Chapter 6: What Should You Include in an Evaluation Plan?
If you decided to build a house, you probably would hire an architect to design the
house and draw up the plans. Although it is possible to build a house without hiring an architect,
this professional knows what is and is not structurally possible and understands the complex issues
relevant to setting the foundation and placing the pipes, ducts, and electrical wires. An architect
also knows what materials to use in various parts of the house and the types of materials that are
best. However, an architect cannot design the house for you unless you tell him or her what you
want.
An evaluation plan is a lot like an architect's plans for a house. It is a written
document that specifies the evaluation design and details the practices and procedures to use to
conduct the evaluation. Just as you would have an architect develop the plans for your house, it is
a good idea to have an experienced evaluator develop the plans for your evaluation. Similarly, just
as an architect cannot design your house without input from you, an experienced evaluator cannot
develop an effective evaluation plan without assistance from you and your staff. The evaluator has
the technical expertise, but you and your staff have the program expertise. Both are necessary for
a useful evaluation plan.
If you plan to hire an outside evaluator to head your evaluation team, you may want
to specify developing the evaluation plan as one of the evaluator's responsibilities, with
assistance from you and program staff. If you plan to conduct an in-house evaluation and do not
have someone on your evaluation team who is an experienced evaluator, this is a critical point at
which to seek assistance from an evaluation consultant. The consultant can help you prepare the
evaluation plan to ensure that your design and methodology are technically correct and appropriate
for answering the evaluation questions.
This chapter provides information about the necessary ingredients to include in an
evaluation plan. This information will help you:
Work with an experienced evaluator (either an outside evaluator or someone within
your agency) to develop the plan.
Review the plan that an outside evaluator has developed to make sure all the
ingredients are included.
Understand the kinds of things that are required in an evaluation and why your
outside evaluator or evaluation consultant has chosen a specific design or methodology.
An evaluation plan should be developed at least 2 to 3 months before the time you
expect to begin the evaluation so that you have ample time to have the plan reviewed, make any
necessary changes, and test out information collection procedures and instruments before collecting
data.
Do not begin collecting evaluation information until the plan is completed and the
instruments have been pilot-tested. A sample evaluation plan outline that may be used as a guide
appears at the end of this chapter. The major sections of the outline are discussed below.
Section I. The evaluation framework
This section can be used to present the program model (discussed in Chapter 5),
program objectives, evaluation questions, and the timeframe for the evaluation (when collection of
evaluation information will begin and end). It also should include a discussion of the context for
the evaluation, particularly the aspects of the agency, program staff, and participants that may
affect the evaluation (also discussed in Chapter 5). If an outside evaluator is preparing the plan,
the evaluator will need your help to prepare this section.
Section II. Evaluating implementation objectives — procedures and
methods
This section should provide detailed descriptions of the practices and procedures
that will be used to answer evaluation questions pertaining to your program's implementation
objectives. (Are implementation objectives being attained and, if not, why not? What barriers were
encountered? What has facilitated attainment of objectives?)
Types of information needed. In an evaluation, information is often
referred to as data. Many people think that the term "data" refers to numerical information. In
fact, data can be facts, statistics, or any other items of information. Therefore, any information
that is collected about your program or participants can be considered evaluation data.
The types of information needed will be guided by the objective you assess. For
example, when the objective refers to what you plan to do, you must collect information on the
types of services, activities, or educational/training products that are developed and implemented;
who received them; and their duration and intensity.
When the objective pertains to who will do it, you must collect information on the
characteristics of program staff (including their background and experience), how they were
recruited and hired, their job descriptions, the training they received to perform their jobs, and
the general staffing and supervisory arrangements for the program.
When the objective concerns who will participate, you must collect information
about the characteristics of the participants, the numbers of participants, how they were
recruited, barriers encountered in the recruitment process, and factors that facilitated
recruitment.
Sources of necessary information. This refers to where, or from whom, you
will obtain evaluation information. Again, the selection of sources will be guided by the objective
you are assessing. For example:
Information on services can come from program records or from interviews with
program staff.
Information on staff can come from program records, interviews with agency
administrators, staff themselves, and program managers.
Information on participants and recruitment strategies can come from program
records and interviews with program staff and administrators.
Information about barriers and facilitators to implementing the program can come
from interviews with relevant program personnel.
This section of the plan also should include a discussion of how confidentiality of
information will be maintained. You will need to develop participant consent forms that include a
description of the evaluation objectives and how the information will be used. A sample participant
consent form is provided at the end of this chapter.
How sources of information will be selected. If your program has a large
number of staff members or participants, the time and cost of the evaluation can be reduced by
including only a sample of these staff or participants as sources for evaluation information. If
you decide to sample, you will need the assistance of an experienced evaluator to ensure that the
sampling procedures result in a group of participants or staff that are appropriate for your
evaluation objectives. Sampling is a complicated process, and if you do not sample correctly you
run the risk of not being able to generalize your evaluation results to your participant population
as a whole.
