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Program Evaluation Communities

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Education
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General Information
Are you accomplishing what your organization set out to accomplish? At Transform (https://transformconsultinggroup.com/c
Consulting Group (TCG), we know you’re doing important work. We also know you are ategory/general-information/)
passionate about serving your community. But are you actually doing it? And if so, how do Government
you prove it? (https://transformconsultinggroup.com/c
ategory/government/)
Program evaluation can help your organization determine if the change that they set to Nonprofit
accomplish actually occurred. Change can be knowledge gained, attitude change, or (https://transformconsultinggroup.com/c
behavior change. For example, did a literacy tutoring program help the students who were ategory/nonprofit/)
not reading on grade level actually catch up to reading on grade level by the end of the Program Development
program period? Or, are the low-income children who participated in a high-quality pre-K (https://transformconsultinggroup.com/c
program ready for kindergarten?   ategory/program-development/)
Project Management
We are data nerds at TCG, and we love helping organizations develop and implement (https://transformconsultinggroup.com/c
evaluation plans to assess their change by using a four-step process. ategory/project-management/)
Research & Analysis
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PROGRAM EVALUATION IN ategory/research-analysis/)
FOUR STEPS: Strategic Planning
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1. Establish clear outcomes
ategory/strategic-planning/)
2. Create or modify data tools and systems
3. Analyze the data
4. Use data to make informed decisions

The first step is to ensure there are clear outcomes

in place that support an organization or program’s
goals. We work to develop SMART (https://transformconsultinggroup.com/blog/5-steps-
to-create-smart-goals/) outcomes: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.
In this step, we typically review or develop a logic model (we have a blog focused on
developing logic models and a free tool here
(https://transformconsultinggroup.com/2021/04/16/getting-to-the-big-picture-logic-
models/)), which is just a technical description of aligning your programs to the change (or
outcomes) that you want to accomplish. For example, a college-readiness program may
want to increase the number of students who can (1) identify a major or career they are
interested in pursuing after high school; or (2) understand how to apply for college
financial aid.  
 The second step focuses on having the right data tools and systems in place to measure
and report back on the designated outcomes. We help organizations determine the most
appropriate tool(s) to collect, track and monitor the accomplishment of the identified
outcomes. We consider organizational capacity (staff time, knowledge, and budget) when
suggesting data tools. Some examples could include participant surveys, assessments,
and student academic records. We work to have data tools that are valid and reliable and
will provide the data necessary to monitor progress.

The third step is to analyze the data once it has been collected, and present the results in
an easily-understood format. Data is measured to determine whether program outcomes
were met and the change, if any, that occurred. This is often the step where organizations
get stuck because they don’t have the staff time or knowledge to complete the
analysis. We tell our clients that this is the fun part because we can see if what they set out
to accomplish actually occurred!  

Some common research questions that drive many organizations to conduct program
evaluations to get answers include:

Are program participants being reached as intended? If yes, why? If not, we also want
to know why.

To what extent are desired program changes occurring? Was there a significant
difference or just a small difference? Is there a specific group that is not being
impacted?

Is the program worth the resources it costs? What is the “return on investment” for this
program or service?

The fourth step is to discuss the results of the program evaluation and make informed
decisions based on what the data tells us. We will compile a summary report and/or slide
deck presentation of the evaluation data for stakeholders internally and externally to
review the results and discuss the implications. Good evaluations often lead to
recommendations for improvement such as enhanced professional development,
diversified participant recruitment strategies, and/or program model changes. This is an
opportunity to discuss data collected and implications for future programming, including
ongoing program evaluation practices within the organization.

In today’s era of accountability, what gets measured gets done. If you don’t measure
results, you can’t tell success from failure[1]. Transform Consulting Group equips
organizations to celebrate their successes and inform opportunities for growth. Contact us
(http://www.transformconsultinggroup.com/contact/) today for more information on how
Transform Consulting Group can help assess the impact of your organization.  
[1] Reinventing Government, Osborne and Gaebler, 1992.

 4 steps (https://transformconsultinggroup.com/tag/4-steps/) Data

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 Strategic Plan Step 4: Tools to Create 3 Steps to Establish Clear Outcomes 

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strategic-plan-tools-create/) steps-establish-clear-outcomes/)

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