Literacy Basics - Community Literacy of Ontario

Outcomes-Based Evaluation

In the last few years, outcomes-based evaluation has been receiving quite a bit of attention. Many not-for-profit organizations, including community-based literacy agencies, are starting to investigate and use this it because outcomes-based evaluation does more than just measure statistical targets such as contact hours. When you measure program outcomes, you are measuring the impact your program has made. Therefore, outcomes-based evaluation can tell funders, learners, volunteers and the general public what they want to know: did we make a difference? It can also tell people HOW the program made a difference and how we know that it did. It can lend credibility by clearly demonstrating an agency’s impact.

Traditionally, program evaluation focused on “just the facts”: statistics, targets and program activities. We counted thing and measured our success in terms of the number of contact hours or the number of students enrolled. Although this data is important, there is an increasing need to identify the impact the program is having on students. This impact is the focus of outcomes-based evaluation. This doesn’t mean ignoring numbers and statistics; rather, it means going one step further by combining statistical information with other measurable indicators of success to identify and evaluate your program’s impact on students. We need to be able to report not just how many people we worked with and for how many hours; we also need to be able to articulate how literacy training made a positive difference in a student’s life, and we need to explain how we know that.

Why should we use outcomes-based evaluation?

a) It boosts confidence in the program
Evaluation is a positive activity, well worth the time and effort it takes. Evaluation can help you identify what your agency is doing well and how it can improve what it does. By providing hard data in support of actual successes and accomplishments, outcomes-based evaluation can and does have an affirming and positive influence on staff, volunteers, students and the organization in general. Most stakeholders as well as the community you serve will appreciate the information that a thorough program evaluation can provide.

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