There are a variety of methods for sampling your sources.
You can sample by identifying a specific timeframe for collecting
evaluation-related information and including only those participants who were served during that
timeframe.
You can sample by randomly selecting the participants (or staff) to be used in the
evaluation. For example, you might assign case numbers to participants and include only the
even-numbered cases in your evaluation.
You can sample based on specific criteria, such as length of time with the program
(for staff) or characteristics of participants.
Methods for collecting information. For each implementation objective you
are assessing, the evaluation plan must specify how information will be collected (the instruments
and procedures) and who will collect it. To the extent possible, collection of evaluation
information should be integrated into program operations. For example, in direct services programs,
the program's intake, assessment, and termination forms could be designed so that they are useful
for evaluation purposes as well as for program purposes.
In training programs, the registration forms for participants can be used to
collect evaluation-related information as well as provide information relevant to conducting the
training. If your program uses a management information system (MIS) to track services and
participants, it is possible that it will incorporate much of the information that you need for
your evaluation.
There are a number of methods for collecting information including structured and
open-ended interviews, paper and pencil inventories or questionnaires, observations, and systematic
reviews of program or agency records or documents. The methods you select will depend upon the
following:
The evidence you need to establish that your objectives were attained
Your sources
Your available resources
Chapter 7 provides more information on these methods. The instruments or forms that
you will use to collect evaluation information should be developed or selected as part of the
evaluation plan. Do not begin an evaluation until all of the data collection instruments are
selected or developed. Again, instrument development or selection can be a complex process and your
evaluation team may need assistance from an experienced evaluator for this task.
Confidentiality. An important part of implementing an evaluation is ensuring
that your participants are aware of what you are doing and that they are cooperating with the
evaluation voluntarily. People should be allowed their privacy, and this means they have the right
to refuse to give any personal or family information, the right to refuse to answer any questions,
and even the right to refuse to be a part of the evaluation at all.
Explain the evaluation activities and what will be required of them as part of the
evaluation effort. Tell them that their name will not be used and that the information they provide
will not be linked to them. Then, have them sign an informed consent form that documents that they
understand the scope of the evaluation, know what is expected of them, agree (or disagree) to
participate, and understand they have the right to refuse to give any information. They should also
understand that they may drop out of the evaluation at any time without losing any program
services. If children are involved, you must get the permission of their parents or guardians
concerning their participation in the evaluation.
A sample informed consent form appears at the end of this chapter. Sometimes
programs will have participants complete this form at the same time that they complete forms
agreeing to participate in the program, or agreeing to let their children participate. This reduces
the time needed for the evaluator to secure informed consent.
Timeframe for collecting information. Although you will have already
specified a general timeframe for the evaluation, you will need to specify a time frame for
collecting data relevant to each implementation objective. Times for data collection will again be
guided by the objective under assessment.You should be sure to consider collecting evaluation at
the same time for all participants; for example, after they have been in the program for 6
months.
Methods for analyzing information. This section of an evaluation plan
describes the practices and procedures for use in analyzing the evaluation information. For
assessing program implementation, the analyses will be primarily descriptive and may involve
tabulating frequencies (of services and participant characteristics) and classifying narrative
information into meaningful categories, such as types of barriers encountered, strategies for
overcoming barriers, and types of facilitating factors. An experienced evaluator can help your
evaluation team design an analysis plan that will maximize the benefits of the evaluation for the
program and for program staff. More information on analyzing program implementation information is
provided in Chapter 8.
Section III. Evaluating participant outcome objectives
The practices and procedures for evaluating attainment of participant outcome
objectives are similar to those for evaluating implementation objectives. However, this part of
your evaluation plan will need to address a few additional issues.
Selecting your evaluation design. A plan for evaluating participant outcome
objectives must include a description of the evaluation design. Again, the assistance of an
experienced evaluator (either an outside evaluator, consultant, or someone within your agency) is
critical at this juncture.
The evaluation design must allow you to anser these basic questions about your
participants:
Did program participants demonstrate changes in knowledge, attiudes, behaviors, or
awareness?
Were the changes the result of the program's interventions
Two commonly used evaluation designs are:
Pre-intervention and post-intervention assessments
Pre-intervention and post-intervention assessments using a comparison or control
group
A pre- and post-interventiondesign involves collectin information only on program
participants. This information is collected at least twice: once before participatns begin the
program and again either immediately or some time after they complete or leave the program. You can
collect outcome information as often as you like after participants enter the program, but you must
collect information on participants before they enter the program. This is called baseline
information and is esstial for demonstrating that a change occurred.
