New Resource Clearly Describes Ideal Federal Evaluation Process; Applicable to Many Contexts by Leah Goldstein Moses

February 10, 2012 - 4:40pm
The federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently revised its Designing Evaluations guide. It is incredibly comprehensive, from deciding which evaluation model best fits different situations to determining which approaches to use in an evaluation. Some of the highlights:
  • Page 5 describes the different reasons you might want to use an internal or external evaluator
  • Pages 15-16 describe different evaluation models, and when they are most appropriate to use
Read More

A Community Lightning Rod Matures into a Center for Learning, Arts, Well-being and Service by Leah Goldstein Moses

January 27, 2012 - 3:30pm
In 2007-2008, we had the pleasure of working with the Business, Arts and Recreation Center in Windom. Three big issues launched the organization:
  • A crisis. The large old Windom 1931 school building was being shut down, and was scheduled for demolition in 2000. Community members, and those who had grown up and attended school in the building, were not ready to lose it.
Read More

Report Cards: A Tool for Programs, Their Clients, and Evaluation by Leah Goldstein Moses

January 24, 2012 - 4:54pm
Recently, we worked with Nonprofits Assistance Fund to increase the value of their Financial Needs Assessment by presenting results in a report for nonprofits. Before developing the report, the practice of Nonprofits Assistance Fund was to review the results of each assessment individually and prepare reports, presentations or summaries when asked by client organizations.
Read More

Environment – an emerging critical factor in evaluation by Leah Goldstein Moses

January 3, 2012 - 3:31pm
Say you are working to change something big across a large population; for example, tobacco use, or teen pregnancy rates, or recycling habits. Traditionally, programs have been designed with the idea that knowledge and attitudes lead to behavior change (see earlier post). For example, teach people about the dangers of tobacco use, help them develop new beliefs about the health risks of tobacco use, and you will see rates fall.
Read More

A Need for Evaluating Stakeholders by Leah Goldstein Moses

December 14, 2011 - 6:43pm
There was a recent flurry of activity on the Evaltalk listserv about the concept of stakeholders in evaluation, and how evaluators address stakeholder needs when planning an evaluation, and engage stakeholders in carrying out an evaluation.
Read More

Disaster #4: You didn’t really want that report, did you? By Leah Goldstein Moses

November 14, 2011 - 9:27am
Blue folder with danger symbolSo far in this series, we’ve addressed data security, consent, and bad survey questions. Now we turn to a problem that isn’t specific to evaluation: over promising, under delivering.
Read More

Disaster #3: You asked what? Or, not thinking through the questions your questions might generate by Leah Goldstein Moses

November 7, 2011 - 9:22am
Imagine you are evaluating a program that is designed to stop bullying, particularly the kind of bullying that targets kids from specific groups.
Read More

Disaster #2: Really bad consent procedures

October 31, 2011 - 9:49am
In research, we ask people for their consent so that we can be sure they understand and agree to any risks. A typical consent process includes four parts:
  1. An explanation of the study and why it is being done, and what information we are asking for
Read More

Disaster #1: Maybe you shouldn’t be able to take all your data with you - by Leah Goldstein Moses

October 24, 2011 - 9:18am
Read More

Disasters in evaluation by Leah Goldstein Moses

October 18, 2011 - 7:10pm
A series on avoiding or solving big problems that can happen in evaluation
Read More

Pages