Theory of Change (ToC) is a specific type of methodology for planning, participation,

and evaluation that is used in companies, philanthropy, not-for-profit and government sectors to

promote social change. Theory of Change defines long-term goals and then maps backward to
identify necessary preconditions.[1]
Theory of Change explains the process of change by outlining causal linkages in an initiative, i.e., its
shorter-term, intermediate, and longer-term outcomes. The identified changes are mapped – as the
“outcomes pathway” – showing each outcome in logical relationship to all the others, as well as
chronological flow. The links between outcomes are explained by “rationales” or statements of why
one outcome is thought to be a prerequisite for another.[2]
The innovation of Theory of Change lies (1) in making the distinction between desired and actual
outcomes and (2) in requiring stakeholders to model their desired outcomes before they decide on
forms of intervention to achieve those outcomes.
Theory of Change can begin at any stage of an initiative, depending on the intended use. A theory
developed at the outset is best at informing the planning of an initiative. Having worked out a change
model, practitioners can make more informed decisions about strategy and tactics. As monitoring
and evaluation data become available, stakeholders can periodically refine the Theory of Change as
the evidence indicates. A Theory of Change can be developed retrospectively by reading program
documents, talking to stakeholders, and analyzing data. This is often done during evaluations
reflecting what has worked or not in order to understand the past and plan for the future.

Setting up a Theory of Change is like making a roadmap

that outlines the steps by which you plan to achieve your
goal. It helps you define whether your work is contributing
towards achieving the impact you envision, and if there is
another way that you need to consider as well.
 
The Theory of Change tool not only helps to clearly
articulate and connect your work to your bigger goal, it
also allows you to spot potential risks in your plan by
sharing the underlying assumptions in each step. In large
organisations, when there may be several projects running
simultaneously, the Theory of Change helps to map these
different projects first and then consider how they link and
relate to each other.
 
 This tool can also aid in aligning team members to the
larger end goal, and help them understand their role in
achieving it.

Theory of Change
Public education has an important role to play in equitably preparing all students to lead
successful and happy lives, and helping America to prosper. But it needs a new theory of
change.

Learning must be more student-centered—that is, it must be built on a foundation of

strong relationships, responsive to basic needs, driven by student interests, respectful of
their identities, adaptive to their academic needs, relevant to their lives beyond school,
and not confined within school days and walls.

If student-centered learning customized to each student's needs is the goal, how do we get
there? Our theory of change is two-fold:

1. Teachers, who work closest with the students, must have larger professional roles
in designing and leading schools.

2. Policy must enable and support innovation, by creating space, removing barriers,

and creating a climate of encouragement.
 Theory of Change: How to Get to Student-Centered Learning

But change should not be orchestrated from the top-down or forced on anyone. Rather,
bold innovation and continuous improvements to traditional school happen side by side in
a "split-screen". Over time the system changes organically, as innovative approaches to
learning are tried, refined, replicated, and adopted by others.

Below are six action points to move this new strategy.

Teachers design and lead schools

1. Teachers work in close partnership with students, families,

and communities to design student-centered learning

2. More teacher teams collectively lead and run schools

3. Teacher preparation prepares diverse, qualified candidates

for these expanded teacher roles

Policy enables and encourages innovation

 1. Policy clears barriers to innovating with equitable, student-
centered learning

2. Policy moves decisions closer to students, granting autonomy

to schools and teachers

3. Schools are held accountable for broader and deeper

outcomes students need to thrive in the 21st century

Theory of Change
Our Theory of Change is grounded in two long-term goals that are inextricably linked:
better outcomes for our students and the elevation of the quality and prestige of the
teaching profession.