If you are implementing an education or training program, this type of design can
be effective for evaluating immediate changes in participants' knowledge and attitudes. In these
types of programs, you can assess participants' knowledge and attitudes prior to the training and
immediately after training with some degree of certainty that any observed changes resulted from
your interventions.
However, if you want to assess longer-term outcomes of training and education
programs or any outcomes of service delivery programs, the pre-intervention and post-intervention
design by itself is not recommended. Collecting information only on program participants does not
allow you to answer the question: Were participant changes the result of program interventions? The
changes may have occurred as a result of other interventions, or are changes that might have
occurred without any intervention at all.
To be able to attribute participant changes toyour program's intervention, yo need
to use a pre- and post-intervention design that incorporates a comparisionor control group. In this
design, two groups of individuals are included in your evaluation.
The treatment group (individuals who aprticipate in your program).
The nontreatment gorup (individuals who are similar to those in the treatment
group, but who do not receive the same services as the treatment group.
The nontreatment group is called a control group if all eleigible program
participants are randomly assigned to the treatment and nontreatment groups. Random assignmetn
means that members of both groups can be assumed to be similar with respect toall key
charactereistics except program participation. Thus, potential sources of biases are "controlled."
A comparison group is a nontreatment group where you do not randomly assign people. A
comparison gorup could be families from another program, childre from another school, or former
program participants.
Using a control group greatly strengthens your evaluation, but ther eare barriers
to implementing this design option. Program staff amy view random assignment as unethical because
it deprives eligible participants of needed services. As a result, staff sometimes will priortize
elgible participatns rather than use random assignemtn, or staff may simply refuse to assign
individuals to the control group. Staff from other agencies may also feel random assignmetn is
unethical and may refuse to refer individuals to your program.
To avoid these potential barriers, educate staff from you program and from other
agencies in your community about the benefits of the random assignment process. No one would argue
with the belief that it is important to provide services to individuals who need them. However, it
is also important to find out if those services actually work. The random assignment process helps
you determine whether or not your program's services are having the anticipated effect on
participants. Staff from your program and form other agencies also must be informed that random
assignment does not mean that control group members cannot receive any services or training. They
may participate in the program after the evaluation data have been collected, or they may receive
other types of services or training.
Another potential barrier to usin ga control group is the number of program
participant that are recruited. If you find that you are recruiting fewer participants than you
orignally anticipanted, you may not want to randomly assign participants to a control group because
it would reduce the size of your service popoulation.
A final barrier is the difficulty of enlisting control group members in the
evaluation process. Because control group members have not participated in the program, they are
unlikely to have an interest in the evaluation and may refuse to be interviewed or complete a
questionnaire. Some evaluation efforts set aside funds to provide money or othr incentives to
encourage both control group and treatment group members to participate in the evaluation. Although
there is some potential for bias in this situation, it is usually outweighed by the need to collect
information from control group members.
If you are implementing a program in which random assignment of participants to
treatment and control groups is not possible, you will need to identify a group of individuals or
families who are similar to those participating in your program whom you can assess as part of your
evaluation. This group is called a comparison group. Similar to a control group, members of
a comparison group may receive other types of services or no services at all. Although using
comparison groups means that programs do not have to deny services to eligible participants, you
cannot be sure that the two groups are completely similar. You may have to collect enough
information at baseline to try and control for potential differences as part of your statistical
analyses.
Comparison group members may be participants in other programs provided by your
agency or in programs offered by other agencies. If you plan to use a comparison group, you must
make sure that this group will be available for assessments during the time frame of your
evaluation. Also, be aware that comparison group members, like control group members, are difficult
to enlist in an evaluation. The evaluation plan will need to specify strategies for encouraging
nontreatment group members to take part in the evaluation.
Pilot-testing information collection instruments. Your plans for evaluating
participant outcome objectives will need to include a discussion of plans for pilot-testing and
revising information collection instruments. Chapter 7 provides information on pilot-testing
instruments.
Analyzing participant outcome information. The plan for evaluating
participant outcomes must include a comprehensive data analysis plan. The analyses must be
structured to answer the questions about whether change occurred and whether these changes can be
attributed to the program. A more detailed discussion on analyzing information on participant
outcomes is provided in Chapter 8.
Section IV. Procedures for managing and monitoring the evaluation
This section of the evaluation plan can be used to describe the practices and
procedures you expect to use to manage the evaluation. If staff are to be responsible for data
collection, you will need to describe how they will be trained and monitored. You may want to
develop a data collection manual that staff can use. This will ensure consistency in information
collection and will be useful for staff who are hired after the evaluation begins. Chapter 7
discusses various types of evaluation monitoring activities.
This final section of the evaluation plan also should include a discussion of how
changes in program operations will be handled in the evaluation. For example, if a particular
service or program component is discontinued or added to the program, you will need to have
procedures for documenting the time that this change occurred, the reasons for the change, and
whether particular participants were involved in the program prior to or after the change. This
will help determine whether the change had any impact on attainment of expected outcomes.
