Program Evaluation Assignment

Program Evaluation Assignment

Program Evaluation Assignment
Evaluate the hypothetical program that you created using the following types of evaluation: formative, process, outcome, and impact. Identify each type of evaluation that you are using and the part of the program to which it applies, program goals, and program accomplishments. Describe successful areas of the program and areas that need improvement. For the areas requiring improvement, present the changes that will be made, the anticipated outcomes, and how those changes would be evaluated.
Write a 15–20-page, double-spaced paper in Word format. Apply APA standards to citation of sources.
Utilize at least 7–10 scholarly sources in your research and be sure to include a references page. Write in a clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrate ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; and display accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Program evaluation is a systematic method for collecting, analyzing, and using information to answer questions about projects, policies and programs,[1] particularly about their effectiveness and efficiency. In both the public and private sectors, stakeholders often want to know whether the programs they are funding, implementing, voting for, receiving or objecting to are producing the intended effect. While program evaluation first focuses around this definition, important considerations often include how much the program costs per participant, how the program could be improved, whether the program is worthwhile, whether there are better alternatives, if there are unintended outcomes, and whether the program goals are appropriate and useful.[2] Evaluators help to answer these questions, but the best way to answer the questions is for the evaluation to be a joint project between evaluators and stakeholders.[3]
The process of evaluation is considered to be a relatively recent phenomenon. However, planned social evaluation has been documented as dating as far back as 2200 BC.[4] Evaluation became particularly relevant in the U.S. in the 1960s during the period of the Great Society social programs associated with the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.[5][6] Extraordinary sums were invested in social programs, but the impacts of these investments were largely unknown.
Program evaluations can involve both quantitative and qualitative methods of social research. People who do program evaluation come from many different backgrounds, such as sociology, psychology, economics, social work, and public policy. Some graduate schools also have specific training programs for program evaluation.

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A needs assessment examines the population that the program intends to target, to see whether the need as conceptualized in the program actually exists in the population; whether it is, in fact, a problem; and if so, how it might best be dealt with. This includes

identifying and diagnosing the actual problem the program is trying to address, who or what is affected by the problem, how widespread the problem is, and what are the measurable effects that are caused by the problem. For example, for a housing program aimed at mitigating homelessness, a program evaluator may want to find out how many people are homeless in a given geographic area and what their demographics are. Rossi, Lipsey and Freeman (2004) caution against undertaking an intervention without properly assessing the need for one, because this might result in a great deal of wasted funds if the need did not exist or was misconceived.
Needs assessment involves the processes or methods used by evaluators to describe and diagnose social needs[7] This is essential for evaluators because they need to identify whether programs are effective and they cannot do this unless they have identified what the problem/need is. Programs that do not do a needs assessment can have the illusion that they have eradicated the problem/need when in fact there was no need in the first place. Needs assessment involves research and regular consultation with community stakeholders and with the people that will benefit from the project before the program can be developed and implemented. Hence it should be a bottom-up approach. In this way potential problems can be realized early because the process would have involved the community in identifying the need and thereby allowed the opportunity to identify potential barriers.
The important task of a program evaluator is thus to: First, construct a precise definition of what the problem is.[7] Evaluators need to first identify the problem/need. This is most effectively done by collaboratively including all possible stakeholders, i.e., the community impacted by the potential problem, the agents/actors working to address and resolve the problem, funders, etc. Including buy-in early on in the process reduces potential for push-back, miscommunication, and incomplete information later on.

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