We drive change by:

 Building a movement of forward-thinking teachers through grassroots organizing

in communities across the country
 Identifying and training teacher leaders within that broader movement to take on
key positions of influence in their schools, districts, states, and perhaps most
importantly, within their teachers unions
 Creating teacher-led policy recommendations in order to bridge the divide between
policymakers and the classroom
 Advocating for implementation of teacher-generated policy ideas
 Scaling this model to reach critical mass in the communities we serve and across
the country
All of our work is guided by our teacher-written Declaration, a set of values and
principles that we believe are necessary to improve outcomes for students and elevate
the teaching profession.
Our Impact
We work to change the education system from the inside to ensure that students
graduate ready to fulfill their potential. Since the founding of Educators for Excellence in
2010:

 A broad and diverse membership base of more than 30,000 educators have
been organized and mobilized across the country
 800 Teacher Leaders have built skills in effectively elevating their voices,
organizing colleagues, and advocating for education policies that meet their
students’ needs and support their professional growth
 More than 30 teacher-written policy papers have been published, on issues such
as school climate, teacher evaluation, and school funding
 Teachers have reached a larger audience through nearly 1,000 news stories,
including teacher-written op-eds and letters to the editor, interviews with
reporters, and press conferences
 More than 1,100 teacher advocacy meetings and policy panel events have been
held, providing teachers with access to key decision-makers, such as legislators
and district officials
 Educators have driven change in federal and state legislation, district policies,
and union resolutions
Kirkpatrick's Four-Level
Training Evaluation Model
Analyzing Learning Effectiveness
Make sure that your training programs are relevant, engaging and
effective.

Any time you deliver training to your team, you need to know how effective
it's been. Are your people putting their learning into practice? And, is it
positively impacting their role and the wider organization?

Kirkpatrick's Four-Level Training Evaluation Model can help you to answer

questions like these. You can use it to objectively analyze the impact of
training, to work out how well your team members learned, and to improve
their learning in the future.

In this article, we'll explore Kirkpatrick's model and how to apply it. We'll
also consider situations where it may not be appropriate.

Understanding Kirkpatrick's Four Levels

Donald Kirkpatrick, former Professor Emeritus at the University of
Wisconsin, first published his model in 1959. He updated it in 1975, and
again in 1993, when he published his best-known work, "Evaluating
Training Programs."
Each successive level of the model represents a more precise measure of the
effectiveness of a training program. It was developed further by Donald and
his son, James; and then by James and his wife, Wendy Kayser Kirkpatrick.

In 2016, James and Wendy revised and clarified the original theory, and
introduced the "New World Kirkpatrick Model" in their book, "Four Levels
of Training Evaluation." One of the main additions is an emphasis on the
importance of making training relevant to people's everyday jobs.
The four levels are Reaction, Learning, Behavior, and Results. We look at
each level in greater detail, and explore how to apply it, below.

Level 1: Reaction
You want people to feel that training is valuable. Measuring how engaged
they were, how actively they contributed, and how they reacted to the
training helps you to understand how well they received it.

It also enables you to make improvements to future programs, by identifying

important topics that might have been missing.

Questions to ask trainees include:

 Did you feel that the training was worth your time?
 Did you think that it was successful?
 What were the biggest strengths and weaknesses of the training?
 Did you like the venue and presentation style?
 Did the training session accommodate your personal learning styles ?
 Were the training activities engaging?
 What are the three most important things that you learned from this
training?
 From what you learned, what do you plan to apply in your job?
 What support might you need to apply what you learned?
Identify how you want to measure people's reactions. Many people
use employee satisfaction surveys  to do this, but you can also watch
trainees' body language  during the session, or ask for verbal feedback.
Analyze the feedback, and consider the changes that you could make in
response.
Level 2: Learning
Level 2 focuses on measuring what your trainees have and haven't learned. In
the New World version of the tool, Level 2 also measures what they think
they'll be able to do differently as a result, how confident they are that they
can do it, and how motivated they are to make changes.

This demonstrates how training has developed their skills, attitudes and
knowledge, as well as their confidence and commitment.

To measure how much your trainees have learned, start by identifying what
you want to evaluate. Training sessions should have
specific learning objectives , so make those your starting point.
You can measure learning in different ways, depending on the objectives. But
it's helpful to measure these areas both before and after training.

Before the training begins, test your trainees to determine their knowledge,
skill levels and attitudes. Then, when the training is finished, test your
trainees a second time to measure what they have learned, or measure their
learning with interviews or verbal assessments.

Note:
As a manager, you need to hold people accountable  for improving their
skills, and to offer them the support they need to do so.

Level 3: Behavior
This level helps you to understand how well people apply their training. It
can also reveal where people might need help. But behavior can only change
when conditions are favorable.

