Staff may not see the value of engaging in a rigorous evaluation
in addition to the regular evaluation required by the federal
Magnet Schools Assistance Program grant. Reading and
discussing this fictitious conversation between an evaluator and
a program manager will help staff reflect on how much additional
information a rigorous evaluation can generate about the impact
of their magnet program.

Excerpted from the Human Resources and Social Development
evaluation website for the Government of Canada (1998,
January). Last accessed on December 16, 2008, at

3. How would a rigorous evaluation address these questions? Specifically,
how would the use of a comparison group provide more useful information
for the program manager?

government\u2019s evaluation website for Human Resources and Social Development includes this
fictional conversation between an evaluator and a program manager. The evaluator pushes
the manager to think about various possible interpretations of his program\u2019s results, and
describes the benefits of a quasi-experimental evaluation design that includes a comparison
group.

are doing better than that but I\u2019d say that having 70% of our trainees working would make our
program look very good, especially given the barriers many of our clients face when they
come to us.