Serving the Interests of Stakeholders in a Program Evaluation
Your goals in this assignment are to describe a plan for evaluating a real or fictional program and the concerns that stakeholders may have regarding an evaluation for the program. Please use a different program than you used for your discussion.
As always, it is essential to be concise but clear so everyone involved knows exactly what will happen during the evaluation process. One sure way to cause a program to fail is to state things in such a way that stakeholders and program staff involved in planning and delivering the program do not understand the goals of the evaluation, how it will be used, and what exactly will be expected from them.
To avoid confusion, be concise, clear, and brief. Remember the story I gave you about Richard Feynman in Week 1: he said that if your grandmother would not understand your explanation of the plan for work to be done, others will not understand either – and that includes your social work colleagues!
In this assignment, be concise, clear, and brief. Your answers to the questions and the tables should be not exceed four pages, and fewer is better as long as you provide accurate, clear, and detailed information without cutting corners.
Format:
No title page. Please place your name and “Week 6 assignment” in the running head.
1. Name a real or fictional agency program. Present or create a general goal statement for the program that briefly describes its mission and the types of problems or conditions that the program is intended to address.
The statement should describe the broad goals, mission, or rationale for the program without being too specific. Broad goals are stated in general terms, such as providing food or shelter, offering treatment and counseling, coordinating recreation, arranging homecare services, or assisting unemployed workers to avoid foreclosure on their homes.
Sometimes an agency will use an idealistic slogan such as Ending Homelessness in Walden City, One Family at a Time! The slogan provides the goal (ending homelessness) and hints at the method (intensive services to empower homeless families). If an organization does not place their broad goals in an obvious place on their webpage or in a brochure that your program provides, look for some wording in their mission statement that describes what the program is intended to accomplish and the target recipients. Express the goals or mission of the program in a positive, attention-catching way that will attract support for it. (2-3 sentences).
2. Identify a specific focus or goal for the program – what specific program outcomes are expected for the target recipients of the measurable or visible objectives that the program plans to achieve or accomplish in the community.
Example (adapted from Dress for Success-NY): “The goals of the Dress for Success-NY program are to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing them with professional attire and assistance in projecting a professional appearance. We also provide a network of support and guidance in career development, enabling them to thrive in the workplace and in life.”
If describing an existing program, use its detailed goal statement if you can find it on the supporting agency website. If the organization hosting the program does not have a specific goal statement for the program in their communications, write a 1-2 sentence goal statement that specifies exactly what the program intends to achieve. If you are describing a fictional program, create a 1-2 sentence goal statement that is compelling and descriptive because readers will not support the program if we do not catch their interest.
3. Name the type of evaluation you propose to perform on your program. Select from the two main categories (process evaluation or product evaluation) described in Chapter 3 of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Evaluation Handbook (pp. 25-34), Logan and Royce (Chapter 13 of B. Thyer (Ed.), The Handbook of Social Work Research Methods (2nd ed.), pp. 225-226, or the description of these two types of evaluations by TSNE [https://www.tsne.org/blog/process-evaluation-vs-outcome-evaluation]
Each resource describes the same types of evaluations but use slightly different applications. Links to these resources are found in the top post in this week’s discussion where you used them for the discussion. Your selection of the type of evaluation (process or product) should be a logical choice, given the goals of your program stated in #3 and #4.
4. Create a purpose for the type of evaluation you chose in #3. Why should the evaluation be done? What kind of information would the agency, stakeholders, or you want to learn from the evaluation? Ensure that the purpose of the evaluation is appropriate for the type of evaluation you selected (2-3 sentences).
5. In the table below, list two questions that will address the type of evaluation named in #3 and purpose of evaluation named in #4. In the second column, name a strategy for collecting data to answer each question and a person or data source from whom to obtain the data. You may not use interviews as your data collection strategy because they can be biased or subject to inaccurate recall. The information has to be verifiable rather than recollections or opinions.
In this phase of the data collection activity, ask open-ended questions so that your respondents are forced to provide details that can help you understand the methods or effects of the program in more detail.
Consider several methods of information-gathering that would provide a valid answer to your questions and help you assess the validity of the responses. A non-exhaustive list of possible data collection strategies is provided at the end of this document. You may select your data collection strategies from this list if you wish.
No additional information other than the question to be asked and the data collection strategy are should be placed in Table 1.
Table 1
Open-ended questions to be answered with your evaluation |
Data Collection Strategy and Source of Information. |
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6. In Table 2, a two-column table shown below, identify four types of stakeholders that have an interest in your selected program and place them in the left column. These can be clients, funders, supervisors, other department staff, support staff, those who will conduct the program, elected officials who represent people affected by the program, people who oversee the activities of the agency, people who audit spending for the program or other potential beneficiaries of the program (law enforcement, schools, etc.). If you need to review a description of the types and roles of stakeholders, information about stakeholders is in the top post in the discussion forum this week.