Imagine that you're assessing your team members after a training session.
You can see little change, and you conclude that they learned nothing, and
that the training was ineffective.
It's possible, however, that they actually learned a lot, but that the
organizational or team culture obstructs behavioral change. Perhaps existing
processes mean that there's little scope to apply new thinking, for example.

As a result, your people don't feel confident in applying new knowledge, or

see few opportunities to do so. Or, they may not have had enough time to put
it into practice.

Be sure to develop processes that encourage, reinforce and reward positive

changes in behavior. The New World Kirkpatrick Model calls these processes
"required drivers." If a team member uses a new skill effectively, highlight
this and praise him or her for it.

Effectively measuring behavior is a longer-term process that should take

place over weeks or months following the initial training. Questions to ask
include:

 Did the trainees put any of their learning to use?

 Are trainees able to teach their new knowledge, skills or attitudes to
other people?
 Are trainees aware that they've changed their behavior?
One of the best ways to measure behavior is to conduct observations and
interviews. Another is to integrate the use of new skills into the tasks that you
set your team, so that people have the chance to demonstrate what they know.

Tip:
Managers need to be closely involved at this stage, assessing
and coaching  their team members in making behavior changes.

Level 4: Results
At this level, you analyze the final results of your training. This includes
outcomes that you or your organization have decided are good for business
and good for your team members, and which demonstrate a good return on
investment (ROI). (Some adapted versions of the model actually have a Level
5, dedicated to working out ROI.)

Level 4 will likely be the most costly and time-consuming. Your biggest
challenge will be to identify which outcomes, benefits, or final results are
most closely linked to the training, and to come up with an effective way to
measure these outcomes in the long term.

Modern trainers often use the Kirkpatrick model backward, by first stating

the results that they want to see, and then developing the training that is most
likely to deliver them. This helps to prioritize the goals of the training and
make it more effective.
Level 1 Evaluation – Reaction
In what ways participants liked a particular program / training? How participants feel?

The objective for this level is straightforward, it evaluates how individuals react to the
training model by asking questions that establishes the trainees’ thoughts. Questions
will figure out if the participant enjoyed their experience and if they found the material in
the program useful for their work. This particular form of evaluation is typically referred
to as a “smile sheet.”

As outlined by Kirkpatrick, each program needs to be assessed at this level to help

improve the model for future use. On top of that, the participants’ responses is essential
for determining how invested they will be in learning the next level. Even though an
optimistic reaction does not ensure learning, an unfavorable one definitely makes it less
likely that the user will pay attention to the training.

Examples of resources and techniques for level one:

 Online assessment that can be graded by delegates/evaluators.

 Interviews
 Can be done immediately after the training ends.
 Are the participants happy with the instructor(s)?
 Did the training meet the participant’s needs?
 Are the attendee’s happy with the educational tools employed (e.g., PowerPoint,
handouts etc)
 Printed or oral reports provided by delegates/evaluators to supervisors at the
participants’ organizations.
 “Smile sheets”.
 Comment forms determined by subjective individual reaction to the training
course.
  Post-training program questionnaires.
 Verbal responses that can be taken into consideration and considered.
 Especially encourage written comments
 Try to get honest responses and feedbacks

Level 2 Evaluation – Learning

New skills / knowledge / attitudes? What was learned? and What was not learned?

Evaluating at this level is meant to gauge the level participants have developed in
expertise, knowledge, or mindset. Exploration at this level is far more challenging and
time-consuming compared to level one.

Techniques vary from informal to formal tests and self-assessment to team assessment.
If at all possible, individuals take the test or evaluation prior to the training (pre-test) and
following training (post-test) to figure out how much the participant comprehended.

Examples of tools and procedures for level two:

 Measurement and evaluation is simple and straightforward for any group size.
 You may use a control group to compare.
 Exams, interviews or assessments prior to and immediately after the training.
 Observations by peers and instructors
 Strategies for assessment should be relevant to the goals of the training
program.
 A distinct clear scoring process needs to be determined in order to reduce the
possibility of inconsistent evaluation reports.
 Interview, printed, or electronic type examinations can be carried out.
 An interview can be carried out before and after the assessment, though this is
time-consuming and unreliable.

Level 3 Evaluation – Transfer

Was the leaning being applied by the attendees? 

