INTRODUCTION TO EVALUATION ACTIVITY

Which of the three little pigs built the best house?

In the classic tale of the three little pigs, each of the three pigs builds a house as they
leave the family home. THE BIG BAD WOLF destroys the houses of the first two pigs,
built out of straw and wood respectively, but is unable to destroy the home of the THIRD
LITTLE PIG, which was constructed out of bricks. Therefore, this house was the best
house, as it was able to withstand the huffs and puffs of the Big Bad Wolf.

The story illustrates a simple evaluationone criteria was used to present a result.
However, in the real world, evaluation is not so simple a procedure. Looking at the criteria
belowwho built the best house?

Rate each house below with a scale of 1-3 with 1 is best and 3 is worse
CRITERIA
Lowest cost of
materials
Least amount of
construction time
Greatest ability to
relocate house to
another location
Greatest use of
green, ecologically
friendly materials
Least amount of
danger to people
inside if the house
collapses
Add up the column,
circle the lowest
score that
represents the best

PIG ONE (grass)

PIG TWO (sticks)

PIG THREE (bricks)

house
The type of evaluation that a program may use, depends on the goal of the program, and
thus should be closely aligned with the program. It can be complicated to create a
meaningful evaluation as there are often many factors at play, especially for programs
based on people.
Challenge: create a grid as above where the best house is the house made of sticks or
bricks.
Rate each house below with a scale of 1-3 with 1 is best and 3 is worse
CRITERIA

PIG ONE (grass)

PIG TWO (sticks)

PIG THREE (bricks)

Add up the column,

circle the lowest
score that
represents the best
house
Now going back to the storywhat criteria would be important if the goal is to stand up to
the huffs and puffs of the BIG BAD WOLF? What criteria would be important if the goal
was to avoid the BIG BAD BANKER (i.e. huge construction costs, borrowing of money, a
mortgage) ??

The goal of Raising the Bar is for child care programs to offer quality programs for
children that go above and beyond the legislative requirements.

Work with the people at your table, and make a list of what makes a child care centre
GREAT beyond meeting legislation requirements? Brainstorm!!