CONTENTS

Table of Contents
Introduction

1. Descriptive Statistics in Evaluation
2. Subgroup Analysis
3. Variable - Are They Related?
4. Correlation
5. The t-Test of Difference Between Means

Supplements
Resources
Glossary

Wading Through the Data Swamp:
Program Evaluation 201

Background: Jack and the Bean Counters

Let's go back in time in our hypothetical evaluation.

The Program

A year ago, Cool After School, an after-school alcohol and drug prevention program for middle-school students was launched. Jack was hired as the director.

The Evaluation Questions

With some of his grant money, Jack hired an evaluator. Jack and the evaluator developed an evaluation plan and came up with the following measurable questions:

1. Did program participants reduce use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs compared to nonparticipants?
2. Did program participants delay the onset of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use compared to nonparticipants?
3. Did program participants improve school performance compared to nonparticipants?
4. Did program participants improve attitudes toward school compared to nonparticipants ?
5. Did program participants increase disapproval of drug use compared to nonparticipants ?

For this tutorial, we are only going to look at the first research question. This is because Jack's evaluator has only completed analyses on this question. He will eventually address all the research questions in his final report. (In reality, he would complete all the analyses, but we don't want to overload you with data.)