We were extremely fortunate to have past and present Presidents of the American Evaluation Association as our guest speakers at the 2012 Eastern Evaluation Research Society’s conference – Eleanor Chelimsky, Jennifer Greene, and Rodney Hopson. Even though the conference was a couple weeks ago, I’m…
Schools are goldmines of “lessons learned” for evaluators since schools have been immersed in (drowning in?) data since 2001′s No Child Left Behind. One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned from school systems is that there’s a big difference between assessments of learning vs….
When I get my New Directions for Evaluation journal from the American Evaluation Association in the mail every few months, I like to skim through the articles during my metro ride to work. I recently read about an evaluator’s experiences at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and I…
As an internal evaluator, capacity building is a huge part of my job. Evaluators talk about capacity building all the time, but what does it really look like? On the front lines? In a community-based youth center? I recently shared some notes from my algebra…
Evaluation is all about defining program outcomes and then measuring progress towards those outcomes. “Outcomes” is a strange word. Think of outcomes as goals. In particular, programs need SMART goals. Programs with SMART goals are more likely to be successful and efficient than programs with…