methods Monitoring and feedback system Process & outcome measures, observations Member satisfaction survey Goal attainment scaling Behavioral surveys Interviews Community-level indicators

How do you set up a timeline for evaluation activities? Complete a table listing: Key evaluation questions Type of evaluation measures to be used to answer them Type of data collection Experimental design

How do you set up a timeline for evaluation activities? When do feedback and reports need to be provided? Whenever it's appropiate The end of the evaluation Periodically throughout the project o initiative

How do you set up a timeline for evaluation activities? When should evaluation end? After the project ends When the final report is due

What products should you get from the evaluation? A report includes: - Expected changes - Behavior changes - Community changes Specific tools Annual reports Quarterly/monthly reports Anything else agreed upon

What sort of standards should you follow? Fairness, accuracy, effectiveness The 1994 Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation standards Standards the committee outlined