Foreward

The Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) is dedicated to improving the lives of children and their families through the development of effective and appropriate programs and policies. For many years, ACYF has provided funding to States and communities to deliver a wide range of child and family support and family preservation services. ACYF also has conducted program evaluations of these local and national service delivery efforts with one important goal in mind: to ensure that children and families receive appropriate services that prevent adverse outcomes for children and promote family independence and quality of life.

Good program evaluations assess program performance, measure impacts on families and communities, and document our successes. With this information, ACYF is better able to direct limited resources to where they are most needed and most effective in our communities. To help program managers fulfill these goals, ACYF has developed a series of guidebooks that explain program evaluation-what it is, how to understand it, and how to do it. This main evaluation guidebook, The Program Manager's Guide to Evaluation, answers your questions about evaluation and explains how to use evaluation to improve programs and benefit staff and families. There are four companion handbooks to this guide each addressing evaluation issues specific to four ACYF program areas - Children's Bureau, Family and Youth Services Bureau, Head Start Bureau, and the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. (The Child Care Bureau, the fifth ACYF program area, was not formally organized in 1993 when this project began.)

Whether you are a program manager of a small project or a large multi-site, multi-component program, The Program Manager's Guide to Evaluation provides you with information and instruction to help you get the most out of your evaluation efforts. Evaluation is an important and integral part of any program and ACYF is proud to offer this evaluation guide series to help program managers.

Olivia Golden
Commissioner
Administration on Children, Youth and Families

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) and KRA Corporation (KRA) are extremely grateful to the many people who contributed to the development of the program evaluation series and to this guidebook. We are indebted to the following panel of expert evaluators who provided guidance and supervision to the authors and reviewers throughout this effort:

Ann S. Bardwell, Ph.D.
Drake University

John W. Fantuzzo, Ph.D.
University of Pennsylvania

Susan L. Stein, Ph.D.
OMNI Research and Training, Inc.

Diana J. English, Ph.D.
Washington State Department of
Social and Health Services

Ellen B. Gray, Ph.D.
Allegheny College

Peter H. Rossi, Ph.D.
Social and Demographic Research Institute

Ying-Ying T. Yuan, Ph.D.
Walter R. MacDonald & Associates

The Program Manager's Guide to Evaluation was reviewed by program managers and evaluators in the field. We gratefully acknowledge the following people for their time in reviewing the guide and for their thoughtful comments and suggestions:

Darnell Bell
SHIELDS for Families
Los Angeles, California

Joan W. DiLeonardi, Ph.D.
Chicago, Illinois

Susan Flint
The Judge Baker Children's Center
Boston, Massachusetts

Vincent J. Geremia
Missouri Department of Social Services
Jefferson City, Missouri

Catherine Harlan
Utah Department of Social Services
Salt Lake City, Utah

Sara Jarvis
Southeastern Network of Youth and Family Services
Athens, Georgia

Erika Kates, Ph.D.
Family Preservation Evaluation Project, Tufts University
Medford, Massachusetts

Lenore J. Olsen, Ph.D.
Research Applications
Sharon, Massachusetts