The specific tool you develop for evaluating the partnership will depend on the objectives your group has set. For an example of an evaluation tool for family literacy partnerships, please see Appendix D.

The committee will also take responsibility for developing and guiding evaluation strategies for the program itself. This information is not included in the scope of this manual. Please see the Practical Guide to Family Literacy (Skage 1995) or other resources for this information. (FLAG is currently conducting research on evaluation methods for family literacy programs.)

Planning for improvement
The results of the evaluation will provide the necessary information for your partnership to discuss and decide how to make changes and improvements to "how they do things." This may mean making revisions to current practices and activities, or it may mean a fundamental redesign of the partnership. Having evaluation and the follow-up planning sessions built into the structure of the partnership will help people anticipate and accept the process, and may help to reduce the risk of resistance to change.