Once you and your experienced evaluator have completed the evaluation plan, it is a
good idea to have it reviewed by selected individuals for their comments and suggestions. Potential
reviewers include the following:
Agency administrators who can determine whether the evaluation plan is consistent
with the agency's resources and evaluation objectives.
Program staff who can provide feedback on whether the evaluation will involve an
excessive burden for them and whether it is appropriate for program participants.
Advisory board members who can assess whether the evaluation will provide the type
of information most important to know.
Participants and community members who can determine if the evaluation instruments
and procedures are culturally sensitive and appropriate.
After the evaluation plan is complete and the instruments pilot tested, you are
ready to begin collecting evaluation information. Because this process is so critical to the
success of an evaluation, the major issues pertaining to information collection discussed in more
detail in the following chapter.
Sample Outline for Evaluation Plan
Evaluation framework
What you are going to evaluate
Program model (assumptions about target population, interventions, immediate
outcomes, intermediate outcomes, and final outcomes)
Program implementation objectives (stated in general and then measurable terms)
What you plan to do and how
Who will do it
Participant population and recruitment strategies
Participant outcome objectives (stated in general and then measurable terms)
Context for the evaluation
Questions to be addressed in the evaluation
Are implementation objectives being attained? If not, why (that is, what barriers
or problems have been encountered)? What kinds of things facilitated implementation?
Are participant outcome objectives being attained? If not, why (that is, what
barriers or problems have been encountered)? What kinds of things facilitated attainment of
participant outcomes?
Do participant outcomes vary as a function of program features? (That is, which
aspects of the program are most predictive of expected outcomes?)
Do participant outcomes vary as a function of characteristics of the participants
or staff?
Timeframe for the evaluation
When data collection will begin and end
How and why timeframe was selected
Evaluating implementation objectives — procedures and methods
(question 1: Are implementation objectives being attained, and if not, why not?)
Objective 1 (state objective in measurable terms)
Type of information needed to determine if objective 1 is being attained and to
assess barriers and facilitators
Sources of information (that is, where you plan to get the information including
staff, participants, program documents). Be sure to include your plans for maintaining
confidentiality of the information obtained during the evaluation
How sources of information were selected
Time frame for collecting information
Methods for collecting the information (such as interviews, paper and pencil
instruments, observations, records reviews)
Methods for analyzing the information to determine whether the objective was
attained (that is, tabulation of frequencies, assessment of relationships between or among
variables)
Repeat this information for each implementation objective being assessed in the
evaluation
Evaluating participant outcome objectives—procedures and methods
(question 2: Are participant outcome objectives being attained and if not, why not?)
Evaluation design
Objective 1 (state outcome objective in measurable terms)
Types of information needed to determine if objective 1 is being attained (that
is, what evidence will you use to demonstrate the change?)
Methods of collecting that information (for example, questionnaires, observations,
surveys, interviews) and plans for pilot-testing information collection methods
Sources of information (such as program staff, participants, agency staff, program
managers, etc.) and sampling plan, if relevant
Timeframe for collecting information
Methods for analyzing the information to determine whether the objective was
attained (i.e., tabulation of frequencies, assessment of relationships between or among variables
using statistical tests)
Repeat this information for each participant outcome objective being assessed in
the evaluation
Procedures for managing and monitoring the evaluation
Procedures for training staff to collect evaluation-related information
Procedures for conducting quality control checks of the information collection
process
Timelines for collecting, analyzing, and reporting information, including
procedures for providing evaluation-related feedback to program managers and staff
Sample Informed Consent Form
We would like you to participate in the Evaluation of [program name]. Your
participation is important to us and will help us assess the effectiveness of the program. As a
participant in [program name] we will ask you to [complete a questionnaire, answer questions in
an interview, or other task].
We will keep all of your answers confidential. Your name will never be included in
any reports and none of your answers will be linked to you in any way. The information that you
provide will be combined with information from everyone else participating in the study.
[If information/data collection includes questions relevant to behaviors such as
child abuse, drug abuse, or suicidal behaviors, the program should make clear its potential legal
obligation to report this information — and that confidentiality may be broken in these cases. Make
sure that you know what your legal reporting requirements are before you begin your
evaluation.]
You do not have to participate in the evaluation. Even if you agree to participate
now, you may stop participating at any time or refuse to answer any question. Refusing to be part
of the evaluation will not affect your participation or the services you receive in [program
name].
If you have any questions about the study you may call [name and telephone
number of evaluator, program manager or community advocate].
By signing below, you confirm that this form has been explained to you and that you
understand it.
Please Check One:
AGREE TO PARTICIPATE
DO NOT AGREE TO PARTICIPATE
__________________________________________Signed:
Participant or Parent/Guardian