In the right column of Table 2, list one concern OR objective that each selected type of stakeholder may have about the methods you will use to gather information for the proposed program evaluation (not the program itself!). Most stakeholders are very interested in ensuring that the evaluation of the program be fair, ethical, and inclusive. For example, one stakeholder may be concerned that the evaluation of the program will include only the views of clients/consumers but not the views of the staff; another stakeholder may be concerned that staff might inflate the positive results because their jobs are at stake and ask what you will do to obtain accurate data.
Hint: If someone was evaluating your worksite, job functions, or program at your agency with the possibility that it could be cut, what concerns would you have about the way that the evaluation is conducted? The procedures for fair, ethical, and inclusive data collection are actual issues that concern stakeholders. You would almost certainly be asked about these if you were conducting an evaluation. See the discussion for Week 6 for additional information and links regarding stakeholders for possible stakeholder questions if you do not know of any.
No additional sentences are needed for this question.
Table 2
Type of stakeholder |
One realistic concern OR objective that each type of stakeholder may have regarding the evaluation process or how the results of the evaluation would be used. What would they be concerned about regarding the methods you are using to evaluate the program or what you will do with the information you obtain? |
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7. Consider the methods of data collection that might be most effective for getting valid, comprehensive information. The list of data collection strategies and the methods described in Thyer (2010), pp. 418-420 and 427-431 can assist you in making a choice. You must use a different data collection strategy for each stakeholder, listing a total of four data collection strategies, one for each stakeholder. Note the advantages and disadvantages of each type of data collection strategies. You will enter your choices in the templates below, not separately here.
Using the template below, write four brief summaries, one for each stakeholder, by filling in the blanks of the sentences below as requested in each question. Use the data collection strategies in the handout, the Thyer text as indicated in the paragraph above, or other objective data collection strategies with which you may be familiar.
Each summary should consist of a maximum of 4-6 concise, brief, and clear sentences, with the stakeholder identified in a subheading. In many situations, the information presented in this assignment must be limited to 1-2 pages for presentation to the administrators, staff, or funders for the program.
The sentences listed below should immediately follow your answers to Questions 1 – 4, Table 1 and Table 2.
____________________________
1. 1st paragraph: Stakeholder #1 [identify the type of stakeholder and use the label as a subheading]
1. The question asked by [Stakeholder #2 – specify stakeholder] for this [specify the type] evaluation is ___________ (1 sentence)
2. I will explore [stakeholder #1’s concern] by obtaining information from _______[relevant individuals/data sources] about __________ (1-2 sentences)
3. I will use ____ to collect this information.
4. [Specify your selected data collection strategy] is advantageous for learning about [the concern expressed in the first question in this paragraph] because ____ but this data collection strategy has the disadvantage of _____. (1-2 concise, informative, clear sentences)
2. 2nd paragraph: Stakeholder #2 [identify the type of stakeholder and use the label as a subheading]
1. The question asked by [Stakeholder #2 – specify stakeholder] for this [specify the type] evaluation is ___________ (1 sentence)
2. I will explore [stakeholder #2’s concern] by obtaining information from _______[relevant individuals/data sources] about __________ (1-2 sentences)
3. I will use ____ to collect this information.
4. [Specify your selected data collection strategy] is advantageous for learning about [the concern expressed in the first question in this paragraph] because ____ but this data collection strategy has the disadvantage of _____. (1-2 concise, informative, clear sentences)
3. 3rd paragraph: Stakeholder #3 [identify the type of stakeholder and use the label as a subheading]
1. The question asked by [Stakeholder #3 – specify stakeholder] for this [specify the type] evaluation is ___________ (1 sentence)
2. I will explore [stakeholder #3’s concern] by obtaining information from _______[relevant individuals/data sources] about __________ (1-2 sentences)
3. I will use ____ to collect this information.
4. [Specify your selected data collection strategy] is advantageous for learning about [the concern expressed in the first question in this paragraph] because ____ but this data collection strategy has the disadvantage of _____. (1-2 concise, informative, clear sentences)
4. 4th paragraph: Stakeholder #4 [identify the type of stakeholder and use the label as a subheading]
1. 4th paragraph: Stakeholder #4’s [specify stakeholder] question for this [specify the type] evaluation is ___________ (1 sentence)
2. I will explore [stakeholder #4’s concern] by obtaining information from _______[relevant individuals/data sources] about __________ (1-2 sentences)
3. I will use ____ to collect this information.
4. [Specify your selected data collection strategy] is advantageous for learning about [the concern expressed in the first question in this paragraph] because ____ but this data collection strategy has the disadvantage of _____. (1-2 concise, informative, clear sentences)
Cite any references or learning resources you have used according to APA (7th ed) formatting rules.
Assignments are due by 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time (MT) on Sunday (which is 1:59 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) Monday). The time stamp in the classroom will reflect Eastern Time (ET), regardless of your time zone. As long as your submission time stamp is no later than 1:59 a.m. Eastern Time (ET), you have submitted on time.
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