CONTENTS

Table of Contents
Introduction

1. Evaluation and the Program Planning Process
2. Data Analysis, or "What Do You Mean by That?"
3. Special Challenges in Evaluating Prevention Programs

Supplements
Resources

Evaluation for the Unevaluated:
Program Evaluation 102

Presenting the Data

Fortunately for Jack and the average prevention program manager, the popularity of USA Today's colorful charts and graphs has helped ease the public's comfort with statistical presentations. It is easy enough to ask your evaluator to place all of the detailed data in an appendix and bring the key findings to the forefront with graphic presentations.

For Cool After School, data were presented in the following types of formats:

Pie charts are useful for describing components of a group. Each slice of the pie is a percent and the whole totals 100 percent. For example, a pie chart is useful for describing the ethnic background of program participants.

Bar charts are useful for showing the difference between two groups on the factor being measured. For example, a bar chart can show the difference between boys and girls on marijuana use.

Line graphs are great for showing trends across time. A line graph shows average days of marijuana use among boys before the Cool After School program and after. You can see that marijuana use decreased.

Frequency tables tell you "how many." For Cool After School, a frequency table could show how many students used alcohol in the past month. Here's how it looks for the first 10 students.