Program evaluation

Program Evaluation

Program evaluation is essentially a method to determine if a program 'works'. That is, does the program do what it is supposed to do.

Behind this seemingly simple question are a host of other more complex questions. For example, the first question is, what is a program supposed to do? It is often difficult to define what a program is supposed to do, so indirect indicators may be used instead. For example schools are supposed to 'educate' people. But what does 'educate' mean? Give knowledge? Teach how to think? If the exact goal cannot be defined well, it is difficult to indicate whether the program 'works'.

Another question about programs is, what else do they do? There may be unintended or unforseen consequences of a program. Some consequences may be postive and some may be negative. These unintended consequences may be as important as the intended consequences. So evaluations should measure not just whether the program does what it should be doing, but what else it may be doing.

Perhaps the most difficult part of evaluation is determining whether it is the program itself that is doing something. There may be other events or processes that are really causing the outcome, or preventing the hoped for outcome. However, due to the nature of the program, many evaluations cannot determine whether the program, or something else, is the 'cause'.

Many programs do not, and cannot, involve random assignment. People choose themselves to enter the program, and the program accepts anyone who wishes to use the program. Thus, you cannot tell whether there is something about the person, who chose to enter the program, that would have resulted in the intended outcome even if there were no program. In such cases, the outcomes of the program can be described, but causes cannot be assigned.

External Links

• International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation Includes a link to Evaluation Associations
• Resources for Methods in Evaluation and Social Research Links to free resources on doing evaluation.