CONTENTS

Table of Contents
Introduction

1. Introduction to Evaluation
2. What Does an Evaluation Project Look Like
3. Understanding Types of Evaluation Projects
4. Preparing for Your Evaluation

Supplements
Resources

Evaluation for the Unevaluated:
Program Evaluation 101

Step 2. Design the evaluation and the methodology

After a flurry of e-mails, Jack convened a second, more focused meeting. He invited the outside evaluator. Jack and his team answered questions about the evaluation project and methodology to make sure they and the evaluator were on the same page:

• What type of evaluation do we want?
• What questions are we going to ask?
• What timeframe will it cover?
• How are we going to collect data? What types of instruments should we use?
• What kind of permission do we need to collect data on our kids?
• Where will we find a comparison group? (A comparison group is used to help you assess the extent to which changes you see in your program resulted from your program or whether they would have occurred anyway. For Cool After School, the comparison group is an equal number of kids in the same age range from the same school district who do not have access to a structured after school program.)
• What kind of products do we want? Reports? Briefings? Hard copies? E-copies?
• Who will bring cookies to the next meeting?