This level analyzes the differences in the participant’s behavior at work after completing
the program. Assessing the change makes it possible to figure out if the knowledge,
mindset, or skills the program taught are being used the workplace.

For the majority of individuals this level offers the truest evaluation of a program’s
usefulness. Having said that, testing at this level is challenging since it is generally
impossible to anticipate when a person will start to properly utilize what they’ve learned
from the program, making it more difficult to determine when, how often, and exactly
how to evaluate a participant post-assessment.

This level starts 3–6 months after training.

Examples of assessment resources and techniques for level three:

 This can be carried out through observations and interviews.

 Evaluations have to be subtle until change is noticeable, after which a more
thorough examination tool can be used.
 Were the learned knowledge and gained skills used?
 Surveys and close observation after some time are necessary to evaluate
significant change, importance of change, and how long this change will last.
 Online evaluations tend to be more challenging to integrate. Examinations are
usually more successful when incorporated within present management and
training methods at the participant’s workplace.
 Quick examinations done immediately following the program are not going to be
reliable since individuals change in various ways at different times.
 360-degree feedback is a tool that many businesses use, but is not necessary
before starting the training program. It is much better utilized after training since
participants will be able to figure out on their own what they need to do different.
After changes have been observed over time then the individual’s performance
can be reviewed by others for proper assessment.
 Assessments can be developed around applicable scenarios and distinct key
efficiency indicators or requirements relevant to the participant’s job.
 Observations should be made to minimize opinion-based views of the interviewer
as this factor is far too variable, which can affect consistency and dependability
of assessments.
 Taking into consideration the opinion of the participant can also be too variable of
a factor as it makes evaluation very unreliable, so it is essential that assessments
focus more defined factors such as results at work rather than opinions.
 Self-assessment can be handy, but only with an extensively designed set of
guidelines.

Level 4 Evaluation – Results

What are the final results of the training?

Commonly regarded as the primary goal of the program, level four determines the
overall success of the training model by measuring factors such as lowered spending,
higher returns on investments, improved quality of products, less accidents in the
workplace, more efficient production times, and a higher quantity of sales.
From a business standpoint, the factors above are the main reason for the model, even
so level four results are not usually considered. Figuring out whether or not the results
of the training program can be linked to better finances is hard to accurately determine.

Types of assessment strategies and tools used for level four:

 It should be discussed with the participant exactly what is going to be measured

throughout and after the training program so that they know what to expect and to
fully grasp what is being assessed.
 Use a control group
 Allow enough time to measure / evaluate
 No final results can be found unless a positive change takes place.
 Improper observations and the inability to make a connection with training input
type will make it harder to see how the training program has made a difference in
the workplace.
 The process is to determine which methods and how these procedures are
relevant to the participant’s feedback.
 For senior individuals in particular, yearly evaluations and regular arrangements
of key business targets are essential in order to accurately evaluate business
results that are because of the training program.
A theory of change explains how the activities undertaken by an intervention
(such as a project, program or policy) contribute to a chain of results that
lead to the intended or observed impacts.  Other labels that your colleagues,
partners and evaluators might use include: results chain, logic model,
program theory, outcome mapping, impact pathway and investment logic. 

A theory of change is often developed during the planning stage but can also
be useful for monitoring and evaluation. A good theory of change can help
to: develop better Key Evaluation Questions, identify key indicators for
monitoring, identify gaps in available data, prioritize additional data
collection, and provide a structure for data analysis and reporting.

The term “Theory of Change” first emerged in the 1990s. Its purpose at that time was to address some
of the problems evaluators faced when trying to assess the impact of complex social development
programmes. These included poorly articulated assumptions, a lack of clarity about how change
processes unfolded and insufficient attention being given to the sequence of changes necessary for
longterm goals to be reached (O’Flynn, 2012). Theory of Change thinking has progressed rapidly since
then, and is becoming increasingly popular. Theory of Change can be seen as an “on-going process of
discussion-based analysis and learning that produces powerful insights to support programme design,
strategy, implementation, evaluation and impact assessment, communicated through diagrams and
narratives which are updated at regular intervals” (Vogel, 2012, p5). A Theory of Change can also be
seen as a product, and is often presented as a mixture of diagram and narrative summary